MOTY (The Lady Kingpin Series Book 1)

by J Hoffman

  “Did they push you from behind?”

  “Yeah,” Jonah mumbled.

  “What?” Judah yelled.

  “Yes!” Jonah yelled back.

  “That’s so disrespectful. Degrading. Cowardly. Pathetic.” Judah spat.

  “We’re at the hospital now,” Natalee tried to relieve the situation.

  “Are you at Saint Elizabeth’s?”

  “Yeah, in emergency. We’re about to walk in now.”

  “I had a short flight today. They had me scheduled for two more, but they told me to come home.”

  “Do you need me to come get you?”

  “No, I’ll call a taxi, I’ll come straight there. Just get him inside so they can assess the situation.”

  Natalee disconnected the call and escorted her son into the lobby. After she checked him in, and took him through triage, she texted Judah to keep him up to date.

  He made it to the hospital before the doctor made it to their room. He kissed Natalee on the forehead to greet her and then did the same to Jonah. “Hey buddy, what’s going on? How are you feeling?”

  Jonah shrugged, “I’m okay. My head hurts.”

  Judah chuckled and Natalee smacked him. “What!” He exclaimed, “Of course his head hurts, there’s a giant gash in it!”

  “It’s GIANT?” Jonah screamed.

  Natalee shushed him and rubbed his back. “No, no. It’s not giant, baby. It’s okay. Everything’s gonna be okay. Just calm down, freaking out isn’t going to make this any easier.” She shot a look at Judah and he shrunk into his chair.

  Natalee’s phone rang with a number she knew she didn’t recognize, so she silenced it and peered at Jonah again. “I hope this doctor shows up soon.”

  Almost as if on cue, the doctor knocked on the door. “Jonah Denver?”

  Jonah nodded and the doctor set his clipboard down and washed his hands. “You look a little messy there.”

  “I fell.”

  “He was pushed,” Natalee chimed in. “Down a flight of stairs.”

  “Who pushed you?” He put his glasses on and pulled out his stethoscope. He listened to Jonah’s heart and lungs.

  “No, I didn’t see them.”

  “They pushed you from behind?” The doctor pried.

  “Yeah,” Jonah sighed.

  “Are you sure?” The doctor grabbed a small flashlight and told Jonah to follow his finger.

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “I’m pretty good at telling if someone is lying,” he insisted.

  “I’m not lying!” Jonah argued.

  The doctor leaned down and peered into Jonah’s eyes with no tools. “I know you aren’t.” He patted him on the back and asked him to lower his head. Jonah complied and tilted his head down. He squeezed his eyes shut as the doctor touched the wound.

  “This is pretty nasty,” the doctor offered.

  “Oh my God, is he gonna be okay?” Natalee squeezed Judah’s hand.

  “He’ll be fine. A little groggy for a couple days. He’ll sleep a lot.” He tore his gloves off and tossed them into the trash can marked hazardous. “I’m going to get a nurse in here to clean this up so I can put some stitches in, and hopefully we’ll get you guys out of here pretty quickly. How’s that sound?”

  Jonah lifted his head with tears brimmed at the edges and he nodded. Judah took a deep breath and nodded to the doctor as he exited the room.

  “Why don’t you go get some coffee from the cafeteria?”

  “I don’t want to leave him.” Natalee sniffled.

  “We’ll be fine. You won’t miss anything. I can hold down the fort until you get back.” Judah reached into his pocket and handed her his wallet, “Here, get me a sandwich too. Maybe some chips.”

  Natalee sighed as she stared at his wallet in her hand. “Fine, but if the nurse comes just call my phone.”

  “Okay, take your time.”

  Natalee kissed Jonah’s forehead again, he tried to turn away but knew it made her feel better, so he didn’t object too much.

  Once the door shut behind her, Judah scooted his chair closer to Jonah. He rested his elbows on his knees, he leaned his head on his hands. “Hey bud.”

  “I don’t know who did it, Dad,” Jonah urged.

  “Can you just tell me what you do know?”

