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Still, I sucked it up and made my way to the clinic.
I arrived at the doctor’s office, a small building tucked away within the busy city streets, and sat in the waiting room.
Alone.
Surely, Brody wasn’t going to leave me hanging.
However, I was called into the patient room without so much as a word from him. I texted him once, but he didn’t answer. Instead, I was left alone with the doctor, who was explaining my health to me.
I was in perfect shape, and in a month, I’d get to see the first ultrasound of the baby. Because Brody had left me completely alone, I didn’t know if I wanted to have him accompany me to the next visit.
I looked at my phone as the doctor went to go get some vitamins for me. Brody remained completely silent. I texted him again. A mark of desperation. Something that was incredibly beneath me and I felt the humiliation with every empty second ticking away with no response.
A tear started forming when the doctor abruptly came back in.
He went over the banal details of when to take my pills, and why I needed to make sure to take them. I thanked him and left the clinic feeling frustrated and humiliated.
I made my way down the city streets, taking in the city as a therapeutic measure for Brody’s inconsiderate action.Why would he tell me he was going when he couldn’t make it?
I already knew - he had forgotten.But that’s not like him.
The thought that Brody had messed up was x’d out of my list of reasons why he would have missed my appointment. Unfortunately, the thought kept coming back to me, and I wavered in my resolve to cut him out of the baby's life.If he missed, he better have a damn good reason!But also, if he could barely be present during the pregnancy, was I setting myself up to be a single mom? I don’t know that I could or want to raise a child by myself!
Dialing him up, I got his voicemail. Too angry to say anything, I hung up before I could leave a message, and I kept on stewing on the idea that maybe he just didn’t care. The thought festered in my mind and soon, I found myself disgusted by the very thought of him.
If he was going to leave me high and dry, he didn’t deserve to be the father of my baby. He could have canceled whatever he had going on that morning, but instead, he chose to leave me like chopped liver.
When I got home I didn’t even bother to check my phone to see if he had even called back. Because if he didn’t care, then why should I?
16
BRODY
Iwas beyond excited to be there with my girl on the day of her doctor’s appointment. Unfortunately being the situation that I was in, I had a very slim chance of being able to attend.
That morning, I got a call that would rock my world. The mole who Frank had killed was none other than a Reed and worse, the Reeds wanted payback. Because I couldn’t let tragedy befall the woman I finally had gotten back, I had to meet with them that morning.
If I had done anything else, Frank would have been dead or worse, Adriana would have been killed. Nothing made me feel more strongly than protecting my future family, and Adriana absolutely couldn’t know about what was happening.
She was sleeping so peacefully that morning that it pained me to wake her up. The Reeds weren’t the kind to take a missed or even a late meeting lightly. I quickly got dressed to go, forgetting that my phone wasn’t charged.
I cursed when I arrived at the Reed’s meeting point, a run-down dive bar where it was clear that no patron would show up. I sighed as my phone went dead, and the angry father of the Reed family, Braden, was there.
“Your man Frank killed one of mine,” Braden said.
“I didn’t know that he was the mole,” I said, responding as truthfully as I could. I didn’t know, it was true, but I suspected it all along. I had had Carlo do some investigating, and all signs pointed to the Reeds, even though they did a great job hiding it.Not so good that my men couldn’t find out.
“Regardless, we want reparations,” Braden grumbled.
I almost laughed, but was careful not to. Braden wasn’t the kind of man who would let me leave if he thought I was being disrespectful. Slim with long hair, Braden was every bit the gangster that you didn’t know about. He’d have put out a hit on Frank had I not stopped him earlier. Then again, he still kept the fact that he had one of his on the inside to himself.
What did Braden want?
“Talk to me,” I said, maintaining my cool even as Braden stared me down menacingly.
Braden didn’t respond and instead, paced around the bar. The empty chairs reminded me that I was most likely going to miss Adriana’s appointment, and my patience was wearing thin. This jerk was threatening my family, and I couldn’t even begin to guess what he wanted with me.
“You’re the money man,” Braden said.
