12. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Davina

I was able to see my daughter for the first time since she'd been taken away from me, nearly a week later. Dr. Markham doubled down, along with the social worker, who were both insistent that it wasn't cancer my daughter was dealing with, and instead was abuse.

Even when the woman who fostered my daughter stepped forward and explained the new bruises on my daughter, they tried to say that they just hadn't bloomed before she was taken from me. It didn't help that the oncologist who diagnosed my daughter with a form of leukemia, that would be extremely unlikely and rare in an infant as young as her, had to go out of town on a family emergency of his own during this whole process.

The judge would not admit his findings without having him there to quantify them for the court in person. It was a ridiculous circus of events that kept me from my daughter and delayed any possible treatment for her.

Mr. Avery swore up and down in court that we would sue Dr. Markham, his staff, the social service worker, and anyone else who kept me from my daughter and stood in the way of getting her the treatment she needed. When Coral's foster mother tried to go against them, and take Coral to a different hospital, my daughter was removed from her care as well.

The one thing I didn't do, that may have sped the process along, was to go to the media as Mr. Avery suggested. There was no way in hell I wanted to do that and put my face out there along with the plight of my child, and abuse allegations, when all it would take was one member of the club, or someone affiliated with them, to connect the dots and a whole new shitstorm would fall upon us.

If I thought it was hard to get my daughter back in my care, and to get her the medical attention she desperately needed, then it would become unfathomably harder if we added a motorcycle club, and innumerable possible baby daddies to the mix.

Finally, Dr. Jenkins made it back to town and when he went to check on my daughter and realized she was no longer on his ward, he started making inquiries that landed us back in court, where finally - FINALLY - the judge listened and got the ball rolling on dismissing the charges against me and allowing my daughter to be treated for the cancer she had, rather than just being watched while the signs of her supposed abuse failed to fade.

It took far too long before I was able to hold my baby again, and even then, it was a bittersweet moment because I wasn't actually able to hold her tight and love on her the way I wanted due to fear that I might inadvertently harm her.

She looked so fragile. My baby girl, who aside from a few unexplained bruises a week ago, had been healthy when I last saw her was now thinner looking. She didn't seem as vivacious as usual.

"Oh, my sweet baby girl, I'm so sorry Momma wasn't here for you for these past couple weeks. I promise to never let you go away from me again, no matter what I have to do to make that a reality."

A throat cleared behind me and I turned to see Dr. Jenkins enter the room. "Miss Perrish, I'm terribly sorry that everything happened the way it did. If I had known…" He looked away, almost guiltily. "Well, I can't say I still wouldn't have gone, as my family was in crisis, but I would have made sure one of my colleagues was more aware of the nuances of the situation. It never occurred to me that Dr. Markham would challenge my findings while I was away. You have my most sincere apologies."

"The only person who owes me an apology is Dr. Markham. Well, his staff and social services do as well. I just don't understand how they could have prolonged this when another doctor diagnosed my daughter with…" I couldn't bring myself to say it.

"Acute Myeloid Leukemia." Dr. Jenkins sighed as he filled in the words for me. "I can almost understand Dr. Markham's hesitation, since it doesn't generally appear in one as young as your daughter, but we all know that there are no absolutes in medicine - or at least we should. It was obvious that you were concerned for your daughter, so I'm not sure why he was so adamant that it was a case of abuse - even to go so far as to say I had misdiagnosed your child." He shook his head.

"Truthfully, I'm not even supposed to speak to you about him, since your lawyer already started legal proceedings and the hospital is culpable in them as well." He shrugged his shoulders. "It's clear," he stated while staring down at my daughter, "that the week's delay took a notable toll on Coral, though. So, I don't give a damn what they have to say about me bad mouthing a doctor who caused that delay in treatment with his asinine assertions."

I offered a weak smile to the man as he went about checking my daughter over. "I know you were reluctant to give the information to social services, but we really could use the father's information. Either his, yours, or potential siblings' DNA could be the key to making your daughter better."

"Can I be frank with you, without ending up in cuffs?"

He grinned, as if I was joking, though I wasn't.

"I promise, anything you have to say that will help your daughter, is nothing I will judge you for. Definitely won't be anything I'd call the law for either."

"How can you be so certain?"

"I'm a fantastic judge of character, Davina. You've done nothing but fight for your daughter. That's all I want to do here. Give her a fighting chance."

