“And you’re asking me to give up mine,” Mother interjects smoothly.
Even as I press my hand firmly against my lower stomach, I hiss, “No one is forcing you to do anything except abide by your own worthless credo.” Storming to the door, I’m halted by my father’s voice. “Yes?” I spin to face them.
“Before you leave, we expect you to return everything on your person that belongs to us.”
Confused, I hitch my shoulders. “What do you mean?” I ask.
“Your credit cards, your cell phone. I’d ask for your car, but frankly, it’s too annoying to deal with selling for the value. Oh, and that.” He nods at the bracelet I’m rubbing back and forth across my wrist.
“No, Grandmother left this to me.” I clasp my hand over it tightly. It’s memories of laughter between me and Dean as children running up and down the beach at her home on Amelia Island, free from rules and etiquette. Free from the worry of disappointing my parents again.
“Your grandmother left it to the estate. We gave it to you,” my mother counters. Turning to my father, she wonders aloud, “I know I asked before with the other one, but is it possible to disown your grown children?”
“I looked into it before, darling. I can see if anything different has arisen since then if you like?”
“Do, please,” Mother encourages. “In the meanwhile, Kara—if you please?”
Almost like a robot, I pull out the few items they can lay claim to on my person, knowing with it I lose one of two ways I have to contact Jennings about the baby.
God, I hope he checks the email I sent him.
Dropping everything with a clatter onto their Chippendale pedestal table by the door, I reach for the clasp on my grandmother’s bracelet. Without breaking eye contact, I stride right to my mother and whisper, “Grandmother wanted me to wear this. She wanted it for me.”
“She didn’t want this for you,” my mother sneers, making a circle with her fingers.
“Maybe not. But she still would have loved me.” Dropping the bracelet in her lap, I announce, “I’ll wear it again one day.”
Without a word, without a sound, I turn and walk away from my family’s compound.
Groaning, I flush the toilet of Dean’s bathroom. “I’m so glad I stayed with you when I got home.”
Sitting on the edge of his tub, he rubs a hand up and down my back. “And this is where you’re going to stay, Kara.”
“I don’t think your social life is ready for your sister to be curled up on your sofa bed—”
“We’re moving this weekend,” he states firmly.
“What?” I shriek, but that only sets off the nausea that seems to come whenever my emotions are out of whack. In other words, I don’t feel like I’ve kept a meal down since before Jennings broke things off in Juneau. And I didn’t even suspect I was pregnant then.
“Shh. Let me put this on your neck. It will help with the nausea.” I hear the rush of water in the sink before a cold rag is dripping down my already ruined dress. “Goddamn bastards.” Dean rubs his fingers over my wrist where I’ve chafed it raw in the hours since I managed to make it back to his apartment.
I let out a choked sob. “Mom and Dad?”
“Among others.” He lets go for just a moment before I hear the opening and closing of a medicine cabinet. “Let’s get some cream on and bandage you up. You don’t need a scar.”
“Dean, what you said—”
“We’re moving, Kara. There’s a two-bedroom unit open on the other side of the complex. Some of the guys are going to come help us move. All we need to get you is a bed and a dresser.” He tells me our plans as he gently wraps my chafed wrist. “Think you can deal with your brother as a roommate?”
“I’ll get a job as soon as I can. I’ll keep our home clean. I’ll…” My litany is stopped by Dean lifting my tearstained face to his.
“You’ll take care of my future niece or nephew first. I love you, Kara. No matter who comes and goes in our life, you were the first person I loved.”
I throw my arms around my brother and hold him tight in the cramped space. “You were too, Dean.”
I don’t know how long we sit there just holding on to one another until all the fight leaves my