Page 73 of Cruel Devotion

Pregnant.

I gulped, staring at the pink cross mark in the little window.

Pregnant.

There was no guessing. No question mark. The indicator showed up clear and bright, pronouncing the fact that my life would forever be changed. It was no longer justmylife. I was no longer justme, Haley, a soon-to-be college graduate, a young woman preparing to move to the city and get ready for graduate work to be a teacher of kids with speech delays like what my nephew had.

I would be Haley the mother. The caregiver to a new life. The parent of an infant.

I walked again, dazed and stunned by this news, news that I couldn’t fully understand happening at all.

I took the pill!

Ijustlost my virginity within the last month!

Sure, it only took one time, and yeah, that pill had a tiny chance of not working. But for this to happen to me?

I tried to make sense of it at the same time I tried to accept it. Making plans and having a strategy would come next, but I was too overwhelmed with the enormity of this revelation to think that straight.

And as I approached the house and saw a car parked in the drive, I lost the ability to be rational at all.

Not again.

Not now.

Notyou.

The last time I saw Mr. and Mrs. Young, I told them to get off my property, that they weren’t welcome. Even though it was only Eli’s mother standing at the front door, hands on her hips, and not both of his parents this time, my decree still stood.

They were not welcome here. They never would be with the way they treated their son. Never minding how they’d talked down to me, I would have no room for them in my life if they abused Eli.

And now…

This moment felt extra charged with the fact that I was carrying her grandchild.

I continued to walk up to the house, searching for an idea of how to handle this situation. She had to leave, and the sooner, the better. Because with the bombshell of a shocker in my pocket, I needed time to think and accept this reality that I could be so cursed and blessed with this new life growing inside me.

“There you are.” Mrs. Young whirled around to face me, clued in to my presence when I stepped on the gravel of the driveway.

“I don’t want you here.” It wasn’t polite, but it was true. I had to stand my ground.

“Likewise, you little whore. I don’t want you here to mess up my son’s life. I want you out of his life.” She crossed her arms, not budging and blocking me from walking up the steps to the front door.

“Please move. And leave.” I climbed the steps, avoiding touching her, but with how narrow the steps were, I almost brushed against her and overcompensated, flinging my arm out the other way for balance.

Moving my arm like that caused the test stick to fall out of my pocket. It hit the concrete step, then bounced once, then twice.

And of course, she noticed.

“You— Are—No!” She kicked the test stick, and I scrambled to get it.

“You’repregnant?” She screeched it as I grabbed the plastic stick and hurried to turn for the door. I didn’t care if she ranted and wailed, if she freaked out and acted like a monster. I rushed with the urgency of fight or flight. If she was going to be more of a threat and try to hurt me with something other than verbal hits, I wasn’t standing around for it. And I had no guess whether she’d lose her mind to attack me. Mr. Young didn’t think twice about raising his fists. This woman was going berserk, screaming that I was a filthy whore who was ruining her son’s life.

I frantically unlocked the door, ready to bolt inside and leave her yelling and screaming outside.

She was too quick, though. By jamming her foot near the door, she prevented me from closing it and locking it.

Still, I had to retreat. I couldn’t tell if it was for my own sense of survival or if I was more defensive because I had a tiny baby to protect inside me. But I was not getting near this volatile woman.

---