He Chose His First Love. I Own His Empire. novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Waiting Room

My first prenatal appointment was Tuesday at ten, in a clinic on Green Bay Road.

I had booked it three weeks earlier, back when I thought I was a wife.

Benton drove me and parked, and then waited by the door of the waiting room with his hat in his hands.

"You can sit," I said.

"I'm fine."

"You're blocking the receptionist."

He sat.

There were nine other women in the room, and most of them held their phones or their husbands' hands.

I filled out the forms with my bandaged hand.

When I wrote the line for emergency contact, I put Odile's name, and then I looked at it for a moment and added Benton's number under it.

The door opened ten minutes later.

Camille came in first, in a camel coat and sunglasses.

Behind her came a man in a white coat with a leather folio under his arm, and behind him came Adaline.

My stomach dropped.

"Hallie, honey," Camille said, quietly, and crossed the room to me. "We didn't want to make a scene."

"Then you shouldn't have come."

"This is a doctor who is a friend of the family." She touched my shoulder. "He only wants to ask a few questions. Just to make sure you're all right."

"I'm perfectly all right."

"You haven't been sleeping," Adaline said from behind. "You made a spectacle at the hotel. We're concerned."

The man in the white coat opened his folio.

"Mrs. Aldrich," he said, "I'm a psychiatrist. I only need you to sign a consent for a short wellness evaluation. It will take twenty minutes in a private room."

Benton had stood up.

I put my hand against his sleeve without looking at him.

"No," I said.

"It's for the baby," Camille said. "Please."

I got to my feet.

The waiting room had gone quiet, and every woman in it was watching.

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