Daddy’s Little Pet

ROBERT

“…bad news, Robert. You need to get here. Renee… She was drugged. Or poisoned. I…I’m not sure, but she fainted. She’s in a critical condition, and her life is hanging on by a thread…”

Nicole’s words swarmed and raced in my mind like angry gnats as I rushed past the hospital’s reception, the busy ER nurses and medics, and through the bustling hospital corridors to the VIP room reserved exclusively for the Clarke household.

I could hear my heart thumping steadily, but the agony was nothing compared to the million terrifying thoughts flying through my mind. Every thought brought me back to that single word. Drugged. Or was it…Poisoned?

Renee had been poisoned. Fuck no!

This couldn’t be real. What I’d heard on the phone earlier wasn’t true, neither was this situation. It was a prank. Maybe someone, Nicole or Renee herself, was pulling a cruel joke on me.

Yes. That’s it. And by the heavens, my woman was okay.

She was at the mansion, and the party was still in full swing. She wasn’t here at the hospital. I was going to walk in there and see it was someone else. That they’d made a mistake.

Remember the sickening look on Amanda’s face, though. She got you again, Robert. And this time, she hit you right in your most vulnerable spot. She won, and you lost. YOU LOST!

“No…” My voice cracked.

Remember Renee’s worried thoughts earlier? She had a feeling something horrible was about to happen. You should’ve trusted her guts. Instead, you ignored it, Robert. And now…

“No…” I said again, freezing in my tracks, when I eventually reached the door to the private room.

My entire body shook fiercely, riddled with fear and… despair. I hadn’t even seen her yet, but I could feel the dread… the weight of my loss so deep inside my stomach.

“Mr. Clarke…” the guard who had followed me inside spoke from behind. “Should I…”

I didn’t let him finish, though, as I lifted shaky hands and pushed at the double glass doors with all my might. The double glass doors swung open effortlessly, and I was confronted with an image that utterly crushed me.

It looked like a scene straight out of my worst nightmares. Only this time, it was real and not a figment of my imagination. It was so fucking real.

There she was – the outline of an unconscious Renee lying on the white hospital bed. She appeared deathly pale, her skin dreadfully white. Tubes and cables were linked to every part of her body.

She looked nothing like the woman I had been with earlier tonight. Nothing. This was not my Renee. There was no sparkle, no light, no nothing… just an unresponsive, lifeless shell.

It was unexpected, puzzling… horrible. I couldn’t bring myself to move any further into the room. The air felt dense and frigid, smothering me, making breathing difficult.

“God, Robert…” A gentle murmur broke through my paralysis, and I turned to face the sound, instantly recognizing Nicole’s soft, broken voice.

I must’ve missed her because she was standing away from the door, resting against a wall. She wasn’t alone. Renee’s bodyguard, Harry, was present, as was another girl. Sally, Sammy, or whatever her name was. I couldn’t force myself to recollect.

They were all distraught, but Nicole appeared to be the most visibly affected.

Her lips quivered compulsively, her eyes appeared glassy with red rims, her long black hair twisted, and the knots adhered to her face in clumps.

Her gown was ragged and filthy, and I could swear I saw bloodstains. I shuddered, wondering if they were Renee’s. Fuck. Overall, she was a mess.

I wanted to say something. Perhaps to comfort her? But I didn’t know how. I knew I needed to speak, but words wouldn’t come. I…

“I… I sincerely apologize, Robert. This was entirely my fault… I…” She stopped and drew a trembling breath. “I wasn’t with Renee when it happened. I should’ve been with her. I…” her voice caught again, but I didn’t push her to continue.

I eventually forced myself to speak. “Where is the doctor?” I swallowed hard as my chest heaved. “Why is there no medical personnel or…” My temper was flaring. “What’s the prognosis? What’s her current condition? She isn’t…? Renee can’t be… The monitors…” I turned to face the beeping computers, gesturing vaguely at them with shaky fingers. “They’re still reading, so there’s hope. She’s alive, right?” I asked weakly. “Fuck…”

Nicole said nothing, just held back a choked sob, and my heart shattered all over again.

“What the fuck is going on?” I hissed violently.

“The doctor left a while ago. But he’ll be back. He said something about wanting Renee’s blood to be purified before…”

I blocked out the rest of Nicole’s words as a strangled sound escaped my throat. “Fuck!” I cursed and started pacing back and forth. “Fuck… fuck… fuck!”

“Sir, please calm down. The…” Harry started and my head snapped, my steely gaze meeting his. “Fuck you!” I was livid. “Where the hell were you when this happened? Harry, you were meant to stay at her side at all times tonight. At all times!”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“You are sorry?” I scoffed. “You’re sorry…” I let out a broken giggle as I repeated the words. “Oh, but if something happens to Renee… if anything happens to her…” My words choked in themselves. “There’ll be hell to pay, Harry. I’ll end…”

The abrupt swing of the room’s door cut short my rant, and in walked the doctor. His attention immediately focused on mine, and his demeanor softened somewhat.

It wasn’t much change as he quickly wore his professional mask. “Mr. Clarke… you’ve arrived just in time.”

“Yes. Yes, I have.”

“I requested for Miss Micheal’s relatives, though. I’ll need family consent for-”

“I’m her husband,” I interrupted sharply.

“Oh.” The doctor raised his brow in surprise.