I nodded my head and explained my situation. To my surprise, he didn't judge me at all. Instead, he pulled a stool over, took my hands in his, and talked to me like I was on his level instead of on the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder while he was miles higher.

"We can have the lab set up to take as many DNA samples as necessary to test for paternity. Actually, we can let them know we'll be testing potential bone marrow donors and to expect and influx of bikers soon." He winked at me. "No one else in the hospital has to know that we're searching for the father. Those men don't need to know either, if you can convince them to show as potential marrow donors." He sighed then and squeezed my hand. "The father will find out when the results are done, as we will have to ask him a few questions to see if we can get closer to a good match."

"So, she really does need a bone marrow transplant?"

"Most likely."

"Why can't I do that?"

"We will test you, but parents are rarely a good match. You usually only carry half the markers we're looking for, and while it may be good enough to attempt in a dire situation, we want to find a closer match, if possible."

"A sibling?"

"If there is a full-blood sibling, they're usually the best chance."

I shook my head once more. "That's not possible. She's my only child."

"Is there a possible half-sibling? They might not be a perfect match but could possibly have more markers than a parent would."

"It depends on who the dad is," I stated as my cheeks heated with embarrassment again.

"Davina," he offered calmly. "Don't be embarrassed on my account. You lived your life the way you wanted to, and from all accounts, you did so in the safest way possible. Things happen even when we're being careful. Don't beat yourself up over why there are possibilities. There are people who simply don't have a clue where to start, and we work with what we have. No judgements, I promise. I know that's a hard thing to believe after what you went through this past week, but it's true."

He patted my leg and stood. "I'm going to give you time with your daughter." He glanced at the clock. "She'll probably be up to eating within the hour. Let's see if she does better with her mom here to offer her a bottle. I have a feeling some of her failure to eat and thrive was due to missing her mom"

"I was breastfeeding her," I stated sadly. "They had no right to stop that."

His warm hand landed reassuringly on my shoulder where he gave a little squeeze. "I have no doubt that your lawyer will make them pay dearly for that. Remind him to add this as another problem the delay in getting you to your daughter caused, especially if no one even bothered to ask you to pump breastmilk for your daughter while she was outside of your care. Your inability to breastfeed your daughter set her health back further than if you'd been able to continue. I will testify to that fact, if need be."

"I will let him know. Thank you, Dr. Jenkins, for everything."

"Anything I can do to help, you just let me know."

He left after that, and I immediately texted the information to the Averys so that they would know, and I wouldn't forget.

Hours later, I couldn't delay my own needs any longer. My stomach growled relentlessly and made me feel a bit queasy. I got up and went to the cafeteria where I ran into a woman who eyed me speculatively at first. Then, she seemed more determined as she threw her shoulders back and came toward me.

"Didn't you used to hang around the Savage Vipers clubhouse?"

"Why?"

"Sorry, Bagger and I are together."

"How could you possibly know I was associated with them?"

"I thought you looked familiar. I've seen your picture or something." She insisted, which was weird, but truthfully, she looked like one of the rich girls who used to come to open-house club parties as a ‘fuck you' to their parents' rules or whatever.

"What can I do for you?"

"Are you sick?"

"No, my daughter is."

"Does she belong to a member?"

I glared at the woman for a moment and then decided, ‘What the hell?'. I had nothing to lose anymore because I'd set my pride aside, give every ounce of my blood, money, and anything else I could gather to keep my daughter alive. I told her my story, starting with my finding out I was pregnant and leaving before I had to figure out who the father was, and ending with how that information was now desperately needed to save my daughter's life.

"I bet it was Bagger. He sometimes forgets to wrap it up," she muttered under her breath, as if I wasn't supposed to hear her. For some reason, I doubted her. When our eyes met, she must have seen the wary look on my face. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. We had a pregnancy scare at one point, that's why I said that."

I still didn't know if I could believe her, but she popped up and offered her hand. "I can take you to Bagger's place. It could be a good starting point for you, so that you don't have to drag all the men through DNA testing, if it isn't necessary. He would go in and get it done without question. Probably in the hopes of checking himself off the daddy list, but he also has a big heart. If he is the daddy, he will do everything in his power to make sure she survives."

"Why are you helping me? Didn't you say you're his girlfriend?"

"Yes, and while it would suck to know he had a baby with another woman, what would it say about me if I knew there was a possibility and didn't tell him. I mean, he might think I'm disloyal for trying to help hide a club baby." I flinched at that because soon enough my daughter's father – whoever he turned out to be – would be wondering the same thing about me.

