Mine

 The woman stared at the large estate as the taxi drove her up to the entrance. The front yard was huge and there was a large statue of what looked like Lady Justice. The woman slowly shook her head at the extravagance but immediately shrugged it off. These types of people were the reason she even had such a decent paying job without having to do regular hours. She reached into her bag as the taxi came to a stop and pulled out a few dollars as a tip.   

“I won’t be long if you could wait for a moment,” the woman said. When the driver nodded, she exited and got a better look at the large mansion in front of her. Though it was large and excessively decorated, she noticed that the house itself was not in the best of shape. There were paint chips coming off the door and she could see a large patch of vines that threatened to overtake the side of the building. Frowning, the woman approached the door and pulled out her phone. She dialed a number and answered cheerfully when the call was picked up. 

“Hello, Mrs. Dunn. I was told to give you a call when I arrived.” The woman paused and listened to the other end. “Yes, I understand. Take your time.” She hung up, pushing the phone back into her bag. The door was pulled opened and a stout woman stood there. She was an older woman, maybe in her 40s. She had on an old robe that had fur around the collar and a very old-fashioned hair style that she was half sure was a wig. The woman felt her lips turn up.   

“You must be Ronisha,” she said. “I’m Dorthey Dunn.”  

“It's nice to meet you in person,” Ronisha said. The older woman moved out of the way and motioned for her to come in. Ronisha followed as she was led to the living room. There were dirty dishes and take out containers all over the large cocktail table. Ronisha grimaced as Dorthey waved her down to the sofa.  

“Excuse the state of the house, it’s a work in progress,” Dorthey said. “I wish I could deal with how bad this house has gotten. The help has been so useless and with my husband bedridden, it’s just been me taking care of everything.” Ronisha smiled and nodded at the woman’s rambling. “Now, I have to ask, why can’t I be the one to administer these drugs? I’ve been doing this for a while now. Surely, I can handle it,” Ronisha held back a sigh. She was warned that the woman had not been happy to have another person in her house.  

“For this particular part of the trial, the drug is highly experimental and needs to be monitored carefully,” Ronisha spoke slowly. “Your husband’s condition must be carefully monitored as well.” Dorthey huffed and crossed her arms. “I’ll only be here once a week and the checks I have to do will take all of 15 minutes.” Ronisha watched as Dorthey frowned and grumbled. 

“Fine. Follow me and you can hurry and leave,” Dorthey said, standing and walking back towards a large staircase. Ronisha rolled her eyes and stood to follow. They walked up to the second floor and turned right, passing a couple of doors before coming to a warm red door. The woman paused. She opened the door to a large room. It was mostly empty, but the smell of disinfectant and a beeping sound drew the eye to the king-sized bed that sat in the room. There laid a gaunt man. He was attached to a number of machines and he seemed to be sleeping. The woman let out a sigh and moved toward the man. She worked to tuck the blankets around him. Ronisha smiled as the woman rushed around and worried over him. 

“This here is my Ronnie,” Dorthey said. She smoothed the blankets for the last time. She hesitated before she turned to Ronisha. “Well, let me get out your way.” Dorthey stepped back a bit to give Ronisha some room to work. Ronisha sat her medical bag down and opened it up, pulling two bottles of drugs and two syringes. She measured some of each out and approached the man. She tensed a little when she felt Dorthey move behind her. She turned for a moment and eyed the woman. Dorthey stared on and Ronisha had to clear her throat. 

“Could I get a little room?” she asked politely. Dorthey seemed to startle before moving to the other side of the bed. Ronisha was able to administer the drugs into the man's IV and she packed up quickly. When she moved to take a pulse, Dorthey exclaimed and leaned over the bed to push Ronisha’s hand away from the man. 

“What are you doing?” Dorthey stepped back around the bed so that she stood directly between Ronisha and her husband. Ronisha raised her hands defensively. 

“Just checking his pulse,” Ronisha said as she backed away a couple of steps. 

“Well, you don’t need to touch him. That machine there has his pulse.” Dorthey motioned to the monitor that was beeping slowly. 

“I need to check manually to make sure its accurate,” Ronisha said. Dorthey shook her head and jabbed a finger at the machine.   

“Use that, and keep your hands to yourself,” Dorthey said. Ronisha nodded slowly and pulled out her phone to record the man’s pulse. She paused as she looked at the to-do list. 

“I also need to check a couple of reflexes,” Ronisha said. She frowned as the woman tensed.   

“I can do it,” Dorthey said. She moved over to her husband and Ronisha sighed quietly. For the next thirty minutes, she talked Dorthey through her tests. She had to explain multiple times how to check and what to look for. She flat out refused to let Ronisha close to help. Ronisha had to stop herself from cheering when they finally finished. 

“I still don’t understand why I can’t do this on my own,” Dorthey spoke with a pout. As she finished cleaning up, Ronisha turned and smiled at the woman.   

“These drugs are experimental and need to be monitored,” Ronisha repeated. “We need to keep a close eye on the dosage.” Dorthey clicked her tongue. 

“I’m sure I could keep track properly,” Dorthey said. Ronisha grabbed her pack and settled it back on her shoulder. “Surely, you can talk to your superiors and get me an exception.” Ronisha shook her head.   

“The doctor’s really want to keep an eye on these patients. I promise it will not be overly intrusive.” Again, Dorthey clicked her tongue and motioned vaguely at Ronisha.   

