Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 85342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“Anyway, I’m on my way to work. I’ll call you tonight or tomorrow,” I say. “Kiss the kids for me.”
“Will do,” she confirms and I disconnect the phone. I start the car and make my way over to the office.
Even when I step into the elevator, I know I shouldn’t be here today, but I need to just get everything down, and in the file, just in case. I walk to my desk and Rosalind comes out of her office. “I didn’t think you would be here,” she says, walking toward my cubicle.
“I just left the hospital. Monica’s parents showed up.” She just looks at me with her mouth open. “I guess they had to alert the next of kin.”
“How was that meeting?” Rosalind asks, folding her arms over her chest.
I lean back in my chair. “Well, for one she didn’t even recognize me.” I roll my eyes. “Even though I showed up at her house when Monica first ran away. But when I said my name, she called me a bitch.”
Rosalind pffts out, “You’ve been called worse.”
“I think she’s going to go for emergency custody,” I say, and she shakes her head.
“She’ll get it since there is no father on the birth certificate. I’m going to see if I can get into her place and see if she has anything in there.” I pick up the file I know is hers.
“Why don’t you go home and rest for the day?” Rosalind suggests and I nod at her.
“I’m going to make some notes in here.” I open the file. “Make sure I wrote everything I need to down.” My chest hurts now. “I can’t believe she’s gone.” I shake my head.
“It never gets easy. Let me know if you need anything from me.”
She walks away from me and I stare at the file in front of me. A picture of Monica is stapled right next to a picture of Penelope. I start reading notes from when the high school contacted us about her. She was suspended for skipping school and her mother came to get her and basically threatened to beat the principal’s ass if she bothered her anymore. She ran away two days later and I got called in, the school thought her mother did something to her. That wasn’t the case, Monica had moved in with her boyfriend, who was ten years older than her. I shake my head as the memories come back. The tear falls in the middle of the paper as I reach over and grab a tissue. She was so stubborn sometimes, or better yet, every single time.
I flip the page over and see the word pregnant circled five times.
“I have something to tell you,” she said as she sat in front of me at the park. She had called me to tell me she needed to talk, so obviously I went to meet her. She had just gotten out of the system. “You can’t freak out.” I waited, not saying anything, we had just gotten her a job. “I’m pregnant.”
“Oh my God,” I said out loud. “What? How?”
She laughed at me and the sound of her laughter fills my ears even now. I blink away the tears that sting my eyes. Closing the file, I put it away in my bag and get up. “I’m going to head out,” I tell Rosalind, who just nods her head at me.
The hot air greets me right away, and I’m walking to my parking spot when a black car stops in front of me. I look when the driver’s door opens and Colin gets out. He’s wearing jeans and a white shirt. “Hey,” he greets, putting his glasses on top of his head. “Just the person I was looking for.”
“Well, you found me,” I shoot back, trying to smile but it just takes so much effort.
“How you doing?” he asks, walking to the trunk of his car.
“I’ve been better,” I admit to him, watching as he opens the trunk and grabs the green diaper bag. My heart shatters in my chest and I try my best not to hyperventilate. It was a gift I bought her right before she gave birth.
“We found this in the car.” He grabs the bag by the two handles and picks it up. “Dusted off all the glass,” he says, shaking it just to make sure. “Figured you might want it for the baby.”
My hand lifts as I take it in my fingers, gripping the handle. “Thank you. I’ll make sure I get it to Penelope,” I say and the sound of his trunk closing makes me jump.
“Why don’t I give you a call tonight, take you out for a drink?” Colin suggests with a smile.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” I say, but what I don’t add is it’s not going to happen. He gets in his car and drives away. My eyes linger on the bag for a lot longer than I want to admit. I walk to my own car and open the trunk, putting the bag in there.