Surrogate for My Brother-in-law - Chapter 69: Chapter 69

My mother was delighted to meet Sable. Even after I told her everything, she accepted the baby as mine. I settled the baby's bassinet next to Mom's bed, and we watched her sleep together.
“She's beautiful,” Mom said.
I nodded. “I can't believe I made her.”
“I can,” Mom said. “I always knew you'd do amazing things.”
I stayed over that night with Mom and Sable. The next day, Dr. Lee declared me recovered enough to try healing them both. Sable's color improved and she finished an entire bottle for the first time in her life. Mom perked up and her vitals improved.
After two more days of that, Dr. Lee and I discussed options with Ethan and Mom.
“Honestly, I'd like to get you and Sable out of the hospital environment,” Dr. Lee said. “It's just not good for your mental health at this point. And Sable needs to be with Tessa, not hooked up to monitors.”
“Won't Leo object to that?” Ethan asked. “Sable being moved, I mean.”
“Tessa will bring her back any time she's here,” Dr. Lee said, “and if he shows up when she's not on shift, I'll come up with an excuse. He usually gives us plenty of warning before he drops by.”
I agreed despite the risks. I couldn't imagine leaving Sable behind at the hospital, but I wanted to sleep in a bed that didn't roll. And I knew Mom would feel better at Ethan's manor than she would in the hospital.
So we decided to go with Dr. Lee's plan. Sable would stay in a bassinet in my bedroom. Mom would have a guest room with an entrance to the garden. Ethan had offered that room because he thought the more fresh air Mom got the better. He was probably right.
It was nice being back at Ethan's manor. His siblings were friendly but they were careful not to overwhelm me. The library was nice, and the archivists were welcoming.
I spent hours in Ethan's family library with Mom, catching her up on my life since the attack. She listened as I poured my heart out, and held me when I couldn't talk any more.
Ethan's brothers and sisters adored my mother. She was obviously surprised how happy they were to have her around. Eli learned how to make her favorite foods. Little Elise hovered around her in the library, bringing her books to read so that she wouldn't strain herself. Erma picked flowers from their garden and put them in pretty vases around her guest room. Estelle sat with us late into the evenings, discussing the complexities of running a manor and all the inter-linked families of the pack.
To Mom's visible surprise, Estelle and Ethan visibly welcomed her experience and advice. Mom never ran a pack, but she'd lived among Arthur's wolves for years. Plus, she had come from a large blended family in the human territories. So she had a surprising amount of advice to offer the young alpha.
“Can we keep her?” Ethan whispered to me one night as he escorted me and Sable up to my room. “No, I'm serious,” he said when I laughed. “Having her around is like, I dunno, having this cool aunt who sneaks you candy and knows all the juicy gossip. I have no idea why that idiot Arthur picked Annette over her.”
“She's human,” I pointed out.
“She's wonderful,” Estelle countered. “We should move her into the family wing.”
“Is there room?” I asked.
“Sure,” Ethan said. “Ernie mostly lives out in the cabin with his mate now, he said she could have his old room. It's right next to yours.”
“He really doesn't mind?” I asked.
“He really doesn't. You can ask him tomorrow at breakfast, and we'll have her moved in while you're on shift at the hospital.”
While life at the manor was practically a fairy tale, things were much more tense at the hospital. Leo visited constantly, so I had to stick to my mask and the Dr. Angel persona. I was terrified he'd recognize me at any moment.
Plus, every day there was another message from Alpha Arthur, Annette, and Eva. They pestered me in both my identities.
My so-called “family” were determined that Dr. Angel would treat them and give them the same advantages they saw my other patients enjoy. They filled Dr. Angel's inbox with messages. As Tessa I received several calls a day, even though I never answered them. I didn't know how they got my phone number.
They did not accept my refusals. Arthur's requests turned into demands. Eva's messages became thinly veiled threats.
Eva soon decided to take direct action. She showed up at the hospital and demanded they hand Sable over to her care. She claimed she wanted her own doctors to care for her.
I knew better. I knew how much Eva liked using hostages to get what she wanted. She assumed that Dr. Angel would be lured to their manor to care for her tiny, helpless patient. Once they had Dr. Angel in their territory, they planned to take her captive and force her to make them stronger.
If that failed, well, Eva knew I was the baby's real mother. She assumed that I had some influence over either Dr. Angel herself, or over Ethan, who was officially Dr. Angel's boss. She assumed she could manipulate me with Sable's welfare.
Her plan fizzled out, though, because Sable was not at the hospital when she arrived. She was at the manor with me. Dr. Lee, however, was present. And she relished the opportunity to teach Eva a lesson.
Dr. Lee informed Eva, with Leo present, that Sable was far too delicate to be moved. When Eva insisted again, Dr. Lee threatened to report them both to the Council of Alphas, for the attempted murder of a child. Leo was horrified, and Eva had no choice but to back down.
The Council was mostly ineffective without a strong leader, but they took a threat to a pup seriously. Killing a pup was the one crime that could cause an alpha to be banished.
When that plan failed, Eva turned to threatening me with my mother's welfare again. Apparently, the hospital had not reported my mother's escape to her or Alpha Arthur. Although the nurse who helped us had been fired.
Which was fine, because she showed up at Ethan's office door with a resume, and a massive file full of medical ethics violations she'd personally witnessed or had documented from other staff. Ethan looked forward to using that information to bring down Arthur's entire medical network.
Eva sent me a blurry photo of my mother, with a message stating that either Dr. Angel would do what she said, or she would “pull the plug.”
I looked from the message, to my mother, and back. All the years of threats came back to me. I remembered how I'd begged for just a single photograph.
Enough was enough.
I called Alpha Arthur, speaking as Dr. Angel. I told him I would see him, along with his wife and daughter and son-in-law, for a special family consultation.
Ethan was confused and worried. Dr. Lee trusted that I knew what I was doing, but she worried that I couldn't handle all of them at once.
Mom offered to hold the baby while I took care of business.