Chapter 7

The consultation passed without her noticing.

She had only gone to the first appointment at her parents’ house without them noticing her visit to the doctor.

She had started taking the prenatal pills as she read about the symptoms and stages of pregnancy on the internet.

When she confessed this to Dr. Troy, his eyes widened wildly, and he wanted to jump off the nearest bridge.

“Poor baby!” he exclaimed.

That alone made Melody feel like the vilest of mothers.

“I don’t have health insurance. I didn’t know what else to do,” she defended herself. She felt it was the only thing left for her to do.

Timothy was sitting in a chair next to her. He gave the impression of being uncomfortable, but he hadn’t wanted to leave when she proposed.

“I’ll stay and check in with the doctor,” he had told her.

She trusted the angels that he would not judge her, as the OB/GYN was doing.

“I’m not saying you’re a bad person.”

“You’ve made that quite clear,” she attacked him.

“Not intended Ma’am...Miss,” the man scratched his head and continued, “Melody.”

“No. I’m not married either. Is that bad too? I thought we were in the twenty-first century, where women can be single mothers. How old are you? Thirty? You have an uncanny knack for bringing out my temper.”

“That’s a lot,” she heard Timothy mutter.

She let out a snort and raised her eyes to the ceiling.

“Let’s get on with it,” the doctor said after a few seconds of awkward silence.

She answered every question the doctor asked, about dates of last period and when she had last had sex. This question made her cough and Melody could see Timothy smile.

“What?” she asked him, crossing her arms. “Do you want to be beaten by a pregnant woman?”

“I didn’t say anything,” Timothy defended himself by mimicking her arms-crossed gesture.

“You seem to be amused by when was the last time, I had sex, do you also want to know where I did it and what positions I did it too?”

Melody’s eyes were twinkling and her nose, though small, was flaring with the air coming out. She was angry and it showed right away.

“Let’s focus,” the doctor said interrupting Melody and Timothy’s staring exchange.

“What else do you want to know?” she needed to get that over with to get the hell out of there and avoid further embarrassment, at least for the day.

She had this incredible knack for falling over, dropping things on herself, hot, cold, temperature-wise.

She was a real spectacle of a clumsy person.

Since she was a little girl, she had always had clumsy feet and hands. Everything slipped, especially when she was distracted.

“Do you know if the father has any degenerative family diseases or special conditions?”

Melody felt Timothy’s eyes on her again, and she felt judged again.

“Timothy,” she heard the doctor address him for the first time since they greeted each other as they entered the office. “Would you be so kind as to leave us for a moment? I think there are things that it’s better for Melody to feel more relaxed.”

The man in question looked at them both and after a long moment without saying anything, mumbled something in Italian and left the office.

“He’s an intense man,” she muttered inadvertently aloud.

“He’s a good man,” the doctor defended him.

But she already knew that firsthand. Timothy Giannato was a good man. Irritating and flirtatious, bringing out her temper and overwhelming her ideas, but he was certainly a good man. To be willing to pay for a medical consultation and stay to make sure she wasn’t charged, far from it, said quite a bit about someone.

She was a stranger to him. Timothy had no business giving her his help. More so to her who he knew was not someone easy to get along with or to be liked.

Her mother always told her so.

“That impulsiveness will make no one love you. You must think everything through before you say it Melody.”

“If someone loves me, they will, even if I say anything, because they will know I don’t mean it in a bad way.”

“Not every day we have the same mood or the same willingness to put up with slights from the people we love,” her mother had once told her.

Dr. Troy was a vastly different man from Timothy, although there was no other man like him, even if I had him made.

Troy must have been past thirty, had whitish receding hairline of what was obviously gray hair on both sides of his head, a piercing, curious look, blue eyes, and a slightly broad nose. His chin had a little stripe down the middle, the kind that is striking to female eyes, but at that moment, to Melody, he was just another man.

“So,” he said, clearing his throat, “is the father involved with the pregnancy?”

“No and I don’t understand what the point is.”

“I’m opening a record on the baby and its development; I should know everything about him.”

“You’re not opening a record because I’m not coming back,” she told him in confusion. “Just like Timothy told you, I’m just coming in for a quick checkup, so you can tell me everything is okay, because I felt a pain a while ago while I was working.”

“I’m ordering you a pelvic sonogram to rule out any abnormalities. You look fine to me, to be honest. To me, you’re just finishing the first trimester and that’s why you got that little spasm.”

“You don’t have a vagina, so excuse me, but don’t call it a little spasm,” it pissed her off that he minimized her pain, as she, and only she knew how much it had hurt.

“I don’t. You’re right Melody, but I also know quite a bit about babies and pregnant women. I’ve delivered over twenty children in less than three years. I have quite a bit of experience when it comes to ...”

“Vaginas and wombs,” she said.

“Pregnancies,” he corrected her, smiling.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I can see why Timothy is with you,” the doctor said smiling and shaking his head back and forth slowly as he wrote in his notebook.

“He’s not with me,” she didn’t know how the doctor had come to that conclusion, no one in their right mind seeing the two of them, would think that someone like her would be with such a rich and attractive guy, as Timothy was.

“Excuse me. It’s none of my business. Let’s get back to what concerns me.”

“No,” she reined him in. Opening her eyes wide and accentuating each word. “Timothy and I are not together. No... he...”

Stammering she felt almost stupid, for the doctor was looking at her with his curious eyes, as if he could see into her soul and take a personal impression.

