Page 10 of Mia Amata

“That is great!” Lauren exclaimed.

I smiled at both of them. “Yes, as long as I follow doctor’s orders I’ll be fine in no time. She also checked on the baby, I am six weeks pregnant. Baby is fine, seems healthy.”

“Thank goodness!” Both Eva and Lauren were smiling at me and seemed very happy for me.

“Audra told me my options, raising the baby, adoption, or abortion. She wanted me to take my time deciding what I wanted to do, but I made my mind up already.”

Eva and Lauren exchanged glances and Lauren said, “Are you sure you are ready to make any decision so quickly? You have plenty of time to decide.”

“I know,” I replied. “Until I saw the baby, MY baby, on the ultrasound I hadn’t even given the pregnancy another thought. It didn’t seem real. I saw my baby; the heartbeat and I knew at that instant I wanted this baby. I want to be her mom!”

“It’s a girl?” Eva asked.

I laughed, “Well, Audra said it is too soon to show that on the ultrasound, but I just know she is a girl.” I pulled out the picture from the ultrasound, handing it to Eva.

“Oh, wow! That is so amazing!” she exclaimed, passing the picture to Lauren.

Lauren looked at the picture and started crying. “Oh, Mattie, I know the timing is not perfect for you, but I am so happy for you.”

Pretty soon, all three of us were crying, yet laughing about the timing of the babies. I looked at these two ladies who had risked everything for me. I told them “This is the first time in over five years that I have been happy. If you two had not found me today, both this baby and I probably would not have a future.” This started the tears going again. They finally told me I should find something to eat and then get some more rest. I agreed. They went upstairs, shutting the door behind them. I waited a couple of minutes, then went up the stairs, locking the door, still feeling foolish. They probably had a key and could come down regardless, but it made me feel a little less scared.

I went out to the kitchen. For the first time today, I actually was hungry. I had the opportunity to eat anything I wanted. I opened the pantry, looking around. “Baby Girl,” I said, running my hand over my abdomen, “what are you hungry for?”

Soup sounded kind of good although it didn’t really seem like exactly what I wanted. I went to the refrigerator and opened the freezer. It was well-stocked with cuts of meat, which would take time to thaw out. I was getting too hungry to wait that long. Pulling out a box, I saw that it was a frozen pizza. That sounded good, so I closed the freezer.

I followed the instructions on the box, it had been a long time since I made a frozen pizza—Allen always demanded homemade meals. Pretty soon I was sitting at the table eating pizza, drinking a glass of milk. When I had finished eating, I took my prenatal vitamin, leaving the bottle on the table as a reminder to take it when I eat tomorrow. I put the leftovers away and washed up my few dishes, leaving them in the dish rack to dry. All of a sudden, I felt exhausted, I also felt the need to watch some news, to see if my disappearance had been reported yet.

I brushed my teeth, then crawled into bed, found the local news station, and shut the lights off. I watched the top news stories, not seeing anything about me on there, so I browsed the channels for something to watch. I settled on a movie that looked interesting and turned the sound down really low, but pretty soon I was sound asleep.

Chapter 6

Upstairs, while I was eating my pizza, Eva and Lauren were having their supper, discussing my situation. “The baby changes things don’t it, Mom?”

“It really does. I think we need to move more urgently to get her to a safe, new life before she gets too far along. I need to make phone calls tonight to get things going.”

“Do you have any ideas yet?”

Lauren replied, “No, not yet. Hopefully, our contacts will have some thoughts.”

Eva said, “I may have an idea. Now that there is a baby involved, maybe she can do something where she can work from home. There are a lot of opportunities now that allow people to make an income from home working remotely.”

“That is a fantastic idea, Eva,” her mom said. “I’ll bring it up tonight on the phone calls. I really do believe that we need to get a plan set in motion that can be started soon. We need to get her to safety as soon as we can.”

Eva nodded her agreement. “Go make the phone calls, Mom, I’ll clean up from supper.”

“Thank you, honey.” Lauren gave her a hug and left the room to go to her office. She closed the door behind her although Eva helped her with this, in order to keep her daughter safe, she did not want her involved in all of the arrangements.

“Hello?” a female voice said on the phone.

“Hi, it’s me.”

“One moment,” the female said, “let me see if he is available.”

Lauren waited on the phone for a few minutes when a male finally came on and said “Hey, we haven’t heard from you in a while.”

“I know, things have been very quiet here. I do have a situation now.” Lauren stated.

“Give me the basics,” he said.

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