Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Alecia's eyes popped open and she stared at the ceiling as her stomach rumbled. She could gag at this moment. She pressed a hand to her stomach. What was wrong with her? Pushing herself from the bed, she stood and made her way to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

She picked up a roll, but her stomach turned with just the thought. She pushed her hand hard against her stomach, but as she listened to the coffee drip into the pot, the aroma of the hazelnut entered her nostrils and something pushed up through her. She covered her mouth, and ran to the bathroom sweeping past Ryder. She threw open the lid of the toilet, and let everything in her stomach come out. Ryder bent down next to her and held her hair back.

When it was all out, she took the cup of water Ryder handed her. She sipped the drink, swished her mouth, and spit into the toilet. She placed a hand on her head. “My head is hot, I must have a cold,” she said. She went to the guest bedroom and lay down, burying her head into the sheets.

“I’ll call my mom, Ally,” Ryder said. “She can come over, so you won’t be alone.” He kissed her on the head. “I’m going to get ready for work.”

She nodded and listened to the sound of his feet as he walked away.

Around nine, Mrs. Hendrix showed up, and Alecia who was still feeling queasy, heard her speak to the maid for a couple minutes. She then walked into the guest bedroom.

“Hello, Alecia, how are you feeling?”

Alecia rolled over. “I’m fine. I’ve got some stomach virus.”

Mrs. Hendrix talked to Alevia for a while. Around 11 a.m., she left Alecia, saying she and Chloe were going to get together. She promised to come over after lunch.

Alecia called the maid into the room, and asked her to leave for the day, saying she wanted to be completely alone. When she heard the front door shut, she got out of bed, and stretched, pushing the stiffness from her limbs. She hadn’t taken her morning pill and better get to it since her stomach had settled.

She walked over to the bathroom, in her and Ryder's room. On the sink, was her bag left unpacked. She picked up the small plastic box, opened it, and reached down for a pill, but as she did her fingers brushed several. Alecia looked down. The pill container, she had had for almost a month, had at least two weeks of pills in them. Her breath fled from her as the pills fell out of her hand and onto the floor. The turmoil of her life had made the pills slip from her mind and now.... She covered her mouth as a scream escaped her. Oh no! Let it not be!

She drew in a shaky breath as she finally forced herself to face the truth. She was pregnant for Ryder, again. This time, she wished the pregnancy would kill her, this time, she knew it would not. He had her protected.

And yet, she still wanted to get a test kit -- perhaps, she might get lucky, lucky enough to find out she was not carrying the baby of that monster.

A week later, She sat a bag of pads on the bathroom counter, her usual signal to Ryder to leave her alone. Why bother? No period was going to show up, but at least she could buy some time. When she had to tell him, she would say she had implantation bleeding and didn’t realize she was pregnant.

She washed her face in the sink, but the redness still clung to the skin under her eyes. How long could she hold him off? She bit her lip. There was an abortion clinic not too far from here. He would never know. Her fingers dug into the palms of her hands. No, he would find out. Somehow he would and then he would.... Heaven only knew what he would do if he found out she’d killed his child.

She sat on the couch and watched the minutes tick by. Ryder came home around 7 p.m..

He smiled and then made his way to the bedroom, returning a couple minutes later.

He sat on the couch next to her and smiled. “I was kind of hoping for a baby,” he said.

“I was too.”

He caressed her cheek. “Perhaps, we should start trying.”

“Perhaps.”

* * *

Alecia tapped on the door. Taylor should be home alone, since Chloe was out with her mother. The door opened and Taylor peeked out, smiling although her eyes wavered. “Hey, Alecia.”

Alecia brushed past her.

“I’m alone,” Taylor said.

Alecia reached into the paper bag that she had brought with her, and pulled out a pregnancy test.

“Oh no.” Taylor walked up to her. “Oh, Ally.” She placed a hand over her mouth.

“I know I am. I just can’t believe it.” A couple tears fell down her cheek. Taylor took her hand and led her into the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, Alecia held up the stick and focused on the pink yes glaring back at her. She placed the stick down, and sat on the bathtub. There was no way to deny it any longer. She placed a hand on her stomach. What was the life like growing inside her? Would it be like him? She shuddered. “What am I going to do?”

“Does he have any suspicions?”

Alecia shook her head. “I can’t have his child.” Her voice choked up as a warm tear trickled down her cheek.

“It’ll be yours, also.”

“No, it will be all his, especially if it’s a son. I would have no say in the raising of this child.”

Taylor sat next to Alecia and wrapped an arm around her waist. A soothing sense of comfort wrapped around her, but it couldn’t push away the rattling that grew stronger every day. At some point, she imagined the shaking would kill her as it made every bit of her will to live seep from her.

“I want to leave him,” Alecia said.

“You can’t.”

Alecia looked at her friend, focusing on the emerald eyes. “Why do you say that?”

Taylor took a deep breath and squeezed her hands together. “I wasn’t born at the time, but my mother, before she died, told me that Mrs. Hendrix ran off once. She was pregnant with Ryder, and Mr. Hendrix dragged her back. She wasn’t the same ever since. No one knows what he did to her. But there are rumors he slit her mother’s throat in front of her.”

Alecia gasped; her hands flew to her mouth. Her mother. But Ryder wouldn’t be that much of a monster. Would he? Tears poured down Alecia's face as she buried it into her hands.