Page 131

She was interrupted by my father’s voice coming down the line. “Is it her? Answer me now, young lady.”
Despite the fact I was twenty-two, I felt all of five years old when he spoke to me like that. “Yes, Daddy. It’s me.”
“Louisa. You best tell me right now that what I heard your mother say isn’t true.”
His judgment poured through the phone, as strong as if he’d slapped me in the face with it.
I stared down at the test clutched in my fingers and the other three on the bathroom vanity. Every single one said I was pregnant. I wouldn’t lie. He hated liars. “It’s true. I’m so sorry.”
“Get rid of it.”
I blinked. “What? Daddy, no.”
“I said get rid of it and come back home immediately. There’ll be no back talk from you.”
I’d been trained my entire life to obey his commands. My mother did. My sisters. All of us.
But there was a baby growing inside me, and I couldn’t just get rid of it.
No matter how it had been conceived.
No matter who its father was.
That baby was the only thing I had that was mine.
He or she was the only thing no one could take from me.
I straightened my spine. “No. You listen to me. I’m keeping this baby. You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”
He laughed coldly. “Listen to you. So sure and confident in yourself. Have you even thought it through? What it means to be a parent?”
“Of course I have,” I fired back.
“Where are you going to live? Is that baby’s father going to support you?”
“I can support myself. I’ll find a place.”
He scoffed. “The father wants nothing to do with you, does he? That’s what you get for opening your legs. How will you work when you have a newborn baby hanging off your tit?”
I blanched in shock. He never spoke like that. But then slowly, anger took its place.
There was never any room for anything but perfection with him. Our skirts had to touch our knees or we’d be forced to change. Our beds had to be made with hospital corners and were inspected daily. We had to get straight A’s or we’d be bringing shame on him as a father and as a man. He ruled our house of females with army-like discipline, and the clear disappointment we were all women, and he’d never fathered a son.
I hated him.
Had hated him enough to escape his house in the middle of the night, get on a bus, and travel hours, looking for a better life.
I wouldn’t let him drag me down again. “The baby’s father is a rich businessman,” I declared through gritted teeth. “Very rich. He has a big house in Providence, and he’ll pay for his child. And for me.” My fingers shook. Or maybe it was my entire body.
“You’ll come home now, without that bastard baby in your belly.”
He wasn’t listening. He never did. Just expected all of us to do as he commanded.
I was done being the girl who listened.
I was someone’s mother now. And she would be stronger. Smarter. She’d get everything she needed from the men who owed it to her.
How stupid I’d been to just walk up to Caleb Black and make demands. Now I was probably going to die in this tiny hole of a room, thirsty and starving. And the worst part? I’d be taking my baby with me.