Chapyer 4

Elena

Mom didn't scream. Instead, she sat slowly beside me, her voice trembling. "How... how in God's name did this happen, Elena?"

I choked back a sob, and with my voice breaking at every second word, I told her everything.

When I finished, her hands moved slowly to cup mine. I cried harder at the warmth of her fingers. I couldn't remember the last time she'd looked at me so tenderly.

"Does..." She closed her eyes and swallowed. "Does he know?"

I shook my head violently. "No. No, he doesn't. He probably doesn't even remember my face. It was dark, and he seemed a bit drunk and all."

Mom let out a long breath, opening her eyes. Slowly, her hands dropped from mine.

"Then it's all good. There's no problem then."

I looked up at her. "No problem?"

She nodded. "All we have to do is get rid of it. No need to cause a scene."

I froze, unable to believe the words that had just come out of her mouth.

"W... what?"

"You heard me," she replied, her voice disturbingly calm. "We'll go to a clinic tomorrow and get it done. No need to trouble your dad and your sister."

"No," I gasped, wrapping my arms tightly around my stomach. "No, Mom! No! Please!"

"Don't you dare start crying!" she hissed. "Look at the situation, Elena! Aeron Blackwood is your sister’s fiancé. In less than a year, he will be your brother-in-law! Do you have any idea what would happen if anyone—if the Blackwood family, if the press, if Isabella—found out about this?"

"I don't care about the Blackwoods!" I sobbed, the tears blinding me as I shook my head violently. "I don't care about the family name, or the company, or the press! Mom, please, listen to me! I'm begging you!"

"You don't care?" She let out a cold, incredulous laugh. "Of course you don't care! You never care about anyone but yourself! You have spent your entire life being a drag on this family, and now, on the absolute greatest night of your sister's life, you bring a bastard to our doorstep?"

"It's my baby!" I screamed, holding onto her sleeve. "Mom, please! Look at me! It's your grandchild! It's a living human being inside me!"

She didn't move, only looked at me with nothing but cold, unyielding disgust.

"I won't tell anyone," I pleaded. "I swear to you, I will never say a word! Isabella can marry Aeron! She can have the Blackwood name, she can have the money, she can have everything! I don't want any of it! Just let me leave! Let me pack my bags, go far away, and have my baby in peace! I won't ever come back! I won't ever ruin her happiness!"

"Do you really think you're that clever?" She yanked her dress out of my hands and stood up. "You think you can just wander off, give birth to Aeron Blackwood's child, and pretend it won't destroy your sister?"

"I won't tell him!" I cried, pushing myself off the bed onto my hands and knees. "He will never know! Nobody will ever know!"

"A child is not a secret you can bury in the closet!" my mother snarled. "A child grows! A child has a face! What happens when he looks just like Aeron? What happens ten years from now when you run out of money and come crawling back to blackmail him? What happens when Isabella finds out that her husband slept with her own pathetic sister before he proposed to her?!"

"I would never do that to her!"

"It doesn't matter what you would or wouldn't do!" she snapped, stepping backward and kicking my hands away as I reached for her again. "The mere existence of that bastard would be a knife hanging directly over Isabella's neck for the rest of her life in her husband's house! Every time Aeron looked at her, every time they had an argument, that mistake of yours would be sitting right there in the shadows, waiting to tear her marriage apart!"

"It wasn't a mistake to me!" I screamed back. "It's a life, Mom! It's my child! How can you stand there and ask me to kill my own baby?!"

"Because it is a parasite that will ruin this family!" she roared. "You slept with a stranger like a street girl! You threw away your dignity, and now you want us to sacrifice Isabella's entire future, our family's standing, and millions of dollars in business deals just so you can play mother to a bastard?!"

"I'm not doing it," I whispered, pulling my body back against the edge of the bed, hugging my knees to my chest, my body shaking. "I won't do it. You can't force me. It's my body, and it's my baby."

It was crazy how protective I felt toward the little life growing inside me. I hadn't even known this child existed yesterday. It felt strange. Terrifying, even.

But the thought of losing it made my stomach wrench and my heart bleed.

Maybe because I knew what it felt like to grow up unwanted. To feel like there was always someone more important, someone more deserving of love.

I couldn't do that to my own child. Not when it had done nothing wrong. It hadn't even asked to be created. It had simply come to the wrong mother, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I couldn't even protect it.

Mom watched me for a while and straightened.

"It's nice that you think you have a choice. Shows you're finally growing a spine. But your games aren't appreciated this time around."

"Mom, please—"

"You have always been selfish," she continued softly, ignoring me. "But I will not allow you to destroy Isabella."

"Mom," I cried, my voice barely a whisper. "I'm also your daughter. I'm really going to die if I lose this child. You can't do this... please."

Her expression didn't change.

"I can, Elena. And you'll thank me someday."

She walked toward the door and opened it.

"Your father will be back in an hour. I will explain the situation to him. And by tomorrow morning, this mistake will be erased. Whether you like it or not."