by Wren Weston
All at once, Lila opened her eyes with a start. At some point, Rubio had switched off the overhead light and worked her legs free from the stirrups. A blanket now covered her body, tucked under her chin.
Rubio looked up from her computer beside the bed. “You’re awake. Everything went well,” the young doctor assured her with a smile. “I did make a notation in your file about the anesthesia. It hit you a little hard.”
“It was likely all the wine I had earlier,” Lila said, yawning.
Rubio gaped at her, then typed something into the computer. Lila might have been a student again, receiving a note home from her tutor about some bit of bad behavior. “I feel the need to remind you that drinking before surgery, even a minor surgery, can be dangerous. As is not telling your doctor when you have consumed alcohol—”
“Next time,” Lila promised with another yawn. “How long was I out?”
“Fifteen, twenty minutes. Not long.” Rubio gathered up three needles, apologized quietly to Lila for the stick, and gave her a large injection in the side before her brain could spin into gear once more.
“What on earth was that for?” Lila cried out, fully awake after Rubio jammed the second needle into her hip. “I already had my STI vaccines!”
“Those weren’t STI vaccines, Chief Randolph. They were fertility shots. This last one is to hold off the pain after surgery.”
“Fertility shots?” Lila asked in alarm, surprised into silence when the last needle burrowed into her side, a sharper pinch than the others. “I told you not do anything but reverse… Who authorized you to give me fertility shots?”
“Your mother… I thought… I thought that you were aware of all aspects of today’s procedure. I would have explained in detail if—”
“Cut the crap, doctor. My mother has been pulling this shit for decades. This is why I wanted Helen today.” Lila rubbed her side. “I knew she was up to something! I should have known she had more up her sleeve than keeping Helen away.”
Rubio backed up.
“How potent is this stuff? Will I end up with multiples?” Lila wasn’t sure which way she wanted the doctor to answer. She didn’t want to bear a litter of children, but she could not deny her mother’s practicality on the matter. It might not be a terrible idea to birth an heir, a spare, and an eldest son for Bullstow all at once.
A womb sale. Three kids for the price of nine months.
“It’s possible.”
“My mother did the same when she was chairwoman,” Lila confessed, her brain thickening from the pain injection. “It took her only a few weeks to conceive, every time.”
“The drugs have improved quite a bit since then.”
“Drugs I didn’t need and that you didn’t tell me about. You realize I could turn you into the ethics board for this? I own you now.”
Rubio whimpered. Her back smacked into the wall.
“I hope she paid you well.”
“I don’t know what—”
Lila waved off the doctor and slipped off the bed onto the cold tile floor. The air chilled her through the backless gown. She searched her clothes for her star drive. She’d intended to ask Helen about Dubois’s records, but a compromised Rubio would suffice. “Look at this for me,” Lila said, passing her the drive. “There’s only one folder.”
Rubio shoved the drive into her computer and scanned the data. “Chief, I can’t—”
“Have you forgotten my words so quickly? Who controls this hospital? I would hate for your recent mistake to affect your employment.”
The doctor gulped and turned back to the screen. After several seconds of studying the file, she cocked her head. “I don’t specialize in men’s fertility.”
“I don’t care.” Lila longed to lie back down on the hospital bed. She grew more tired with every passing second, for her brain had wrapped itself in fluff.
She stood anyway.
“Whose files are these? Where did you get them?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
Rubio looked as though she might protest, then thought better of it. While Lila dressed, Rubio scrolled all the way through the file twice, squinting at the doctor’s notes. “This patient cannot conceive. There is almost no sperm in the samples.”
“So I read. What could cause that?”
“Genetics.” Rubio ejected the star drive.
Lila snatched it from the doctor’s hand. Senator Dubois had passed his testing as an intern. He had not been infertile then. Genetics did not seem likely. “What about other causes?”
“It could be any number of things. Chemotherapy, cancer, diabetes, kidney or liver failure, age. Any of those could cause it. Is this a friend of yours?”
“Perhaps.”
Rubio frowned. “Has he had any serious illnesses?”
“No, he’s been perfectly healthy.”
“Drug use?” the doctor pressed.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Lila’s annoyed expression silenced the doctor’s protest.
“How old is he?”
“Far too young for this.”
“It could be a blockage caused by a prior infection, but that seems unlikely from his physical exams. Like I told you before, it’s most likely genetic. Sometimes men just shoot blanks.”
“It’s not genetic.”
“Then if it’s not age, it’s idiopathic. Sometimes such a condition develops for no reason—at least no reason we can detect.”
Lila didn’t believe it for a second. It had never happened in the history of High House.
“I apologize. I suspect you want a different answer.”
Lila put on her coat, grasping the wall when she nearly overbalanced. “Tell no one about my questions, and I might not have a conversation with the ethics board.”
“Of course, Chief Randolph,” the doctor promised, wringing her hands as she watched Lila struggle with her clothes. “It’s likely that you’ll feel a bit of nausea over the next twenty-four hours. You should take care to stay in bed until it passes.”
