Inconceivable! (49 page)

hen I arrived at the orphanage the next morning, I couldn’t wait to check on tiny Tigist. I bounded out of the van and went inside. Smiling nannies greeted me when I stepped into the freshly painted infant room. Once again, my bare feet registered the cool temperature of the tiles.

I scanned the room. “Where’s Tigist?” An alarm sounded in my head.

“She’s in the clinic. We had to move her because her cough got worse,” one of the nannies said as she changed a baby’s diaper. The day before, Tigist had coughed some after I fed her, but it sounded like a minor cold.

“May I go see her?”

“Yes. Go through the middle hallway, through the kitchen, and out the back door. It is a small building. You will see it.”

Almost before she finished giving me directions, I was on the move. The front room of the clinic was dark. Nannies sat on small cots holding babies who were bundled tightly like flies bound by a spider’s thread. A nanny wearing a kerchief had a sizeable toddler on her lap. The child’s eyes moved in strange ways and weren’t in sync. I scanned the room but didn’t see the baby who mattered the most to me.

“Tigist?” I directed my question at a nanny in the corner.

She motioned toward the door to my right. I walked through it and found Tigist lying in a tiny bed, head shaved and an IV inserted in her scalp. Medical tape held the needle in place. She had the same glazed look I’d seen on Baby Juan when he had been ill a couple of months earlier. Alemtsehay was in the room, folding clothes and putting them in a pile.

“May I?” I asked, indicating I wanted to hold Tigist.

She nodded and came to help me. Tigist was hooked up to a bag of liquid suspended from a hook above her head. Alemtsehay pulled up a wooden chair next to Tigist’s bed. I sat and she put the baby in my arms. Tigist looked at me a moment before coughing harshly. I put the back of my hand across her forehead. She felt warm but not hot.

“What’s wrong?”

“Pneumonia.”

At lunchtime, I tried my phone and got a signal. John answered quickly.

“Hatty. You have to come home. Did you see the story in
Xpress
claiming we’re separated? My father planted it.” Aha. So, James’ article had hit.

“What? Why would your dad talk to the press and lie about us being separated? That’s unconscionable.”

“It is. But he told me he did it. He says the story lays the groundwork for the order he’s about to issue to annul our marriage.”

“You can’t let him do that. And I can’t leave Ethiopia. There’s a sick baby here who needs me. She’ll die if I abandon her.” Panic raised the pitch of my voice as, for the first time, I articulated my fear that Tigist might not make it.

“Come back so we can formulate a plan to deal with Leopold. He says if you refuse to do another round of IVF, he’s going to sign the annulment papers.”

“Threaten him.”

“What? He’s the king. I could go to jail for threatening him.”

“I don’t mean physically. Threaten to leak the story of his relationship with Louisa. You think they still see each other, right?”

“I know they do. I’ll have to think about it.”

Sigh.
I have to do everything. “You can’t think about it. You have to do it. I’ll see if I can catch a flight out of here this afternoon. I can probably be in Roeselare by tonight. We’re going to set your father straight. Then we’re both coming back here tomorrow. This baby needs us.”

ohn and I slammed into each other, embracing and kissing deeply in the midst of the crazy bustle at Toulene’s International Airport. Bernard held back several people trying to snap photos.
Let ‘em rip, baby. Show the world we’re together and we’re in love.
It’s about time something true about me and John made the rounds on social media.

“Are you ready to do this?” John scooted into the seat next to me in the back of the black car.

“Like we have a choice. My goal is not to drop the f-bomb in front of Leopold again.”

“If ever a situation called for a fuck or two, this is it.”

“Listen to your mouth! I’m gone for a few days and you start swearing? Makes me wonder what would happen if I’d stayed in Addis for the whole week.”

Herr Schroeder told us where we’d find Leopold. When we burst into the game room, Louisa sat on the billiard table, her skirt hiked up. Leopold stood between her legs.

They looked shocked and pissed at our intrusion, but Leopold didn’t let irritation seep into his voice. “Let me guess. You want to announce a divorce rather than endure the embarrassment of having me annul your marriage. I think that’s commendable.”

I held up my smartphone and snapped photos.

“Stop it!” Louisa yelled. She scrambled, bringing her legs together, and hopped off the table. Leopold didn’t move.

John stared at his father and I put my phone in my back jeans pocket.

Leopold spoke again in a casual way that betrayed the weight of his words. “I know you didn’t want your relationship with Hatty to end like this. But your commitment to this family, to our country, is much bigger than the vows you made to Hatty.”

John remained still and silent.

“I’d say the reaction to the article has been neutral at best. There’s no outcry over the break-up of your marriage. The people of our country realize what you don’t: she’s just an American who caught your eye after Claire cut you off. It’s time to move on. Be a man, John.”

“He’s more of a man than you,” I interjected. “And if you don’t leave us alone, I’m going to hit ‘send’ on every photo I took and shoot them to my friend James Compson at
Xpress
. You’re not the only one with connections to that cesspool.”

Leopold ignored me and spoke directly to John. “I know if you loved Hatty as much as I loved your mother, you’d do everything you could to avoid an annulment. I was the one who sent Bea to Dr. Cloutier. He gave her an experimental drug to stimulate her ovaries. It worked two times―for you and Henri. She kept taking the pills, hoping she’d get pregnant a third time, but the medication caused cysts.” Leopold walked to the sideboard and poured himself a drink.

“You mean the pills brought on the cancer?” John’s face was pale.

“Dr. Cloutier told her the pills were causing the cancer to grow, that taking them was like throwing gas on a fire. But she was committed to fulfilling our dream for this country.” Leopold swallowed the drink in one gulp and threw the glass against the wall. Louisa jumped back as shards flew toward her.

“I will
never
sacrifice Hatty like that.” John was making fists and curling his fingers tighter.

“Your mother knew exactly what she was doing. She risked her own health, her own
life
to bring you into this world. I won’t let you walk away from your duty.”

“Promise you won’t annul our marriage or we send out the photos.” John paced. His movement reminded me of footage I once saw of a caged lion.

“As with your mother, I’m doing what I must to protect the country.”

John walked over to his father and punched him square in the jaw. Louisa squealed. We walked out of the room.