Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Sure enough, Julio kisses me immediately, his lips tender yet possessive at once. My heart races and I look up at him with adoration in my eyes.
“You have something to tell me,” he intuits, tilting my chin up with one big hand, his blue eyes gentle. “What is it, Jennabelle?”
The words are on the tip of my tongue, and yet I can’t get them out.
“Tell me,” he whispers persuasively against my mouth, his breath soft and warm. “Don’t be afraid to share, whatever it is, mi corazón.”
That does it. I melt whenever he calls me “my heart” in Spanish, and with a happy smile, I relay the news.
“Well, I’m pregnant! I know we didn’t expect to conceive, but it happened somehow, and I’m so excited, Julio! You’ll be an amazing dad, and I can’t wait to be a mommy either. I know we’ll need to tell my mom, but I think Stephanie will be okay. She’ll be shocked, but she’ll be happy to welcome her first grandchild.”
But instead of pulling me close with excitement, Julio pulls away. He only moves back about two feet, but I can feel something shift in the air. The change is palpable, and it’s as if the temperature in the barn drops twenty degrees.
“What did you say?” he asks, his Argentinian accent suddenly thick.
I bounce on my heels with excitement.
“I’m pregnant, Julio! We’re going to have a baby together! What do you think we should name him or her? I was thinking Julio Junior, if a boy, and maybe Julia, if a girl? What do you--?”
But Julio slices his hand through the air in a chopping motion.
“How did you get pregnant?” he grinds out. “We’ve always used protection.”
That makes me stop for a moment.
“Yes, we’ve always used condoms, but no form of contraception is a hundred percent. There are never any guarantees.”
The handsome polo player looks angry, his face turning red as he stares at the ground.
“Shit!” he curses. “Mierda!”
I pause, stunned.
“What do you mean? Aren’t you happy? I know I’m young to be a mom, but it’s fine! You’re certainly old enough to be a father too—“
Julio cuts me off again, his eyes shooting daggers.
“You’re such a stupid, naïve little girl,” he spits. “Don’t you get it? You can’t have this baby.”
“What do mean?” I ask, completely stunned by this turn of events. “Of course I can! I’m healthy, I’m young, I have wonderful health insurance—”
“Provided by your mother’s job,” Julio sneers. “Don’t you get it? We’re completely dependent on Stephanie. We’ve been having an affair behind her back, Jenna. Your mother’s going to go ballistic at the news.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, the blood draining from my face. “I thought you and Stephanie are just friends now. I mean, she’ll be surprised but I’m sure we can work it out.”
“Just friends?” Julio sneers, his lips twisting into a disgusted frown. “How can you be so fucking stupid? What a naïve little girl. Your mother and I are still in a relationship, and yes, I still have sex with your mom. I lied because it was the only way to get you to put out. So yeah, don’t you get it? Stephanie pays for everything. This barn, the horses I ride, my career, your tuition, the roof over our heads ... everything! You must get an abortion.”
At those words, I literally sink to my knees, my eyes wide with shock.
“What?” I manage, unable to breathe as my lungs go tight. “No!”
“Yes,” Julio spits in an angry tone. “We must come clean to your mother because you need to terminate the pregnancy. She’s the one who knows how to handle these things because you’re obviously nothing more than a convenient hole to fuck!”
Then, my life went haywire. We broke the news to Stephanie, and as expected, my mom lost her shit. She screamed, she yelled, and she cried, but even worse, her heart was broken because I’d committed the ultimate betrayal: I slept with her boyfriend, a man whom she loves, behind her back.
But Stephanie has always been practical too. Despite the tumult, she scheduled an abortion for me, and within weeks, I was at a hospital for a procedure that had me terrified, depressed, and vulnerable all at once. They put me under, and the whole thing was over in the blink of an eye. It’s almost like it didn’t happen except that I had a hole in my heart that will never be filled again. Despite my desperate attempts to convince myself that I was okay, I knew I wasn’t. I was unhinged, unsure, and immensely sad, despite the doctor’s reassurances that this was for the better. Even worse, the experience changed me because I was no longer a girl. Overnight, I’d been transformed into a woman who had suffered and hurt.
Plus, Stephanie was no longer interested in mothering me. She couldn’t stand to look at me, and I get it because I’d betrayed her in the worst way possible. As a result, she packed me off, but not in the way that you think. Instead of dumping me at a fancy boarding school and wiping her hands clean, Stephanie did something worse. She let the State take over, and I was forced into government care as a young woman with nowhere else to go.