Page 73 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

Truthfully, if there was one thing in the world that I didn’t want to do, it was bring a baby into the situation that I’d found myself in.

I’d been considering adoption, even though it broke my heart to think about giving my baby up when my dad had again found out.

This time, it was because he’d used his friends to spy on me to find out why I was having appointments that were keeping me from working.

Those same friends of his had looked into my patient files at the hospital, and they’d shared with him that I was pregnant.

That had been the last time I’d tasted freedom.

Now, I had to sneak around to get that freedom.

Kind of like tonight.

I’d intended to go out and do something fun with my friends, something I absolutely never did, and dropped her off with my elderly neighbor that adored her.

I’d intended to get back before my father came home from the candy shop, but I’d failed.

“You okay?” Gisela asked.

I looked at all the Christmas lights as we passed by.

Everything in Hooker, Oklahoma, was beautiful at this time of year. The threat of the pending snowstorm made everything else feel just…magical.

Too bad I had to go home to a horror show.

“I’m fine,” I lied. “Thank you for the ride.”

She stayed silent as she turned down the street that would lead me to my father’s place.

My jail cell.

“You’re welcome,” she said softly.

Gisela was the best.

She knew as much about my situation as she could, since I tried to keep almost all of it from her.

She knew about Anleigh. She loved Anleigh like she was her own.

But she had no clue the hell I had to go through every day when it came to dealing with my controlling father.

She only knew the public persona of my father. The face that he put on for the world to see when he was being observed. She didn’t know about the man behind that mask.

Didn’t know that I would walk into that house, the only one on the block not decorated with Christmas lights, and probably receive a punch straight to the face for leaving tonight when I shouldn’t have.

“Love you, Gisela,” I said as I got out.

“Love you, too,” she called as I closed the door quietly.

I didn’t want to alert Mrs. Rawls that I was home yet.

I had to go face the music with my father first.

Then, once I’d cleaned myself up, I would go get my girl.

Steeling my spine, I walked into the house and was unsurprised to find my father in his recliner, watching television.

“Dinner’s not ready,” he stated.

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