Read Online Marker of Hope by Nely Cab - Free Book Online Page B

“are much too young to understand the responsibilities that
come with a child. And marriage?” She forced out a laugh. “No.
Mmm-mmm. You’re not even old enough to drink.” She paced some more.
“So the logical solution is to fix this.”
    “Fix what?” I said. “There’s no fixing it,
Mom. It’s done.”
    “But it can be undone,” Claire said.
    “Are you suggestion we terminate the
pregnancy?” David asked.
    “You don’t know what it’s like to be a parent
at such a young age, David. You don’t understand how your life will
change, how complicated…” Her eyes darted around the room, looking
at nothing. “Isis should have an abortion.”
    I gasped and stood from the couch, my mouth
half open.
    “Absolutely not,” David said sternly.
    “I can’t believe you just said that.” My eyes
stung. “Why would you say something so—so awful?”
    “You’re just kids!” Claire threw her hands in
the air. “I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did.”
    “Like me, you mean?” I sniffed, my entire
body shaking. “Like I was a mistake, Mom?”
    “Honey, no… That came out wrong. I didn’t
mean—”
    “Is that what you were going to do with
me—throw me away? Discard me like a piece of trash because I was an
inconvenience, a setback in your plans?”
    “No! Of course not.”
    “Then why would you ask her to do it?”
David’s voice was loud. Claire stiffened. “This baby is as much a
piece of Isis as it is of you. Now, you can dislike me—or hate
me—as much you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that the baby
is a piece of me too,” he told her, “and I will be damned if I let
you or anyone else take either of them away from me.”
    Claire covered her face with her hands. She
turned and gave us her back. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed. A
minute or two passed before she turned to face us. She wiped her
cheeks with the back of her hand.
    “I apologize for raising my voice at you,”
David said to Claire. “But I won’t apologize for my words.”
    “You don’t have to,” Claire said. “They were
the right words to make me snap out of my own mother’s shoes. When
I told her I was pregnant with Isis, she was dreadful to me. But
I’m not my mother. I don’t want to be like her.” She sniffed.
“Please promise me one thing,” she told David. “Don’t you ever, ever break my little girl’s heart again.”
    “I won’t,” David said. “I swear it.”
    “And the same goes for you,” she said to me.
“He’s a keeper, Isis. Be good to him.”
    I nodded.
    “Come ‘ere.” Claire held out her arms to me.
I walked to her, tears cascading down both our cheeks. She wiped my
face and hugged me.
    “I’m sorry, Mom,” I said.
    “No, I’m sorry.” Claire sniffled. “I
don’t know what came over me. When I get this crazy, it’s only
because I love you with every fiber of my being.” She broke our
embrace and looked into my eyes. “And Isis, I’m thankful for every
moment you’ve been mine.” She looked at David. “And I don’t hate
you, David,” she said. “All I ask is you make her happy.”
    “I intend to,” David said.
    I returned to David’s side, and we sat on the
couch. Claire headed for the liquor cabinet.
    “Have you been to see a doctor already?” she
asked, walking across the room with a bottle of wine and a glass in
her hand.
    “Yes,” I said. “Just this afternoon.”
    “My family has a private doctor.” David
pulled out the sonogram print from his shirt pocket. “Isis and the
baby will be well taken care of. You don’t have to worry.”
    “Do you want to see it—the baby?” I
asked.
    Claire nodded, and David handed her the
black-and-white image.
    She smiled a tender sort of smile and ran her
finger over the image.
    “Wow.” Claire sniffled again. “I’m going to
be a grandma.” After another bout of tears trailed down her cheeks,
she handed the image back to David. She poured herself a glass of
wine and chugged it, then