I stepped forward and started explaining before anyone else could. “She has a fever. Her ear is red and draining. The fluid is clear, but there was a lot of it. And she keeps tugging on her earlobe.”
The doctor blinked down at me then gave a firm nod. “Well then, let’s have a look.” He crouched down beside me and touched Nova’s back. “Hey there, little lady. Can I have a peek at your ears?”
She lifted her head, but after only a moment, she buried her face in my neck once again. I glared at the man. “Will it hurt her?”
“No, sir.” He straightened and grabbed something that was attached to the wall with a cord. I recognized it as what doctors used to look inside my ears as he placed a fresh disposable cap on the end. “This won’t take a minute, little lady.” He tried to get her to cooperate again.
“I don’t wanna,” she whispered.
“Nova, the doctor has to look at your ears,” her mom tried to argue.
“Let the doctor do his job, princess. And then we can go home and have ice cream,” her dad bribed.
“I don’t wanna.”
“It won’t hurt, Nova,” I promised. “See? The doctor is going to look in my ears first.”
Slowly, she lifted her head, and immediately, the doctor stuck the light in my ear. I stood very still as he looked in one ear and then the other. While she was still sitting upright, he quickly checked her good ear, but before he could even get it fully into the affected ear, she whimpered in pain. I tightened my hold on her, hating that I’d broken my promise to her that it wouldn’t hurt.
“Ah, yes, little lady,” he murmured sympathetically. “That is one mean ear infection you have.” He pulled the light free and glanced at the adults. “When did this start?”
“She was fine all day,” her mom explained. “But they tend to come on rather quickly.”
“I’ll write her a prescription for an antibiotic as well as ear drops.” He pulled out his phone and started typing away on it. “I take it she gets them often?”
“Yes,” her mom confirmed.
“I recommend seeing an ENT as quickly as possible,” he told her. “Since you know the drill, alternate acetaminophen and ibuprofen for the fever or pain. If she gets worse, or there is no improvement in the next few days, bring her back, and we can change up the medication.”
His gaze went back to Nova, then to me. “You take good care of her, young man. She’s got herself a brave hero to watch out for her.”
“Is there a pharmacy open at this hour?” Felicity asked. “I know this is New York City, but…”
“Don’t worry. We will have the prescription filled here,” the doctor told her before Mom could answer. “It will be brought to you in just a few minutes.” He bowed his head to Mom. “If there’s nothing else you need, Mrs. Vitucci?”
“No, thank you, Doctor. I’ll make sure your boss knows how well you took care of us.”
While the adults talked, I carried Nova over to the exam table, but I didn’t place her on it. Instead, I stood so I could lean my back against it and adjusted her in my arms. “Does your ear hurt very bad?” I asked her quietly.
She nodded.
“Did the doctor make it hurt worse?”
This time, she shook her head before yawning, but then her head shot up. “Bun-Bun! Where’s Bun-Bun?”
“In the limo. I thought she would be safer there.” She let out a relieved breath and rested her head back on my shoulder. I started rubbing her back again. “It’s okay. Go to sleep. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
Another yawn escaped her. “I wanna marry you,” she said with the prettiest giggle I’d ever heard. “You take care of me like Daddy takes care of Mommy.”
My heart lifted at that idea. If I married her, then she would always be with me. I could take care of her. Protect her. Make sure she was always happy.
But she was too young—we both were. I’d have to do some research, but I’d find out how old Nova had to be before I could marry her.
And as soon as she was old enough, she would be mine forever.
Then no one could take her away from me.
6
Ryan
It was hard to be excited for my birthday when Nova was leaving me the day after. I couldn’t think about anything past what I was going to do once my little angel was no longer there to climb into bed beside me each night so I could protect her and Bun-Bun. Would she be happy when she left? Would she be safe?
Would her mom hurt her like mine had?
I hadn’t seen Felicity so much as yell at Nova in the time they had been staying at our house, but she’d done more than a little shouting at Garret. Not that he didn’t deserve it. All Garret did was get into trouble. He was worse than Vito and Bennie combined, and I didn’t think it was possible for any one person to get into more mischief than those two. But other than getting frustrated with her son and threatening to ground him, Nova’s mom had seemed okay, I guess.
I still didn’t trust her, though.
What if she was different when no one else was around? What if she did bad things to her kids when there wasn’t anyone to see?
The thought of Nova crying because she was scared and hurt by her mother—or anyone else—left me sick to my stomach.
Mom dropped her fork onto her breakfast plate, her hand going to my forehead. “Your color is off, l’venok,” she muttered. “Are you feeling unwell?”
“I’m fine,” I said, pulling back from her touch so I could stare at Nova’s empty seat on the other side of mine.
After our trip to the emergency room weeks before, I’d looked up the age someone had to be in order to get legally married. If Nova’s parents gave their consent, I could marry her when she turned seventeen. But I didn’t think her dad would let me do that, so that meant I had to wait until she was eighteen. Nova would be four in November. That meant I had to wait a little over fourteen years.
That seemed like an eternity. I wanted her to stay with me now. Instead, I would have to let her get on the plane in a few days. And the worst part was that I didn’t know when I would get to see her again.
Would I ever?
“Well, I don’t like that color,” Zariah complained as she walked into the dining room with her phone in one hand. I looked at her in annoyance, only to find she wasn’t even looking my way. Her eyes were on the screen of her phone. “It’s ugly, and with your skin tone, it makes you look ugly too.”
“Zariah!” Zia Scarlett scolded as she lifted her head from the stack of papers Dad had given her to look over before he’d gone to a meeting earlier. “You are being rude and cruel.”
“No, I’m not,” her eldest daughter argued. “I’m being honest. What would be cruel is if I allowed my best friend to be seen in public in such an awful dress.”
“She’s right!” I heard the annoying sound of her friend’s whine, and it finally clicked in my head that they were on a video call. “My mom’s stylist picked out this dress, and I called Zariah for her advice. I knew she wouldn’t lie to me. Now I just have to convince my mother that it would be embarrassing for everyone if someone took my picture in this hideous thing.”