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“Need I explain the birds and the bees to you?” Alana quipped.
“Shut up,” Freya snipped. “I wasn’t asking you.”
Sophie bit her lip as her silent tears erupted into something deeper and guttural. Freya’s breathing grew heavier and wilder as she watched her little sister slip into despair.
Alana climbed up to the couch and pulled Sophie into her arms, rocking her back and forth, whispering shhhs and it’s okays into her ear.
Otto placed a hand on Freya’s shoulder. “Darling, please calm down.”
“No. I cannot be calm about this.”
Alana glared at Freya. “Enough. She is not a child. She knows that getting pregnant is a possibility with having sex. She made the adult decision, and we can trust her to handle whatever comes next.”
“Thank you for not calling it a consequence,” Sophie whispered.
Alana kissed her forehead.
“Yes, well, an adult woman should also know to use goddamn protection,” Freya emphasized.
“Do not swear at me,” Sophie murmured.
“Not now, Bean. You are going to explain to us how this happened, and with who.”
Sophie closed her eyes and let out a shuddering breath. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Leo swiftly left the living room, then returned moments later with a metal bowl. Freya still hadn’t let up on her rampage.
“How could you be so reckless? You decide you’re old enough to have sex but not smart enough to wear a fucking glove?”
“Hey, enough!” Alana roared.
“He did wear a condom,” Sophie explained calmly, quietly. “It ripped. But we thought we were okay. I did the math…I-I wasn’t ovulating.”
“Was it any time before you were ovulating?” Freya asked.
Sophie’s brow pinched. “You can get pregnant when you have sex before your ovulation day?”
Everyone in the room was stunned into silence. Alana rubbed Sophie’s back, unsure of how to calmly share with her that yes, you could still get pregnant within seven days of your ovulation date.
Freya looked like she was going to breathe fire. Her eyes narrowed as she turned to Alana.
Alana glared back. “You can’t possibly blame this on me.”
“Oh, I can’t?” Freya crossed her arms. “If someone wasn’t encouraging our little sister to go after an older man without properly teaching her about sex, then yes, I am going to blame that someone.”
Sophie trembled in her arms.
“How was I supposed to know what she was taught or not taught about ovulation, Frey? Why is that on me?”
“Because Mom is gone!” she screamed. “You’re the eldest in the household. You’re the one who should have known to say something.”
“And so, what? That leaves you off the hook?”
“No, that left me with everything else!” She spread her arms wide. “I was too busy keeping our business alive to worry about my sister’s sex life.”
She shut her eyes and took one long, deep breath. Fighting with Freya and airing out their dirty laundry was not the solution right now. Right now, the solution was to take care of Sophie and figure out what came next.
She rubbed Sophie’s back. “Bean, who’s the man?”
