Page 18 of Hearts Don't Lie
Could this level of vomiting harm the baby? And with that question, Mac knew she had made the decision to parent the child she carried. After all, it was an innocent conceived in love, albeit how was perplexing.
An insistent tapping on the door pulled Mac out of her thoughts. She wiped at her mouth with a shaky hand. Physically drained. Emotionally depleted.
“Yes?” she uttered in a croaky voice.
“Are you all right in there, dear?”
Mac stood on unsteady legs and unlocked the door.
A tall woman with graying brown hair, who appeared to be in her early forties, regarded her with soulful brown eyes. She pursed her lips before asking quietly, “Not the news you were expecting?”
Mac shook her head vehemently, and a fresh torrent of tears washed down her face.
The woman pulled Mac into her ample bosom and rubbed her back until the tears subsided. “I’m Carol McGiver. Here to listen, to talk, or just be. No judgment.”
“Thank you,” Mac whispered, breaking the hug and looking up. “I’m… I’m Kenna.”
“Well, Kenna. Everything is confidential here.”
“Can I stay?”
“Of course. As long as you wish. It just so happens today is a slow day. Let’s get some food and fluids in you. Come on.”
Mac followed the nurturing woman into the small office farther down the hall. As soon as she sat, it was as if someone had fully opened the spigot; she talked at length about her homelife and predicament, leaving out nothing except her real name and where she lived. Carol gave Mac her full attention.
After finishing half of Carol’s lunch and keeping it down, Mac fell asleep.
“You’re going to be okay,” Carol said when Mac woke from a brief nap. She pressed a bottle of prenatal vitamins and a piece of paper into her hand. “I made a phone call while you slept. A friend of mine. We have a network of women throughout the US who provide emotional support for teen moms. She’s a distance, Kenna. Colorado. If you can find a way to get there, she’ll find a way to help.”
“How can I thank you?”
Carol smiled. “By taking care of yourself and the miracle you carry, dear.”
Mac gave Carol a heartfelt hug and left. She felt stronger, buoyed by the contact information of Carol’s trusted friend and the seeds of a plan that continued to germinate during the train and bike ride home. She would start researching in the community library across the street from the high school tomorrow—things like prenatal care, transportation to Colorado, medical and other expenses—details necessary to keep from Alicia, made easier since she began giving Mac the cold shoulder after the officers had brought her home that early and stormy August morning.
After making herself dinner and doing the dishes, Mac cleaned the trailer, showered, and was in her bed—the built-in bench—before Alicia came home from work. She feigned sleep until she heard her mothersnoring, then opened her eyes and sat up, wrapping herself in a thin blanket like a burrito, wondering at the chance that a kind stranger would offer her help. Her thoughts soon became consumed with protecting the life growing inside her as well as Hardin, for the baby was proof that they had indeed had sex.
Resourceful, Mac had squirreled away money from her jobs and hidden it in a compartment under the trailer, out of sight and unknown to Alicia. As luck would have it, Mac discovered a stash of money when she cleaned the trailer. It was in several cosmetics bags, tucked behind the cleaning supplies in their tiny kitchen. Her jaw dropped open as she counted it. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in crisp new hundred-dollar bills, strapped in ten-thousand-dollar bundles. How Alicia had put away this much was a mystery.
Her gut said something was amiss, so asking the universe for forgiveness and promising to repay it when she could, Mac borrowed a small amount, and if Alicia failed to question her, she would continue to borrow and add it to her cache before she left Illinois at the end of the semester. All she needed to do now was finish high school and remain under her mother’s radar.
Mac was on her own, and she vowed right then and there that she would protect her baby from Alicia, Hardin’s parents, and anything else that might be a threat.
