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Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kimberly
In the background,I heard Declan's booming but calm voice. "We can continue the mediation meeting here, but in my experience, it's better if we do it in a neutral place. The room we were supposed to be in is still reserved for two hours. We can go back."
I put Michael on the single bed next to his crib. Then I moved to the vanity table and opened the top drawer, searching for a clean diaper.
I heard voices rise from the living room.
"Please don't fight. Michael can hear you," Drake said.
Michael started fussing even more. I changed his diaper quickly, and that seemed to soothe him. My stomach began to rumble even though I'd eaten. But I kept a pack of cookies in my bag just for that. Thank goodness I’d brought it with me into the room.
I took it out, opening it and quickly munching three. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to settle my stomach. Then I put the packet in my bag and took Michael in my arms.
He was fussing again, so I walked around the room with him, trying to soothe him. Then he laid his head on my chest. A few seconds later, a wheezing came from him. To my horror, he was blue in the face.
"Oh my God. No, no, no.”
"What the hell happened?" That was Lawrence's voice. Looking over my shoulder, I realized everyone had burst into the room.
"I think he’s choking."
Suze immediately took him from me, tilting him slightly so his head was lower than the rest of his body. She kept one arm under his belly, opening his mouth wide with her fingers, and patted his back rather forcefully with the other hand. I counted five blows, and then Michael spat out a tiny bit of something.
The wheezing stopped, and he began crying instead. Suze turned him face-up, holding him in an upright position. He seemed to be breathing normally.
Lawrence bent down, picking up what Michael had spit out. “This is a cookie. Who the fuck gave him that?”
I stilled completely. “I ate some cookies earlier. I probably had crumbles on my chest. I didn’t realize it. Oh my God.”
Suze was sobbing softly, keeping him close to her chest. She kissed him lightly. "He’s fine now. I’m going to call my best friend real quick. She’s a pediatrician. She’ll tell me if I should have him checked out at the hospital. It happened once before, and it was much worse."
That would explain how she knew exactly what to do.
"What the fuck?" Lawrence shouted, and I swear to God, my breath got stuck in my throat. His tone gave me a terrible sense of foreboding. "What do you mean, this happened before? And now you leave this inept woman in charge of him?"
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Drake spat.
"Lawrence," Suze exclaimed, "accidents happen."
"Not to my son. If you think I'm going to agree to some bogus mediation meeting, you have another think coming," Lawrence seethed. "I’m going to file for custody, and thenyou'llget to pay support. How about that?"
“You moron," Drake said. He transformed right in front of my eyes, grabbing the guy by the collar. "You walked out on my sister and left her to fend for herself when she was at her most vulnerable, and now you think you can come and make a request and threaten her?"
Declan cleared his throat. "Drake, let go of him."
We gave my cousin shit for always thinking about the worst-case scenario, but for the first time, I understood why he did that. It was good to be prepared and to keep calm in a crisis. Not like what Drake was doing right now.
Suze was crying silently, shaking.
