“This room is not necessary, of course,” the doctor said. “The chance of complication is extremely low for
this procedure, but we like to be on the safe side, especially with the chairwoman’s firstborn daughter.”
“Where is Dr. Helen Randolph? I always see her,” Lila asked cautiously from the doorway, nose crinkling at the smell of cinnamon cleanser.
Rubio stared at the floor. “Dr. Randolph is out sick, and even your mother could not make her fit for surgery.”
That got Lila’s attention. A trap lurked somewhere. She just couldn’t see it.
Or perhaps she could. The chairwoman had wanted Lila to reverse her CUT since the day she got it, all so she could have an heir. But Helen knew exactly how Lila felt about children. She would have refused to do the procedure until Lila had a few days to consider her choices, especially if she knew her mother had scheduled the last-minute appointment.
Rubio would do it, though. She wouldn’t even question it.
“You can choose another doctor if you wish. I can get the numbers from—”
“That won’t be necessary. I was just curious.” Lila slipped her palm into her pocket. In this one instance, she agreed with her mother. Delaying the CUT procedure would only delay the inevitable. This was her birthright. Her duty. Her punishment. Her compensation for the lives she’d ended. It was the place she’d always end up eventually, no matter how much she fought against it.
Even her father had said as much.
If she waited, the rumor mill would only grind louder and louder. A crowd of senators would encircle her at the ball.
“I’m here to reverse my birth control,” Lila said. “Nothing more.”
“Of course, chief.”
A nurse entered the room, carrying a clipboard. After Rubio performed a quick physical on Lila, she started an IV. The pair injected the line with a shot of clear fluid, which made Lila terribly sleepy, sleepier than it should have because of the Sangre she’d drunk in her father’s suite. If she hadn’t been half naked, with her feet stuck in cold stirrups, she might have actually slept through the entire procedure. Instead, she faded in and out of consciousness, annoyed at the dull tugging and pinching.
All at once, Lila opened her eyes with a start. At some point, Rubio had switched off the overhead light and worked her legs free from the stirrups. A blanket now covered her body, tucked under her chin.
Rubio looked up from her computer beside the bed. “You’re awake. Everything went well,” the young doctor assured her with a smile. “I did make a notation in your file about the anesthesia. It hit you a little hard.”
“It was likely all the wine I had earlier,” Lila said, yawning.
Rubio gaped at her, then typed something into the computer. Lila might have been a student again, receiving a note home from her tutor about some bit of bad behavior. “I feel the need to remind you that drinking before surgery, even a minor surgery, can be dangerous. As is not telling your doctor when you have consumed alcohol—”
“Next time,” Lila promised with another yawn. “How long was I out?”
“Fifteen, twenty minutes. Not long.” Rubio gathered up three needles, apologized quietly to Lila for the stick, and gave her a large injection in the side before her brain could spin into gear once more.
“What on earth was that for?” Lila cried out, fully awake after Rubio jammed the second needle into her hip. “I already had my STI vaccines!”
“Those weren’t STI vaccines, Chief Randolph. They were fertility shots. This last one is to hold off the pain after surgery.”
“Fertility shots?” Lila asked in alarm, surprised into silence when the last needle burrowed into her side, a sharper pinch than the others. “I told you not do anything but reverse… Who authorized you to give me fertility shots?”
“Your mother… I thought… I thought that you were aware of all aspects of today’s procedure. I would have explained in detail if—”
“Cut the crap, doctor. My mother has been pulling this shit for decades. This is why I wanted Helen today.” Lila rubbed her side. “I knew she was up to something! I should have known she had more up her sleeve than keeping Helen away.”
Rubio backed up.
“How potent is this stuff? Will I end up with multiples?” Lila wasn’t sure which way she wanted the doctor to answer. She didn’t want to bear a litter of children, but she could not deny her mother’s practicality on the matter. It might not be a terrible idea to birth an heir, a spare, and an eldest son for Bullstow all at once.
A womb sale. Three kids for the price of nine months.
“It’s possible.”
“My mother did the same when she was chairwoman,” Lila confessed, her brain thickening from the pain injection. “It took her only a few weeks to conceive, every time.”