We settled onto the small, gray couch, the fabric worn and faded. I waited for her to speak, the silence stretching painfully between us.
“How have you been?” she asked, her gaze fixed on the floor, avoiding mine.
“Pretty much the same since you last saw me,” I replied, forcing a smile that felt more like a grimace.
“Sorry to hear that,” she murmured, her words showered with shame.
I sighed and stood up, the frustration bubbling within me. “I didn’t come here to talk about how I am. You told me you had something to tell me.”
The fear was evident on her face. Lillian bit her lip, then put her hands on her head, shaking it as if trying to dispel the thoughts tormenting her. Suddenly, her composure cracked, and tears began to flow, her cries echoing throughout the sullen atmosphere of the room.
“I feel like I’m in a hellish loop. I mean, is this karma for something?” Her voice was a mix of hysteria and despair, shaking as she spoke.
“Karma? For what?” I asked, my heart aching for her.
She wiped her eyes, her expression transitioning from fear to resignation. Nothing could prepare me for what she said next.
“I’m pregnant. Again.”
A pause settled in the air, thick and suffocating.
“What?” I managed to whisper, my heart plummeting.
“I said I’m pregnant.”
“I heard you. How are you pregnant?” My mind raced, reeling from the shock.
“Amelia, you’re not hearing me. I’m pregnant. The last person I hooked up with was Caiden.”
The world around me went blank, numbness seeping into my bones. It couldn’t be true. She couldn’t be pregnant with Caiden’s child. The thought twisted my insides like a knife, and I felt my body shuddering as a wave of unease swept through me.
I had been teetering on the edge of sanity, and now it felt like I had fallen into darkness.
“You’re lying,” I said, more to convince myself than her. This had to be some sick, twisted game that Caiden had orchestrated. He manipulated her, then forced her to tell me this.
“I’m not lying! I swear I never meant to get pregnant,” she pleaded, her voice thick with distress, the faint sobs punctuating her words.
“You’re pregnant. With Caiden’s child?” My voice trembled, and with each repetition, the weight of it pressed harder against my chest.
“Yes,” she confirmed, her gaze breaking under the weight of the truth.
Saying it out loud was almost comical, like something straight out of a twisted joke.
I must be dreaming, I thought, because this was not possible. This was a scenario I couldn’t wrap my mind around.
I pinched my arm, hoping to wake up from this nightmare, but the pain was all too real.
Thankfully, I realized, he was eighteen. So, it wasn’t a crime, at least not in the eyes of the law.
In my eyes? It was the worst crime.
“What are you going to do?” I finally asked, the question hanging among us after a few moments of foreboding silence.
“I think I’m going to keep it. I’m not strong enough to have an abortion. I just couldn’t live with the guilt, Amelia.”
The words hit me like a freight train. She was keeping Caiden’s child, a child conceived out of desperation and poor choices. A stiffness began to form in my chest, a mixture of anger and heartbreak.
“Are you going to tell Caiden?” Despite asking, a part of me already knew the answer.
