“They said if they’d gotten to her a few minutes later, she likely wouldn’t be here.”
“I’m getting ready to leave the clubhouse and head up there. Do you or Macy need me to bring anything?”
“No, we’re good. Annabelle came by with breakfast,” he said and cleared his throat. “You’re welcome to come up here, but she’s refusing to see anyone.”
“What? Can she do that?”
“Yes, she can.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll come up there anyway. In case she changes her mind.”
“We’ll be here. We’re on the third floor in the waiting room.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
On my way to the hospital, I went through the drive-thru of a local coffee shop and ordered an extra-large coffee for Badger and me and a white chocolate mocha for Macy. I was pretty sure he could drink coffee again, and I knew Macy would appreciate her drink, even though he said they didn’t need anything. Honestly, it was more for me. I needed to do something, even if it was bringing unwanted coffee to the hospital.
When I arrived, Badger and Macy were sitting in the waiting room looking like absolute hell. Badger looked like he’d aged fiveyears overnight, and Macy’s face was red and puffy from crying. “I brought coffee,” I said quietly and held up the drink carrier.
“Bless you,” Macy said and got up to hug me as Badger took the drinks from my hand. She hugged me tightly, and I felt her body tremble. “If you get snot on my cut, we’re going to have problems,” I said, hoping to stop the tears I knew were coming.
Macy slapped her hand against my chest and let out a soft laugh. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “I needed that.”
“The laugh or the coffee?”
“Both,” she sighed and took her seat.
“What happened this time?” I asked.
“They found her in an alley downtown, slumped against a dumpster,” Macy said as tears ran down her cheeks. “The needle was still in her arm.”
“Fuck,” I hissed.
“There is something different this time,” Badger said.
“What is it?”
“She’s pregnant,” Macy whispered.
Her words felt like a sledgehammer to my gut.Pregnant?She couldn’t be. It had to be a mistake. I wanted it to be a mistake, but I knew it wasn’t. That development must have been why Badger hadn’t called. They were trying to figure out how to tell me. And that was probably the reason she was refusing to see anyone.
“How far along is she?”
“We don’t know,” Macy said. “She started screaming and yelling for everyone to get out as soon as the doctor said she was pregnant.”
“Will the, I mean, can the, uh, baby survive this?”
“We don’t know that either,” Macy said. “I asked Gabby, but she didn’t have an answer. She said there were too many variables to be able to say definitively, but she did say there’s a chance.”
That also meant there was a chance the baby wouldn’t survive, but I wasn’t going to point out what we all knew.
As we sat there in that waiting room, hoping she’d change her mind and want to see us, I tried to think of how I could help her, or what I could do to make the situation better. The current laws in our state didn’t leave her with a lot of options. I briefly wondered if she intentionally overdosed in an attempt to end the pregnancy, but I decided not to continue that line of thinking. She’d never tell me if that was the case, and it wouldn’t change the current situation.
Eventually, I did come up with something. It was probably wrong and would be frowned upon by many, but I didn’t care. I’d grown up with addicts and knew how they operated. There was only one thing my parents wanted almost as much as they wanted their drugs and alcohol. They wanted money for their vices. I had plenty of money, and I was going to use it to help her.
Once the idea had formed, I didn’t waste time thinking it over. Instead, I excused myself, saying I needed to use the restroom, then went to find the nurse assigned to Tawny’s room.
She gave me a sad smile. “I’m sorry. Ms. Marshall doesn’t want any visitors at this time.”