Wanting More (Mitchell Family #5)(55)
Author: Jennifer Foor

"He did the same to me. For a long time I believed that he really would hurt me."

Devon reached his arm around Shelby and she leaned her head into him.

"I don’t understand why you haven’t left yet. I mean, you have the money to get away. Why haven’t you?"

I just assumed that she was referring to the salon. "I don’t make as much money as you think. Your father is in charge of the bills and after he takes everything out, I barely have enough for groceries and gas."

Shelby gave me a dirty look and turned her direction to Devon. "You don’t know do you?"

"Know what? Shelby, you are really confusing me."

Devon grabbed her hand. "Tell her, babe. I know it’s your dad, but she deserves to know."

I was thinking the worst thing possible, like he had molested her, or worse. Shelby started to cry. "I’m sorry, I know he’s an awful man, but he’s still my dad. If I tell you this he could lose everything."

I grabbed her other hand. "Shelby, please."

"Have you gone through his things?"

I nodded. "Every inch of our house."

"You didn’t find anything?"

I was still so lost. I wanted her to just spit it out. "What am I even looking for?"

"Search his truck, Amy. You will find everything you’re looking for in there. If you haven’t found it in the house, it will be there. That’s where I found it." She stood up and pulled Devon with her. "For what it’s worth, thank you for being so good to me."

"Wait, what about lunch?"

"We really need to go. Keep in touch, Amy."

They walked away before I could say anything else. Apparently, the key to getting out of my marriage was in Rick’s truck. The problem was that only he had the key and now I understood why he never took them out of his pocket.

When I left I called Conner right away. I couldn’t wait to brainstorm with him about what could possibly be in the truck that could save me from losing everything. Conner, who was more concerned about me calling a lawyer, then rooting through my husband’s vehicle, insisted that he go through the truck instead of me. As much as I thought it was a bad idea, it was still a matter of getting inside of it without him knowing.

We came up with a plan that Conner was going to break into his truck when he was at work. All he had to do was break the window and grab every bit of paperwork out of the glove compartment and under the seats and then drive away. It was a simple task.

Unfortunately, right before Rick left for work, I got a pain in my side that forced me down on the floor. Rick found me lying there in a ball and carried me to his truck, where he drove me to the hospital.

Once they got me inside, they assumed I had some kind of food poisoning. My first thought was that he’d tried to poison me. Rick went outside to call his work and tell them that he was at the hospital with me when the doctor came in to give me the results of the blood tests.

"Mrs. Ussery, how are you feeling now?"

"The pain isn’t so bad."

"What is the date of your last menstrual period?"

I shrugged. I don’t really get a regular period. It doesn’t even matter. I can’t have kids, so you don’t have to test for that."

He looked up at me and cocked his eyebrow. "I see. I would like to do an internal sonogram, where we go in vaginally and you don’t have to drink all that fluid."

"Okay." I just wanted them to give me medicine and send me home. I needed to call Conner.

A few moments later they were wheeling me in the back to get the test. The doctor came in with my chart and started writing inside of it. "So where were you tested for fertility issues?"

"I wasn’t. It was too expensive, but my husband and I tried for years and it never happened. Now, I barely get a period."

The nurse and the doctor pointed to the screen and talked amongst themselves.

"Ma’am, from the looks of this test, you’re about four to four and a half months along."

Holy crap!

I shook my head. "That’s not possible." There was only one person I had been with and I couldn’t believe it. It was Conner’s.

He laughed and pointed to the screen. "This is your baby."

"I haven’t been sick, or gained weight."

"Consider yourself lucky. You’re almost halfway through and haven’t had any side effects."

He turned up the volume and the room filled with the sound of a baby’s heartbeat. Tears rolled down my eyes. I’d always wanted a baby, but I’d never talked to Conner about it. He was going to freak out. Being with me was one thing, but having a kid too was too much. I couldn’t ask him to do that.

"You’ll need to make an appointment as soon as possible with an obstetrician and begin a regiment of prenatal vitamins."

I was hearing him, but I felt like the room was closing in on me.

"Are you ready to go back to your room and be discharged?" The nurse was starting to wheel me back in.

I grabbed her arm. "No! Wait! Please don’t tell my husband my diagnosis. He can’t know I’m pregnant. This isn’t his baby."

She looked at me like I was a horrible person, but smiled anyway. "I won’t tell him. I will make sure the discharge nurse doesn’t mention it either. I hope you know that you will start showing soon."

"I’m leaving him tomorrow." It just came out of my mouth.

Rick was still not back in the room when I got back and soon they were sending me out with a card for a doctor and a bunch of dirty looks.

I found Rick on his cell phone when I walked outside. He got off really quick and walked toward me. "What did they say?"

"Food poisoning. I have to let it run its course."

He grabbed my arm and helped me into the truck. I smiled, but was shaking so bad that he had to have noticed. "Did they give you medicine?"

This was my moment. A light bulb flashed in my head and I knew exactly how to go through his truck. I leaned down in my seat and pretended to cry in pain. "Oh, God, they said I could take pain medication and stomach medicine. Just drive to the pharmacy."

He patted my leg and drove us straight there. When he parked I pretended that I couldn’t move. "I don’t think I can walk in there. Please can you go for me?"

He hesitated, but climbed out of the truck and promised to be fast. I watched him walk in that store and ripped through that truck. It didn’t take me long to find his stash under the seat. Shelby had been right. Every single paper had my name on it. The one thing that caught my eye was a bunch of envelopes postmarked from my father. The weird thing was that they were addressed to a post office box that I didn’t recognize. I grabbed one and opened it as I kept looking out for Rick.