“So. The father? Any illness?”

Melody was uncomfortable with the feeling that was beginning to take over her mind and heart. The doctor had played with her thoughts and now she couldn’t get something out of her head: she was starting to like Timothy.

How could that be possible? Two hours! no more. That was how long it had been since he had arrived at Doyle’s coffee shop.

She liked the Italian!

“I don’t know anything about the father,” she said feeling slightly embarrassed.

“Okay. Do you have any illnesses I should know about? Do you suffer from anything? Diabetes?

Rheumatism?”

“Aside from my bipolar...”

The doctor looked at her without laughing and began to write.

“Please don’t write that,” she begged him, laughing. “It’s a joke.”

“I see.”

“I’m sorry. I’m a little nervous,” she excused herself. “I talk a lot when I’m nervous. Well normally I talk a lot, but when I’m nervous...”

“You talk more,” the doctor interrupted, smiling. “Don’t worry. It’s normal. You’re a new mom. It’s normal to be nervous. You’re going to do fine. Do you plan to keep the baby?”

“Of course!” she exclaimed in horror.

“I’m sorry. That’s a question I have to ask to someone who is as young as you are and single.”

“I’m not young. Twenty-two is not being young. Five hundred years ago women got pregnant at thirteen.”

“They were married by agreement between families at thirteen and got pregnant immediately to consummate their marriage and have an early progeny.”

“Look. I only know about animals and books. Of history I don’t know,” she got up with the intention of leaving. “I’m not giving up my son, I’m not giving him away, I’m having him and I’m sick of people constantly asking me this, I’m an adult!”

“Melody,” Troy called out to her looking worriedly at her.

“I’m really sick of people thinking I’m going to ruin my life and future by having a child.”

“I don’t think you’re going to ruin it. You’re strong and independent if you’re going to do it alone. You’ve already got an admirer,” he gestured for her to sit down and looked at her with his eyebrows knocked down, giving an expression of true innocence.

“I’m terrified, but even so I’m not going to give it up. I won’t give my baby to anyone.”

“That’s fine,” he agreed. “Now let’s get you weighed and go get an ultrasound.”

She finished her checkup and left the office with the little white paper prescription signed and stamped by Dr. Troy.

“Everything okay?” questioned Timothy as soon as he saw her leave.

“Yes. I’m going to get an ultrasound and I’ll be right out. Thanks for all this Timothy, you don’t have to stay. You’ve lost your meeting because of me.”

“The company isn’t going to fall apart because I missed a meeting,” he told her as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Let’s go to sonography.”

She then looked at him shaking her head from side to side.

“No. You’re not going in there with me.”

“Why not?” he was confused, and she didn’t know what she had done to meet such a man. Why hadn’t she met him before she was pregnant?

“Why what do you mean, why not?”

“Yes. Why? I don’t see what’s wrong with it. It’s the first one you’re going, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“Well, no one should have to see their child for the first time alone.”

“That’s okay.”

He was quiet for a moment and put his hands up in surrender.

“Good. Go and good luck,” his green eyes told her how hurt he was, and she didn’t understand the reason. “I’ll wait for you outside, to take you back to work.”

She didn’t want to argue with that.

It was too good to be true.

She had the sonogram and saw her baby healthy and growing. It was taking the shape of a tiny human, no longer an earthworm as she had seen many on videos on websites.

She let out a couple of happy tears as she walked down the hallway, she had never been so excited in her life. She was carrying her son’s printed photo. She was going to frame it and keep it forever. When she saw it, it was like hitting a wall as she ran at full speed. She was going to have a son and that was officially a fact.

She stopped by Troy’s office, as she had agreed, and he told her that everything was indeed fine with her son, and that the little pain she had felt was most likely due to a change of trimester or because her period was supposed to come and because of her gestational state, it obviously wasn’t going to.

“Everything is fine,” he told her as they concluded. “I hope to see you again.”

“I don’t have the money to pay for a consultation here,” she admitted. “But thank you for the attentions.

I would have loved for you to be my doctor.”

“No one knows what life has in store for us, Melody.”

She left the office and went straight to the parking lot.

At that moment she saw Timothy, standing next to the car, talking on the phone, and looking furious.

“I don’t care who he is! I’ll make him pay for this!” he said before ending the call. “Everything okay with your son?”

“All good. Look,” she told him showing the sonogram picture. “He’s beautiful.”

“Yes, he is,” he murmured without touching the paper.

“Is everything all right with you? You look angry.”

“I am. I’ve been robbed.”

“How? But in your company?” It was horrible to think that anyone could steal from someone as powerful as Timothy supposedly was.

“An undercover. From the inside. He embezzled me! Three fucking million dollars! The son of a bitch says it wasn’t him, but I’m sure it was him, for the competition. They think they’re going to be able to fuck me over. They don’t know who they messed with. I’ll finish that Equilay Thompson first, and then whoever’s behind this.”

Melody’s heart skipped a beat and she almost had a heart attack.

“What did you say? What... What name did you just say?” she prayed to God it was a play on her brain.

“Equilay Thompson. That bastard will pay for what he did to me,” he repeated, not realizing what a wreck he had just left Melody in.

She felt her legs give out on her and her brain shut down, as Timothy let out an imprecation and held her before she fell to the ground.

Just before she lost consciousness with the blackout, her last thought was for her brother-in-law, the husband of her only sister and father of her nephew Anton.

Equilay Thompson.

Her brother-in-law had stolen from Timothy.