  Jonah took a deep breath that rattled with a quiet sob. Tears fell from his eyes, and he squeezed them shut as he willed them to stop. “Right before they pushed me, they said, ‘Your mom is a bitch, not mine’, and then I fell.”

  Judah raised an eyebrow, more curious than he was when they started this conversation. “Well, why would anyone at school call your mom that?”

  Jonah shrugged and the pulled his shoulder back to separate the drenched clothing from his skin. “I don’t know. I heard yelling at the PTA meeting last week, but I didn’t hear anyone call anyone that word.”

  Judah leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face and eyes. “Well, what did you hear?”

  He shrugged again. “I don’t remember, there was just a lot of yelling.”

  “Did you hear anything else after you were pushed?”

  “A couple girls screamed, but that’s it.”

  Judah groaned and then ran his hands through his hair. “So, people saw it? Maybe the principal can ask around to get down to the bottom of this.”

  “Do we have to do that, Dad? I don’t really care to know. Can we just move?”

  Judah frowned as he watched his son in both physical and mental agony. “I don’t think we can do that, son, no.”

  “Why not? Can I just go to a new school?”

  Judah sighed. “We can talk about it bud. But for now, I’m sure the doctor is going to keep you out of school for a couple days because you have a concussion. We will need to figure out what happened, and who did it, because this isn’t something we can just brush under the rug or take lightly. Whoever did this could have actually killed you, Jonah, and they need to be punished.”

  Jonah shook his head quickly but stopped abruptly as he winced at the sharp pain. “No, Dad! I don’t want to know. I don’t want any part of it and I never want to go there again!”

  “Okay, me and your mother will handle it.”

  “I don’t want anyone-” Jonah’s voice began to rise but was cut short by a knock at the door.

  A nurse peered around the corner. “Am I interrupting anything?”

  “No, no, we were just talking.” Judah waved her in. She pushed the door open with her hip and pulled a cart in behind her.

  Jonah took one look at the cart and began to panic. “What is that? Is this going to hurt?”

  The nurse shook her head as she arranged her tools on the tray. “I’m just cleaning it and giving you some numbing medicine, okay? I can assure you that none of this is going to hurt as bad as the fall that did this to you.” She tilted Jonah’s head down and grabbed a syringe and needle. After she assessed the gash, she picked three locations to inject the local anesthetic. Once she was sure they were the best locations, she looked to Judah. “Can you hold his hand, or head for me?”

  “Which would be better?” Judah stood up quickly.

  “Well, the head, but I understand if you can’t.”

  Judah crouched down in front of Jonah. He put his hands on either side of Jonah’s face, and held it there firmly, but with care. Jonah stared into his father’s eyes and fought back tears and sniffles.

  “I’m scared,” Jonah whispered.

  “I know, Jone. It’s okay to be scared.” Judah fought back his own tears.

  Jonah closed his eyes as he felt a pinch followed by a little burn. This was repeated twice more before he heard the clang of the syringe on the cart. Judah looked to the nurse who nodded, and he released Jonah from his grip.

  “I’m going to need you to lie down, please.”

  She lowered the head of the bed until it was completely flat. Jonah stood, and faced toward his dad as he laid down on his stomach. He angled his head to make the wound
face up. The nurse grabbed a pair of electric hair clippers and switched them on.

  The buzzing of the clippers alerted Jonah, who shot up and jumped to his feet. “No! You are not shaving my head!”

  “Jonah!” Judah scolded. “You can’t clean a wound you can’t see, don’t give her a hard time. Lie back down!”

  “She’s gonna shave half my head, Dad!”

  “Not half of it,” the nurse interjected.

  “I will take you to get a haircut to even it out when you feel better.”

  “I like my hair the way it is!”

  “And I like having a son. I wouldn’t have a son anymore if that idiot kid pushed you any harder. I’ll be damned if I love that you are here any less because you lost some hair. Lay down on the bed and let this nice lady do her job!”

  Jonah glared at Judah. “It’s not your head that’s getting shaved.”

  “No, but it’s not like I’ve never shaved my head before, either.”

