The Consequences

ADELINE'S POV

The hotel room door slammed shut behind us, his mouth was on mine immediately, kissing me like he was drowning and I was air.

"Wait." I pulled back, breathing hard. "I don't know your name."

"You don't need to." His grey eyes burned into mine. "No names. No past. Just tonight."

"Just tonight," I repeated.

He kissed me again, harder this time. His hands found the zipper of my cheap dress and pulled it down.

The dress fell to the floor.

I stood there in my discount store underwear, suddenly aware of how different we were.

"I don't belong here," I whispered.

"Stop." His hands cupped my face, forcing me to meet his eyes. "You belong exactly where I want you and right now, I want you here."

The certainty in his voice made my knees weak.

He kissed away my protests, his hands moving over my body like he was memorizing every curve.

When he unhooked my bra and his mouth found my breast, I gasped.

"Sensitive," he murmured against my skin. "Good. I want to know every sound you make."

Chris had never talked during sex or even cared about my sounds or my pleasure.

This stranger was different.

"The bed," I managed.

"Not yet." He sank to his knees in front of me. "I want to taste you first."

"You don't have to—"

"I want to." His hands gripped my thighs. "Tell me to stop if you want me to stop."

I didn't want him to stop.

His mouth moved between my thighs and I cried out, my hands flying to his hair.

"That's it," he said against my skin. "Let me hear you."

When I came apart under his tongue, crying out his name except I didn't know his name so I just cried out wordlessly, he caught me before my legs gave out.

"Beautiful," he whispered. "You're so fucking beautiful when you cum."

He carried me to the bed and laid me down on sheets that cost more than my rent.

I watched him undress with shaking hands and roll on a condom.

Then he was over me, grey eyes locked on mine.

"Last chance to change your mind."

"I don't want to change my mind." My voice was breathless. "I want to forget everything except this."

"Then forget." He pushed inside and I gasped at the fullness. "Forget everything but how I make you feel."

"God—" I couldn't form words.

"Look at me," he commanded. "I want to see your eyes when I make you fall apart."

I met his burning gaze.

"Say something," he demanded as he moved. "Tell me how this feels."

"Different." My voice cracked. "It's never felt like this before."

"Good. I want you to remember this tomorrow that someone made you feel wanted, desired and worshipped."

His control shattered. It became desperate and consuming.

"I'm close," I gasped. "I'm so close—"

"Then cum for me." His hand moved between us, touching me exactly where I needed. "Cum for me right now."

I shattered, crying out so loud I didn't care if the entire hotel heard.

He followed seconds later, groaning my name except he didn't know my name so he just groaned wordlessly against my shoulder.

We collapsed together, breathing hard.

After a moment, he rolled off me and disposed of the condom.

When he came back to bed, he pulled me against his chest.

"Stay," he murmured into my hair. "Just for tonight let me hold you."

I should have left and walked away but his arms felt safe in a way nothing had felt safe in years.

So I stayed and pressed against the chest of a stranger whose name I didn't know.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"For what?"

"For making me forget even if it's just for a few hours."

His arms tightened around me. "You deserve better than what they did to you."

"You don't even know what happened."

"I know enough. I know someone hurt you badly enough that you're here with me instead of celebrating your graduation." His voice was rough. "Whoever they are, they're idiots."

Tears burned my eyes. "You don't know me."

"I know you're stronger than you think. I know you're beautiful. I know you deserve someone who sees that." He pressed a kiss to my temple. "Even if that someone is just a stranger for one night."

I fell asleep against him, feeling safe for the first time since my parents died.

---

Sunlight woke me up the following day, I turned and reached for the stranger, but the bed beside me was empty and cold.

He'd been gone for a while.

I sat up, looking around the expensive hotel room.

No note on the pillow, no number on hotel stationary, just a five hundred-dollar bill on the nightstand.

I grabbed the money with shaking hands, staring at it.

Last night, he held me. He called me beautiful which made me feel like I mattered.

He'd said I deserved better.

And then he'd left me cash like I was a prostitute.

Like last night was a transaction.

Like I was something he'd paid for.

The betrayal hit harder than it should have.

He was a stranger. I'd known this was one night. I'd agreed to no names, no past, no future.

But somewhere between him making me forget and him holding me while I fell asleep, I'd started to believe his words.

