Page 137 of The Devil's Fire

I bit down on my lip nervously as I watched her, my heart clenching by her reaction.

“Does he know?” My mother finally broke the silence, facing away from me.

“No… I found out a few days ago.” I admitted. I had missed my period, and I didn’t even notice it with how busy I had been with everything.

“Okay… okay… He doesn’t need to know. We can get this fixed. Get rid of it and pretend it never happened.”

“Yo–You can’t decide that.” I breathed out, looking at her with wide eyes as my heart pumped violently inside my chest. I took a few shaky steps away from her, clutching my stomach suddenly feeling the need to be protective.

“You’re not keeping it.” She looked at me with a sharp look.

“That is something we will decide, and not you.” I said angrily, and she scoffed at me.

“There is no you and him. Do you really think someone like him is capable of being a father? Someone like him could never!” She spat out.

“You don’t know him!”

“And you do? You have barely known him for a blink of an eye!”

“I know him way better than you think.” My whole body was shaking. Shaking in anger as she kept on insulting him. I could feel tears wanting to build up in my eyes, but I took a deep breath and clenched my fists.

“He cares about me, and I care about him, mom. I really do… I–I love him.” I kept swallowing down the sob that so desperately wanted to escape my lips as I stood my ground in front of my mother.

Tears escaped my eyes when she looked at me with so much disappointment. She was shaking her head in disbelief and disgust.

A sob escaped my lips when I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn’t. I turned around and walked out of her room as fast as I could and made my way to the door. I slipped into my shoes clumsily and ran out of there.

I ran as fast as I could down the street. Tears were blurring my vision for a split second before rapidly streaming down my cheeks with my choked-up sobs painfully escaping my lips. I kept running even though I wanted to collapse and crumble. But I pushed my legs to move faster, wanting to escape everything.

Wanting to escape the look on her face.

I collapsed down on a bench, trying to calm down as I angrily wiped my tears away, but they stubbornly continued to run down my cheeks. I hid my face in my hands as I just let it all out. The lump in my throat wouldn’t go away, and the more I sat here crying, the more I felt my heart was breaking.

For the first time, I felt I had let my mother down by falling in love with someone I shouldn’t have been involved with in the first place.

And now, I was carrying his child.

I didn’t notice the footsteps that came closer to me as I continued to sob into my hands. Arms wrapped around me, and I was pulled into their chest, their hand caressing my back as my sobs continued to fill the silence.

We stayed like this for what felt like hours, grateful for being held, as I felt heartbroken. At some point, I stopped crying, but the pain in my chest didn’t seem to want to go away.

“You told her?” Luca asked, still holding me. I nodded. He was the one who had gotten me the pregnancy tests when I had called him to do me a favor.

“Luca!” I whispered once the call was answered.

“Shit, is something wrong?”

“No. I mean yes. Fuck, I don’t know…” I panicked, pacing my room.

“I’m coming.”

“No, no, it’s not like that.” I told him quickly. I took a deep breath before asking him. “Do you think you can grab me something?”

“Did you have to say it like that? I thought something happened to you.” He breathed out. “Sure, what do you need?”

“I… can you get me pregnancy tests?” I asked carefully. He went silent, and I closed my eyes.

“All right. Any specific ones?”

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