“He’s threatened my daughter?” Bryce asked with his hands fisted at his sides.
I blinked. “Yes, I love her, Bryce…but I’ve pushed her out of my life. I can’t let anything happen to her. I love her, but my destiny is not mine. My father will determine my end and so I can’t go to Vicky. I can’t be there for her now. I need to take care of my father,” I answered knowing what it is I needed to do. The only act that will ever truly set me free.
“I’m sorry, Luc, should I call the FBI? Do I need to warn, Vicky? She just came into my life, Luc, I can’t let anything happen to her…” Bryce trailed off.
“I know, Bryce, I can’t let anything happen to her either. I don’t think the FBI will be effective. My father has been evading them for years. This is something I have to take care of on my own. Maybe you can place Channing Price as head on the car plant for now. He knows the ins and outs, and he sat in on my meeting with the Japanese. He knows what’s involved.”
“Luc, you will come back,” Bryce asserted sadly.
“I don’t know, Bryce, my family is at war with another family. Those things never end well. For now, I am waiting for my father’s arrival tomorrow. It is better that Vicky is far away in little Thunder Bay, away from this mess.”
Bryce huffed. “I guess so. I just spoke to her and she sounds like she’s a mess.”
Hearing that made my insides turn even more. She needed me now more than ever, and I couldn’t be there for her. I left Bryce’s office and began to set up my plan.
Chapter 24
Vicky
I woke up the next morning, and for some sick reason I checked my phone again to see if Luc tried to contact me, but he hadn’t. I figured he’d given up on me, on us. I trudged out of bed, dreading the day that awaited me. I made my way into the bathroom and relieved my bladder then I brushed my teeth. As I brushed my teeth I began to gag from the taste of the toothpaste. I didn’t even have time to register what was happening and I found myself on my knees vomiting into the toilet.
Moments later Joe was banging at the door. “Open up, Vicky, what is going on in there? Are you okay?” he was hollering loudly.
I slowly lifted up off my knees and took a piece of toilet paper to clean off my mouth then I opened the door to a wide-eyed Joe. “Do you want to tell me what is going on with you? Are you bulimic or something?” he asked with concerned brown eyes.
He isn’t wearing a shirt and my eyes drifted to his shoulder where he had a new tattoo printed on his skin with my mama’s name. I sucked in a breath. He looked down at the tattoo and then back to me with sympathy.
“This way I will always remember her, Vick,” he explained sadly. “But don’t change the subject, what is wrong with you? You have been getting sick since yesterday,” he asked with a deep, stark voice, crossing his arms over his broad chest. I didn’t respond to him because I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I figured with the all the hurt I was feeling between Papa's death and Luc pushing me away, this was my body’s way of reacting or overreacting. “Dammit, Vicky I am calling Dr. McCall. I’m going to see if he can come by and check you since we have to be at the funeral home at eleven,” he said, turning around and heading back into his room before I could answer.
That was the thing about living in a very small town, you could call the doctor to come to your house and he would come because he knew you personally. The bad part to living in a small town was that when Mama got sick, we had less access to resources like nurses and other care agencies. I had gone to high school with Dr. McCall’s daughter, and he was a good friend of my parents. If Joe was calling him, it meant he would probably come, even though I felt like Joe was overreacting.
I sauntered back to my room to get dressed. Joe and I had so many things to take care of, like what we were going to do about the house and all the belongings inside. After dressing in the same dreary clothes I had worn to my mama’s wake, a black long pencil skirt and black top, I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen. Joe had made it down before me, and before I could rummage through the cabinets for something to eat, he pushed a dry bowl of cereal my way.
“Here you need to eat something.”
“I can’t eat that,” I replied, eyeing the bowl like it was poison. The thought of pushing dry cereal down my throat made a new roll of nausea wash over me.
“Well, we don’t have time to grab something, Dr. McCall will be here any minute,” he replied, looking at his watch then eyeing me warily. I wondered what had gotten into him and when he had become so attentive. A few moments later there was a knock at the door. I made my way to the front door to open it for the doctor. Joe muttered something about giving me privacy and disappeared up the stairs.
“Hi, Dr. McCall,” I said, opening the door.
He looked at me sadly and said, “Hi, Vicky, I am sorry for your loss.” And so the condolences began. “Your brother mentioned you had been getting sick to your stomach. Do you want to tell me a little more about that?”
“Sure,” I replied, as we made our way into the family room. Dr. McCall motioned for me to take a seat on the couch while he stood and listened. “There isn’t much to tell, I’ve just thrown up a few times.”
“Aha, do you think you ate something bad?”
I thought back to the last few days. I hadn’t eaten very much and whatever I ate, Joe ate too and he had been fine. “No, I haven’t eaten anything bad.”
“Can I ask you when your last menstrual cycle was?”
Mmm, thinking back I had a period just after arriving to New York at some point. As I calculated the dates in my mind my stomach dropped. “I think it’s been about six weeks,” I answered hesitantly.
I cringed knowing what the next question would be. “Have you been sexually active during that time?” Crap, I felt like shit. I had been sexually active with too many men.
“I think we should do a urine test, Vicky, and take it from there. It may very well be a stomach bug or you may just be under stress, but either way you should know,” the doctor explained reaching into his brown leather bag. He pulled out a urine cup and passed it to me. I took it from him and went to the bathroom.
I had been on birth control. I couldn’t be pregnant. As I walked to the bathroom something in my gut told me that I was pregnant with Luc’s baby. I wanted to laugh and cry. I needed to bury my papa in a few days for goodness sakes and Luc left me, he pushed me out of his life. Bryce probably told him about my father and yet after all of his babble about love, I’m alone. I peed in the container and wrapped it in toilet paper. Then I washed my hands and headed back out to the doctor and passed him the cup. He placed it on the coffee table and reached back into his brown bag. A moment later he pulled out a little cup with sticks in it. He dipped one of the sticks into the cup and we waited silently. I felt numb and spacey. Maybe this would be it, the thing that breaks me. I had dreaded the thought of ever having children since Mama got sick. I had watched how my best friend’s sister in high school had gotten married and had her first baby. I had spent time at their house while Dani’s mother taught her how to care for her baby. When Mama got sick, my mind always drifted to that day. Remembering how Dani had no clue what to do with her baby and how grateful she was to her mom for teaching her how to be a mother. I knew I would never have that. I knew that if the day came, I would be alone. Now I was truly alone and it didn’t feel real, whatever was happening wasn’t registering in my mind.