Page 34 of Gene

Ezekiel whistled. “Telling the truth or bluffing?”

“Bluffing mostly, but if it really came down to it, I probably would have. Deccan definitely would have done it.”

“Especially when he finds out Sammi is your girl.”

Gene looked over right as the doctor walked into the room.

“I heard there was an unconscious patient. Do you want to tell me what happened?” the doctor asked. “I’m Doctor Mike Smith, and I’ll be looking after this young woman.”

“We work on a farm. She was walking from a building to one of the barns and fainted,” Ezekiel explained.

“Probably from dehydration?” the doctor suggested.

Gene shook his head. “I’ve been making sure she has been drinking enough water the past couple of days. Couldn’t have been from dehydration.”

“We’ll have to run some tests then to figure out what is wrong and why she passed out,” Mike explained.

“She’s under our insurance, the Little Farm, but if that doesn’t cover everything, you bill it to me. You don’t tell her about it.” Gene looked directly into the doctor’s eyes. “I don’t know if this is important, but I feel like it is. Sammi said she has been peeing a lot even when she didn’t drink much during the day. I’ve also noticed her losing weight since she started several weeks ago. Her health just seemed to get worse and worse as the days went by.”

Everything in Gene now wished he had gotten their doctor to come in earlier to check on Sammi. Would it have been weird? Yes, but he had noticed that she was declining and didn’t do anything about it. Part of it was because he knew she wasn’t his yet, but that all changed the minute she was lying in his arms.

Mike nodded, not giving away anything. “I’ll keep that in mind. Now, I need both of you to leave the room for a couple of minutes while the nurse comes in to get her into a gown.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Gene declared.

“It will only be for a couple of minutes. Then you can come back in,” Mike replied. “The longer you stay in here and prevent my nurses from doing their jobs, the longer it’s going to be to figure out what’s wrong with her.”

“Anything longer than five minutes and I’m coming back in.” Gene kissed Sammi’s forehead before leaving.

CHAPTER TWELVE

SAMMI

“Daddy,” she mumbled, turning her head to the side.

All she wanted was her Daddy to hold her and never let go. Groaning in pain, she moved her head back to a comfortable position. Why did she feel so bad? Why was she lying down?

“Daddy?” she murmured again, cracking her eyes open.

The first thing she saw was the white panels on the ceiling. The second thing she realized was the awful smell.

The hospital.

Bolting upright, she winced and grabbed her head. Why was she at the hospital? Why was she hooked up to different machines? What was going on?

“Little One, you’re awake.” Daddy stepped into the room.

He immediately walked over toward her kissing her forehead before taking her hand. She stared up at him, questions running through her mind. What was going on? Why was she in the hospital, and why was Daddy here?

“W-what happened?” she whispered.

She could already feel the tears of frustration and worry pooling in her eyes. She was already feeling overwhelmed with everything, and she didn’t know what was going on.

“Shhhh,” Daddy gently said as he cupped her face. “I’m right here, we’re going to get through this together.”

“Going to get through what? What’s wrong?” She choked back a sob.

“You passed out at work. We took you to the hospital, and we were waiting on you waking up so the doctor could explain what was wrong. But we’re going to get through this together. No matter what.”

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