She thought she had the bitch thing down, but she was just too sweet to pull it off. With a sympathetic bat of my lashes, I could just about taste the venom in my mouth. “Thanks, sugar,” I cooed in true Southern belle style. “That saves me the effort of having to ask you to leave anyway.”
She gasped when I pushed past her and went down the hall to my bedroom. “When did you become such a bitch?” she called after me.
“I hear it’s a side effect,” I responded before slamming my door.
She muttered and stomped around for about fifteen minutes before heading out and slamming the door. Then I got a text from her—apparently she couldn’t tell me to my face—saying she and Cade would be back for her stuff after she got off work. That was when my heart did crack a bit. I hadn’t wanted to hurt her. Not really. It was her dick of a brother I was so infuriated with. But I would never tell him. Never let on how much he’d hurt me with that one sentence.
And I would go it alone. I could. I could totally be a single mom who worked her ass off to give her kid everything they deserved. They would never know any of their grandparents, because there was no way in hell I would go crying back to my sadistic parents. They would likely take the baby from me to make it do all the things I hadn’t complied with whilst living under their roof.
Nope. We would be fine. Just the two of us.
My hand went to my stomach, even though there wasn’t any sign of a bump yet. There was still a little life in there. And I was going to bring it into a very depressing world. The thought almost had me crying again, but I held it at bay. There was one person I had to call. The one person who would likely take the nine-hour drive to Nashville just to help me out. At least I hoped as much.
“What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time, sha?” The sound of her amazing voice brought back so many memories of nights in the bayou, partying in the French Quarter, listening to her gran talk about the ghosts of the past.
A sob ripped from my throat. “Oh God, Delia, you have no idea!”
A quick pause, then her panicked “They found you?”
“No!” I quickly responded. “No. But nearly as bad.”
“What is it?” Her tone was grave, full of concern.
“I’m pregnant.”
“You broke your second most important rule?!”
I sucked on my bottom lip for a long second before breathing out a quiet “Yes.”
“Tell me,” she commanded.
And I did. I caught her up on all the dirty details of that day, then of the last few months up until today. She listened, adding her own commentary along the way. Cussing out Kai when I told her what he said. We both knew the guys, all the sex, were part of my plan. It may have sounded insane, but it was part of my control. That didn’t mean I liked basically being called a slut by the man who was now the father of the baby in my belly.
When we were completely caught up, she was silent for a few heartbeats before she sighed. “Even though the dad was a total douche, you want to keep it?”
It wasn’t a callous question. We’d gone over this scenario during that long drive, discussed every single possibility of what could happen down the road. And yes, at the time, I’d said I wouldn’t keep it if I ever got pregnant. Now my mind violently shied away from the idea. There was no way, absolutely no way I could be rid of the tiny spirit that depended on me. The fact that it was healthy and thriving in there was a miracle all of its own. With the amount I drank in that first eight weeks and the hormones from the birth control shot I usually got, the doctor had called the baby a little fighter. Just like me.
“Yes. I’m keeping it,” I told her.
“You know what this means. What could happen.”
“I do,” I replied, falling back on my bed. “I have to ask…. You did so much for me, Del. Sacrificed so much already. But is there any chance you would come stay with me for a while?”
The next pause, filled with only our breathing, made my nerves tingle. I was never vulnerable enough to ask for help, not after she’d helped me run—I hadn’t even asked then, she’d insisted—but the wicked hormones kept drawing strange reactions from me.
“I can’t,” she finally said. And that was it for the crack in my heart. It split right down the center. “You know I would, Chlo, you know it. But Gran. She’s been sick. I’ve had to help Mama keep the house going while taking care of her. I’m so sorry.”
“Gran is sick?” I croaked, a tear streaming down my cheek. It couldn’t be true. Her gran was such a fixture in New Orleans. But the fact that Delia hadn’t told me sooner, hadn’t wanted to bother me with the information, somehow hurt more than anything else had.
“Yes. She’s got something going on we haven’t been able to pinpoint yet. I’ve been taking care of her day and night for months now. Makes me wish sometimes you were here. All this distance sucks some days.”
“I’m so sorry, Del. I should be there. I should be facing my demons rather than running from them.”
“You know that’s not what I meant. You had reasons to run. It’s just hard—” She broke off, muttering something to someone in the background. “Look. I gotta go. Mama needs me. You call me again if you need to chat.”
“Okay. Bye, Delia.”
“Bye, Chloe.”
The moment the phone went dead, the walls closed in around me. So many emotions bombarded me from every side