The woman continued on despite my thoughts. "Plus, if there has to be a stepmom in the picture, you want me to be that woman. I won't try to claim your child, or get in your way, but I will be there as a support system for you both."

Her smile seemed genuine. I glanced down at what was left of my food and grimaced. I'd eaten enough to fend off the waves of dizziness but couldn't stomach anything further.

"Okay. I can go with you to Bagger's. I need to figure this out for my daughter's sake, and I need to go home and get a shower and fresh clothes, too."

"Perfect. Let's go, so you can get back to your daughter sooner and I can find out if my man is her daddy or not. I know I seem cool with this situation, and I promise not to give you any trouble, but I'll feel better once we know for sure."

I could understand that.

By the time we arrived at Bagger's house, the woman, who told me her name was Missy, seemed far more nervous than I was. So much so that when I went to get out of the car, she didn't budge.

"Are you coming?"

She shook her head. "I'm going to stay here until one of you comes to get me. I think this is something you need to confront him with alone, so that he is more apt to tell the truth about being a possible father. If he gives you a hard time, I can come be there, obviously."

"You're far more trusting of your man than I think I would be in this situation."

Missy smiled at me. "Well, you seem to be going through enough right now. Even if he did try something with you, that would be a problem between he and I."

I nodded and got out of the car. It felt like a brick had settled into my stomach. A lead brick that maybe had little chunky brick babies to weigh me down too. The walk to his door felt like I was headed to the gas chamber after eating my last meal. I did not want to do this.

I knocked on the door, but no one answered. I was about to turn and walk away but could have sworn I heard something or someone thump around inside. I banged on the door harder, thinking maybe they just didn't hear me the first time.

"What the fuck?" A woman called out as the door was slung open wide as possible. I knew exactly who she was on site, even though we hadn't met before. Tripp's daughter was standing there in the doorway, dripping wet, obviously fresh from a shower at Bagger's house, while his sweet girlfriend, Missy, was waiting in the car for me to talk to her man about the fact that he might have a daughter with me. What was Missy going to think? She wasn't worried about him cheating on her with me, but he had another woman in his house, and she was obviously comfortable being there.

"Can I help you?" Star asked, and there was nothing polite about the way she did so.

"Who exactly are you?" I asked. Not that I didn't know who Star Martin was, but honestly, I wanted to know what the fuck she was doing showering at Missy's old man's house.

"Hang on, I'm praying for the Lord to give me strength, right now," Star huffed sarcastically. If she wasn't the other woman that I would have to tell Missy about, her attitude might have made me smile.

Instead, I was pissed that I would have to break the heart of the sweet woman who brought me here to try to help me and my daughter, even if it might make her life messy. "Where is Bagger? I need to talk to him now!" Yep, I might have been a club whore, but I hated cheaters in any other setting. Truthfully, I hated myself on the rare occasion that I had to lay down with a club brother who I knew to be involved with someone. The fact that the president's daughter would willingly be the other woman kind of threw me into bitch mode. She had the opportunities to make better choices that I had not been given.

"I'll go get him and be right back." Start turned and shut the door in my face at that point. I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest to wait. What else could I do?

"Get your inner judgy bitch under control, Vina. You're not helping yourself by pissing people off." I whispered the words to myself in the hopes that my own warning would sink in. It wasn't my place to judge what a club brother had on the side or who they had on the side. It didn't really matter, so long as I could get someone to donate bone marrow to keep my baby girl alive. "She is the goal." Another reminder.

"Can I at least come in to wait? It's about to rain out here," I yelled through the door.

"No!" Star yelled back before she called out to one of my potential baby daddies.

"Jared!" I could hear the exasperation in her voice even through the door. "There's some woman here to see you."

"Where?" I heard him ask.

"Outside, where she belonged. I don't know her, so she didn't get an invite in."

"Your house, your rules." Jared told her. I glanced back at Missy's car with a worried look on my face. That didn't sound much like he considered Star to be a side piece. It sounded like she might be living with him.

"It's your house" the woman countered.

"Nope. It's our house, and when it comes to other women knocking on the door, it becomes your house. You make the rules. You don't want someone inside, they don't come in. Period."

"You have become a very wise man."

"Yeah? Let me get dressed and see what this chick wants, then we'll work on all the other things I have to show you that can make you proud of me."

