Chapter Eleven
They missed their graduation ceremony but the principal read Leo’s valedictorian speech to the graduating class and they said a prayer for Amelia’s recovery.
Everyone was told she’d been in a car accident that resulted in internal bleeding.
That afternoon, the students they’d known through high school started arriving and Amelia’s hospital room was quickly filled with dozens of flowers and balloons.
Several commented that it was odd to see her so quiet. Most of the time, Amelia pretended to be sleeping and Leo backed it up by mentioning she’d just received pain medication.
When visiting hours were over, she rolled to her side and stared through the window. “You’ve given up everything for me, Leo. You didn’t even go to your graduation and you were the fucking valedictorian. I’m a cancer in your life.”
Leo shook his head in disbelief. “Amelia, you missed your graduation, too. Something you had to work harder than everyone else to achieve. I’m right where I want to be. You’re not a cancer. You’re everything and I love you.”
“You love a parasite that takes far more than it gives…”
He bent over her. “Stop. Stop it, Amelia. That’s a horrible lie you’re telling yourself.” He stroked his hand over her head. “You have never, not one time, been a parasite. You give me so much more than you realize. I’ll do a better job of telling you how much you provide to my life.”
“Yes, sure. It’s definitely something you’re not doing that’s the problem, Leo. That must be it.” She laughed bitterly and didn’t look at him. “My mother killed our child and I couldn’t even protect him. You warned me for years…”
“Amelia, she’s your mother. How the fuck could you have known she’d do something so horrific?”
The silence drew out and she asked through gritted teeth, “Where is she? Where is the woman who stole my baby?”
“She was in jail for two days before your father agreed to post bail. He moved out of your house and filed for divorce this morning. He-he’s scared to face you.”
Coldly, she replied, “He should be. His love for her blinded him to the person she was.”
“Gil should have stepped in sooner, Amelia. I know he shares responsibility but...he deeply loves you.” Clearing his throat, Leo added, “He transferred money to an account under your name. There are no strings attached.”
“Blood money,” she hissed. “Tell me, Leo...how much is almost killing your daughter and robbing her of the chance to be a mother worth in U.S. dollars?” He didn’t reply and she laughed. “Must be a lot.”
“You’re angry and you have every right to be, Amelia.”
“I’m glad we agree.”
“I didn’t protect you either. I should have taken you from that house…”
Turning her head, she stared at him in horror. “You don’t get the blame. You don’t get any of the blame. This - all of this - is on the fucking Whitehalls. Myself, my psychotic mother, and my cowardly father.”
Bending, he kissed her temple and rested his forehead there. “None of it is your fault, Amelia. You did nothing wrong…”
Choking on her tears, she whispered, “I did nothing. As usual. I let my mother control me and waited for you to rescue me.”
“No, Amelia. No.”
She felt his tears in her hair but couldn’t talk anymore. She didn’t know how to express her rage, her pain, about the overturning of what she expected to be her life.
He murmured to her, stroked her back, until she drifted to sleep. Always there for Amelia...no matter how fucked the situation was.
* * *
On the sixth day, Amelia spiked a fever. She’d contracted a staph infection from the doctor who fled the clinic when Amelia began to hemorrhage.
Baylor found him and brought him back to their town. Leo told her his bodyguard drove to the police station and popped the trunk.
The gagged and handcuffed man inside had lost his medical license years before but traveled around the Midwest giving quiet abortions for cash.
He would be going to prison for a long time.