Captured By The Dragon
Episode 40

Sherry – Third

The waiting room was cold and dim, not one other person was around at this time of night. Patara had gone into a coma a few days ago and the call finally came that the monster of a baby inside her was ready to come out. It was about time too—Patara looked as if she was about to burst with how big her stomach had gotten. Sherry wasn’t sure how they were going to even get it out of her unless they cut her open.

There wasn’t any need to alert her siblings and father just yet, Sherry could deal with this on her own. By morning, she would call with the news and they could come running down like the concerned family they were.

The doctors and nurses agreed that this was a burden on Patara. It didn’t take much convincing to get them on her side. Shifters were disgusting and evil and had no place in the human world.

Much less with a girl that didn’t know what she was doing or wasn’t even old enough to care for a child on her own. Sherry would rather die where she stood rather than let that monster in her house. She knew Nina wouldn’t let it in with her and her husband either—even if she didn’t want to admit that to Patara.

What did Patara honestly expect to happen? Did she want her family to come together and look past their beliefs about shifters? Did she want them to forgive them for what they did to her and what they do to hundreds of other young girls every day? Did she want them—to love this child just because it came out of her? Because it had a drop of their b***d?

Not in a million years.

It was noble for her to think she was doing the right thing, but Sherry had their reputation to protect. A reputation she had been building since long before Patara was even a thought in her mind. She did everything to get their family to the status it was at. Patara was seconds from blowing it down to the ground.

Sherry even sacrificed nationwide support in getting her daughter back by hiding the news that she was taken in the first place. She couldn’t have her rich friends knowing that her daughter was sold to a dirty shifter that only wanted her for s*x. It only worked because Patara didn’t have friends to ask about her wellbeing or notice she was gone.

And it was a good thing she did keep it from the world. If she hadn’t, they might have caught on to the fact that her daughter was pregnant with a shifter’s baby and that would have made the entire family go into exile. Never again would any of them be able to go to the country club or attend a meeting at work without being laughed out of the office.

Didn’t the rest of her family understand how important this was? Didn’t they know that she was doing this for them? All of it was for them… for her family and for all the future grandchildren she would have. Instead they began to look at Sherry as if they didn’t know her anymore.

It was easy to paint her as the villain because she would do anything to keep them afloat. No matter the cost or who it hurt, she would keep this family away from the harmful toxin of a ruined reputation. One day they would thank her. One day they would understand how hard she fought for them.

Sherry always loved Patara. She once thought she would be her golden child, the one that never let her down and always succeeded. Nina did her best, but she tended to argue when she didn’t agree with her mother. But not Patara—never Patara.

At least not until she was taken. Sherry knew it was going to happen. She knew it the moment she heard that Patara was missing.

She knew that the daughter she once knew was long gone. For a moment she thought it was salvageable. A few months in therapy and she would be good as new. Perhaps not a little girl anymore, but a woman who had lived and learned and was ready to start the rest of her life.

What Sherry had now was a broken girl that was clueless and wrong. She was full of unmade mistakes and took the biggest one there ever was. Sherry didn’t blame Patara for what was forced upon her, but she did blame her for wanting to keep it and further ruin herself for any man that might want her.

No one wanted damaged goods, and Patara was now past the point of redeemable.

“It’s out.” A nurse popped her head in the waiting room and alerted Sherry. She pulled herself up and straightened her coat. At least there was no one else around to see this.

Sherry remained emotionless as she followed the nurse down the long halls. It had to be around 3am and there weren’t many souls awake at this hour.

The nurse led her to a small room at the end of the hall. The light flickered above as Sherry walked in. A big lump laid in the center of the table and Sherry could barely look at it. It looked like an over sized human baby with dragon claws. In a blink they were back to small hands.

Sherry quickly looked away when she noticed that the baby had a similar face to Patara when she was born. This thing was not part of her daughter and it never will be.

“Is it set to go?” Sherry asked the nurse who looked at the baby as if she was frightened of it.

“The driver is on his way up. He will take it to be adopted by a family who always wanted a shifter baby.” She replied.

Sherry scoffed in distaste. “Who would ever want a shifter child? That’s disgusting.” She mumbled to herself and walked out of the room. She couldn’t stand to be in its company any longer.

“What will you tell her when she wakes?” Sherry asked the nurse. The lights flickered above them in the hallway too.

“The doctor thought it would be best to tell her that the baby had passed during child birth like you suggested. She won’t want to see it if she believes it has died.”

Sherry nodded. “Good. How is she?”

“She’s stable. There was a moment when we thought we might lose her but she pulled through and we were able to get it out of her.” The nurse glanced down at the clipboard in her hand. “She might not wake for a few more days but she will be a little weak when she does.”

“Thank you.” Sherry passed an envelope to the nurse who took it with wide eyes. The hospital weren’t big fans of shifters, it didn’t take much to get them on her side at all.

One day Patara would be glad of all her mother had done for her.

For all she had sacrificed.