Addictive (Houston Defiance MC #2) - K.E. Osborn Page 0,95
to tell me this is all going to be okay.
Because if it’s not, this could be the one thing that truly breaks me.
PRINIE
Racing toward Chills and Chains’ room, we don’t spare a second as we run for their door.
We stop.
Look at each other and something passes between us—trepidation.
Wraith knocks a little firmer than I would have considering they have their own baby to attend with.
The door flies open.
Chains is glaring at us, disheveled as all hell. “The fuck do you want knocking like tha—” he stops speaking, then continues, “Oh… VP, how can I help you?”
I shove Wraith to the side. He grumbles as I exhale. “Chains, we need to speak to Chills. Is she up?”
He peers over his shoulder, then not even a second later, she appears in the doorway holding onto a sleeping baby Kobe. Seeing their baby does something to me. My hand instantly runs to my stomach as Wraith wraps his arm around me, obviously having the same gamut of emotions flowing through him at seeing baby Kobe too.
Chills follows my action, and her eyes widen in recognition. “Chains, take Kobe for a walk.” She offloads her son into Chains’ arms.
He scrunches up his face. “But I don’t even have shoes—”
“Go!” she demands, shoving him out the door past us.
I grimace. “Sorry, Chains,” I call out as he marches off down the hall.
Chills reaches out, pulling us inside the bedroom. Wraith closes the door as she rolls her shoulders.
“Have you done a test?” she asks.
“How did you?”
“A mother knows all the signs.”
Wraith brings his hand up, showing her the pregnancy test. Chills checks over the positive display with an exhale. “Okay. First of all… do you know how far along you are?”
“Not far, maybe three weeks.”
“I’ll run a blood test to be one hundred percent sure it’s positive. The tests we’ve been running didn’t include the markers for possible pregnancy, that’s why I didn’t pick it up. I should have run the test, in all honesty, I just didn’t think it was something on your radar. But, don’t worry, it’s okay, we will look into it and deal with what we need to as we go.”
“No, Chills we need to know now. If one of my tests comes back…” I pause trying to get out what I need to say. “If I test positive for say… HIV, what does it mean for our baby?”
Her eyes fall to the floor for the briefest of seconds, and in that moment, my heart tears itself to shreds. My eyes well with tears as I grip hold of Wraith so tight my knuckles turn white.
Chills rolls her shoulders. “I’ll be honest with you… babies born to mothers with positive HIV are given medicine within six to twelve hours of delivery... hopefully it protects the infant from the mother passing the infection to the baby during childbirth. But… there are never any guarantees.”
I try to swallow a lump in my throat, but it stays there trying to suffocate me.
“From there, the baby will be tested at between fourteen to twenty-one days. Then again between one to two months. And then again at four to six. If the tests show the baby has contracted HIV, they will receive antiretroviral therapy, which will help the child live a healthier, longer life.”
A small smile picks up the corner of my lips. “So, even if I am positive, and my baby gets it, they will still live a long life?”
Chills winces, her expression falling. “The treatment helps them live longer, but not long, Prinie. The life expectancy for an infant born with HIV is approximately ten years.”
My hand rushes to my mouth as I glance at Wraith.
He’s shattered.
Chills reaches out, grabbing my hand. “The thing is, though, Prinie, you might not even spread it to the baby when it’s born. Your child could be completely virus-free, but in saying that, you can also spread the virus through breast milk, so even if the baby makes it through childbirth without contracting the virus, you can’t breastfeed if you test positive.”
Grief overwhelms me as tears slowly trickle down my face. “Should I…” I stutter. “Should I… not have this baby?”
“What?” Wraith gasps.
Chills raises her hands. “I wouldn’t go making any rash decisions just yet. All your tests so far have come back clean. You might be pulling the trigger when there’s nothing to run from. You hear what I’m saying, Prinie?”
“But in six months when the last tests come back, it will be too late. I’ll be