BREATHE: A Billionaire Romance, Part Five Read Free Page A

showed up on the screen.
    With a sigh, he flung his finger over the touchscreen and swiped it to answer.
    “Hello?” Derek called out into the tiny device, quite worriedly, just before putting the phone on speaker.
    “Yes, Mr. Sholts. We got your results back, and I’d like to invite you to come into the office to discuss them.”
    “We’ll be there.”
    And we would be there…and we would be ready to hear whatever it was that the doctor had to tell us.
    For better or worse.
     

Chapter 4
    The room was even colder this time than it was the last, and I wasn’t sure if it was just because we were both nervous, or if Jack Frost took a piss in the room, but we both shivered as we waited for the doctor.
    Neither of us spoke. Neither of us looked at the other. We only sat—Derek on the examining table, and me in the chair right beside him. And each of us had our hands balled together in our laps, with our heads down, staring the white tile floor below. We were completely silent, lost in our own thoughts and worries…until a creak sounded at the door.
    Both of our heads snapped up in unison as Dr. Lawrence walked in the door with a brown file tucked beneath his arm.
    “Hey guys,” he sighed, just before trekking across the office, having a seat in the swivel chair just in front of where I sat.
    “Let’s get the show on the road!” Derek laughed nervously, clapping his hands together.
    I could tell that he just really wanted to get it over with.
    Dr. Lawrence sighed and nodded just before opening up the folder he carried. “Well, as you know, I was worried about toxicity levels. When we did the biochemistry profile, it indicated that there was a rise in creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase. And your urinalysis had high levels of myoglobin.”
    Both of our eyes widened in concern and confusion. What the hell had he just said? Was it English? Were we supposed to know what the hell he was talking about?
    “English, Doc…” Derek sighed. “I didn’t go to med school.”
    “I’m getting there, Mr. Sholts. I just wanted to explain what the results yielded and then we’ll talk about what it means.”
    He cleared his throat, and the sound echoed throughout the room.
    “There’s degradation of your liver, which explains the jaundice—and there are also some renal concerns. You mentioned tightness in the chest, which is also a major concern…and fluid in the lungs.”
    He flipped the page, and we continued to stare forward. My eyes were on his lips, paying close attention to every word although I didn’t quite understand all of it.
    “You have difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, and have experienced loss of consciousness as well as several other symptoms correlated to this sort of toxin.”
    “I don’t need a play-by-play of all the shit I have or have experienced, Doc…” Derek spoke up, using his hand to signal a halt. “What kind of toxin?”
    “I have concluded that this is all conclusive with an excess of the toxins found in a common household anticoagulant.” His voice cracked a bit, clearly not giving us good news. “Rodenticide.”
    “Rat poison?” I choked, remembering back to when my dog got into the box my daddy kept in the barn. My hand flew to my mouth as I tried to stifle my cry.
    Derek huffed and stared at the fluorescent lights above us. I could tell that he was trying to hold back tears.
    “Yes, rat poison.” Dr. Lawrence trailed. “Fortunately, though, there’s an antidote.”
    Both Derek and I seemed to release a breath of relief almost in unison as he continued his spiel.
    “The antidote is vitamin K, and I would like to order a full blood transfusion immediately, as well as vitamin K treatments and dialysis,” he said, closing the folder. “We will definitely need to hospitalize you. And,” he continued, “if you aren’t taking it purposely, then it’s either being done maliciously or consistently accidentally…so we may need to discover a route cause of all of