My Ten-Year-Old’s Pregnancy Test Was Positive PART 2

Chapter Three

The Empty Ultrasound

The ultrasound room had pictures of smiling cartoon animals taped to the ceiling.

Sophie stared at them while the technician moved the probe across her lower abdomen.

I held her hand. Eric stood near the door with his arms crossed. Daniel remained somewhere downstairs, waiting for news from a family that had just treated him like a criminal.

The screen showed shifting fields of gray.

I kept searching for the shape of a baby even though every part of me rejected the possibility.

The technician measured something, erased it, then measured again.

“Do you see anything?” Eric asked.

“I’m not permitted to interpret the images.”

“That means you don’t.”

“It means a radiologist will review them.”

Sophie turned toward me.

“If there’s a baby, will I have to keep it?”

My throat closed.

“We don’t know that there is one.”

“But the test said—”

“The test found a hormone,” I reminded her. “That’s all we know.”

The technician abruptly stopped moving the probe. She saved several images, then left the room without explaining why.

Eric began pacing.

“This is what happens when everyone worries about Daniel’s feelings instead of finding out what happened to Sophie.”

“Your accusation did not create the test result.”

“No, but living with him might have.”

Sophie covered her ears.

“Stop!”

A radiologist entered with Dr. Ortiz. They spoke quietly while reviewing the images.

Finally, Dr. Ortiz came to the bedside.

“There is no pregnancy visible inside Sophie’s uterus.”

The air left my lungs so quickly that I nearly collapsed.

“No baby?”

“We do not see one.”

Eric did not look relieved.

“What about an ectopic pregnancy?”

“We examined the areas around both ovaries. We found no gestational sac, suspicious mass, or internal bleeding.”

“Could it be too early?”

Dr. Ortiz hesitated.

“In very early pregnancy, an ultrasound may not show anything. But Sophie’s hormone level, her examination, and the appearance of her reproductive organs do not fit together the way we would expect.”

I pulled Sophie against me.

“So Daniel is innocent.”

“The medical findings do not indicate an identifiable pregnancy,” she said carefully. “The investigation and the medical diagnosis are separate matters.”

Eric seized on her caution.

“You still can’t rule it out.”

Dr. Ortiz looked at him.

“We cannot explain the hCG yet. That is not the same as accusing someone without evidence.”

For the first time since he arrived, Eric went silent.

While we waited for transport, Sophie asked to use the bathroom for the third time in less than an hour.

“She drank a lot for the ultrasound,” I said.

“I’m always thirsty now,” Sophie replied. “Even at school.”

Dr. Ortiz stopped near the door.

“How long has that been happening?”

“I don’t know. A few weeks.”

“Months,” I corrected. “She carries two water bottles to school.”

The doctor stepped closer.

“Has she been waking at night to urinate?”

“Almost every night.”

Eric frowned.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Because you turned every conversation into a custody fight.”

Dr. Ortiz asked Sophie to sit upright. She held one finger in front of Sophie’s face and moved it slowly from side to side.

“Keep looking at my nose. Tell me when you can see my fingers.”

Sophie answered correctly when the doctor’s hand was near the center.

When it moved farther to the right, she said nothing.

Dr. Ortiz tried the left side.

Sophie still stared forward.

“Now?” the doctor asked.

“What am I supposed to see?”

The room changed.

The ultrasound had frightened Dr. Ortiz. This frightened her more.

She shone a small light into Sophie’s eyes, then asked whether the words on the wall appeared blurry.

“Only on the sides,” Sophie said. “It’s like things disappear.”

I remembered the call from school.

She had not stumbled into those lockers because she was dizzy.

She had not seen them.

Dr. Ortiz stepped into the hallway and made a phone call. When she returned, two more doctors were with her.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“We’ve been looking below Sophie’s waist because of the pregnancy test,” she said. “But her headaches, thirst, early development, and vision changes suggest the source may be somewhere else.”

“Where?”

She glanced toward Sophie before answering.

“We need an MRI of her brain.”

Eric’s face lost all its anger.

Sophie squeezed my hand.

“Mom, what are they looking for?”

Before I could answer, Dr. Ortiz did.

“Something that should not be there.”