My Son's Girlfriend Destroyed My Family novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Triage Desk
A copperhead bites Teddy, and Glenda drives him to the ER where Luke works. His girlfriend at the triage desk slaps her, holds back the antivenom and beats her bloody, and when Luke comes out he goes to Shelby first.
The copperhead struck Teddy at four in the afternoon, in the back row of my nursery, between the hostas and the fence.
He didn't scream.
He stood very still with his hand held out and said, "Mama, it got me."
Two small holes sat on the back of his hand, and the skin around them was already turning dark.
I didn't wash it or cut it or try to suck anything out.
I scooped him up, put him in the truck, and called my husband with one hand while I drove.
It went straight to voicemail.
He was two states away behind the wheel of a freight truck, and his phone was off again.
The county hospital was twenty-two minutes away.
I made it in fifteen.
Teddy's hand had swollen up to the wrist by the time I carried him through the sliding doors.
The waiting room was full on a Saturday.
A woman in navy scrubs sat behind the triage glass with a lanyard of cartoon pins hanging at her chest.
Her name tag said Shelby.
She had black hair pulled tight in a ponytail, with one white streak at the front.
"Copperhead," I said. "Seven years old. He needs antivenom now."
"Insurance card," she said.
I dug it out of my purse with my free hand and pushed it under the glass.
She read the name on it.
Then she looked at me, slowly, from my muddy boots to my face.
"Fennimore," she said. "Oh, you're his mother. Hang on, hon, I'll get this moving."
"Yes. My son Luke works here. Dr. Luke Fennimore. Please get him, he's my..."
"I know exactly who you are."
Her voice had gone soft, and it carried across the whole room.
I didn't understand what she meant, and I didn't have time to.
"Ma'am, my boy's arm is swelling. Please page the doctor on call."
She stood up and came around through the side door, and she did not hurry.
She stopped in front of me.
Up close, her eyes were pale blue and perfectly steady.
"You have a lot of nerve," she said, "bringing that child to his workplace."
Teddy turned his face into my neck.
"What are you talking about? I need a doctor."
"Luke and I are going to be married," Shelby said, loud enough that heads turned all down the rows of chairs. "We are perfect for each other. So you can stop using your bastard to get his attention."
I stared at her.
Then her hand cracked across my cheek.
My head snapped sideways, and my ears rang.
Teddy cried out, and I held him tighter, and the whole room went quiet.
"Listen to me," I said. My voice was shaking, and I hated it. "That is a snakebite. Every minute counts. Send for Dr. Fennimore."
"The antivenom is locked up, and I decide who gets it," Shelby said. "Not you."
Two men in the chairs had their phones up.
An older security guard stood by the door and looked at his shoes.
Shelby reached for the clipboard on the glass shelf, a heavy steel one, and swung it.
It caught me across the eyebrow.
I tasted blood.
I turned my back to her so she would hit me and not him, and she did, again, across my shoulder and my ear.
"Stay away from him," she said, hitting. "Stay away from my fiancé."
Somebody in the room said, "Hey, stop," and nobody moved.
Teddy's breathing had gone fast and shallow against my collarbone.
I stopped begging.
Begging had bought me nothing but a split lip.
I took my phone out of my back pocket with the arm that was not holding my son, pressed record, and held it up so the whole room was in the frame.
"My name is Glenda Fennimore," I said, loudly. "This is my seven-year-old son. He was bitten by a copperhead twenty minutes ago, and this nurse is refusing him antivenom."
Shelby's face changed.
For one second she looked at the red light on my phone.
Then she grabbed for it.
I stepped back and put my shoulder through the double doors marked Staff Only.
A guard shouted behind me, and an alarm began to chirp somewhere.
"Luke!" I yelled down the hallway. "Luke Fennimore! It's your brother!"
Curtains and monitors went past in a blur.
Blood ran into my left eye, and I kept walking.
Behind me Shelby was screaming that I was an intruder.
A door opened ahead, and a tall man in blue scrubs came out with a chart in his hand.
He had his father's jaw, my gray-green eyes, and a stethoscope around his neck.
"Mom?" Luke said.
I held Teddy up to him.
"He's got a copperhead bite," I said. "She locked up the antivenom, Luke. She hit me."
Shelby came through the doors behind me, and her whole face crumpled into tears.
"Luke!" she sobbed. "Baby, thank God. She just forced her way in here and attacked me."
Luke looked at my bleeding face, and at his brother's swollen hand.
Then he went to Shelby first.
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