“I’ll give you some privacy.” I went to the kitchen, debating on whether I wanted to eavesdrop. I wanted to, but I knew it showed a lack of trust.
They were there a long, long time. If I were a nail biter, I’d have had no nails left.
Finally, I heard the front door shut, and Sam entered the kitchen. He looked completely gutted.
“What’s wrong?” I rose and went to him.
He closed his eyes, tilting his head upward. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to tell me.
Finally, he looked at me. “She had a baby last month.”
I swallowed. “Okay.” My mind was taking this to a bad place. I forced myself to wait to react until I had all the details.
“It’s mine.”
My world wobbled. “Are you sure? You haven’t been together—”
“The timing is right. She and I broke up just before school started, but we’d... well...”
“Had sex around that time?”
He nodded.
I didn’t like this, but it wasn’t the end of the world. “Okay. So I guess we need to stay in California so you can have visitations. I don’t know much about babies, but we can learn together. I promise I won’t be an evil stepmom.”
I expected relief in his expression. I thought he was worried I’d dump him for having a child with another woman. But I was a realist.
Things like this happened. But I loved him. I knew my future happiness was wrapped up in him.
He looked at me with such pain and regret. “I have to do right by them.”
I nodded. “Child support.”
He closed his eyes again, and I realized I was missing what he was trying to tell me.
My world tilted a bit more. “What’s going on, Sam?”
His hands brushed up and down my arms. “I have to call off our engagement.”
I pulled away from him. “What? Why?”
“Because I have to do right by Sandra and the baby.”
The meaning of his words finally sank in. “You’re leaving me to marry her?”
He shrugged.
“What the fuck, Sam? This isn’t the old days.”
“I’m sorry.”
Two days later, when I went to my grandfather to tell him I wanted a job with the company, he informed me that I had no trust money and no job. Not only that, but he’d also talked all his cronies into not letting me work for them, either. I knew he didn’t like me. I hadn’t realized he hated and resented me.
I yelled and begged for him to change his mind. Why was he doing this to me?
Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter that he tossed to me. “This is your last handout. Don’t spend it all in one place.”
I went from incandescently happy to the deepest despair. I lost my love. I lost my money. For a time, I lost myself. Luckily, Ethan was there for me.