Chapter 6
“WHAT?!” My mom shrieks after several tense seconds, tearing her hand out of mine. Tears are free falling at this point and I wish like hell I could stop them.
“Brianna,” Daniel says quietly.
“The doctors want her to stay a few days for observation and to help her get some rest and relax since exhaustion was probably one of the reasons she passed out, I think. If the morning sickness doesn’t get a better then he said there’s a chance that she will end up in and out of the hospital until it goes away. I think it’s possible it’ll go through the whole time,” Flora whispers the last sentence when she looks at me her face softens and my tears fall harder and faster. I seriously have the best friends ever.
“How could you be so stupid?” Mom hisses through her teeth, ignoring Flora.
“Mom. It’s not my fault. We used protection. It just-“ I cut off when she holds her hand up to stop me.
“I’ve told you what would happen if this happened Melody,” mom says. Everyone looks at my mom and I feel my heart breaking.
“Mom-“ I break off on another sob, my body shaking with them.
“You know my terms Melody. Your scholarship doesn’t cover all of your needs or schooling. You don’t bring in enough money working at the diner to cover it. I told you no babies and I meant it.” Shit. I forgot about our deal when I was thirteen. I remember her feelings about me having a baby before finishing school but I forgot the deal. She refuses to be responsible for another kid. Not quite disowning me, but close. I lose all support as soon as I hit eighteen. When they separated dad said the same thing didn’t apply to him because he wanted me to succeed even if it means succeeding to be a better mother, but he’s gone and now I don’t have his money or moms to help me stay in school with a baby.
Asher’s jaw gets hard and he turns his head to me, I meet his eyes and say quietly, “I’m not getting rid of my baby mom. If it’s that much of a problem I’ll leave school. Work full time instead.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Mom snaps at the same time Daniel snaps her name.
“What the hell are you talking about? What terms and for what?” He asks her.
“If she gets pregnant she’s on her own after she hits eighteen. That was the deal. She’s eighteen now. It’s been the deal since she was in middle school. She gets no financial help from me because she’s the one who spread her legs.”
Flora’s mouth drops and Keegan glares at my mom. They can’t believe she’s speaking to me that way even though this is normally how she speaks to me, earlier today and when I met Daniel was a rare occurrence. My friends have met my mom maybe twice and it was for a total of ten minutes, she’s been rude but never outright cruel.
“Mom the birth control failed! I can’t control that! At least we were safe!” I shout at her through my tears.
“Who’s the father? Or do you not even know his name?” She asks suddenly making me stiffen.
I bite my lip to stop another sob that threatens to escape.
“Me,” Asher says, speaking up for the first time since he entered the room. We all look at him, different expressions on everyone’s face. Mine is filled with shock, so is mom and Daniel’s but theirs is more confusion than shock. Flora and Keegan smile, glad he admitted it. Axel looks at his brother like he grew a fifth head and eight arms.
“You? When the hell did you decide to sleep with my daughter?” Mom shouts, getting over her shock and heading straight to anger.
“The night before you told us we were going to be related,” Asher says before moving to moms spot beside me. He sits on the bed next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder pulling me in close. I bury my face in his side, wrapping my arms around his waist, squeezing him tightly against me as if he’d disappear if I let him go even an inch.
He kisses the top of my head before continuing. “We decided we were going to give us a shot before you threw your news on us. Your news didn’t matter to me, but it mattered to Melody so we stopped. Melody’s also not lying. We used protection, it must have failed but I’m not going to sit here and listen to you insinuate she’s a whore.”
“Damn. I did not see that shit coming,” Axel says, chuckling breaking the tension just a bit. Daniel grabs moms hand and walks her out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. We wait in silence for them to return, no one ready to say anything just yet.
Mom doesn’t look any happier when she comes back into the room with Daniel. Both of them are pretty tense.
A knock came at the door and I groan, “I’m so not in the mood for more people to be in here right now, I want to sleep and probably puke.”
Asher chuckles while his arms tighten around me when the door opens admitting a nurse who says she’s just coming to check on my vitals.
“I’m out,” Axel says coming to the bed after hanging out against the wall while everyone chatted, except for my mom and me. He gives me a side hug and slaps Asher on the back. “Congratulations you two. I’ll see you later.”
I’ve been doing a damn good job of keeping my eyes open but as the nurse fusses with me I can feel my eyes drift shut while I lean against Asher, my head on his chest. I vaguely hear Flora and Keegan saying their goodbyes before leaving. My eyes open slowly when I feel someone touch my hand and look up to see Daniel.
“Your mother and I are going to head out, we’ll be back tomorrow to check on you,” he says with a smile, his eyes cutting to mom when he says “we” in a tone that brokers no argument.
Mom nods and looks away from us. “We’ll see you tomorrow Melody.”
“Okay,” I mutter.
The nurse follows shortly after mom and Daniel leave, replacing my used puke bowl with a new one. Asher pushes the button to lay the bed down. He lays on his back, pulling me into his arms and rubbing my back, mindful of my IV on my arm.
“You doing okay?” He asks, mouth against the top of my head.
“My stomach still wants to empty itself but I don’t have anything in it. I’m tired, spent the last two nights trying to find a comfortable way to sleep that didn’t make the nausea worse and spent most of that time dry heaving because I didn’t have anything in my stomach because I had already puked most of it up.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?” He doesn’t sound mad, just curious.
“I didn’t want to make you or anyone else worry. I thought it was just a bug. Flora made me go to the nurse’s office today and that’s when I found out I was pregnant.”
“If you’re sick, I want to know. I can’t take care of you if you don’t tell me.” His arms tighten around me then loosen.
“Are you mad about the baby?” I ask in a small voice. “When Keegan said it you didn’t really have an expression and it made me think you were mad. I’d probably be pretty pissed if I were you, we used condoms but apparently they suck.”
He chuckles and kisses the top of my head. “Not mad. I was just shocked.” I nod but otherwise stay quiet. After several minutes of quiet he finally speaks again. “Dad’ll sort out your mom. If she’s determined I don’t doubt that he’d be more than willing to pay the rest of your schooling for you.”
“I can’t take his money.”
“He’s going to want to help take care of his grandchild Kitten. He’ll get your mom straight.” He pauses. “You might want to be prepared to quit your job, at least until the baby gets here if you’re going to be this sick.”
“I can’t afford to miss anymore work, Asher,” I say softly.
“Kitten, I have a trust fund that I haven’t touched that I’ve been able to access since my birthday. You’re not alone in this. Even if your mom doesn’t support you, doesn’t mean my family or your friends won’t help.”
“Okay,” I say, too tired to argue with him. “I’m not going to be able to go to the wedding this weekend.”
“I know. Either they’ll have the wedding without us, or they’ll wait until we can go.”
“You’re not going?” I snuggle deeper into him.
“If you’re here, I’m here. I’m not leaving you to deal with this on your own Kitten,” he says matter-of-factly.
“Okay.”
“Get some sleep babe, if you start feeling sick let me know and I’ll get your thing for you.”
“Mmhm.” I barely heard him since I was already starting to fall asleep.