Missy looked as Carli breathed slowly on the hospital bed and blinked back the tears.
“This is all my fault,” she moaned.
Randy shook his head, “don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have stopped this from happening.”
“But I let her drive without supervision one time. I shouldn’t have done that, maybe she wouldn’t be here.”
Randy caressed Missy’s shoulder’s. “We both know that Carli would have driven anyway, don’t blame yourself it isn’t healthy.”
Before he could continue the doctor walked in and they both swung their heads to her.
“Is she ok? What’s going on?” Randy asked desperately.
Donna sighed, “Carli needs blood. She lost a lot of it in the accident. But her blood type is rare, so we’ll have to run some tests before we transplant the blood, is that ok?”
Randy nodded. “Yes, of course, you’ll need my blood right?”
“That’s possible. Since you’re her father, your blood will be the best match, let me get a sample now and start the tests.”
“I can’t find it!” Roxy yelled as she rummaged through the cabinet.
“It’s under the blue box in the back.”
Roxy saw the box and pulled it out, along with a ticket stub.
“What’s this?” she looked at the plane ticket in Jamal’s name. “This was last weekend…he said he was busy with work…why did he go to the mainland?”
“Jamal?”
“Yea”
“What’s this?”
“What?”
“This plane ticket for the mainland. You said you were working this weekend, why did you go to the mainland.”
“Uh…I didn’t.”
“But the ticket-“
“I never…uh…used the ticket. I got busy with work.”
“This is a return ticket slip, Jamal! It’s for you coming from the mainland to Pahala! Why are you lying!”
“I’m…I’m not!!! I was busy with…with work!”
“Save it Jamal! I’m out of here. Call me when you decide to stop lying!” She shouted running out the door and ignoring his cries. Why would he lie? She wondered.Why not just say the truth…unless…Roxy gulped back tears. He’s having an affair!
Lani leaned over to see the item Meka was referring to in the accountating book.
“You mean, by switching to lower wattage lights, we could save on the electricity bill?”
Meka nodded enjoying the smell of Lani’s perfume as it tickled his nose. He enjoyed these late night meetings.
The diner door opened and Meka frowned. Russel walked in.
“Hey baby.” Lani cooed as she hopped up and embraced him.
“How’s it going?”
“Fine, we’re almost done for the night.”
“Great, I wanted to make sure you got home safely, it’s after midnight.”
Lani nodded. “Understand, let me grab my things from the back.”
Russel watched as she disappeared before turning his attention to the scowling Meka,
“What? You don’t trust your girlfriend?”
“I don’t trust you.”
“I’m the least of your worries. Lani still loves me, your time is ticking.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Just watch out, I will prove that she still loves me and once again you will be in second place-getting my leftovers.”
“You watch out, Lani and I have the real thing and you can’t mess with that.”
Meka laughed, “The real thing? If that’s so, why does she willing stay away from you every night until you have to run to the diner to get her away from me? Ha! The real thing!”
Donna stared at the microscope, the cells were clearly sickled. She sighed and called down an order to the nurse’s station to put the teen on the appropriate medicines to help with her condition. She then placed a call to her parents and left a message that they needed to meet with her to go over some test results. She knew from the file that Carli’s mother tested negative for carrying the sickle cell trait, so she slid Randy’s blood sample underneath the microscope. No tell-tale sickles. She placed some of the sample in a vial and ran the tests-negative.
“What? How is that possible? He should be positive…unless.”
Donna quickly put Carli’s and Randy’s blood samples in vials and ran some quick DNA tests.
“Oh, F-“
Randy nervously held Missy’s hand. What on earth could the doctor want to speak with them about. He watched as she approached grimly and took a seat.
“I have a lot of news for you two, so let’s start slowly.” Donna announced.
Randy and Missy nodded numbly.
“First, Carli has sickle-cell anemia. It’s a genetic disease that causes her blood cells to sickle. She’s on the appropriate medicines now and I’ve set up a referral appointment for you and your family to talk to a specialist about the disease.”
Randy nodded.
“Next, from Carli’s file it was noted that her mother tested negative for the trait. I’m not sure why they ran those tests on her and didn’t inform you of Carli’s disease, but they did. I then ran your blood sample to test for the trait. The sample came back negative.”
Randy nodded-then stopped. “Wow, what’s the possibility that two parents that test negative for the trait would have a child with the disease.”
Donna sighed, “It’s impossible.”
“But-“
“That’s why I ran a DNA test on your samples.”
Randy’s face paled and Missy felt her tongue go dry.
“You are not Carli’s biological father.”
“What!?!? That’s…that’s…” Randy started before grasping his head in his hands and sobbing.
Donna quietly left the room so the couple could digest the news.
“Randy,” Missy said caressing his shoulders.
“She-She’s not mine!”
“She is yours. Blood isn’t important, that means nothing. Carli is your daughter-“
“But how-how could-how could she do that to me!”
“I don’t know sweetie, we won’t ever know.”
“Gosh today was a long day,” Lani said tumbling on the sofa.
“Well, you could come home after closing the diner. You don’t have to stay every night and go over the books with Meka,”
“Oh no,” Lani said shaking her head. “I don’t mind. He’s showing me all sorts of interesting things-“
“I bet he is.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Can’t you see that he’s manipulating you? He doesn’t need all that time with you.”
“Here we go again. Can we not talk about this? I’m tired of this argument.”
“Fire him and we won’t discuss it anymore.”
“What!?”
“Fire him.”
“Never! Meka is great at what he does and the diner benefits from him. You need to deal with your jealously issues!”
“I’m trying to, but you don’t make it easy when you see more of him then you do me!”
“Listen, I’m not listening to this anymore-you need to deal with your insecurity! I’m with you, not Meka, but I’m not firing good help!”
No comments:
Post a Comment