Chapter 39

Ardal receives a phone call from the hospital. A friendly nurse tells her the babies are fine but are waiting for her.

Ardal is still in the gym, finishing up with a client. She abruptly tells her client she must leave. She then runs out of the gym and into her car to speed away to the hospital.

Once Ardal reaches the hospital, she rushes into the hospital waiting room. All five babies are sitting by the nurse’s desk coloring and eating crackers.

“My babies,” shrieks Ardal when she sees them. She gives them each a hug.

“If you’re all right, then what is wrong?” Ardal questions.

Silas stops coloring and looks up as he says, “I threw a ball at a lady’s stomach and her baby is hurt.”

Ardal arches her eyebrows. She knew whose baby was hurt.

“Babies stay here,” she commands them. “I’m going to find the lady.”

Ardal marches down the hall to find Susan’s room.

Susan has long suspected that Ardal was the mother of the babies. It made her hate Ardal even more. Kadeem loves the babies, which means that he is loves Susan less. Susan has already noticed that Kadeem is inattentive in lovemaking. Her mind is not right, and she is very impacted by the news that Ardal is the babys’ mother.

Susan sees Ardal in the hall. Susan knows now that the babies belong to Ardal.

“Get in here!” She screams.

Ardal hurries into the room and stands next to Susan’s bed.

Susan blinks her eyes over and rolls her head back and forth on the pillow.

“You did this!” She shrieks.

Ardal stands motionless at her bedside, unsure of what to do or say.

Susan grabs Ardal’s shirt and pulls it to bring Ardal to her face.

“You did this,” she snarled. “Now repent!”

Susan slaps Ardal with everything she has. As her hand hits Ardal’s cheek, a loud smack fills the room.

At the impact, Ardal touches her hand to her face and stumbles backwards. The sting of the slap makes her cheek feel like a bee had just stung it. A red circle appears on Ardal’s cheek where Susan’s hand had hit.

Susan sat up in bed. She points her finger at Ardal.

“You must apologize!” Susan screams.

Ardal does not know what to do. She will never apologize for her sweet babies. Ardal decides to answer Susan to calm her down.

“I’m sorry,” Ardal mumbles.

“On your knees!” Susan screamed. “Beg for my forgiveness!”

Ardal has never begged for forgiveness from anyone. She is strong.

Ardal shakes her head no as she screams, “No!”

“You will do it, or I will destroy you!” Susan yells as she rolls back and forth on the bed.

Ardal is in a panic. She doesn’t want to humiliate herself in front of Susan but also doesn’t want Susan to escalate the situation. Susan is crazy and willing to do anything.

Ardal decides to kneel. She does not want anyone to get hurt, especially her babies, because it is Ardal’s decision to kneel, she kneels on the ground.

Ardal glares at Susan and clenches her jaw as she says, “I’m sorry.”

Ardal quickly stands up, still glaring at Susan.

The babies got bored of sitting by the nurse. They wander the hospital halls trying to find their mommy.

The babies hear shouting and walk to the doorway of the room where the noise is coming from. They stop at the doorway and see Susan lying in a bed. They see their mommy standing next to the bed.

“Mommy!” Silas cries as he runs to her. Ardal embraces Silas in a tight hug.

“Stop that now!” Susan cries as she swings her legs around on the edge of the bed to sit up.

“You are a bad lady!” Lottie cries stepping forward.

“Yeah!” Ezra cries. “We have proof you tricked us!”

Reese steps forward holding a tablet. “I got the surveillance video,” Reese explains.” The video shows Susan grabbing fake glasses from the costume department and putting them in her pocket. She takes Silas’s real glasses when he sets them down on the refreshment table. She then, walks to a garbage to throw away Silas’s real glasses. When we go to play ball with her, she removes the glasses from her pocket and gives them to Silas.

“See!” Erbao yells. “You tricked him. He could not see!”

Susan lays back down in the bed and clutches her stomach. “But my poor baby,” she whispers to the ceiling. She shuts her eyes and her face turns red. Susan knows she has been caught by clever Reese.

Ardal stands up and dusts off her knees. “Well,” she says triumphantly. “My baby caught you!” Ardal knows that that’s not all Susan has done.

“Babies, can you wait by the nurse’s desk?” Ardal asks. The babies turn around giggling and run to the nurse’s desk.

Ardal faces Susan and glares at her. “You’re not pregnant,” she says icily.

Susan pretends not to hear.

“I remember when I was pregnant,” Ardal continues, “My stomach was big. I was sick. I could never have worn that!” Ardal finishes, pointing at Susan’s dress.

“You bitch!” screams Susan jumping out of bed and standing so close to Ardal that their noses were touching. “You want Kadeem all to yourself!” she screamed.

“I want to catch a liar!” Ardal yells, pushing Susan back until she fell on the bed.

Ardal grabs Susan’s hands and holds them above her head as she kneels over her.

“Now, tell me how you did it!” Ardal yells in Susan’s face.

Susan squirms and tries to roll around but cannot because Ardal is on top of her.

“I want to know how you lied!” Ardal screams.

Susan’s bottom lip trembles. “Please,” she begs. “Kadeem cannot know. He will leave me.”

Ardal narrows her eyes at her. “I don’t care if he does.”

Susan bits her bottom lip. “But there was blood,” she says.

Ardal scans her eyes around the room. She spots a Ziploc bag of red liquid dangling out of Susan’s purse. Ardal walks over to it and pulls it from Susan’s purse.

“What is this?” Ardal interrogates, holding up the bag of red liquid.

Susan jumps out of bed and snatches it from Ardal’s hand as she hisses, “That’s mine!”

Ardal looks at the bag. “Is that what you used as blood in the surveillance video?”

Susan goes to the sink in her room and dumps the contents out in the sink. “Yes, but now you have no proof.”

Ardal imagines Kadeem finding out. Hs chest muscles would bulge, his dark eyes would turn stormy, and he would clench his fists at his side if he knew Susan lied about the baby.

“Maybe there is no proof, but he’ll find out,” warned Ardal.

Susan sits on her bed with a terrified look on her face.