And sure enough she did, and not just because it turned out that doctor wasn’t meant to be working on this floor.Chapter SixDB“I can’t believe the fucker actually texted her this shit,” Ellis growled, reading over the texts in Jose’s phone from Larry. “He told her he didn’t give a shit about the little bastard that had ruined his life and that he’d take her to court if she gave it his last name in this one. Then he sent another one saying he wasn’t paying a penny for it, and that it probably wasn’t even his. What the shit is his malfunction?”
Every accusation and new piece of information had the knot in my gut building.
Jose was fast asleep on the couch, while Tabby rocked the baby in her arms. She hadn’t put her down since we’d gotten back to Jose’s house an hour earlier. After she’d been checked over by Rose, Ellis had gone to get Jose’s car, the car seat, and the other shit she’d asked for, and I’d gone to find out why Doctor Douche had been assigned to them when he wasn’t meant to be on that floor. Come to find out, he was in fact an orthopedic doctor in the second year of his residency, so he was as far away from his assigned department as you could get. We still didn’t know why, and he’d disappeared by the time I’d gotten back, so I still didn’t have those answers – but I would.
We’d driven back to Jose’s house with me leading the way slowly to make sure no one ran into the car behind me carrying the girls. Once she’d gotten comfortable, Jose had passed out leaving us with the baby. That sounds like a bad way to phrase it, but in a matter of hours that little girl had all of us wrapped around her finger, and her mother was exhausted and needed her energy, so it was no hardship.
Olivia looked like a china doll, and no matter what, I’d make sure that nothing touched her for the rest of my career in Piersville. It was strange to feel that way over a tiny baby that came from a woman I’d only barely known, but her aunt was becoming more important to me with every minute I spent with her, which meant so were Jose and Olivia. Plus, I detested Larry White, freaking Larry White. Even his name was a joke.
“She’s a Harrison,” Tabby whispered, not taking her eyes off her niece. “It’s better for her to be one of those, and it’s better for her not to have the negative influences of her sperm donor in her life.”
Generally, a man needed to be in his kid’s life, but like with everything – there were exceptions to that rule, and Larry White was one of them. He drank to excess, and I’d suspected him of taking cocaine in the bathrooms at the bar in town but hadn’t been able to find any on him. That’s not the sort of things you wanted around a baby. And he was just an immature, selfish, irrational, pussy hungry, tiny dicked piece of shit. I hoped that he took an interest in his daughter for her sake, but it would have to be without him being under the influence of everything he was doing to his body, inside and out.
“But the shit he said to her,” Ellis persisted. “It’s disgusting.”
Sighing, Tabby shot a quick look at her sister to make sure she was still asleep, and then looked over at us. “What I’m about to tell you stays right here, do you understand?” When we both nodded, she laid it out for us. “Larry used to hit Jose. On the day we found him with Rita, he lashed out at her but I moved between them and he got me. When Rita started to attack her, he stood back laughing and goading her into doing stuff. When we called the police, he rang her mother and portrayed himself as a victim. Just so you know, she took his side and told Jose he was ‘adjusting’ to not being the center of her attention, and that she should give him the house and rent a place herself.” I chanced a glance at Ellis who was standing there looking like he was about to explode. “Throughout all of this, he stood watching his hookup attack his pregnant wife. It took me ripping her hair out, hitting her with a breast pump, and tying her up with a bra I’d had in my purse to stop her. Then he started up again, and I grabbed a lamp and hit him.”
I hadn’t had a chance to properly look over the details on the report that had been taken when we’d attended the incident – well, aside from Rita’s arrest and the charges against her, but that was so I could try to get her sentenced – so this was all news to me. And to say I was pissed was putting it lightly.