Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
“Thank you,” she told the nurse.
Maybe that was the saddest thing about it.
In her faith of believing that she was right, Amanda didn’t even consider that her words could hurt. Something else that wasn’t new. God had been a favorite weapon of her parents for as long as Delaney could remember.
Now, the blows just left her a little bruised.
She could heal from that.
*
“Okay, Miss Reed,” Madison said, “here’s what we’re going to do—if it’s good with you, of course.”
“Sure,” Delaney replied, hugging her arms around her middle. “I would just like to know—”
“If it’s a failing pregnancy. Yeah, unfortunately, my initial thought is it is, and it’s quite common. One in four women, and even that’s probably not correct because of the number of women who don’t even realize a non-viable pregnancy is terminating because they mistake it for their period. Those store-bought tests are looking for the same hormone we do when we run the blood test, just in a less accurate way, and the line shouldn’t show up on that test if the hormone is detectable.”
Madison flipped a hand over in a wave, adding, “Apparently, it was at a detectable enough level that the test gave a weak positive. That hormone only exists in your body if there’s a fertilized egg, so it is there. It’s just a matter of getting a proper read of the levels, and if the doctor thinks the bleeding could be something else, like … have you had rough sex in the last twenty-four hours?”
Delaney’s cheeks flushed hot pink. “No, I haven’t.”
Madison waved the answer off, moving right along. “Okay, well … we really need to get a proper read on the hormone level. If by chance it seems high, the doctor might ask you to come back tomorrow to run more bloodwork to see if the levels have continued to go down. Especially if the cramping and bleeding continues. I’m not sure if an ultrasound is on the table today, but we’ll see what the doctor says about that, too. We’ll start by getting your blood drawn, and run the bloodwork, so then we can, on paper, see if it’s there. You’ll know for sure, and we can start there.”
She appreciated the careful, but frank and respectful, way the RN broached Delaney’s current circumstances, and in a way, that gave her a little more dignity.
Delaney let out a hard breath that came with a lot of relief. “Okay, yeah. Thanks.”
“It’s going to take about an hour down at the lab.”
She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, saying, “Should I just hang out in the waiting room until—”
“No, I’m going to ask one of the nurses to open a private room so you can wait in privacy and peace. You don’t recognize me, do you?”
Delaney’s brow dipped low, and she took in the nurse’s distinct wide forehead and pretty blue eyes again, but she couldn’t match the woman’s smile to anyone in her memories. Her years of doing hair at the Haus, and the former salon she’d owned with Gracen, meant the nurse could have been a previous client.
She went with that safe bet.
“Did you used to visit the Haus?” Delaney asked.
“My younger sister—Kerry—did her practical hours for her license at the Haus, actually.”
Instantly, the information gave Delaney enough information to name the face in front of her, and why it took her more than a few minutes of conversation to remember.
“You always picked her up on Fridays,” Delaney said.
Madison smiled, nodding. “Yep—she talked about you guys non-stop, and it seemed like … Kerry swore that all the girls who did their hours at the Haus loved you and Gracen. Um, so maybe that’s why I might have known that was your mother working the front, so when I heard her say your name, I listened in on the conversation.”
She appreciated the honesty.
Delaney lifted her shoulders, muttering, “Thanks for saving me from an even more awkward conversation, I guess.”
“I’ll put in a complaint with the hospital’s HR department, if you’d like me to. Making comments like those to patients isn’t acceptable, and even if it was just a verbal reprimand, it’ll be on paper, in her file, and she’ll get the point the next time you have to walk through those doors.”
Delaney considered it for a good, honest minute.
And then said, “No, thank you.”
Madison straightened a bit in the chair across the small triage paper with Delaney’s admittance paperwork spread out between them. Everything from her weight, height, and last period—that very day, unfortunately—had been tracked on the paper over the course of a few minutes.
“Are you sure? I can do it without your name being on file if you’re concerned about something happening outside of the hospital because of the report,” Madison offered.
Of course.
Everyone knew all too well what happened when members of the church were singled out in their small valley town. Sure, the previous pastor who had shouted hellfire and brimstone from the pulpit during her days as parishioner, and even when the Haus had been burned, no longer sat as the head of the tabernacle on the hill.