I started to believe I deserved better.

Started to believe maybe he'd seen something in me worth more than money.

I was so stupid.

I threw the cash across the room. It scattered on the expensive carpet.

Then I grabbed my cheap dress from the floor and got dressed with trembling fingers.

In the bathroom mirror, I looked destroyed.

Red eyes, messy hair and wrinkled dress.

Marks on my neck from his mouth.

A girl who'd been publicly humiliated yesterday and made another mistake last night.

I grabbed a washcloth and scrubbed at the marks until my skin was raw.

Erased every trace of him, then I walked out of that hotel room, leaving the five hundred dollars where it had fallen.

I didn't want his money.

I didn't want anything that reminded me I'd been stupid enough to believe a stranger's pretty words.

---

ONE MONTH LATER

I woke up at four-thirty AM in a motel room that smelled like mold.

My alarm wouldn't go off for another thirty minutes, but my stomach had other plans.

I barely made it to the bathroom before I threw up again.

This was the seventh morning in a row.

I knelt on the dirty tile floor, dry heaving into the toilet, and tried to tell myself it was food poisoning or probably stress.

But my period was four weeks late and my breasts were hurting so badly I couldn't wear a bra.

I was exhausted all the time despite sleeping ten hours a night and I was throwing up every single morning.

I wiped my mouth with a shaky hand and stared at my reflection in the cracked mirror.

"No," I whispered. "Please, God, no."

But I already knew, I'd just been too terrified to admit it.

I called in sick to work for the third time this week.

My manager was going to fire me soon. I could hear it in his voice when he said fine.

I threw on clothes that were starting to feel tight around my stomach and walked three blocks to the pharmacy.

It was six AM. The store had just opened.

I was the only customer.

The pregnancy tests were behind the counter. I had to ask the pharmacist for them.

She looked at me with pity as she scanned them like she knew exactly what my situation was.

"Good luck, honey," she said as she handed me the bag.

I didn't respond. I just paid with money I needed for food and left.

Back in my motel room, I locked myself in the bathroom and opened the first test with shaking hands. I read the instructions five times because I couldn't focus.

Then I peed on the stick and set it on the sink.

Waited three minutes, the instructions said.

I counted every second.

One hundred and eighty seconds felt like hours.

When I finally looked at the test, two pink lines stared back at me.

Positive.

"No." My voice cracked. "No, no, no. That's wrong. It has to be wrong."

I ripped open the second test and peed on it with shaking hands then I waited another three minutes that felt like eternity.

It was the same two pink lines.

Positive.

"Please," I whispered to no one. "Please let this be a mistake. Please."

I picked the two tests and put them up on the edge of the sink.

I was pregnant with a stranger's baby, a stranger whose name I didn't know, whose face I could barely remember.

I slid down the bathroom wall, staring at those three tests.

Just one night's mistake and now my entire life was over, I only had forty-three dollars in my bank account and lived in a motel room that cost two hundred dollars a month.

I worked at a diner that was about to fire me.

I had no family, no friends and no insurance or support, it was just me and a baby I couldn't afford and never planned for, a baby whose father I could never find even if I wanted to.

I started laughing but it came out broken and hysterical then the laughter turned to sobs that tore from my chest.

I sat on that dirty bathroom floor and cried until I thought I'd break apart.

When I finally stopped, my throat was raw and my eyes were swollen.

I looked at my reflection in the cracked mirror.

"What am I going to do?" I whispered.

My reflection stared back with no answers.

Just a terrified girl who'd made too many mistakes.

I pressed my hand to my still-flat stomach.

"I don't know what I'm doing," I whispered. "I don't know how to be a mother. I don't know how to survive this."

The baby couldn't hear me yet but I made a promise anyway.

"But I'll figure it out. I'll find a way. I won't give up." Tears streamed down my face. "You're mine and I'm going to keep you safe even if it kills me."

I grabbed my phone and searched for "free prenatal clinics in Brooklyn."

Found one that was open today.

I made an appointment for this afternoon.

If I was going to do this, I needed to start somewhere.

I stood up on shaking legs and looked at the three positive tests one more time.

Then I picked them up and threw them in the trash.

In eight months, my entire world would change in ways I couldn't even imagine.

I just had to survive until then.