Page 59 of Coming Home

“Yes, I have,” I said honestly. “We’ve settled on all that. I know why he left the way he did, and he knows why I got so incredibly angry that he abandoned me.”

“Why was that exactly?” Lily asked.

I could feel all the color drain from my face.

“What is it?” Peyton demanded. “There’s something you haven’t told me?” She sounded a little hurt.

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, there’s something I didn’t tell you, something I haven’t told anyone, except Ben. I’d like to tell you guys,” I said, tears already forming in my eyes. I swiped them away. “You may want to get the tissues first,” I warned.

The worried looks my sisters shared did not go unnoticed.

“I’m okay, really. It’s just hard to talk about,” I said.

“You don’t have to,” Peyton told me.

“I know, and I know just telling you isn’t going to magically make the pain disappear, but it’s a start I need to heal.”

Maddie came and sat by my side. She took my hand in hers. “Whatever it is, we’re here from you,” she assured me.

I rested my head on her shoulder. “Thanks. Um, well, where to start? I guess I should confess I lost my virginity to Ben the night of our senior prom.”

Ruby started to laugh. “Seriously? That’s so cliché! I honestly thought you guys had been hooking up long before then.”

“Not all the way,” I admitted.

“I thought you guys were just friends,” Lizzy blurted out.

“Oh please, Shelby and Ben? Were you ever just friends?” Ruby asked.

I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I don’t know. In hindsight I always knew he was mine, but he was my best friend and that was a little awkward to navigate through the teen years,” I confessed.

“He was her first kiss, too,” Peyton blurted out.

I laughed. “I’m pretty sure he’s been my first everything in life.”

“We’re getting sidetracked,” Lily pointed out.

I took a deep breath and decided to just dive right in. “Right after Ben left for the army, I found out I was a pregnant.”

“What?” Peyton asked, sitting up and looking very concerned.

“You’re serious?” Ruby asked.

All eyes were on me now, as fresh tears started to fall, and I nodded. Maddie hugged me closer. “What happened to the baby?” she whispered.

“You had disappeared, Ben was gone, and Mom was flipping out. It was just me and Thomas at home at that point and I didn’t want to add any more stress to the family, so I hid it. At first I didn’t want to stress him out by telling him through a letter, but then he asked me not to come out for his graduation. I was so angry with him for it, but it really wasn’t his fault, because until a few days ago, I hadn’t told him anything about her.”

“Her?” Lily asked. “Annabelle Grace? The little mystery baby in the cemetery?”

“How did you? Why would you guess that?” I asked, surprised.

Lily shrugged. “I have a thing for cemeteries. I walk through there all the time and have always wondered about her story.”

I started to sob, and Lily got up and hugged me.

“I was in an accident and she died. There was nothing Doc could do to save her. He had her buried there anonymously,” I said. “I almost died too,” I continued. “There was so much blood and he had to perform an emergency hysterectomy to save my life.”

“No,” Peyton gasped as she started to cry, too. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

---