The doctor retrieved a bulging shopping bag from a cabinet. The hospital’s name stretched across the front in glossy letters. “Supplies for the coming weeks,” she explained.
Lila snatched up the bag as Rubio called for the nurse to escort her to the lobby. It bothered Lila’s pride to accept the help, but the shot still clouded her mind, making her groggy. So did the anesthesia, the wine, and the abbreviated nap. She knew it would better if people saw her escorted by a nurse, rather than passed out and drooling in a hallway.
Once the pair reached the elevator, Lila finally peeked inside the bag. It contained several pregnancy tests, prenatal vitamins, and various pamphlets on pregnancy care.
“She’s insane,” Lila murmured. “My mother is completely, certifiably insane.”
The nurse raised an eyebrow. Her mouth opened and closed as if she were unsure how to answer, or if she should even acknowledge Lila’s statement at all.
Choosing selective amnesia, the nurse thumbed the down button on the elevator, hitting it repeatedly as though she might prevent an apocalypse if only she pressed quickly enough. “The elevator is so slow sometimes,” she muttered before returning to her rabid button pushing.
Lila leaned against the wall and watched the nurse work. Many from the poorer classes had no idea how to act around heirs, for they rarely met one, even an unofficial one. Their behavior usually hovered somewhere between uncomfortable and awkward.
As soon as Lila became prime, it would only get worse.
The elevator dinged, and the pair stepped inside. The nurse stared at her shoes while the car descended. When it reached the ground floor, Lila dismissed the nurse, resolving to escape the woman’s unease as soon as possible and find Sergeant Norwood on her own. The lobby was large, but not so large tha
t he would go unnoticed.
Her palm vibrated.
Tristan had sent her another message. What did she want? Call me.
Lila slipped the device into her pocket. She had no intention of speaking to Tristan while drugged.
She soon spied Sergeant Norwood amid the squealing children and anxious parents. Ignoring the Muzak that pumped through the speakers, she dodged the pacing crowd, mostly men who had not shaved due to stress, fright, or too little time.
Sergeant Norwood helped her to the car, parked at the front of the building. Once Lila was safely ensconced inside, she cracked the window, needing more air to quiet her stomach.
As Sergeant Norwood backed out of the parking spot, the hospital bag fell over into her lap with a crinkled thud.
Lila shoved it as far away as possible.
Chapter 6
By the time Sergeant Norwood drove through the south gate of the Randolph estate, Lila had shaken off her drowsiness, glad for the heavily tinted windows that kept her bleary eyes from the view of the crowds. She collected her things while Sergeant Norwood parked at the front of the great house. He helped her take a wobbly stroll up the steps, recently power-washed by the groundskeepers. Her crimson woolen coat felt damp in the chilly, humid air.
The blackcoat opened the front door, and she parted with him at the entryway. Luckily, the staff had been called away to other tasks, and no one met her as she climbed upstairs to her room. After dropping her pregnancy supplies in her closet and slamming the door, she caught her face in bathroom mirror.
Tired. Irritated. Pale. Slightly green.
Green or not, she had a meeting to attend. On the way home, she had messaged Commander Sutton. They had much to discuss.
She withdrew her star drive and quickly hid it in her desk. Her palm vibrated as she slid the secret compartment closed. For once, it wasn’t Tristan.
“Chief, I just got a strange request that I thought you should know about,” a familiar, musical voice said by way of greeting.
“Always a pleasure, Captain McKinley.” The blackcoat handled network security for the estate and often called when she believed that Commander Sutton might not understand her report. Sometimes, she also called to remind Lila that she existed and enjoyed being promoted. Lila wondered which sort of call it would be this time.
“I assure you, the pleasure is all mine,” McKinley said. “I heard you were on the compound once more. Are you back from vacation?”
“What did Sutton tell you?”
“Not to call you. But something weird happened this afternoon. Bullstow called. A man named Davies requested access to the family’s net logins.”
“Which logins?”
“All of them.”
Lila gaped at the request. It was unheard of for Bullstow to request so much private information, and she could not believe that the officer had any reason for it.
Her mind spun with the possibilities. Chief Shaw had nearly fired Sergeant Davies less than a month before for being involved in questionable activities, activities linked to Reaper. She must have hit another of Reaper’s traps during her hack that afternoon. Her blackmailer either knew or suspected that she’d been inside again and put Davies on it.
At least her fake ID wouldn’t be so easy to decipher this time.
At least…
Lila squeezed her eyes shut. Her mind had fogged too thickly after the anesthesia. She needed sleep before she acted on the information.
“Are you sure it was Sergeant Davies?” she asked.
“Yes. I looked him up, chief. He’s the son of Suji Park, owner of Toewon Research Group and the Eclipse chain of coffee houses. How he even got into Bullstow as a lowborn—”
Lila faded out as McKinley prattled on about the dangers of lowborn citizens buying their way into Bullstow. It was true, Toewon and Eclipse were lowborn businesses, but they were very prominent businesses on the rise, grossing more than many poorly performing highborn families, far more than the Wilsons ever had. Not only did Ms. Park sit on Saxony’s Low Council of Judges, but she had managed to get two sons elected into New Bristol’s Low House and another in Saxony’s. Placing an eldest son in Bullstow was the next logical step, and proved that Ms. Park was a shrewd player, for it was exceedingly costly for the lowborn to buy their way inside. The first boy from a lowborn family never became a senator, but it was a sacrifice and a start into highborn society.
