June. Still June.
I was speechless as the life that I’d begun to build up in my mind threatened to crash down around me.
No. Not June. It couldn’t have been June. There was no way this was Chandler’s baby.
JC remembered the timing of our reunion, too. “It’s not mine,” he said quietly.
I shook my head, adamant. “It is yours. I know it.”
“I’m sorry,” Dr. Wright said, understanding the situation. “I didn’t realize.” She turned to Nancy. “You can go. I’ll finish up here.”
I sensed she’d sent the technician away to protect the awkward nature of our discussion. I appreciated it.
But I didn’t wait for Nancy to shut the door before turning to JC. “We used condoms. You’re the only one that I didn’t use additional protection with.”
“No method of birth control is one hundred percent effective,” Dr. Wright reminded us.
Uh, obviously. Since I had an IUD and was still very much pregnant.
“Isn’t it more likely that I conceived when I wasn’t using a condom too?” I didn’t wait for her answer, which I presumed would be canned. “It can’t be right.” I tried to recall what was going on back then. When I’d last been with Chandler. “JC, do you remember the day that I came to court? What day was that?”
“Uh.” He thought for a moment. “The twenty-third. I think.”
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Then this can’t be right. I’d broken up with Chandler before that. And that’s before the twenty-eighth.” I turned back to Dr. Wright. “I didn’t have sex that week. With anyone. These measurements can be off, right? Is it possible that I really got pregnant on July fourth? Or fifth?”
“Ultrasounds are slightly less accurate in the second trimester. It’s generally not off more than a week at this point.” Dr. Wright spun the dial of the calendar. “So it does seem that July fourth would be a possible conception date.”
“See?” I looked at JC, pleadingly. “It’s yours. It has to be yours.”
“The dating can also be off in the other direction,” Dr. Wright said. “Which would put you at June twenty-first.”
“And that’s…” I trailed off. I had broken up with Chandler before the day I went to court, but it had only been a couple of days before. I felt the blood drain from my face. My heart sank lower, lower, and I couldn’t look at the image of the baby on the screen any longer. Couldn’t look anywhere but straight ahead at the plain white wall of the room. Go cold, I thought instinctively. Be numb.
JC understood without me saying anything. “Dr. Wright, is there a way to get a paternity test during pregnancy?”
He was the one who should be upset, yet he was the one keeping it together.
“There are a couple of ways we can find out paternity. The traditional way is an amniocentesis. I don’t recommend that. There’s no other health data suggesting we need that test, and it’s invasive and there’s a slight chance for a miscarriage. There’s a newer test that analyzes the fetal matter in the mother’s blood. It would just be a blood sample needed from all the parties involved. Is it only two possible fathers?” Dr. Wright looked toward me questioningly.
The part that killed me, though, was that JC looked as well.
“Yes. Only two possible fathers,” I said weakly. At another time, I might have felt offended by the question. But I was too heartbroken. JC had every right to assume there may have been other men besides Chandler. He’d never asked, and I’d never offered. Yet it still felt like a blow that he hadn’t automatically known that I would have already told him.
“I can order the draw from the lab downstairs. As soon as all the samples are collected, the data will be sent out. Results should be back in five to seven business days.”
In other words, we might know next Friday, two days before our wedding. Or we might not find out until the day after we’d tied the knot.
Bile gathered in my throat as I wondered if JC would want to postpone.
“Thank you,” he said to her. “If there’s any way we can speed it up, it would be better.” He’d done the math too. He wanted the results before the wedding as well. How could he not? “Do we need to have the other possible father’s blood drawn as well? Since there are only two of us, shouldn’t just mine be enough?”
I hadn’t even thought about involving Chandler. Of course, I was trying not to think at all.
“It would provide the most conclusive results to have it, yes,” Dr. Wright said. “If contacting him is not a possibility, then they can go with just the one. I do recommend you get his as well if you can.”