“You are already being intrusive,” she said. Ronisha took a deep breath and smiled. 

“Well, I’m all done here, so I can stop intruding,” she said. “Remember to call if you notice a fever or if his condition changes at all.” Dorthey nodded quickly and moved toward the door. Ronisha followed quickly and they made it to the front door. Ronisha turned back.   

“I’ll be back to check his condition next week,” Ronisha said. 

“Yes, fine,” Dorthey said and closed the door. Ronisha let her smile drop. 

“Old bitty,” she said as she walked away. 

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Ronisha sighed as the taxi pulled up to Dorthey’s home. Again, she requested that he wait for her and walked up to the front door. Grumbling, she approached the door and opened it up.   

After the third week coming to the home, Dorthey had snapped and told her that she would just leave the door open for Ronisha so she didn’t have to come down the stairs in a hurry. While Ronisha appreciated the gesture, the older woman’s attitude about it was leaving much to be desired. It seemed that with every visit, the woman’s attitude grew worse and worse. She found that she was glad that this would be a short trial with only a few more weeks left.   

Ronisha walked up the stairs and headed for the bedroom. When she opened the door, she was surprised to find it empty. Normally, Dorthey would be there already, hovering as Ronisha administered the drugs and drew blood. Shrugging, Ronisha set her bag down on the bed and pulled out her phone. She recorded the data from the machines. Ronisha hurried, wanting to finish before Dorthey returned.    

 She checked his pupils and moved to pinch the skin between his thumb and pointer finger. She recorded and moved down to bend his knee up, frowning when she heard an odd sound. She unbent and bent his knee again and she heard an odd, plastic sound coming from him. She went to untuck the blankets. She was surprised when they caught and she had to lean over him to get the blanket to untuck fully. She pushed the blankets up toward the man’s head and paused as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Ronisha blinked and took a step back. Her stomach rolled as her mind supplied her with the correct name for the device. 

“You little cretin,” Ronisha’s head whipped over to the door. Dorthey stood there, face twisted as she moved to Ronisha and grabbed her arm. She started trying to pull Ronisha away. Ronisha shook her off. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Ronisha said as she found her voice. The question seemed to startle Dorthey and she looked at Ronisha as if the question was odd. 

“He’s my husband. I can do what I please with my husband.” Dorthey said as she moved to cover the man back up. 

“No,” Ronisha started, but stopped when Dorthey swung her head around. 

“He’s mine,” she said, voice cracking. “He’s mine and he owes me.” Dorthey turned back to the man and stroked his face. “The poor thing was already asleep before he could perform his duty to me, but we still managed.” With her other hand she stroked her stomach and grinned wildly. “He did so good. He just needed a little help. And soon we will be blessed with a child.” 

Ronisha felt her skin crawl. She eyed her bag and edged towards it as Dorthey kept talking. 

“I know this child will be a blessing. And then we will always be together. No matter what.” As she rambled, Ronisha lunged for her bag and jolted out the room. She ignored the cackle that followed her and headed for the stairs. Before she could make it, she heard something fly past her left ear. Ronisha panicked and turned and opened a random door, rushing into the room and closing the door behind her. As she turned to press her back to the door, she noticed two things in the room. One was a large picture that hung on the wall directly across from the door. It showed the man, Ronnie, and a woman that looked like an older version of Dorthey. They were holding hands and smiling. The second thing she noticed was a woman tied to the bed post in the center of the room. Ronisha felt her brain slow as she took in what she saw. She bit her lip to keep from screaming and fumbled for her bag, pulling her phone out and dialing 9-1-1. 

When they picked up, Ronisha was able to tell them the address and what was going on. Before she could give them any more information, the door swung open and hit Ronisha’s back. She lost her grip on the phone and it flew from her hand, but she was able to throw her body weight back against the door and close it before Dorthey could get in. 

“Come on out of there little girl,” Dorthey voice floated through the door.   

“Dorthey, I called the police,” Ronisha yelled through the door. “You need to stop now and let me go.” Silence followed the declaration and Ronisha held her breath as she waited to see if she could hear any footsteps. She let out a scream when Dorthey started banging against the door, screeching.   

“How dare you. You can’t take him from me. Nobody can take him. I worked so hard to get him. How dare you. HOW DARE YOU!” Dorthey continued to screech as she banged the door. Ronisha stood and held it closed, tears leaking down her face as the door banged. She stayed in the same position until she heard loud calls from the front door. Gathering her wits, Ronisha lifted her head and screamed for help. She didn’t stop until she heard a man’s voice telling her she was ok. She tentatively opened the door when the voice asked her to and sobbed in relief when she saw a uniform. She flung the door open and rushed past the officer, down the stairs and towards the front door. She noticed an officer had Dorthey restrained next to the front door but rushed past them. She only stopped when she had reached the lawn, not turning back once. 

Ronisha ended up having to stay and answer questions. Once she was able to recover a bit from the shock and the fear, she started asking questions. She waved one of the officers down. They weren’t able to tell her much, just that the woman from the bed was still alive and that Dorthey was being taken for processing. It wasn’t until later that she heard from her supervisor that the woman she found was actually Dorthey Dunn and that the other was an impostor posing as his wife. She had taken her place after the husband fell into his coma. Apparently, the couple was very private so no one really noticed the switch and they had no family who could report her missing. The worse was that the woman was placed in a mental clinic instead of prison. It seems that the judge didn’t want a pregnant woman serving jail time.