“Who’s the father?” her dad asked in a calm voice that was somehow more terrifying than a booming shout.
“No one you know,” Charlie replied. Even if she told them the truth, once they heard Chad’s lies, they would believe him over her.
“Iwillhave his name.”
Charlie gulped. “I don’t know his name.”
Her mother lowered her knitting and crossed herself before bowing her head to pray. Her father stared at her with a look so murderous that for the first time, Charlie feared he might harm her. She’d expected shouting and for them to throw her out, but would he physically attack her too?
Chapter Sixteen
“You don’t know his name?”her father bit out.
“No. He… he was just some guy at a competition. I’d never seen him before, and I haven’t seen him since.”
Her father didn’t reply as her mother continued to pray. Then, her dad neatly folded his paper, set it on the table, and removed the pipe from his mouth. It took everything Charlie had to stand her ground when he rose from his chair. Broad through the shoulders, he was a couple of inches over her, but he was thin. He’d never been an intimidating man, but the gleam in his eyes caused Charlie’s knees to knock together.
“Why have you fouled my house in this way? I did not raise a whore.”
Charlie refrained from replying she wasn’t a whore, but if he believed her to be so, then he must have raised her that way as few others had any hand in her upbringing. She didn’t think speaking was wise right now, never mind giving him what he would consider a smart-ass reply.
“We will send you away to have this baby, and you will give it away,” he stated as if it was settled.
She was a little terrified of him right now, but she couldn’t remain silent. “I’m keeping my baby.”
Her mother gasped, and her head flew up as fury clouded father’s face. Unlike when her mom was angry with her, his wrath made Charlie want to cringe. She laid her hand protectively over her belly.
“You’re what?” he grated.
“I’m… keeping… keeping my baby,” she stammered out.
She now understood what people meant when they said someone looked apoplectic. A vein throbbed in her father’s forehead as his face became the color of a tomato. And then he was stalking across the room toward her. Charlie backed away, but she wasn’t fast enough to avoid him as he bared down at her.
“You dare disobey me inmyhouse?” Her father’s voice remained terrifyingly low as spittle flew from his mouth to splash her face.
“I… I…”
Charlie didn’t get any words out before he snagged her hair and dragged her toward him. Unwilling tears sprang to her eyes as her neck twisted awkwardly to the side and strands of hair were torn free.
“Elon, no!” her mother cried. Her knitting needles clattered to the floor as she leapt to her feet.
“You dare bring your spoiled filth intomyhouse and tell meno!”
Charlie’s fingers clawed at his hands as he jerked her head one way and then the other, using it to punctuate his words.
“Youwillgive up this child,” he commanded.
Terrified he would hurt her, and possibly her child, Charlie had no idea what to do. She couldn’t be sent away; they would take her child from her. “No.”
Charlie never saw the hand that delivered the blow to her cheek, but she saw the stars that exploded before her eyes afterward. Her knees gave out, and she would have fallen to the ground if he hadn’t yanked her up by her hair again.
“No!” her mother cried and flew at them. She threw her hands up to ward off the next blow, and her father’s hand froze in the air.
It was the first time in Charlie’s life her mom ever defended her; Charlie was sure she paid for it later. Then her father’s bulging eyes were back on Charlie, and he was pulling her from the room. Charlie staggered to keep up with him. If she went down, he would only drag her across the floor.
Her mother scurried after them as her father reached the front door. “Whores will not be tolerated in my house.”
The front door opened, and he shoved Charlie onto the porch.
