Royce(46)

“I think my brother is an ass if you want to know the truth.” She’d looked over at him. He’d taken her to the doctor as he said he would and had brought her home after.

“You shouldn’t be mad at your brother, Curtis. You never know what might happen and you’d never be able to live with yourself if you were mad at him like this and something horrible happened. What’s between us…what’s happening between us is only temporary. I told you what I wanted.”

“I think that’s a mistake as well. Kasey, please let me talk to him before you do something stupid.”

She wasn’t being stupid. She was being smart for the very first time in all her life. She was giving Royce just what he wanted. His child. She sat at the table and picked up the papers. They said that the money was hers to use as she saw fit and that all she needed to do was to give the child his name and put his name as the father on the birth certificate.

Picking up the pen with shaky fingers, she signed her name and dated it then she promptly burst into tears. Falling in love shouldn’t hurt this badly. She signed the check and then before she changed her mind, she put it all in the next day air envelope and picked up her phone. She noticed there were seven messages there, but ignored them. She called the courier service and made arrangements for them to pick up her package then called her uncle.

“I’ve been worried about you. What happened? Is everything all right?”

She gave a wavering smile. “Yes. I’m pregnant. I have a due date of February fourteenth. Everything looks fine. The baby is small, but he said that would change. He told me it was too early to tell the sex, but I told him I didn’t care. How are you?”

He was quiet for a long time before he spoke. “Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system, tell me what’s really going on.”

She nearly lied to him again. It wouldn’t have been easy, but she knew that starting a conversation with, “I’m giving up the baby” wouldn’t be the best thing for her right now. But she knew that she had to. If nothing else then to give him time to get used to the idea.

“I’ve come to some decisions. Major ones that involve my future. Things that—”

“Just tell me, girl. You’re killing me. What is wrong? Is it the baby or is it you?” She heard him take a deep breath before he continued. “You’ve decided to get an abortion, haven’t you?”

She felt the tears fall. “No, not an abortion. I couldn’t do that. But I can’t keep it. I’ve…I’m giving it up. It’s better that way.”

She waited for him to explode. But he didn’t. He was calm and rational, something she needed and actually should have expected from him.

“You’re the one that has to live with your decision either way. I can’t say I’m not disappointed, because I am. I think you’d make a terrific mom; you’re too much like your mom not to. But I can also see why you’d feel the need to do this.” He sighed again. “Honey, what does Royce think about this?”

Now came the hardest part. She needed her uncle to trust her more than anyone she knew. Trust her with her secret.

“I’m signing the baby over to him as soon as it’s born. He doesn’t know. He…I need him not to know until it’s done. You have to trust me on this.”

“May I at least ask you why?”

She wiped at the tears as she formed her answer. “He can give the baby the best. Something that I can’t do, like education, opportunities, and everything that it will need.”

“You didn’t.”

Those two softly spoken words crushed her. She knew he wasn’t saying it, but it made her feel like a failure—like somehow, she’d failed not only her child but her family as well. She couldn’t answer him. She hurt so badly that she simply hung up the phone.

The courier came ten minutes later and after he left to take the envelope to Curtis, she laid down. It was early yet, not quite six o’clock, but she felt as if she’d been run through a gauntlet. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

When she woke around two in the morning she felt sick. Her body ached and her head was pounding. Moving to the kitchen she put on her tea kettle and, while it was set to boil, she got down her mug. The pain ripped through her like a knife. The next pain knocked her to her knees. That’s when she noticed the blood.

She reached for the phone, knocking it off the table and onto the floor beside her. She reached for it, the pain making her scream out again. Pressing what she hoped was the number two, she prayed for her uncle to answer before the pain took her away. Even as someone answered, she felt her body let go. The blood poured from her as she said help.