I’m going to be sick.
It doesn’t help my stomach was already not doing that great. Hasn’t been for the past three weeks. All due to morning sickness. It was the reason I’d made us late that night. I was throwing up and didn’t want him to know. Not yet at least. I planned to tell him that night at the party he thought I didn’t know about.
Now he wants me gone and he doesn’t even know about the child I’m carrying.
“Alex, please,” I beg, reaching out for his hand.
“No, Faith.” Snatching his hand away from mine, he glares at me. “Get the fuck out of here. Don’t want to see your face anymore.”
“But we promised each other forever,” I whisper, tears pouring down my cheeks. We’d been together from the moment I moved in next door and when my parents moved yet again, I stayed to be with Alex. He’s the love of my life and I didn’t want to be anywhere else but with him.
My parents being who they are, gave their stamp of approval.
“Promises are meant to be broken,” Alex growls vehemently.
Nodding I step back, mutely, as his words ring in my head. “Okay, Alex. You want me gone fine, I won’t be there when you get home and when you come to your senses don’t call me.”
My heart feels as if it were being shredded into a million pieces as I turn on my heel leaving behind the only man who I’ll ever be able to love. But now, I have a baby coming who needs me to stay strong.
Chapter One
Faith
Present Day
Four Years later
“Jesus H. Christ, Lyrica, why did you teach him that?” I complain as my three-year-old son, Alec, squeals at the top of his longs calling my best friend, Lyrica, Ly–Ly.
“What are you talking about, Fay?” Lyrica giggles as she picks Alec up.
“You know what I mean. That high pitch squeal which is ear piercing,” I mutter, turning to get ready for work. Work at a place I seriously hated. Okay so I didn’t hate it. Just the part where men leered at me constantly and threw lewd comments in my direction.
For the past several years, since moving from Louisiana to North Carolina to be closer to my parents before they died in a car accident, I’ve lived with my best friend who has been a God send with helping me with Alec.
“Babe, what can I say, he likes to be loud and heard,” Lyrica laughs as she tickles my son.
Alec squeals again as he doubles over giggling, like only he could. Even when my heart aches for his daddy and wishing things were different, I can see Alex shining through Alec’s eyes. The way he resembles his dad is uncanny.
Shaking my head of thoughts of Alex, I leave the two of them playing so that I can go prepare for work. I put my hair in a messy bun on top of my head and apply my makeup heavily. Being that I’m a stripper and hating this is where my life has led me. I can’t say I don’t enjoy the money I make. I’ve been the top dancer at Double Trouble from the first week I started, after Alec was born. Before that the owner, Lawson Landers, put me behind the bar so that while I was pregnant no one would be able to touch me.
Lawson easily became a friend of mine and knew I hated having to dance at his club but understood why I did. He tried to offer me a management position with a raise, but I didn’t want to feel like he was showing favoritism. So, he did the only thing he could to make it easier for me to take care of Alec. Put me as the top dancer and changed some things around at his club.
This also meant he started offering benefits to the girls who work for him on the condition they had a monthly drug, pregnancy, and STD test done.
Why he did all this I’ll never know but I’m grateful to him, all the same.
Lawson didn’t condone the dancers hooking up with customers after hours when it affects his business. Meaning if they wanted to make extra, they went through their boss. I had never done this. I can’t stomach the thought of anyone touching me. It’s bad enough I endure the lap dances.
Again, Lawson tried to tell me I didn’t have to, but it’s a requirement for his girls to give at least one lap dance a night. I refused to be seen as anything but an equal to the other girls.
My phone rings and I glance down at the screen.
Unknown Number.
Sighing I answer putting the phone on speaker, “Hello.”
Nothing but silence comes through the line. Shaking my head, I end the call and go back to finishing getting ready, by putting my artic melt wig on and securing it into place. I love the colors in it. Plus, the name of it goes great with my stage name, Glacier. Donna, our DJ, gave me the name when I first started, and it stuck.
As I leave the bathroom, makeup done, my phone rings yet again. I glance at the screen and groan.
Unknown Number.
I don’t have time for this. It’s happened several times over the past few months. Hitting the ignore button, I toss the phone in my bag as I pick it up off the floor and grab my necklace. Slipping it over my head, I leave my room in search of my best friend and little boy, wanting to give him a kiss good night before leaving. I find them in the kitchen, Alec sitting in his highchair munching away on a cookie as Lyrica cooks dinner for him.
“I’m off to work,” I state when Lyrica turns her attention to me.
“Okay, hun, text me when you get there and of course when you’re on the way home.” Smiling at Lyrica I nod my head. She’s said this every night
