chapter 2 Shut up your lying mouth

I heard the slap before I felt it.

The sound cracked through the hallway the moment I stepped through the front door and then the pain followed, across my left cheek, snapping my head sideways.

"Four o'clock." Danielle's voice was low. That was always the worst sign. "The shop closes at two. Where have you been for two hours, Sara."

I pressed my hand against my cheek. "There was traffic. I got stuck and I couldn't—"

"Traffic." She said the word slowly.

"Yes."

She looked at me for a long moment. Then her eyes dropped to my hand. The one I was pressing against my face. Then they moved to the other hand. The one still holding the folded paper I had been clutching since I left the hospital.

I had forgotten about the paper.

I tried to slide it into my pocket but she was faster. Her hand shot out and snatched it before I could move and I watched her unfold it.

She read it. I watched her face go from calmness to shock.

"You whore." "After everything your father and I have done for you. We feed you. We clothe you. We keep a roof over your head and you go out and all you can pay us with is to get pregnant."

"I didn't—" I was pressing my hand to my cheek, eyes stinging. "Danielle, listen to me. It was a hospital mistake. I have never slept with anyone, I swear on my mother's grave, I am still a—"

"Shut your lying mouth!"

The second slap was harder than the first.

"Who is responsible?" she asked loudly.

With my hand on my cheek I said "I don't know."

I shouted "I don't know" with tears in my eyes. "I haven't slept with anyone, I don't even have a boyfriend."

"Who is going to believe that?" she screamed. "Who on earth is going to believe you're a virgin with a positive pregnancy test? Who?!"

I have always known that you've been sneaking around all in the name of working. Can't you be as good as your sister, she is better than you in education. Everything. What do you even know how to do well? The only thing you excel very well at is in bringing disgrace to this family.

"You better have a good explanation on how you got pregnant you slut." she shouted as though her voice wasn't loud enough.

She was already moving toward the stairs, shouting. "Charles! Charles come down and see your precious daughter, I have always told you that this girl would bring disgrace to this family because of the too much grace you give to her now see, she is pregnant."

I stood very still in the hallway. My cheek was burning.

My father appeared at the top of the stairs. Tie loosened. Reading glasses pushed up on his forehead. His eyes moved from Danielle to me and then to the paper in Danielle's hand in annoyance.

"What is going on? Why is there so much noise in this house?"

"It's your daughter." Danielle crossed the hallway and thrust the paper at him. "Your good for nothing daughter is pregnant."

"What! Is this true?" He looked at me.

"It is not what it looks like." I kept my voice steady. "It was a mistake. At the hospital. Three weeks ago I went in for stomach cramps and there was a mix up with another patient's name and they—"

"Shut up. A mix up. Do you think we are 5 years old?" Danielle laughed. "Do you hear yourself? A mix up got you pregnant? You better tell the truth."

My father looked at the paper. Then at me. Then at the paper again.

"How does a thing like this happen?"

"I don't have all the details yet, I left without waiting for an explanation from them." I replied.

Then my phone rang. I looked. It was from the hospital then I picked it up.

My father asked who called and I told him it was the hospital. He took the phone from me.

Then I heard him say with anger in his voice.

"There had better be a very thorough explanation waiting for us tomorrow morning if not you won't like what will happen to you and your hospital. Do you understand me."

He hung up. The hallway was quiet.

Then he looked at me.

"This had better be exactly what you say it is Sara because I will not have a bastard child under my roof. I will not be made a laughingstock in front of my colleagues because you could not keep yourself decent. If there is not a satisfactory explanation from that hospital tomorrow then you and whatever is growing inside you will be out of this house. Am I clear?"

He didn't wait for an answer. He turned and walked back up the stairs.

I stood in the hallway.

Danielle was already walking away toward the kitchen, paper still in her hand, satisfaction sitting comfortably on her shoulders the way it always did when something went wrong for me.

"Stupid girl." She said. "Naive stupid girl."

From the top of the stairs where she had apparently been sitting this entire time Cassie leaned over the railing and looked down at me with a smile that had nothing warm in it.

"Pregnant." She said it like she was tasting something she enjoyed. "Wow Sara. I didn't even see that coming." She tilted her head. "Big disgrace."

I looked up at her.

I didn't say anything.

I walked to my room, closed the door behind me and sat on the edge of my narrow mattress in the dark.

My cheek still burned. My hands had finally stopped shaking. I pressed my hand over my stomach.

I had no idea whose child this was.

All I know is that I never planned for my life to move from frying pan to fire.

I didn't even know when I slept off from exhaustion.