The Edge (Book 5 of The Claiming Series)

Chapter Seventeen

Dr. Reeve asks us to meet her at the hospital immediately. Eris, Charlie, and Oliver accompany us, probably so that they can keep a close eye on Eli, who is once again on the verge of losing it. He sits in the back of the car with me as Oliver drives us through the empty streets of New Athens toward the hospital. Eris and Charlie squeeze into the third row behind us.

After cleaning up and changing at the palace, I felt like I washed away any evidence that something went wrong. I stood in the shower for five minutes, letting the warm water drench my hair and trickle down my belly and legs.

I couldn't cry yet.

I just... I still felt pregnant.

I still do.

As soon as we arrive at the hospital, I'm checked into a room that is strictly reserved for royal family use. It's like any other hospital room, but with more décor on the walls in a lame attempt to make it seem "homier." The room is also quite large with an attached bathroom and a sitting area and small kitchenette.

Dr. Reeve is already waiting for us there, waiting by the hospital bed with her tablet tucked into the crook of her arm. She has her regular nurse with her, and as soon as she sees Eli, she leans toward her nurse and whispers something to him. Then she looks at Eli. "I want to have you evaluated, Eli. Upstairs."

Eli's eyes round. "Upstairs? In the psych wing?"

She narrows her eyes. "Yes, in the psych wing. Alex is going to take you there now. I'll take good care of Mave. Don't worry."

Eli looks at me in panic, but I look at the ground. I know he needs to go, so I'm not going to try and back him up to keep him here with me.

I don't think I can bear to have him here with me. Especially if we really did lose the baby because of his disorder. I don't blame him—I just can't watch him blame himself once again for something out of his control.

"Okay," Eli says with a sigh. He reaches for my hand, and everyone in the room seems to hold their breaths, tensing up all at once.

I meet his eyes for a brief moment and see he's trying to smile as encouragingly as he can. "I love you," he says. "I—I'm so sorry..."

I shake my head. "It wasn't you," I say.

But when he releases my hand to follow the nurse from the room, I can tell he doesn't believe me.

"Well, what do you know. You've got a hardy baby boy, Mave," Dr. Reeve says, running the ultrasound scanning device over my belly. "Heartbeat's fine. And from your pelvic exam, looks like you just had a bit of stress-induced bleeding. However, I'm keeping you here for the rest of tonight and tomorrow for observation. You're going to relax, okay?"

I lean my head back into the pillow of the hospital bed and let out a shuddering sigh of relief. "Okay. Okay, thank you. Oh my gosh, thank you..."

Dr. Reeve laughs, a sound I'm not used to from her. However, it's a little cold and condescending. "You didn't listen to me, did you?"

I lift my head to look at her, and she has her head tilted and a trace of sympathy in her eyes. I look down at the scanner still resting on my belly, pressed into the gel that's dribbling down my skin in cold streams. Then I glance at the screen between us, showing the baby curled up like he's sleeping. "No. I didn't. I thought about it, I really did. But then I thought—what if Eli feels rejected and it makes him worse?"

Dr. Reeve is silent after that. I tear my eyes from the screen and see her closing her eyes. Then she sighs and opens them. "That very well could have been a possibility. But what would be worse—Eli feeling rejected, or Eli feeling like he murdered his wife and child?"

I choke on a sudden sob erupting from my chest. The tears blind my eyes almost instantly. I press my palms against them like I'm trying to push them back down into my tear ducts. "I'm an idiot," I say.

"Not really," Dr. Reeve says. "You've got a lot going on. Things are really hard right now. You've got a husband who just came back from being missing for three months, a potential war with Bayfell hanging over our heads, a pregnancy that you almost lost, and your friends who came with you are currently MIA."

My eyes snap to the door where I could have sworn Eris and Charlie had been silently waiting. They're gone.

"What the..."

Dr. Reeve shrugs. "The girl started crying when we heard the heartbeat. She ran out of the room and the boy followed her."

She started crying? Is it relief for me?

Wait... No.

Eris miscarried in high school. She never got to feel the relief of that little heartbeat sound, pulsing from the machine.

I groan and lean my head back again, closing my eyes. I should have told them to stay behind. Not once did I think about the trauma that would come flooding back to Eris like a repeating nightmare.

She's too good of a friend. She didn't think twice before helping me clean up the blood, balancing me as I got in the shower, holding me up until I was stable. She squeezed my shoulder in the car and continuously told me to just keep breathing. She would talk to me about other things to keep me distracted.

Because... she's done this before.

She's been in this exact spot before, suffering a fall.

But she was pushed down the stairs.

We don't even know if I was bleeding before or after the fall. My struggle with Eli very well could have started it.

"I'll go find them," Dr. Reeve says. "I'll let them know you're worried about them."

She puts up her equipment and hands me a soft damp towel to clean up the gel. Then, I suck in a sharp breath and nearly choke on it when I remember—"What about Eli?"

Dr. Reeve's gaze softens as she stands up, and I can tell this isn't news I'm going to like. "I'm going to keep him in the psych ward for a while. Now that we know exactly what he's capable of, we know now where we need to focus his treatment. But it's going to take time."

"We don't... we don't have time," I say. "We're supposed to meet with Bayfell's queen in a month. She wants Eli there, not just me."

"Don't worry," she says, patting my leg. "This won't take a whole month. Give it a couple weeks, okay? Eli's strong, and this treatment is pretty rapid. It's going to consist of medications and intense cognitive therapy. But he can handle it. If he's the father of that resilient kid you got there, everything will be just fine."

I let out a half-sob, half-laugh. "Thank you."

"Once I give you the O.K. to go, you're welcome to visit him during the family hours."

"And can you tell him—"

She nods. "I'll make sure he knowsthat you and your son are okay."

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short! I wanted to give you guys reassurance, but I'm also in the midst of trying to update the Lower District story. My brain's a lil' fried...