Chapter 113: WHO’S THE FATHER
KEISHA’S POV
The ceiling of the clinic was white.
I knew it was the clinic before I opened my eyes fully because of the smell — antiseptic and something stale.
I opened my eyes groggily.
Immediately, a few people came into view. Nadia. Lyra. A colleague whose name I was blanking on completely in this moment but whose face I recognised from the junior team.
All three of them were looking at me with expressions with concern. But also... Confusion.
My stomach dropped.
"She’s awake." Nadia muttered to nobody in particular.
The doctor who was there in stead of Dr Fenn, came to my side and checked things— pulse, eyes, the standard sequence— and asked if I felt alright and I said yes which was partially true.
"Good." She said. "Good. You just need rest and fluids and—" She paused. "And to take better care of yourself. Both of you."
Both?
Both of you?
I closed my eyes.
Fuck.
"Keisha." Nadia’s voice was very careful. "How long?"
I opened my eyes.
She was looking at me with the expression I had been dreading. Hurt.
"How long have you known?" She asked, her voice cracking. "And didn’t tell me."
"Nadia—"
"Weeks." She said, and I knew it wasn’t a question. "At least weeks. The nausea. The paleness. The fish thing at dinner. The clinic." She exhaled slowly. "All of it."
I looked at the ceiling. "I was going to tell you." I said. "I was going to tell everyone. I had a date. Thursday. I had—"
"Thursday was yesterday." She said.
"I know." I said. "And then Eliora happened and Lyra arrived and I kept—" I stopped. "I kept finding reasons to wait."
The colleague said congratulations in a small voice and I felt my eyes burn immediately which was the worst possible response to congratulations but there it was.
Lyra hadn’t said anything yet.
I turned my head.
She was sitting in the chair on the other side of the bed and she was looking at me with an expression I couldn’t fully read — not the same as Nadia’s, something worse. She reached out and put her hand over mine on the bed.
"You’re strong." She nodded simply. "You’ve always been strong. You’ll see through this."
Something broke open in my chest and I pressed my lips together very hard. "Okay." I nodded.
"Okay." She said back.
We looked at each other and she held my hand.
Then she asked what I had been dreading. "Who’s the father?"
The question landed heavily in the room and the colleague looked up and Nadia went very still.
Diane went quiet in my head, offering zero comfort whatsoever.
I looked at the ceiling. "I need to get out of here first." I said instead.
"Keisha—" Lyra started.
"I need to get out of here." I said again. "I need air and I need to not be in a clinic bed and I need—" I sat up slowly. "I’ll take the rest of the day."
"I’ll let the supervisor know." The colleague said quickly and helpfully, already at the door.
"And I’ll come." Nadia told her.
I looked at her.
"I’m coming." She said.
Lyra stood.
The three of us walked out of the clinic into the afternoon and I put one foot in front of the other and breathed.
All I had to do was get home.
What I hadn’t accounted for was the people.
We were barely twenty meters from the clinic when I felt eyes on me from every corner. People pausing to look at me.
I frowned.
Lyra moved closer to my side. "Don’t let it bother you." She said quietly.
"Why are they—" I started.
"The doctor." Lyra said carefully. "When you collapsed there were other patients. Other people in the waiting area. She announced the pregnancy while she was assessing you. I don’t think she meant for it to—"
"The whole pack knows." I choked on my words.
"By tonight." Lyra said. "Probably."
I kept walking.
Oh fuck. Callum and Dane. They were going to hear it from someone else if they hadn’t already and that was — that was not how it was supposed to happen.
Inside my house, I sat on the sofa and Lyra said she was going to the pharmacy outside the estate to get the prescription the doctor had written and that she’d be back before she left and I sat in the quiet with Nadia.
Nadia leaned against the wall across from me with her arms folded and looked at me for a long moment.
"Dane." She blurted out the name.
I looked at her.
"It’s Dane." She looked up at me. "Isn’t it?"
I said nothing.
"I’ve been watching." She said. "Since the beginning. The way he looks at you. The way you don’t look at him in rooms when you’re trying not to. The jacket he put over your shoulders at the pool." She paused. "The way he came to the hospital when you collapsed the first time and stood outside the door." She looked at me steadily. "It’s Dane."
I pressed my hands flat on my knees and said nothing, the words refusing to form in my mouth.
How had she figured that much out?
"Does he know?" She said.
I looked at the wall.
"Keisha." She said.
"No." I said. "He doesn’t know yet."
She was quiet for a moment.
"You need to tell him." She said. "Whatever happened with Lyra, whatever the history is — he deserves to know."
"I know." I said.
"And you—" She paused. "Do you love him?"
I looked at her.
She looked back at me with those eyes that always asked the real question.
"It’s complicated." I said.
"I know it’s complicated." She said. "I’m asking anyway."
I looked at the wall again and didn’t answer.
The front door opened and Lyra came back with the pharmacy bag and looked between the two of us and then at me specifically.
"Here." She said as she set the bag on the table. "Take the first one now."
I took it.
Nadia already suspected Dane. But how long before she pieced that her father was also the father?