Seriously? Her house? My stomach twisted again as more of those lead bricks settled into it. I glanced back at Missy's car once more. She was still sitting there. How could she be sitting there so calmly? She had to have seen that a woman opened the door. If she'd been around the club at all while dating Bagger, then she would even know who the woman was. Maybe. Star had been gone a long time. I didn't even know she was back in town until she opened the door.

"Do you want her inside?" I heard Bagger ask.

"It's about to rain, so there's no need for you to stand outside, but I'm not going anywhere if she comes in. If you're prepared for me to hear whatever she has to say, then invite her in. If not…" Star didn't give him what would happen "if not". It was obvious. Either he left me out in the rain to talk, ignored me completely, or allowed me in and we had to talk with Star present. Star. The woman who was the sister and daughter of two of my potential baby daddies. Shit was about to get messy.

"If not, we'll have a problem anyway. Twinkles, if a man came to the door wanting to see you, and you didn't want me to hear what it was about, I'd have an issue with that."

"Good to know we're on the same page then."

It really did not sound like Star Martin was the side chick in Bagger's world. I glanced back nervously at the car Missy brought me here in just as the door to the house opened.

"Vina? What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in? Your whore of the day left me out here to get rained on." Okay, as the words snapped free from my mouth, I knew I should have clawed them back.

"First of all, you're going to drop the attitude about my old lady. Secondly, we never had anything between us, so no matter who I have in my house, it's not your fucking business to comment about them. We clear?"

"Yeah, sorry," I mumbled the apology as he stepped aside to let me in. I glanced around and then brought my eyes back to Bagger, avoiding Star altogether. "Looks different since Breakneck moved out.

"You been here with Break?" Jared asked.

"Twice," I confirmed.

"Well, he doesn't live here anymore, so I'm not sure why you thought it was okay to stop by my house."

I had to remind myself that I was doing this for my baby girl. I fidgeted with a lock of my hair as I tried to find the right way to approach this, especially since he'd just called Star his old lady. Maybe Missy was the other woman and Star didn't know. Was I supposed to tell her? Fuck. It felt like no matter what I did or said at this point that these people would never be inclined to help me or Coral.

"I wouldn't have ever bothered to find out, but things have changed, so…"

"What are you talking about?" Star huffed, obviously frustrated with my presence. I couldn't say that I blamed her at this point. Apparently, I'd been brought to this house under false pretenses, even though I had a very real, pressing matter to discuss.

"I don't know her. Can she go to another room or something? This is personal." It was the truth. I didn't know Star, and honestly, I didn't' want her flipping out on me when I told Bagger that Missy was the one who brought me here. My baby was sick in the hospital, and I didn't need to be hemmed up on charges if Tripp's daughter decided to fight the messenger.

"If you think something personal involves me, then she's going to know about it whether you say it in front of her or five minutes after you leave, so just get on with it."

"Bagger," I pleaded, knowing how messy it was going to get. "Please, I don't want your whore in my business."

"What the fuck did I just say to you at the door?"

I flinched back from the venom in his voice. "Sorry, it's just, this has nothing to do with her."

"Vina, shit or get off the pot! You got something to say, spit it out now because my patience is wearing thin."

"I have a daughter."

"Okay, and?"

"She's in daycare right now, that's why she isn't with me." That last line was a lie, but I didn't want to drop the cancer bomb on him before I got him to agree to a DNA test. I wasn't stupid. A sick kid would send some men running quicker than any other potential kid.

"She's trying to tell you that you're her baby daddy," Star offered with a little less attitude.

Jared's head turned so fast to look at Star, that I almost couldn't track the movement. "What the fuck?" He then turned back to me and if looks could kill, my poor baby would be an orphan.

"See, this is why I didn't want her in here. It's not her business and I was trying to break the news gently."

"The only person I've ever stuck my bare dick in is standing right behind me." Jared jutted a thumb over his shoulder. I shook my head at that.

"No, I think there was once," I attempted to say.

"Never!" He argued without hesitation. "I've never fucked you, or any other club girl, bare. You know better." He paused, as if in thought and then carried right on with his explanation. "I only remember being with you once about a year or so before I got with Missy. Halloween party before…" His words trailed off and I nodded my head.

"Yeah, that's why I came to see you. My daughter was born on July second last year."

"I wasn't the only man you were fucking back then. You were a club girl, living on site, any of my brothers could be your baby daddy, or hell, someone else entirely. I don't know what you got up to when you weren't at the club. If you think I'm just going to accept the fact that you seem to want to pin this kid on me, you are dead fucking wrong."

