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“Hi,” Nova’s sweet voice greeted, her smile lighting the interior of the limo. Ciana, however, didn’t say anything, and when I glanced at her again, it was to find she was asleep with her head against the window. “Are you hungry?” Nova asked, and I switched my gaze back to her. “I thought we could eat before going to the club.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said with a shrug. “I could eat.”
I hadn’t eaten much since the last time I’d seen her in person, but my stomach was empty and growly, so I figured I needed to fill the tank. Although I wasn’t all too confident that whatever I put in my mouth would stay down, I needed to at least try.
The limo started to move, but the overhead light was still on, and Nova gave me a cautious once-over. “Did you—”
“Yeah,” I whispered, not allowing her to get the full question out. “And it was positive.”
Ciana sat up straight, looking more alert and a little startled. “Positive,” she mumbled with a yawn. “What were we talking about?”
“We weren’t talking about anything, C.” Nova heaved a sigh at her cousin. “You fell asleep.”
“Oh, sorry,” the redhead said around a yawn. “But what was positive?”
I pulled the pregnancy test from my purse and showed it to them.
“Wait…” Ciana seemed relieved to see my test. “You’re pregnant?”
“That’s what the test says,” I answered, returning the tiny little test to my purse. “Maybe I should have splurged on the digital test. It could have been a false reading.” I didn’t doubt the results for a single moment, but what if Garret did? “I guess I’ll call and get an appointment at the free clinic, find out if it’s true or not.”
“If it says it’s positive, then it is,” Ciana assured me. “It’s false negatives you have to worry about. I work for one of the best OB-GYNs in the city. Come in tomorrow, and I’ll get you taken care of.”
“But tomorrow is Saturday,” I reminded her.
“We’re open until noon on Saturdays. Come in, I’ll get your labs, have the nurse practitioner do your pap, and if my friend in ultrasound is working, we can get some pictures of the baby.”
Her mentioning that I might get to see my little nugget lifted my spirits, but then I remembered I didn’t have insurance. All of those labs and other tests—not to mention the ultrasound itself—would eat up a huge part of my savings. “I don’t have insurance.”
“I don’t care about insurance,” Ciana dismissed. “I can work around it.”
“You have insurance,” Nova spoke up, and relief flooded me as she continued. “I took care of all of your information with HR and got you sorted.”
My mouth gaped open in amazement at my friend. “When? And more importantly, how?”
“Aunt Gracie had all of your new identity information. I told her I was helping you get a job and needed your social security number to get your paperwork completed. She said to tell you congrats on the new job, by the way,” she said as she pulled out a little ID badge. “Make sure you stop by HR to sign everything, but your insurance started yesterday, as soon as you were entered into the system as an employee. You’ll get your card in the mail in about a week, but it will cover any care you have before it arrives.”
“Whoa,” I whispered, tears of relief and gratitude filling my eyes. “Nova…”
“I got your back, babe.”
* * *
After stuffing my face with tacos and spending the rest of the evening dancing with Nova and Ciana, I felt lighter by the time we climbed into the back of the limo. Ciana had practically passed out on the dance floor, though, and that was worrisome, but she didn’t seem all that concerned for her own health as she argued with Nova about going to the doctor.
I stayed quiet as the two cousins argued about it, but I couldn’t help wondering what was going on with the normally vivacious Ciana Donati. I’d only met her one other time. Garret and I had gone to dinner with her, kind of a trial run for meeting his family. But when he’d asked me to go to California for Nova’s graduation, I’d chickened out.
Visiting Creswell Springs with him would have opened a can of worms I hadn’t been ready for. Neither had he, if his reaction to finding out my true identity was anything to go by.
Ciana fell back to sleep not long after we were on the road, and the driver headed for my apartment to drop me off first. As we rode in silence, my phone buzzed with a text. I pulled it out, only to frown when I read the message.
Unknown: You can’t hide from me now, bitch.
“Who the fuck is this…?” I muttered as the blood in my veins turned to ice, because I knew down to my toes who it was. But I wanted to deny it.
Nova glanced at me, and I showed her my phone screen.
Her eyes had barely scanned the message when we were suddenly jarred, the limo having been rammed from the left by another vehicle. I screamed, startled by the incident, while Nova rushed to hold on to Ciana so she didn’t fall onto the floor and get hurt.
