Waylen sighs loudly and snaps his fingers, “Robert, take both of them to have the paternity test. I want this bickering to end forever. Once we have the results, I never want to hear another word on this topic.”
“Very wise, dear,” Florence says, smiling coolly. “But you know, if Leonie’s child is yours, you have to stop oppressing her.”
Waylen nods and turns to look out the window. A team of nurses surround Leilani and Leonie and lead them to the same waiting room. A nurse in a white surgical mask nods politely at both of them and reaches for something on a metal tray.
“Isn’t this exciting, Leilani?” Leonie asks with a wicked glint in her eye. “We’ve always shared this weird connection, and now our children might too. Do you think we’ll get the results at the same time?”
“We’re quite lucky to be here at the same time, don’t you think?” Leonie continues. “I wonder if our results will be the same. I kind of doubt it, though.”
“There’s no point in guessing or wondering,” Leilani says, feeling exhausted. “The reports will tell us the results soon enough.”
Leilani isn’t sure how Leonie plans to tamper with the results, but she’s sure her rival is planning something. After all, there’s no other reason for Florence to have come to the hospital. Leilani looks around the room and tries to guess the plan. Will they bribe a nurse? She wonders, looking at the team of nurses in the room. Or will they switch the names on the samples?
She shrugs and decides it doesn’t really matter what they do. Across the room, the nurses whisper among themselves, shooting sly glances at both Leonie and Leilani. Leilani sighs and turns toward the door. She can hear voices in the hallway, and she casually moves closer to the door to eavesdrop on the conversation.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go in, Mr. Bamford?” Robert asks.
“Don’t bother them,” Florence says. “If you go in, you’ll only stress them out, and the test is scary enough as it is. Leave the poor women alone.”
Leilani smiles to herself—clearly, Florence has something planned, and she doesn’t want Waylen around to see what it is. A nurse crosses the room and shuts the door. Then she waves her hand and leads Leilani and Leonie down a long hall. She stops at the end of the hall and points at two open doors.
Each door leads to a small examination room. Each room has a table covered in crisp white paper and a scientific drawing of a uterus on the wall. The nurse gestures for Leonie to go to the room on the right, and Leilani to the one on the left, and Leonie immediately walks to her table and sits on the edge, but Leilani hesitates. She bites her lip and looks worriedly at the rooms.
This must be part of the plan, Leilani thinks. They’ve probably told the nurses to change the results based on the room we go into. I don’t want to interfere with their plans, but I’m scared to go alone. Who knows what Florence and Leonie have asked the nurses to do to me? It’s not safe to be in this little room by myself.
Leilani walks into Leonie’s room and takes Leonie’s manicured hand in hers. Leonie’s face pales, and her eyes narrow angrily. She jerks her hand away from Leilani and gets off the table.
“Leonie is right,” Leilani says. “We share a special connection, and I think we should acknowledge that now. We shouldn’t be separated for the tests—we should be together—in the same room.”
Leonie’s lipsticked mouth falls open in shock, but she quickly closes it. She narrows her eyes with suspicion, but she smiles at Leilani. Leilani fights the urge to laugh at Leonie’s ridiculous expression. She takes Leonie’s arm and loops it through her own.
“The tests are done in the same laboratory,” the nurse says, looking confused. “There’s no need for you to use the same examination room. Besides, if you use the same room, we can only do one exam at a time. It’s more efficient if you go to separate rooms.”
Leilani shakes her head, stubbornly. The nurse shrugs and walks across into the hallway to talk to the other nurses. As soon as the nurse turns her back, Leonie yanks her arm away from Leilani. She steps back and looks Leilani up and down.
She smiles sweetly and says, “I had no idea you were so nervous about the test.”
“Oh, yes, I’m absolutely terrified of needles,” Leilani lies. “Besides, I think we should both look out for each other. Since Waylen didn’t want to come in, we have to rely on each other. I can hold your hand while they take the sample if you like.”
“That’s not necessary,” Leonie snaps. She quickly softens her tone and says, “I mean, it’s really sweet of you, but I’m okay.”
The nurses gather around the table and put on blue rubber gloves. They ask Leonie to take her dress off and give her a paper hospital gown. Leonie strips out of her dress and kicks her heels off without any embarrassment. She hops up on the table and unties the gown to reveal the slight swell of her pregnant stomach.
“Are you afraid?” Leilani asks, trying to provoke Leonie.
“Of course not,” Leonie says defiantly. “Are you?”
“I am,” Leilani says. “But I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
Leonie rolls her eyes and asks, “Why are you so weird today?”
“Miss Peters, are you sure you don’t want to have the test done now?” the head nurse asks. “Mr. Bamford insists on getting the results as quickly as possible. If we do the tests at different times, he’ll have to wait longer. I’m sure you already know that he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
“I’m sure,” Leilani says.
The nurses whisper among themselves, and then the head nurse’s face lights up. She shoots Leonie a meaningful look and puts her hands on her h.i.p.s.
“Miss Summers, this is a really unusual situation,” the nurse says. “Here at Memorial Hospital, we value our patients’ privacy. Miss Peters is insisting on having the test with you, but we need your approval to allow it.”
“Honestly, I am a little uncomfortable with it,” Leonie says, looking shyly down at her flimsy hospital gown.
