Stefan stared carefully at me for a moment before saying, “Okay. But once you feel better, I want to know what it was all about.”
“All right.” I peered closely at him, trying to keep my eyes on his face and not his chest. “Why are you in here this late? Was I that loud?” The last time I saw Stefan was just before Terry had come back downstairs from arguing with my mom, looking absolutely defeated. Stefan said he was going to speak with his dad for a moment before going to bed. He refused to tell me what he was going to talk about, but I could only assume it had something to do with the plan he had for the both of us.
“It's not that late. But yeah, you were really starting to wail as I came in.”
“What did you say?” I asked immediately, thirsty for details. “To your dad, I mean.”
“Well, first, I told him that he should be ashamed for having an online relationship with some chick half his age, and then . . . I told him we’re going to move out together.”
Stefan went on to tell me about how Terry wanted us both to stay and help him convince my mom not to leave him.
I gaped in disbelief when Stefan was done with his story. “What? Why in the world would you tell him that? We're only going to draw more attention to ourselves.”
“Well, we're going to have to come clean eventually. At this point, I'm just concerned with getting you out of any stressful situations.”
I shook my head. “I still don’t understand. Why don’t we just help him? We know exactly why Veronica stalked Terry and did what she did. Knowing that, I have no problem with trying to convince Mom that a divorce would be a bad idea, especially when that’s exactly what Veronica would want.”
I just couldn’t understand why Stefan was being so hard on Terry about the whole situation. Even knowing Veronica orchestrated the whole thing, and given the fact that Veronica was a young, hot babe—God, I hated to admit it—why couldn’t he give his dad a break?
Stefan sure is riding on the moral high horse, I thought, while I’m sitting here with his baby growing inside me.
“Growing up, Dad always told me to take responsibility for my actions. And you know what? I listened. That’s why I’m trying to get us out of this mess. I’ve created a problem, and I intend to deal with it. Whether Veronica planned it or not, Dad created his problem, and I'm sure he'll get himself out of it.”
The way Stefan said problem when he was referring to our situation struck a chord inside me. Is that what he thought of me and the baby? As a problem?
Was that all I was to him, some problem to deal with?
Stefan must have seen my worried expression. “Bella, what’s wrong?”
“Should have never done it,” I whispered, black depression washing over me.
“Should have never done what?”
“Any of this,” I replied. “That stupid contest, the Sacrifice. Look at everything that’s happened. We’re hiding a secret from our parents and Mom is threatening to divorce Terry. Jesus, Stefan, Terry is going to hate my guts when he finds out the truth behind all of this.”
“Don’t say that,” Stefan pleaded. “Haven’t I told you before to stop being so hard on yourself? No matter what reason Veronica came after Dad, whether we caused it or not, his actions are his own. It could just have easily been some other girl. He has no one to blame but himself, you hear me? Himself.”
But I still couldn't get over the feeling that we were responsible. “Fuck her,” I hissed angrily. “And fuck this whole, fucked-up situation!”
Stefan placed a hand on my arm. “Stop it, Bella. You’re losing control.”
I brushed Stefan’s hand away. “No! I’m tired of all of this shit!”
Stefan remained calm in the face of my fury. “Bella, you’re getting too loud. You’re going to wake Evelyn.”
“I don’t care! I doubt she's asleep anyway,” I snapped.
Stefan gripped me by both arms firmly and stared me straight in the eye. “But I do. Get a hold of yourself and stop this nonsense now.”
After defiantly staring him in the eye for a moment, I looked away with a sigh. He’d won. “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I’m just so stressed about this whole situation and I’m feeling overwhelmed by it all.”
“I know. That’s why I’m trying to get you out of here.”
“I just wish there were some other way . . .” my words trailed off as my eyes drifted down to the opening of Stefan’s shirt, where his powerful chest was on display.
I ran my fingers down the opening of his dress shirt, enjoying the feel of his flesh against my fingertips. Hungry, I continued all the way down until I hit the waistband of his dress pants.