"Well, well, well. Did you think I wouldn't find out? How dare you not tell me he was here!"

My mouth dropped in surprise and disgust. 

"Jules." 

She rolled her eyes at me like I was some kind of idiot.

"Can't get anything past you." She pointed her finger towards me. "Why didn't you tell me he was back?"

I eyed her from head to toe. She was wearing a short black mini skirt and a red skin tight tank top. Add the stripper heels she was wearing, she looked like a hooker. Well...an expensive hooker at least. I'll give her that.

"He's my brother, Jules. Besides, I don't have to tell you shit."

"He's my fucking boyfriend," she sneered at me.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Please. He's your boy toy and nothing more. Do you even know the definition of a relationship?"

"At least I know how to keep a guy satisfied enough that he doesn't need to fuck two other women."

I felt my temper almost reach boiling status when she threw what happened with Adam in my face. Where did this bitch get off on thinking she was some high and mighty saint?

"How did you even find out he was here?" I hated asking the question, but I needed to know. I knew for damn sure that none of my close friends would have told her.

"When I didn't hear from him for a week, I called his unit overseas. It took days of leaving messages and trying different numbers to finally reach someone over there. Then they finally got back to me and told me he was injured and got sent back to the States." Her eyes fell to my belly. "You've clearly gotten fat."

"I'm pregnant you sleazy harpy. And you need to leave."

"I'm not going anywhere. Did you ever stop to think that maybe he wants me to be here?" 

"Ha!" I laughed. "No, he doesn't. I know my brother better than anyone. Especially you. He will never be with you. Not the way you think you want."

She stalked towards me until she was just a few feet away. "How dare you think you know what I want. You have no idea. I love him and he loves me."

Okay...maybe she was delusional. I started to feel a weird sensation in my chest. I frowned as I rubbed the area. "Jules, you don't know what love is." I arched a brow when I said, "Tell me honestly, did you fuck someone when my brother was away? If so, how many?"

She refused to answer. Yep. That was Jules. She was the type of person that liked to sleep around. You know what? That was fine. More power to her. But my brother told her multiple times they were just friends and nothing more. And she agreed to that.

"That's what I thought," I said with a sigh. "Look...you're not a completely awful person." It was a lie, but whatevs. "Leave my brother alone and just go do you. You aren't welcome here."

That weird tightening feeling I felt earlier in my chest started to get worse now. I leaned forward and reached out to brace myself on the end of Nate's hospital bed. Jules kept screaming at me but I wasn't hearing what she was saying.

"Get-- call a nurse!" I yelled at her as fear took over me.

"Always the drama queen, Lanie. I swear it's ridiculous!"

"Call a fucking nurse!" I screamed as my heart started racing. Terrified that something was wrong with the baby, I wrapped my arms around my stomach.

Jules kept running her mouth, but I was too scared to pay attention. Next thing I knew, Harper and Jackson entered the room with angry expressions.

"Oh my God! Lanie!" Harper ran to me and wrapped her arms around me. "Jackson, get Jules out of here!"

"Time to go," I heard Jackson say to Jules as he tried to usher her out of the room. I glanced over and saw her trying to resist him. Right after he called for security, I heard a sound that I would never forget.

Nate's room fell silent when we all heard the sound of him choking. I looked over at him, and it appeared he was gagging on the ventilator. Harper quickly called for help and two nurses ran in the room.

One of them came over to me and quickly grabbed a wheelchair. "We need to get you looked at, Miss Jenkins."

I kept my eyes on Nate. I didn't want to leave the room. I had no idea what was wrong with my brother and I didn't want to go anywhere until I knew he was okay.

"No! I'm staying," I yelled to everyone in the room.

"Lanie, I'll stay here with Nate and let you know what happened. Security it's here to deal with Jules and Jackson is going to go with you."

I didn't even have time to respond to her before the nurse started rolling me down the hallway with Jackson following behind. I vaguely heard the security officer telling Jules that her visitation hours were over at he escorted her towards the exit of the hospital.

Just as the nurse wheeled me into an empty exam room, I got that same dizzy feeling like I did at Jackson's house when the two Rangers came.

"Jackson?" My voice was weak and panicky.

He helped the nurse get me on the exam table. "I'm right here, Lanie."

He took my hand and and squeezed it for reassurance. I really didn't want to be in this room right now. I needed to know what was going on with Nate. For all I knew, he could be dead right now.

"Call Ayden," I begged. At least he was here in the hospital. He had an appointment with the therapist this morning. I needed him here. With me.

"I already did. He's coming as fast as he can. He should be here any minute."

Jackson's voice was calm and steady. How did he do that? I know he's been through a lot in his life. Maybe that's why he was able to keep his cool when things got intense. That's what I needed to learn how to do. For the sake of my baby, I needed to stop allowing myself to get so stressed out and worked up.

I knew Jules showing up was going to cause problems. The day after Nate and Ayden had returned to the states, Harper had asked me if I was going to call her and let her know that. I told Harper straight up that I didn't want her anywhere near this hospital.

It would be different if she and Nate were in a relationship. But they weren't. He even told me himself when he was on leave that he didn't want anything real with her. I was being honest when I told her she had no right to be there. And just like I told Harper, she only causes stress.

"Lanie, your blood pressure is too high and we need to get it down. I need you to take deep breaths for me, okay?"

Well that didn't sound good. It felt like my heart was banging against my rib cage right now. My chest was tight and my ears were ringing. Jackson was saying something to me but I couldn't make it out.

I tried taking deep breaths like the nurse requested, but it didn't seem to help. I blinked my eyes rapidly as everything around me started to become blurry. Something was wrong. I knew it deep down and it was only making me more scared for my baby.

"We need to get a doctor in here," the nurse said. Her voice sounded far away and distant.

"Then bloody get one!" I heard Jackson order the nurse.

If I had any control over my expression or reactions right now, I would smile at Jackson for what he said. He was always trying to protect me. Ayden and I had a long talk the other night and we decided that we wanted Harper and Jackson to be the baby's godparents. We were going to wait to tell them until we found out if it was a boy or a girl. But with what's happening right now... I didn't want to waste another minute. As soon as I was better, I wanted to tell them.

"Lanie, wake up!"

I faintly heard the sound of someone snapping their fingers. It was probably Jackson in front of my face. I couldn't see anything now; which meant he was probably snapping his his fingers in front of my eyes. Great. This wasn't good.

I heard the sound of a male voice in the room. He must be the doctor. Just as I heard him ask the nurse about what was going on, I felt myself slipping further into unconsciousness.

"We're losing her!"

And I continued to drift away from reality, I kept picturing and hearing Nate choking. God, please let him be okay. I just needed him to be okay...