"I'm certain that it was you," I told him. "Missy even said that my daughter looked like you when she saw us in the store the other day." I winced at the outright lie I just told. Missy had hinted at that, but it was in the hospital today. I was probably going to hell, but if my daughter got the chance to live, then I'd deal with the eternal flames.

"Missy?"

I nodded. "She drove me here. I couldn't remember where the place was because Breakneck brought me before. I never paid attention."

"Missy brought you here?"

"Yeah, she's outside in the car." I pointed back to the door in explanation.

Jared turned and all but ran for the door. I wasn't sure what he was going to say to Missy but didn't really have a chance to follow him and find out either because Star moved to stop me. "I wasn't around when you worked at the club house, but I used to live there. Tripp is my dad."

"If she brought you here, she's long gone now," Bagger said as he came back into the house.

"There was a silver Mercedes parked outside when I answered the door." Star informed him.

"Son of a bitch," he growled.

"Vina?" Star called out my name as if it was a question.

"It's Davina. Davina Perrish."

"Davina, I know that woman probably put shit in your head, and made you a bunch of promises, but the likelihood of Jared being the father is slim, you have to know that."

"It's still a possibility and I need to know now."

"Why? Why do you need to know now?"

I guess there was no getting around it. "She has cancer." A wave of sheer sadness and terror swept over me and there was no way I could hold it all in anymore. The lead bricks in my stomach were too much to bear on top of this whole shitty situation. That bitch sent me here to cause havoc for a club brother. Her ex-boyfriend, according to Bagger. Shit. Shit. Shit. At this rate, no one from the club would help me or my daughter.

"That's some more shit that Missy probably fed her!"

"No," I cried out to Bagger.

"What can we do to help?"

I shrugged my shoulders and watched through teary eyes as Jared paced across the room from us. Star came over and put her arm around me and pulled me into her body in a comforting gesture.

"Obviously, a DNA test has to happen. Considering you worked for the club, we will go over there and ask the men that you slept with around the last two weeks of October and first two weeks of November to take a test. We can't force them to, but it's the best I can offer you."

I cried into Star's shoulder even harder. "W-w-why would you help me?"

"Sweetheart?" She waited until our eyes met to continue. "Were you with my dad or brother around that time?" I nodded, slightly embarrassed that I had to admit to that while crying in this woman's arms. "Okay, so that means three of the men in my life could possibly have fathered your child. If it's Jared, that might be my stepdaughter one day. If it's Kip or Tripp, it could be my niece or my sister. If you're looking for the father, I'm assuming you're looking for a match for a donation?"

"Bone marrow." My answer was almost whisper quiet because it felt like admitting that made it more real than our situation already was.

"Okay, well, I will go in and get tested right away. You tell me when and where. If I'm a match, I'll gladly donate."

"Why are you being so nice?" I sniffled and hated that I sounded so whiny. I just had no more energy to fake being okay.

"Honey, if I'm a match, she's most likely my kin."

"Sorry, Vina. Missy's been causing problems lately. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. We'll get the tests done. If she's my daughter, you know I'll take care of her, and see if I'm a match. I have to ask that you don't try to bring her around until we know something though." Bagger was nicer to me now that he knew his ex must have painted a different picture for me before dropping me off on his doorstep.

"I understand. I don't want her to know until it's confirmed anyway."

Jared nodded. "You know that you're going to have to answer to the club for keeping her a secret, right?"

"I know." I stared down at the ground, unable to meet either of their eyes. Technically, the club could take my baby from me and if they saw fit, eliminate me altogether for the breach of trust. Coral was undoubtedly a club kid. Most of the men treasured their children when they had them and the rest of the club doted on them.

"Let's get you a ride home since the one that brought you here took off." Jared told me. "Word of advice, stay far the fuck away from Missy. She's interfered one too many times now, and things aren't going to go very well for her from here on out."

"Okay, thanks. I'm sorry about her. I really didn't know. She made it sound like you were still together and that she was giving me a chance to talk to you alone." I turned my attention to Star then. "That's why I had attitude with you when you opened the door. It's one thing for the guys to be with the club girls, but to openly cheat on their women…" I let that hang in the air.

"Honey, there is not a difference to me. If this idiot gets caught with a club girl here, on the road, or wherever he won't be my man anymore."

I smiled at her boldness. It was nice to know she was strong and secure enough in who she was to take that stance. "I wish I had been like that. Might have saved me some heartache along the way."