Chapter 15: The Clinic

The waiting room at the clinic on Elmwood had twenty chairs, and every one of them held a woman.

I took the seat by the door with my mother beside me.

Across from us, a nurse in lavender scrubs stood behind the glass window with a clipboard held to her chest.

She nodded at my mother once.

At five minutes to ten, the door opened.

Bianca came in with her hand spread over her stomach.

She wore a loose cream dress and flat shoes, and she walked slowly with her chin up.

She saw me.

She stopped.

"Valeria," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you."

"This is a private appointment."

"You announced it to seventy people at a birthday party," I said. "It stopped being private."

Heads turned all around the room.

Bianca's eyes filled. It was her best trick, and I had watched it work on me for twenty years.

"Please don't do this," she whispered. "Not here, with the babies. I'm so scared already."

"Then it won't take long."

I stood up.

"Show me the ultrasound picture."

"I left it at home."

"The appointment card."

"Valeria, I'm not going to be bullied."

"Then the nurse can tell us."

The nurse stepped out from behind the glass.

She was a small, gray-haired woman with a firm mouth. She looked at Bianca without blinking.

"Miss Larkin," she said, in a voice that carried to the back of the room. "Your test last Tuesday was negative."

A woman near the window put down her magazine.

"That's not true," said Bianca.

"You asked me to write a letter that said it was positive. I told you no. You asked again."

"I never."

"You offered me two hundred dollars."

The room went very quiet.

"She's lying," Bianca said, to everyone. "She's Valeria's mother's friend. They've set me up."

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