Isabella (The Mitchell/Healy Family #2)(15)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“Sure, What do you need?”

“Take this out front and hide it somewhere. Once he tells you to leave pick it up and throw it in the dumpster that gets picked up tomorrow.”

“What’s in it?”

I shoved it against his chest. “Rusty, please don’t ask me any questions. Just get rid of it. I’m begging you.”

I heard Noah walking up the porch steps. Rusty gave me a concerned look but rushed toward the front door. He came back inside before Noah walked into the living room. To hide my sudden emotional breakdown, I retreated to my bedroom, acting like I was indisposed.

“Just set it up for me, will ya?”

I could hear the guys moving it around, and then the house got quiet. A knock on my bedroom door alarmed me. I opened it slowly, trying to come up with a reason to be crying. That’s when I noticed that it was Rusty. “I took care of that thing for you. I’m ridin’ back with Noah, so I’ll come back by in a few minutes to pick it up and throw it away.”

I reached over and touched his arm. “You’re a life saver. Thanks so much.”

“You all right?”

“I will be. I promise.” I was lying. Nothing was going to be okay. My life had just taken a turn for the worse and I didn’t know what I was going to do about it.

“Okay. If you need to talk you know where to find me.”

He left without another word, which I was grateful for. The last thing I wanted to do was stand around talking when my whole life was falling apart.

Once everyone was gone I fell to the floor and let the real tears come. I’d been careless one time, and now was faced with the most horrifying decision of my life. How I was going to be able to face my family was beyond me. Not to mention what I was supposed to do with my future.

Both of those sticks had read the same. Two lines gave me a positive result. I was pregnant with Tate’s child, and I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn’t even know who I could talk to about it. My family would all do the math. They’d warned me about seeing him, and I lied to every single one of them. Now I was in this predicament with nowhere to turn. To make matters worse, this was going to force me to contact Tate, which I promised myself that I was never going to do again.

If I knew anything about him I knew he’d want to be a part of his child’s life. The idea of sharing custody with me made my stomach curl. Instantly I was running to the toilet, throwing up what I left in my stomach.

For the next several hours I cried to myself alone in bed. I’d made the wrong choices and now I was being punished for it. My parents were going to lose all respect for me, not to mention my cousin. He’d never forgive for this; for lying to him of all people.

This secret that my brother’s had promised to take to the grave was about to bite us all in the ass and I didn’t see any way around it.

The next week flew by. I contacted my doctor, but already knew how far along I was. I’d been with one person one time in the past year. The life growing inside of me was a result of that night, and even though it had ended terribly, I couldn’t bring myself to consider abortion. There was no way that I could go through with something like that and be able to live with myself. Life was too precious to me, and had my mother felt that way than I wouldn’t even be on the earth right now to be going through all of this.

The ground was dropping out from under me, which wasn’t surprising considered the predicament I was in. As the days went by it got harder to accept. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone found out, and then I’d have to face the music. My secret would be out and the whole family would know. They’d never look at me the same, and I’d never be able to forgive myself. I’d pride myself on being honest, and this little lie had resulted in a life. The idea of being a mother scared the shit out of me, and being a single mother was even more frightening.

The only thing I was sure of at this point was that I wanted my baby, and I didn’t want to have to tell Tate. I wondered how long I could get away without him finding out. My family would only be able to protect me for so long. I imagined walking down the road one day and passing him. I thought about my child seeing his father, and them having them same eyes.

With everything going on inside of my head, I refused to hang out with my cousin and his fiancée. After a week they were starting to ask questions that I didn’t have answers for. Unfortunately, with everything on my mind I’d forgotten about going dress shopping with Shalan and aunt Van. They showed up at my house on a Saturday morning and I was in the bathroom throwing my guts up.

Right away they started asking the one question that I didn’t want to answer. “Sweetheart, you couldn’t be pregnant could you?”

I shook my head. “Of course not. What would give you that idea?”

My aunt Van handed me a paper towel. “Well, you’re throwing up. You look like death, and you’re tired all of the time.”

I turned away, unable to face her when I lied my ass off. “I’m not pregnant. I just have a virus or somethin’.”

“We’ll just go without you today. If we find something we’ll send you a picture. Is that okay?”

“Yeah. It’s fine. Sorry I can’t go, Shalan. I promise that I’ll be there for everything else.”

She hugged me and they both headed out.

That’s when I think I started to panic again. I needed to know that Rusty had thrown all of the evidence away. If they were asking if I was pregnant I didn’t want it to be because any of them saw the tests in the trash.

It took me a while to hunt him down. When I found him, he was too preoccupied with Titan to call out his name. For a couple minutes I sat there watching him with the large horse. Rusty had this gentle side of him when it came to being around Titan. He was patient and gentle, which made the horse respond positively, instead of aggressive. When Rusty spotted me he started walking in my direction. I met him halfway. “I need to talk to you.”

“Are you okay?” He seemed concerned.

“Just tell me that you got rid of that bag I gave you. Tell me you hid it in the trash and that it was picked up before anyone could see it.”

“I did what you said, Iz.” It still gave me chills when he called me that. “I threw it away that night, just like you said to do.”

“Okay. Just checkin’. Sorry I bothered you.” I looked down at the ground and started to walk away.

Rusty came running after men. “Iz, wait. Is something wrong?”