“You have pictures of them in your house,” he replied quickly.
I did have pictures of my kids all over my house, but I didn’t realize he’d taken notice. When he came over, it was for one reason, and he left as soon as we were finished.
After a few moments of awkward silence, he asked, “Are you going to keep it?”
“Yes,” I snapped.
He held his hands up in a placating manner. “I wasn’t suggesting anything. I mean, I want you to have the baby, and I want to be a part of his or her life.”
“Oh, well, okay,” I stammered. I wasn’t expecting that from him.
“But, there’s something you need to know,” he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “First, I want you to know I had no idea, not until I saw the picture on the wall outside of your bathroom. And once I knew, I didn’t come back.”
An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach, and the nausea that had finally subsided started to return with a vengeance. “What is it?”
“You told me your name was Grace.”
“It is. My name is Avery Grace.”
He swallowed audibly and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I know that now. Um, my name is Kellan Ward.”
Nothing could have prepared me to hear that name come out of his mouth.
Kellan Ward.
The man who killed my husband.
The man who took my children’s father from them.
The man whose baby I was carrying.
No.
No.
No.
“Get out,” I managed to say before vomit violently spewed from my mouth and nose. I coughed and sputtered as I blindly tried to grab for the emesis basin. It suddenly appeared in front of me as a large hand gently rubbed my back.
“I’m sorry, Avery. I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
“How could you not know?” I screamed between heaves.
“I only saw a few pictures of you, and you don’t look the same,” he explained.
It made sense; I’d never met him, and I hadn’t seen any pictures of him, but I wasn’t thinking logically. “Bullshit! Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to you?”
“I didn’t know! You said your name was Grace!” he yelled back.
“My name is Grace!” I screamed.
“You didn’t know who I was either!”
“I didn’t kill your spouse and ruin your life!”
“The fuck is going on in here?” another male yelled as he entered my room.
“Security!” I heard my mother yell as she pushed her way into my room.
