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PROLOGUE
Trigger
“You’re pregnant,” Dr. Narsio says, looking from me to a blank-faced Pebbles.
“Pregnant?” I frown in disbelief, looking at her flat stomach.
Thirty minutes ago, I stood outside Pebble’s hospital room losing my mind while two nurses and the female doctor preformed a rape kit on my fire haired beauty. Just twenty minutes ago, I held her hand and sat helplessly by her side as multiple health professionals, cops, and my brothers came in and asked her question after question about her attack.
All her freckles stand out against her pale, makeup free skin. While I was in the waiting room, one of the nurses pulled her beautiful copper locks away from her face into a loose braid.
“Heather?” The doctor tries her best to get Pebbles to meet her eyes, to no avail.
I crouch down next to the bed, putting us at eye level. “Red?”
The whites of her eyes blaze red surrounding the beautiful brown staring blankly ahead of her, refusing to respond.
Dr. Narsio taps her hand softly against Pebbles foot, which is guarded by the thin sheet. “Heather, I need your permission to perform an ultrasound. Is that okay?”
Pebbles softly nods her head. I watch as she drops her eyes down to Dr. Narsio’s retreating hand.
I stand up, lightly pulling my hand away from Pebbles. “If you want me to step out for this, I will,” I say gently, trying to hide the shock I’m feeling. Before I can pull my hand away, she tightens her grip. I sit back down, taking her hand in both of mine. “I won’t leave you, Red.”
A few minutes later, another petite female employee knocks on the door of the private hospital room. Wheeling a large machine behind her, she smiles lightly at us both. I hold my breath, waiting as she turns the machine so a screen the size of a small TV is facing us.
“My name is Summer, and I’m an ultrasound technician. This will only take a few minutes,” she says while typing things into the machine.
Summer pulls out a fat-looking wand, squirting blue gel on the end of it. “This might be cold, but hopefully it’s been in the warmer long enough.” Pressing the wand to Pebbles lower belly, she squints at the screen.
I don’t like the look on her face. “What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Nothing to worry about. This early in a pregnancy, it can be hard to see the baby, that’s all.”
“What other way is there to see it?”
She looks at me, smiles reassuringly, and lowers her voice. “Internally,” she replies, gesturing to the other long slender wand attached to the side of the machine. I can only imagine whatinternallymeans and, with Pebbles situation, I sure as shit know that’s not appropriate. No fucking way after what happened to her.
My eyes widen, and I nod before looking back up, ready to tell Summer that we’ll just wait until later on to see the baby. My heart stops in my chest when the image appears on the screen.
“There you are,” Summer says, causing all the air to escape my lungs.
A series of scrolling and clicks sound through the small room as Summer taps all over the screen.
“Is everything okay?” I ask her. Pebbles won’t bring her eyes to the screen, and I can’t seem to take mine off, even though I have no fucking clue what I’m looking at.
“Everything is perfect. See this?” Summer says, pointing to one of the tadpole looking things on the screen. “This is baby number one.”
I choke over the spit caught in my throat.
She smiles, clicking some more before pointing to the screen again. “Andthisis baby number two.”
“So, we’re having twins?” I turn to Pebbles, dropping my head in her lap. I squeeze her hand in mine, kissing each knuckle. “You hear that, Red? Twins! Holy fuck.”
“Do you see the little flutters right here?” Summer asks, pointing out two small areas on the screen display. “Those are their hearts beating. She’s too early to hear them from this view, but you should be able to hear them by doppler in a week or two.”
Pebbles remains quiet, looking at the machine where our two tadpoles are displayed on the small screen.
Summer prints out multiple pictures of our little babies and hands them to me.