  Jonah climbed back onto the bed and adjusted himself again. “This is stupid,” he mumbled.

  The buzzing started again, but this time he didn’t move. He closed his eyes and let the vibrations comfort him, even though he internally hated every second of it. He hated the feeling of the pressure of the blades but didn’t feel pain or direct contact. He hated the feeling of chunks of his hair hitting his cheek as the nurse tried to brush it away. He even hated the single stray hairs that were sticking to his wet collar. He wanted this to be over, and he wanted to be home.

  Natalee barged through the door with a loud bang and startled the nurse, who luckily, was not holding anything sharp. “You were supposed to call me!” She narrowed her eyes at Judah.

  “Calm down, she shaved his head, that’s it.” Judah offered in a soft, even tone.

  “You shaved his head?!” Natalee screeched.

  Judah’s eyes grew wide and he jumped up next to her. “Chill out! You can’t see a wound with hair in the way!” He tried to comfort her the same way he comforted Jonah, but she wouldn’t have any of it.

  Natalee rushed past the nurse to Jonah. She dropped the cups of coffee and cafeteria food on the counter next to the sink. “Oh my God, my poor baby!” Now that she was able to see the entire wound clearly, the entire situation somehow worsened and Natalee was quickly reduced to tears. She fell into the chair nearest him and let out a gut-wrenching sob.

  Judah’s shoulders fell and he took a deep breath. “Nat, it’s okay. It’s hair, it’ll grow back.”

  “But look at my poor boy!” She howled between gasps of air.

  “I know, I know, but he’s okay. He’s going to be okay, so for now you just need to calm down.”

  Judah slumped next to her. The nurse waited patiently until she knew Natalee wasn’t going to have another outburst. She proceeded to spray the wound down with saline to clear out as much blood as possible. Once it was prepared for stitches, she paged the doctor, who was quick to respond.

  “Whew, what a doozy!” The doctor exclaimed the moment he laid eyes on the exposed gash.

  Natalee sniffled but tried to hold back another sob. Jonah kept his eyes pinched shut because he knew seeing his mother in this state would make the process much more difficult for him. He wanted to be brave, even though he felt like a rabbit in a den of coyotes.

  The doctor leaned over Jonah, examined the wound further and he nodded to himself. “Yep, definitely some stitches. Perhaps a follow up in two days to assess the rest of the damage.”

  “The rest?” Natalee began to panic again. “What do you mean the rest? There’s going to be more? This could get worse?”

  The doctor hushed her calmly. “Don’t worry, we will worry about something if it happens. We are allowed to be precautionary in situations like this.”

  Judah rubbed Natalee’s back gently. “You’re acting like they’re doing an autopsy right now, babe. It isn’t a problem until it’s a problem, okay?”

  She took a deep, shaky breath and fought to hold back her tears. “Okay, okay.” She took another slower breath. “Okay,” she whispered as she exhaled.

  Jonah covered his eyes with his palms. “Can you just hurry up before it hurts again?”

  The doctor smirked. “I like this kid. I’m going to make it numb again, don’t worry.” Jonah let out a deep sigh, as if he had been holding his breath the entire time. The doctor administered more anesthetic and the nurse prepared the needle and suture. As he leaned over Jonah, he looked aimed his voice more toward Natalee than to her son, “The first one is the worst.”

  Jonah nodded, and barred his teeth and prepared for the worst.

  The doctor chuckled. “Oh, you won’t feel a thing. I was talking to your mom. I can tell this is her first set of stitches.”

  Natalee laughed through her tears and covered her face with a tissue to blow her nose, “You’re right.”

  “I know I am,” the doctor chuckled again. He leaned back down and pierced Jonah’s scalp with the sharp, curved needle. Natalee and Judah both cringed, but Jonah laid there peacefully.

  After a couple minutes, the doctor tied off the last suture. He cut his needle loose and pulled off his glove in one swift motion. “All done.”

  “Really? Already?” Jonah turned himself around and sat up and reached for the back of his head to feel it.

