Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
He never does.
When I go to call him again, his number no longer works.
And now neither does mine because what’s the point?
My life is over.
Except it can’t be because I’m carrying a baby—one I already love.
When I went to the doctor to confirm my pregnancy, they gave me an ultrasound. I’ve seen this baby growing in me. He or she is mine, whether Liam wants to be in our lives or not.
Telling your parents you’re pregnant at eighteen is probably the hardest thing anyone can do. I expected my dad to lose his mind and storm out of the house, but he didn’t. He held me and told me how sorry he was that Liam was gone. He’ll never know what those words meant to me.
From that moment, Liam became nothing in our house.
He’s not the father of my baby, but my ex.
He’s not the man who walked out on responsibility because he didn’t know. Everyone believes if Liam knew, he would’ve stayed, or I’d be with him right now. He didn’t abandon his child. He left me.
I can raise this baby on my own. It’s important I do it. My parents suggested I move home, but it’s not what I want. I want a college degree and am determined to get mine. I can’t let this baby grow up and find out one day I didn’t finish school because I became a mom. This baby will know I chose to be their mom every day for the rest of their lives because I was in love.
In love with him.
In love with her.
Ridiculously in love with their father.
It takes every ounce of courage to knock on the Westburys’ door. I pray it’s Bianca who answers because she’s the lesser evil of the two of them, but it’s Sterling who looks down at me, even though I’m close to six feet tall.
He makes me feel like I don’t matter when I know I do.
“Is Mrs. Westbury home?”
“Bianca,” he yells, and she comes toward the door. I look at her when I pull out the ultrasound and hold it in my hand.
“I’m looking for Liam,” I tell them. “It’s important I talk to him.”
Sterling scoffs. “No one likes a stage five clinger. Move on.”
I hold out the image of the baby growing inside of me. “It’s important that Liam call me. I’m pregnant and—”
“You listen to me to you little tramp. My son is too good for you. I told him you’d try and do this once he left for college and well, would you look at that? You went and got yourself knocked up. Get off my property and don’t come back.”
Liam always told me to never listen to anything his father says, to ignore every word Sterling spews but it’s hard. I look at Bianca and implore with my eyes and mouth to please hear me out, but she doesn’t move. She doesn’t even flinch.
Sterling steps out of the house, forcing me to step back. “Get your trashy ass back to where you belong. The best thing my son has done since he chose to follow that idiot to Texas was dump you. No go and don’t come back and don’t even think about asking for child support. That thing you carry isn’t a Westbury. It’s not welcome here, and neither are you.”
Sterling slams the door in my face and I stand there for a second, before leaving. On the bus ride back to campus, I tell myself it doesn’t matter what Sterling says. He’s a hateful man. What matters is Bianca. She should protect me from the likes of her husband, but she instead she stood there and allowed him to say those things to me and about her grandchild. Bianca knows this is Liam’s baby. So does Sterling. No one in their right mind would show up on their doorstep with this claim and put themselves through what I just did.
My hand rests on my stomach as I think about Liam. As much as I want to talk to him, I really just want to know he’s okay. My last message to him was mean and I can’t apologize because he’s changed his number. In hindsight, I should’ve told him on his voicemail he was going to be a dad.
Would he care?
Who knows.
I like to think he would. He hates his father and would never want to be like him, so yeah, I think he’d come around and be a father.
When I get back to my dorm, I crawl into bed and face the wall. Katelyn tries to force me to eat but nothing sits well in my stomach. I eat crackers, drink water and juice, but that’s about it. My doctor says the feeling of being uneasy will pass, but that’s because she has no idea the reason I feel like this is because of a broken heart. The morning sickness reminds me of the last parting gift Liam gave me. That I can deal with.