“Yeah, everything is fine. I just wanted to let you know that they’re moving our little man down to Kenzie’s room in a little while. I thought maybe you’d like to come and visit him.”
“Oh Hunter, that’s great news! I’ll be up there as soon as I get ready.”
“Ok, we’ll see you soon.”
I hung up and as I walked through the doors to the cafeteria I ran into Dominic. He was the last f**king person I wanted to see and I only hoped he hadn’t been up to visit CC.
“H-hey,” He looked down to the floor then back up to me. “How’s Kenzie doing? I heard what happened on the news. I called Mr. Cahill and he said it was her.”
“Cut the shit, Dom. Where is that f**king bitch, Brittany?” I was trying to control the urge to punch him straight in the face for even being involved with that stupid whore.
He held up his hands. “Dude, I have no idea. She left a few weeks ago and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Well the cops said there was another car involved but it took off before they got there. And from what Mason says, they described it as a perfect match for Britt’s car.”
He shook his head, “I swear I haven’t seen her. We got into a huge fight and I told her since she couldn’t get over the fact that Kenzie’s baby wasn’t mine, we were through. I don’t know why she is so hell bent on believing that.”
I was done listening to his bullshit - I needed to eat and get back to the ward; I didn’t want to leave my son alone any longer than I had to. I shoulder checked him on my way past and left him in the corridor. I picked up an Arizona Iced Tea and heard someone clear their throat. I knew that Dom had followed behind me but I didn’t want to waste anymore of my time with him.
“Is it alright if I go up and see her?” He asked, just above a whisper.
“No! Stay the f**k away from my family! I think you’ve done enough!” This time when I walked away he didn’t follow.
I paid for my food and sat down at an empty table. I pulled out my cell and logged into Facebook, I had over fifty notifications. People were asking how CC and the baby were doing, asking if they could do anything, sending prayers and well wishes. I guess word spread pretty quickly. I tapped the search bar and typed in Brittany’s name. I was hoping she had updated her status recently and I could see if it said where she was. Just like I thought, she was stupid enough to do so. Yesterday she wrote “Karma’s a bitch” and it said she was in Cherry Hill, NJ.
I closed the app and called Mason. “Yo, what are you up to?”
“Um, Hailey is in the shower. She wants to come up and see Kenz. Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m not leaving unless they’re both with me.” I finished off the rest of my food and got up to throw my trash away.
“Any changes?”
“Not with Kenzie but they are releasing the baby down to her room in a little while. You guys should be able to finally meet him.” I pushed the button for the elevator to go up to the NICU.
“That’s good, that’s good. Look, um, I want to tell you something but I need your word that you will not say anything until I can figure out what to do.” He was talking low into the phone.
I stopped walking, “Alright, what’s up?”
“The reason me and Hails have been fighting is because she found out about my dad last week and she wants to tell Kenzie.” He huffed, “This is all so f**ked up. She wasn’t supposed to be at my house for another hour.”
I was confused, what about his dad? “Wait, your dad? What am I missing?”
“Well I guess I should tell you now too.”
Hell yeah you should. “Yeah, I need to hear this. Kenzie kept asking me over and over again what was going on with you guys.”
“You know how my dad works for the New York Stock Exchange?” He asked.
“Yeah,” Where was he going with this?
“He’s not a stockbroker. He’s an FBI agent based out of New York.”
Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. “Are you serious?”
He grumbled, “Yeah, no one’s supposed to know. Dad says it’s safer this way. This is why we’re so protective over Kenzie. Dad never wanted her to find out, he gets into some bad situations sometimes and never wanted this to touch us. He still doesn’t. He only told Jackson, Cooper and I a few years ago when some bad shit was going down.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and looked up to the ceiling. “I can’t keep this from her. You can’t ask me to.”
He sighed again, “I know, but just keep it between us for now. I know she’s going to find out. Dad is working with the police department to see if there was a lead on the other car that left the scene. Hopefully Kenzie will wake up soon and can help too.”
I turned to look out the window and watched an old couple crossing the street. “Well I know for a fact, that bitch was in Jersey yesterday. I checked her Facebook status and she posted ‘Karma is a bitch’ and it said she was in Cherry Hill. Could you let your dad know for me?”
“Yeah sure,”
“Thanks bro, I’m going to go check on them now. I’ll see you soon.”
Later in the afternoon the baby was finally cleared and ready to be moved into the room with CC. We were lucky enough to keep Lynn as his nurse; he wasn’t adjusting too well after being removed from the heat lamps and it was comforting having someone familiar around to handle his ups and downs. When his body temperature dropped slightly, he wouldn’t eat or even take his binky. Lynn assured me that this could happen and it wasn’t anything uncommon, she made the suggestion that the baby might actually respond to skin to skin contact. She asked if I wanted to give it a shot. I wasn’t sure what she meant.
“This is something we normally have the mothers do, but since MacKenzie isn’t able to help us we’ll use the next best thing, that’s you. All you need to do is remove your shirt, and then we strip the baby down to his diaper, and have you snuggle with him.”
Okay, I could do this, it sounded simple enough. I grabbed the back of my collar and pulled my shirt over my head while Lynn went to work on taking the baby’s clothes off, he wasn’t happy about that at all. She turned to hand him over to me and her cheeks flushed pink. She smiled at me then quickly turned her head. I took a seat in the chair right next to CC and snuggled the little man close. Lynn threw a blanket over us and said she had to go make her rounds and that she would be back to check in on us soon.