“No!” I scream out, but it’s too late. I slip, falling to the hard ground of the pasture beneath me. A loud crack immediately reverberates through my body as I feel a bone in my arm snap and the breath leave my lungs from the sheer force of my fall.
“No!” I croak again from where I’m lying on the ground, panting trying to take a breath but there's not enough air. There’s not enough oxygen in the world to fix the pain that I’m feeling.
The rain continues to assault me, not caring that I'm lying motionless on the ground. I hear Riley stop a few feet ahead, whimper, and then take off back to the barn.
I lay there, feeling the immediate shock of the pain wear off as my arm starts to throb against the cold, muddy ground. I try to move it, but I can’t. The pain is so intense it’s almost unbearable. I try to sit up, but any movement is excruciating. I close my eyes, sinking back into the floor of the field and try to lay as still as possible.
In that moment, I decide to let it go—all the anger and pain I’ve been feeling. I just want to move forward with my life. Be a normal sixteen-year-old girl who didn’t fall in love with amarried man.
I want to finish high school and fall in love again.
I want to be a normal kid who enjoys these last few years before going away to college.
And I want to stop being hung up on someone who doesn't want me.
I cry out, tears streaming down my face as the rain continues to fall. Time passes, though I’m not sure how much and suddenly I hear voices yelling through the rush of the storm and realize it’s my dad who’s come to look for me. Riley must have found him. I try to sit up but can’t, the pain is too much, and I’m soaked through, stuck in the mud of the field floor.
“Dad! I’m over here!” I cry loudly.
My dad rushes to my side immediately. “What happened?!”
“I fell off Riley.”
He looks at my arm carefully, then nods. “I’m going to lift you. It’s going to be painful, but I’ll try not to move it. We have to get you to the ER, honey. I think it’s broken.”
I nod and bite down on my lip hard as he scoops me up in his arms gently. “I need you to be brave and strong for me. Can you do that?”
My heart aches hearing those words. The same words he said to me at my mom’s funeral four years ago. I’d been brave and strong before and I know I could do it again.
He carries me to the 4-wheeler he was driving and sets me gently on the back. “Hold on with your good arm as tightly as you can,” he instructs, as we head back in the direction towards the farmhouse.
One hour later, we’re finally being seen in the local Emergency Room.
“Strong girl,” the nurse whispers as she pats my good arm gently. “I’ve just finished putting in your IV. We’ll take some blood to be sure you didn’t lose too much from that laceration on your leg, and then provide you with some pain medication to help with what you’re feeling right now. The doctor will be in shortly.”
“Thank you,” my father says from where he’s standing next to me.
The nurse leaves the room as my dad crouches down next to me. “I need to call your stepmom to fill her in on what happened. Are you going to be alright for a few moments alone, kiddo?”
I nod as he steps out of the room and I lay back, finally feeling the medication that the nurse pushed through my IV take the edge off the searing pain in my arm. A few minutes later, there’s another knock at the door with a woman in an all-white coat entering.
“Hi Teagan, I’m one of the physician assistants here at Cedarbrook Springs Hospital. One of our x-ray technicians just started her shift and will be with you shortly to take some images of your arm. It looks like it’s a clean break, but we’ll confirm that with the scan. But don’t worry, she’ll cover your pelvis and take every precaution to protect the baby.”
“The… what?” I ask, my eyes going wide.
“The baby…” The physician’s eyes look at me warily as she tilts her head. “I thought the nurse you just met with told you. The results of your blood work came back. You’re pregnant.”
My mouth drops open as I sit up in the bed abruptly, no longer caring about the obvious break in my arm and the physical pain that I’m feeling.
“She’s what?” my father demands from the doorway.
Chapter 28 – Teagan
Six months later...
Rain pelts the windshield of the rental car as my dad navigates through the congested Houston highway traffic.
It’s fitting, I think, that just as a torrential downpour had masked my emotions the day that I found out about the baby growing inside of me, today’s hurricane in Texas mirrors the turmoil inside my mind as I head to meet the family who will likely adopt them once they’re born.