“Yes. So, I can provide any consent you need.”

He nodded slowly. “Right, of course.”

“What’s the update?” I demanded impatiently.

The doctor looked away briefly before returning to face me, his visage hardening and becoming grim. “Well, as you may know, the patient was the victim of poisoning. Fortunately, she was brought in early, and we administered a counter-effective antidote. We are actively draining the dangerous toxin from her system. However…” He paused momentarily. “…we have a problem.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“What’s the problem? Will Renee be okay?”

“Yes.” The doctor nodded. “Hopefully, she will be okay, but I don’t know if… the fetuses will survive it.”

“What?” I frowned in confusion. “Fetuses? Do you mean babies?”

The doctor stiffly nodded and was about to say something again, but Nicole’s muffled gasp from behind interrupted him. “Oh, no!” I turned to see a shocked expression on her face. “Renee never told you?”

“Told me what?”

“God, no!” Her hands reached up to cover her mouth. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Sorry?” My frown deepened. “Can someone tell-”

“Renee was… is pregnant.” Nicole muttered.

“What?!”

At those words, my world came to a halt. It was as if time had stopped entirely, and everything darkened. The color drained from my face. Suddenly, the room spun about, and I staggered backward, barely holding myself as my knees crumbled.

Pregnant? Renee was pregnant. With not one but two babies. Twins. Our twins.

No… it couldn’t be. She never mentioned it. She…

“No…” I scoffed. “How? I… I… I mean, since when? Did you know about this?”

“I did,” she whispered, tears running down her face. “Renee found out the day she visited you in jail.”

“What the…?!”

“She decided to keep it a secret until your investigation was over and things returned to normal.”

Nicole continued to speak, but the words became muddled from the flurry of thoughts racing around in my head and… and it all made sense. Everything clicked into place. The weight gain I’d noticed. Her selective appetite. The erratic mood swings. I should’ve connected the dots. I should’ve known.

“Oh, Renee.” A lump formed in my throat. “I am such an idiot. Such a stupid moron. But she could’ve said something. She could have told-”

“She was scared, Robert,” Nicole interjected softly. “With the murder scandal going on, she didn’t want you to worry about anything else.”

“Oh, my God.” This time, I didn’t stop myself. As my eyes closed, I let a tear fall. Then another. Then another…

“Mr. Clarke.” The doctor’s voice pierced through my anguish. “Please, if you could hold yourself together long enough to sign a form.”

“Okay.” I blinked the wetness from my eyes. “What form?”

“Here…” He gave me a clipboard and a pen. “Before you sign, however, I must explain a few things.”

“Sure.”

The doctor cleared his throat. “First, I’ll start by saying the form you’re holding is a consent decree stating that if push comes to shove, the medical team will flush out the fetuses immediately to speed up Ms. Michael’s recovery.”

My blood ran cold.

“I know I said earlier that we’ve administered an antidote, but it’s still only a temporary measure.” The doctor paused. “To be honest, the chances of a healthy recovery are extremely slim. I have my numbers, though.”

“Numbers?”

“Yes. Ms. Micheal has a ten percent certainty of living with both babies in her womb. She has a thirty-seven percent chance of surviving with only one fetus. And there’s a fifty-fifty chance she’ll recover completely without issues.”

“And that’s…” I forced myself to breathe. “That is all I need to know?”

“Basically.”

My hands shook as I looked down at the paper. The doctor’s predicted numbers and the words on the sheet danced before my eyes.

Ten percent. Thirty-seven percent. Fifty-fifty.

I had to sign off on the lives of my unborn children. I was delivering them to the frigid hands of death while still digesting the news of their existence. Bile rose in the back of my throat. It was almost unbearable, and I felt sick.

“I… I don’t want to do this…” My voice trembled. “I… I don’t… Nicole… I…” I swallowed another hopeless whimper and pushed myself to meet the stare of Renee’s best friend. She looked at me carefully, her eyes overflowing with pity and grief.

“But you will,” She stated sadly, reaching for my quivering hands. “You need to do this, Robert. It’s for the best. You understand, right?” Her fingers tightened around my left ones. “Please. Do this. For Renee. Do it for Renee.”

Her plea crushed my heart.

“I don’t deserve this, Nicole…” Tears fell rapidly down my cheeks as I made my decision, signing away. “She doesn’t deserve this… we don’t deserve… this.”

“We don’t,” she said.

“H… How did we get here?”

“Oh, Robert.” As I returned the clipboard to the doctor, I felt Nicole’s arms round my shoulders. She was pulling me in for a consoling hug, a soothing embrace meant to alleviate the pain, but aggravated it instead. “Everything will be okay. I know this.”

I desperately wanted to believe her. I wanted to.

In seconds, I crumbled against her, my chest convulsing with each sob that left my lips. I didn’t care that I was crying out loud. And I didn’t stop.

Mercilessly. Over and over, the tears flowed endlessly, leaving me with nothing but a void of raw anguish, despair, misery, and, most notably, fear. Fear of the unknown. I was afraid that Renee would not make it and that my life, as I knew it, would end.

“The only thing we can do now is pray for a miracle, Mr. Clarke,” The doctor’s calm voice penetrated my foggy numbness. I blinked as he repeated the words before exiting the room. “A miracle. Just a miracle…”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.