“Oh please,” Leilani says. “There’s no need for false modesty. Everyone has seen your Livestream fashion show already.”
Leonie grits her teeth and clenches her tiny hands into fists, but she doesn’t argue. She nods reluctantly and lies back on the examination table. The room is small, and there’s hardly any room for Leilani, but she stands in a corner and observes, trying to see if the nurses pull any tricks.
A doctor arrives and pushes her way through the nurses. She squeezes a clear jelly onto Leonie’s stomach and uses the ultrasound scanner to look for the location of the baby. A nurse stands next to her, holding a silver tray with a wicked-looking silver needle. The needle is thin, but it’s more than half a foot long.
A nurse wipes the jelly away and uses an alcohol-soaked cloth to sanitize the skin. The doctor slowly lowers the needle to Leonie’s stomach, and Leonie flinches when it touches her skin. The doctor punctures her skin and sinks the needle deeper and deeper. Leilani wants to look away, but she’s scared she’ll miss something important.
“Relax, Miss Summers, it’ll be over soon,” the doctor says.
The doctor pulls the needle out, and the nurses immediately swoop in to sterilize the small hole it left behind. They bandage Leonie’s stomach as the doctor squirts the faintly yellow liquid into a clean test tube. The doctor carefully writes Leonie’s name and patient number on a sticker and then puts the sticker on the test tube.
“If Miss Summers wants to listen to her baby’s heartbeat, you can take her into the other room,” the doctor says.
Before Leonie can object, the nurses are pulling her out of the room. Leilani sighs and waits for a nurse to change the paper on the table. Then she takes off her clothes and puts on a hospital gown. She looks down at the fading hickeys on her body and cringes with embarrassment. She doesn’t want the nurses and the doctor to see them, but they’re impossible to hide.
The ultrasound jelly feels cold and slimy on Leilani’s stomach. She closes her eyes as soon as she sees the doctor pick up the needle, but opens them again to see what the doctor will do with the sample. The woman puts Leilani’s amniotic fluid in another tube and attaches a sticker with Leilani’s name.
Leilani rolls onto her side and looks at the tubes on the tray. While the doctor washes her hands, Leilani slowly moves closer to the samples. She wonders if she’ll be able to switch the stickers quickly enough. She reaches for the tubes just as the doctor turns around. Quickly, she groans and closes her eyes, pretending to be in pain.
“What’s wrong, Miss Peters?” the doctor asks.
“My stomach feels bad,” Leilani says. “Is it possible the test has caused me to miscarry? I feel really dizzy.”
The doctor grabs her stethoscope and puts the cold metal on Leilani’s chest. She closes her eyes to listen to Leilani’s heartbeat, and Leilani grabs one of the tubes. She slides her nail under the sticker and tries to peel it off. The doctor opens her eyes, and Leilani drops the tube, wincing at the loud clatter it makes.
“Everything seems alright,” the doctor says, placing a cool but comforting hand on Leilani’s arm. “The pain is probably caused by anxiety. I heard you say that you’re scared of needles. Try to take deep breaths and relax. If you still feel bad later, I’ll have a nurse give you a second exam.”
Leilani nods slowly, desperately trying to think of another way to change the samples. Before she can come up with a plan, a nurse walks in and takes the samples away to the lab. Another nurse brings a wheelchair and helps Leilani get into it. Then they wheel her into a private waiting room. Leonie is already sitting in an armchair, and Florence Bamford hovers by her side, fussing over her.
“Are you nervous?” Leonie asks. “We’ll get the results soon.”
“If anyone should be nervous, it’s you,” Leilani says cooly.
The door swings open, and Leonie jumps to her feet, eager to hear the results. Instead, Waylen comes in. He’s typing something on his phone, and he doesn’t even look up as he enters. He sits down in a chair far from both Leilani and Leonie and waits in silence. Finally, the doctor walks in with a piece of paper in her hands.
Waylen drops his phone and jumps to his feet. His face is ice cold and stony, but his eyes are filled with doubt. He rushes up to the doctor and glares down at her.
“Tell me,” he demands.
The doctor trembles and stammers, “The-the results sh-show—”
“What do they show?” Waylen shouts, grabbing the doctor by the collar of her lab coat.
The doctor squares her shoulders look Waylen in the eye, and says, “The tests show that you’re not the father of either child.”
Waylen lets go of the doctor’s coat, and her legs buckle beneath her. She sinks to the floor, panting for breath. Leilani looks at Waylen—his face is terrible. For a moment, she’s afraid he’s going to kick the poor doctor. But then he laughs, loud and humorlessly.
Do the tests say that my baby isn’t his? She thinks. That’s impossible! I didn’t get a chance to switch the name tags. And if Leonie or Florence were behind this, they would have rigged it, so it looks like Waylen is the father of Leonie’s baby. None of this makes any sense.
Out of the corner of her eye, she looks at Leonie. Leonie’s face is ashen, and she looks like she might faint. She jumps to her feet and rocks back and forth unsteadily. Florence tries to push her back into the armchair, but Leonie jerks her hand away from the older woman.
“No, that’s impossible!” Leonie whispers. She looks at the doctor and raises her voice, “You must have done it wrong—Waylen is my baby’s father. I know it.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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