It had paid off for Ms. Park. The New Bristol High Council had confirmed the Parks as the next highborn family less than a month before.
It could harm the Parks’ confirmation if Bullstow arrested Davies and tried him for impropriety now. The council still had time to deny the family and chose another.
“I found out who his partner is, too,” McKinley said. “Officer Muller, from the Weberly family.”
“Web Corp?” Lila asked, feigning ignorance.
“Yes, chief. Strange coincidence, huh?”
Lila rubbed her chin and made a noncommittal grunt. It was more than a coincidence, and Captain McKinley knew it. Web Corp was a highborn company based in New Bristol, though the bulk of their income came from oil fields several hundred kilometers away in Beaulac. As such, they were a direct rival of the Randolphs.
“I already told Commander Sutton about Sergeant Davies. I didn’t find out about his partner or their matrons until just now. I thought I should tell you directly.”
“Captain McKinley, you did not give Sergeant Davies the logins, did you?”
“Of course not. I told him to go through the proper channels and obtain the correct paperwork. He was pushy, though. Could be trouble.”
“Keep the commander informed when she returns to the security office. I’ll want to know about any further communication from Sergeant Muller and Sergeant Davies, whether I’m on vacation or not.”
“Of course, chief,” the captain answered before she broke the connection.
A knock sounded at the door.
“Come in,” Lila said.
Her younger brother poked his head into the room. Loose brown waves touched his shoulders, and his blue eyes mirrored Jewel’s. At sixteen, Pax Randolph-Blanc was well on his way to becoming a giant like his father, Senator Blanc. He already had the body of a man who could pick up a couch and fling it through the window, and his new fall coat already strained at the shoulders. In a few years, he would have to duck just to enter a room. In a few more, he might have to enter sideways.
“Hello, Lila,” he said, calling out in a voice so rowdy and full that it dwarfed his entire body. He had still not gotten used to the change from high to deep, and his face screwed up in embarrassment at his own loud bellow.
“Hello, Pax.”
“I kept the door open all afternoon. I didn’t want you to slip past me when you returned home. Here you are, all drugged up, and you managed to get past. I didn’t even notice until I heard the door close.”
“It’s my boots.”
He nodded and picked at her wooden doorframe. “I’m sorry that you have to be prime. I know you don’t want to.”
“So you heard?”
“I heard it all last night and put it together. Jewel doesn’t take bad news privately. It’s all tears and snot with her, and damn the neighbors.”
Lila chuckled.
“She’s really upset.”
“She’s always upset about something, but it’s hardly the end of the world that she claims. I guarantee you that she’ll have children in a few years anyway. If it’s not her own idea, then it will be at mother’s urging. Jewel always wanted children too much to forbear now, regardless of her feelings about the senator. Knowing him, he might even press the issue.”
Pax shrugged. It was the shrug of a younger brother who did not wish to contradict his elder sister.
“What do you think about it all?” Lila said, noting
the impatience of his tutor, Ms. Beaumont, framed by the nursery doorway across the hall. The room had been converted after Pax refused to return to boarding school, for the boy needed some place to study. Though Lila enjoyed having him so close, she wondered how long it would be before he returned to school, especially since Ms. Beaumont annoyed her.
The feeling seemed to be mutual. The woman frowned at the interruption and eyed Lila as if she were a poisoned wound that might fester into educational necrosis if she did not intervene.
Naturally, Lila ignored her.
Ms. Beaumont returned to her work, too far away to eavesdrop.
“I think it’s all terribly romantic.” A goofy smile broke upon Pax’s face. “The idea of giving up what you’ve always wanted most for love. What else could one hope for?”
“You would. You want to marry.”
“Yes, I do want to marry. Lots of people marry, even lowborn and highborn, so don’t act like I’m strange for it.”
“Only the poorer classes can afford monogamy.”
He shrugged again. “You’re doing the same thing, you know, giving up what you want for love.”
Lila peered at her brother. “What do you mean?”
“You could have easily refused her.”
“Easily?”
“Well, not easily—nothing is ever easy with Mother, is it? But you could have refused and remained chief if you really wanted, or you could have bought back your mark and struck out on your own. You have the mind for it. Anyone who knew the history of Randolph General would know as much.”
Lila appreciated the sentiment, but Pax was still a child, one who had no interest or skill in commerce. He didn’t understand how difficult it was for a highborn to start a company after cutting ties with her family, how hard the highborn had made such a prospect by covering it with layers upon layers of rules and bureaucracy and terms like conflict of interest. He didn’t understand the dirty games the highborn played with one another. For her to be successful, she would have to leave Saxony, if not the country.
She’d have to leave her family too.