Chapter 219

“I… uh…”

It should have been as easy to lie about my pregnancy as it had been to lie about my projection ability. But, they were my parents. Deep down, I wanted them to love my child as much as I did, even if they had never given me any indication that they would.

My mother’s expression grew sterner, the longer I struggled to answer.

Slowly, it became more and more clear that they wouldn’t approve.

“I think I should go.” I turned on my heel and headed for the door.

Mom moved quickly, blocking my path.

“You are not going anywhere until we have answers.”

“Please let me go.”

Mom shook her head. “Answer the question, Cynthia.”

I was trapped. I didn’t have a choice.

“Yes, I’m pregnant.”

My mother’s face went bright red. My father stormed forward, away from the couch.

“You are what?” my father demanded.

“Do you even know who the father is?” my mother said. “Or maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe you just wanted to disappoint us. I can’t tell you how ashamed I am to have you as a daughter.”

Each of her words, though not particularly surprising, still sliced through me like the cut of a blade. My heart bled all over the floor.

Dad gripped me roughly by the shoulder. “You must get an abortion.”

“No, I can’t. I won’t.”

“Be reasonable,” Dad said.

“I refuse, Dad.” I stood as tall as I could, defiant though it hurt.

“Then, drop out of school. Come back home,” Dad said.

I shook my head, not trusting my voice anymore.

“This is ridiculous!” Mom threw her hands up. “What do you hope to prove? You won’t be happy until our family is the laughing stock of the community, is that it?”

“N-no…” Tears gathered under my eyes. I blinked and they started to fall. “Please let me go.”

“Not until we’ve talked about this,” Dad said.

“We need a solution!” Mom shouted.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said, voice trembling. “There’s nothing to say. I’m having the baby. I’m staying in school.”

“You can’t mean that!” Mom said.

“I do mean it. I can do it, Mom. If you would only believe in me.”

“Believe in you? Cynthia, you are ruining your life! You are ruining all of our lives! Have you no care at all for my reputation? Or your father’s? How do you think this makes us look, when you run around like a woman of loose morals?”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with you…”

“People will think we didn’t raise you right!”

I didn’t want to argue how I truly felt. I couldn’t tell them that part of the reason I had pursued Joseph so hard was because he was the first person ever to truly make me feel special. Even if it had only been an illusion.

If my parents had ever actually cared for me, maybe I wouldn’t have had to seek out love, however broken, from someone else.

But I’d grown a lot since leaving home, since Joseph, since becoming pregnant.

I knew now, the only way to truly be loved was to love myself first.

I loved me, and that meant treating me kindly. Which meant not being in this house – this past – anymore.

I ripped my arm away from my father’s touch and stormed toward the door.

My mom stretched out both arms, totally blocking it. “We are not done talking about this!”

Behind me, my father cleared his throat. “Let her go, dear.”

Mom’s face scrunched in confusion. “But…?”

“I suggest we all take breathers and speak about this again at a later time, with cooler heads.”

Mom looked at me, a flash of fury in her eyes. But with a glance at Dad behind me, she slunk into herself.

“Fine. That might be for the best.”

She stepped to the side, allowing me access to the door. I threw it open and ran out of the house.

Asher stood by his car, waiting. When he looked up and saw me, he rushed toward me. I flew into his embrace and wrapped my arms around his waist.

“What happened?” He combed his hand through my hair. “Are you alright?”

“I want to go home. Please take me home.”

The warmth of him was so comforting that if we continued to hold each other in the yard of my childhood home, I would break down right here. I didn’t want that to happen until we were both somewhere away from prying eyes.

Asher led me to the car.

On the drive home, I told Asher everything that happened. He listened closely, letting me talk without interruption, though his knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel.

When I finished, he said, “No one can ever force you to do anything you don’t want to do, Cynthia. Not even them.”

I knew that. I was a legal adult. I had no obligation to even talk to my parents anymore, let alone succumb to their wishes. But they were still my parents.

Softly, I admitted, “I don’t want to entirely lose my family.” I cleared my throat, then spoke louder. “I can’t stop hoping that there is some way to resolve this. Maybe they will come to their senses or… I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry this happened to you,” Asher said. “I’m sorry they are making you choose.”

“It’s not decided yet.” I hooked my fingers together in my lap. “They might come around…”

Asher nodded and didn’t say more.

When we reached the parking lot on campus, he paused for a moment to send a text. To give him privacy, I didn’t ask to see the screen, though I was curious.

“Who was that?” I asked.

He gave me a tiny smile that started to fill the lingering cracks in my heart with warmth. “You’ll see.”

We walked back to the dorm holding hands.

“You deserve to have people in your life who make you feel loved,” Asher said. “Because you are loved. You don’t need your parents, or anyone else who puts limitations on you. We care about you just as you are.”

“’We?’”

He led me into the dormitory, and standing there by the door, were Aimee and Nicole.

“You arranged this?” I asked him.

He didn’t give me an answer but I saw the way pride sparked in his eyes. He knew he had done well.

“Thank you,” I whispered, as Aimee and Nicole hurried closer.

They both threw their arms around me at the same time, pulling me into a three-person hug. I wrapped my arms around them too, as best I could.

“We care about you,” Nicole said.

“So much,” Aimee finished.

Asher ushered us inside, and unwilling to break, he huddle-stepped through the doorway and held each other in the room instead.

These three people in this room were my support. Them, combined with my brother, and the baby inside of me, were the most important people in the entire world to me. To have their love filled my heart so full, it overflowed with happiness.

Never before had I ever felt as loved as I did in this moment right here, right now.

Yet even with the comfort they offered, worries remained, even pushed as they were to the dark recesses of my mind.

In the quiet, the worries whispered, would I end up losing my parents?