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“You look miserable. I’ll make you some hot chocolate.” Helen bumbled into the kitchen. Scout followed on her heels, his tags jingling.
Lila lingered near the counter. She eyed a row of painted cabinets and the small stovetop.
Helen grabbed a blue teapot and filled it in the sink, then settled it on the stove.
“I shouldn’t have come. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You’re not the first woman I’ve seen in crisis, Lila, and you certainly won’t be the last.”
“I’m not in crisis.”
“Oh no? Then what drove you to my doorstep tonight?”
While the doctor retrieved two mugs from a cabinet, Lila opened her satchel. She slid the vial with Tristan’s hair across the counter, wincing at the scraping sound it made against the granite. “I might have just tranqed the baby’s father.”
“You tranqed him to get the sample?”
Lila shook her head.
“Okay, then just to be clear, did you maybe tranq him or you did tranq him and he might be the father?”
“The latter.”
“I suppose you had your reasons, and I won’t ask what those reason were, but tranq darts can be dangerous. He might need medical attention. He could choke on his own tongue, on his vomit, on sand if he’s fallen into it.”
“I tranqed him indoors, and there are people with him. His brother and his lover.”
Helen’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
Lila pushed the vial closer. “Please, I have to know. I have to know if it’s his. I don’t want to be wrapped up with him anymore.”
“As opposed to being wrapped up with the other one, the one who nearly murdered you?”
“I don’t want to be mixed up with either of them, but I can’t take not knowing.”
“And you have to know now. Tonight.”
“I can’t even pay. I’ll get you’ll the money later, I promise.”
“Oh, I know you will, one way or another. Payment is not my main concern. I’m wondering if you’ll keep the child depending on whom the father is.”
Scout poked at Lila’s hip. His tail whacked against the counter like a ticking clock.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I can do this. They’re both violent in a way that I can’t…”
Helen squeezed her shoulders. “Lila, just because someone’s father resorted to violence, doesn’t mean that they will.”
“I can’t have that in my body.” Her belly twisted as if a snake wriggled inside. “The thought makes me ill.”
“Why don’t you save that decision for another day? You’re upset and rattled, for good reason. Let’s just focus on the paternity test tonight.”
The doctor poured a mug of hot chocolate and slid it across the counter, withdrawing her palm from her robed pocket. “Drink that while I contact the lab. Rosemary should be on tonight.” Helen excused herself. Scout followed behind.
Muffled whispers came from a back bedroom as Lila sipped her drink.
Five minutes later, the doctor emerged, dressed in a red sweater, thick trousers, and sturdy boots. She snatched up the vial on the counter and slid it into her pocket. Rummaging around in her cabinets, she opened a ceramic bin with black paw prints stenciled along the side.
Scout wagged his tail and followed her into the living room, happily clamping down on a new rawhide bone, his eyes darting back and forth to find the best gnawing location. His tags jingled as he lay down on his dog bed in the corner.