  The doctor reached out and blocked Jonah’s hand from the fixed wound. “Don’t!” He yelled but dropped his voice immediately after he knew it had been prevented, “touch it. Don’t touch it at all. Your hands are always dirty.”

  Jonah nodded, “Okay, well, how many stitches are there?”

  “Lucky number thirteen!” The doctor stated proudly.

  Jonah’s eyes grew wide and he looked at his parents excitedly. “That’s even more than Jacob got when his sister threw him through a window!”

  Natalee and Judah glanced at each other then back to Jonah and proceeded to stare at him like he was crazy.

  “He only got nine!” Jonah pressed on, his pride showing its full glory.

  The doctor sniggered. “Looks like you have quite the trooper on your hands. Good luck!” He sent a nurse in with discharge instructions and soon they were on their way home together.

  All of them were slightly shaken by the experience, but glad it didn’t turn out any worse. Once they were home, they had dinner and sent Jonah to bed. Natalee and Judah headed to their room but were stopped in their tracks by a knock on the door.

  Judah looked at Natalee strangely, but Natalee gasped and ran for the foyer. “Svetlana never called me!” She swung the door open full force and it smacked off the wall guard that was strategically placed, “Svet! Where have you been?”

  Svetlana rushed past her with Yana close behind. “I did not get a phone today. Business went horribly.”

  Natalee stepped aside to give them room as they ushered through the door. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, everything is fine. You do not need to worry about anything.”

  Natalee eyed Judah from across the living room. “Okay well, we were just heading to bed. We had kind of a crazy day.”

  Svetlana spun around and locked eyes with Natalee. “What happened to you?”

  “Not to me,” Natalee reassured. “Jonah just got into a fight at school.”

  “Another one? What is he trying to do, prove himself? Does he wanted to be a fighter?”

  Natalee rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “Actually, yeah. But no, the kid pushed him down the stairs from behind.” Natalee lingered on the last two words as they ran over her teeth like gristle.

  “Coward!” Svetlana spat.

  “That’s what I said,” Judah chimed.

  Natalee locked the door and turned off the porch light. “Well there’s nothing that can be done about it right now. We’re keeping him out of school for the rest of the week and we will revisit it at another time.”

  “In Russia, that kid would be dead already. His parents would be dead already. His dog, cat
, whatever, they would all be dead. No questions asked.”

  Natalee raised an eyebrow and tapped her elbow with her index finger. “Well, that’s not how it works here.”

  Svetlana shrugged and thumbed the lid to the flask she pulled from her pocket. “That is why America is such a shit country. No one has the right to provide their own justice.”

  Natalee sighed, “I am not in the mood for government and politics, honestly.”

  “That is your choice.” She turned on her heel and headed for the stairs. She passed Judah without a word. Yana followed close behind, still silent.

  Natalee led Judah to their room by his hand, excited to have another night with him in bed with her. Once they were settled into their rightful spots, Natalee yawned. “I can’t believe this.”

  Judah sighed and raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Did you call someone a bitch last week?”

  Natalee raised an eyebrow and tilted her head toward him. “When do I ever go a whole week without calling someone a bitch?”

  Judah propped himself up and turned to face her. “Seriously. I need to know.”

  Natalee thought back to the previous week and replayed her interactions in her mind. “No one that I can recall?”

  “What about at the PTA meeting?”

  Natalee rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Well, yeah, but they’re all bitches all the time.”

  “Well, the kid who pushed Jonah said, ‘My mom’s not a bitch, yours is’.”

  Natalee sat up as she covered her mouth with a gasp. “What? Are you serious?”

  Judah nodded and ran his hands through his hair. “That’s what he told me.”

  “When did he tell you this? Where was I?”

  “At the hospital, you went to the cafeteria.”

  Natalee pushed herself up and slumped against the headboard, reduced to sobs once again. Judah looked around the room at nothing specific. He wasn’t sure if any of it was true, but he had to believe what his son was telling him, and this wasn’t something he could hide from his wife. He pulled her to his chest and rubbed her back.

  “Which one was it? If we know the mom, we can find the kid.”

  She sniffled against his shoulder. “All of them.”