(FLASHBACK TO TEN YEARS AGO)
WINSLOW, ARIZONA.
(SIX WEEKS LATER : SAINT PAUL HOSPITAL)
The old looking doctor with an eyeglasses placed right on his nose looked up at Ivy. “You are pregnant.” He announced with a small smile on his face.
Ivy eyes widened and her mouth went slack. Her heart beat accelerated at the doctor’s words. “Are .. are.. you sure?” Ivy asked the doctor.
It was really a silly question to ask when she knew very well that she was pregnant. It was already six weeks after spending one night with Ace, the intervening week she had have skimpy period at first meaning she was most emphatically pregnant.
And she has gone back to check on Ace at the beach house. She had slept with a stranger and now she was pregnant. Where? or how would she find him just to let him know she was carrying his child. The past few days her body had felt different and her period had failed to finally appear.
“The test is positive. Can I get a date for conception or falling to that, the date of your last period?” The doctor requested.
Ivy Rivera dug into her purse, pulled out a paper on which she had noted the time she made love with Ace, the date of last period and handed it to the doctor.
The old doctor adjusted his eyeglasses. “The conception date is accurate.” The doctor asserted after some moments of silence.
Ivy sat nimbly trying to reach into the future and grasp what was going to happen. How radically her life was going to change. Now she had to face the consequence of being a single parent and her parents would hate her the more if they found out she was pregnant. No doubt, they would disown her if they found out she was carrying a strange man’s child.
The thought of getting rid of the baby occurred to her but she kicked against it. She wasn’t going to kill an innocent soul for her own mistake. No her child wouldn’t be termed a mistake. She would have this child, a fierce protectiveness grew in her as she touched her flat stomach.
If the worst should come, she would have to leave town to avoid gossips and bad glares and being mocked by those who knew her legacy.
Ivy Rivera decided that she wouldn’t stand the chance of raising her child in this damn town. But before leaving town, she would visit Ace’s work place again.
She rubbed her stomach with gentle fingers barely listening to the doctor’s advice on nutrition and anti natal care.
**************************
RIVERA HOME
“What is the result?” Emily asked when Ivy got back from the hospital.
She was surprised to see her sister dragging a traveling box across the room towards her bed.
“The test says positive. I am pregnant.” Ivy packed her few clothes into the box.
Emily hands covered her mouth.
“I can’t let mom or dad find out about it.” Ivy added.
“So why are you packing your things?” Emily asked trying to stop her sister from packing. “You can’t leave, Ivy.”
“Once mom and dad finds out I am pregnant, it will only confirms it to them that I have been sleeping around.” She continued packing.
“No, you haven’t been sleeping around. It was just one man.” Emily countered.
Ivy had opened up to her sister few days after she couldn’t hide it anymore. Ivy needed to tell someone about it so her sister was the only available person who could listen and probably not blame her for giving herself freely to a stranger.
She didn’t want to at first but Emily had cried every morning by her side, cuddled her to tell her what was bothering her and then she had to spill everything. She had expected Emily to yell insults at her, had expected her to curse her for giving herself freely to an unknown man but instead she had hugged her and blamed their parents for what happened. Emily had cried with Ivy that evening.
When her period failed to appear Emily had advised her to see the doctor and assured her that everything would be alright even if the test came out positive.
“They will never believe me.” Ivy argued.
“They will believe me if I explain things to them.” Emily replied.
“This isn’t about you. For God sake Emily, I am pregnant! And I am not going to wait for them to find out because-” she paused to bit back tears that threatened to spill anytime soon.
“I don’t know what would happen if they find out. And I don’t think I belong here anyways.” Ivy completed and zipped the box.
Emily stopped her. “No.. No.. No.. Ivy don’t leave me. You can’t leave. Listen, we can work things out. I can get a job to help support you and the baby.” Emily said sincerely as tears spilled down her cheeks.
Ivy shook her head in disagreement. “Thank you but you are still under age. I am the one who is pregnant. Emily, I appreciate that you are always willing to help and fight for me. But it is not the same as this one. This is my problem and I have to deal to it alone.”
Emily reached out to hold her sister’s right hand. “But you have no where to go. We can talk to aunt Julia, remember she promised to help you with whatever you need. Please don’t leave.” She persuaded.
Ivy’s mind was already made up at the hospital. “I am not the only one now. I am carrying a baby and -”
The door open revealing Mrs Rivera at the entrance. She leaned on the door frame with her arms crossed over her chest.
Ivy heart skipped beats at a time. Mrs Rivera wore an angry look on her face.
“You are pregnant?” Mrs Rivera asked in a low tone as she walked into the room.
They hadn’t expected their mom to know about it this soon. The moment Ivy stepped into the house, Mrs Rivera had stayed at their entrance listening to the conversation.
Emily stood in front of her sister as if she was ready to take on whatever beating their mom might want to lash out on Ivy. “No.. no.. no mom it is not not what you are thinking. She is-” that’s not –
“Keep quiet Emily! And step aside I need to see her face!” Mrs Rivera yelled out.
Ivy stepped beside Emily with her head bowed.
“Now you tell me, are you really pregnant?!” Mrs Rivera pointed at her.
Ivy dropped her hand on the handle of her box, holding it firmly as she looked up at her mom. “Yes, I am pregnant.” She answered.
Mrs Rivera bursted into a loud laugh that echoed in the whole room. “I knew it! I noticed you have been behaving kind of sluggish and strange for the past few weeks. You hardly go out the way you use to, you sleep all day and all those stuffs. I have been watching you and I knew this would be the end result of your sleeping around.” Mrs Rivera scoffed.
Things turned out the way Ivy has predicted it.
“No mom that’s not true.” Emily countered.
Mrs Rivera shot Emily a glare. “Then what is true?! She hasn’t been sleeping around? Okay but tell me do you know the father of the child you are carrying? Hell no! You don’t know where he is right now! Now you give me a reason why I shouldn’t think you have not been sleeping around?!” She screamed with clear annoyance on her face.
“I have always known you would end this way! You have been a disgrace to me and your father! We have been nothing but good to you! We clothe you, we feed you, we let you sleep in our house but this is how you repay us! How could you do this to us?! How can you not know the father of your child?! You are so irresponsible!” Mrs Rivera lashed out on Ivy.
Tears burned down Ivy’s cheeks as she didn’t say a word back at her mother. She took it all in like she used to do throughout the years.
Mrs Rivera breathed out heavily. “You know what? I can’t do this anymore. I can’t stand seeing you! I can’t feed you and that thing in your womb! So it’s either you take it out or leave my home.” Mrs Rivera stated her conditions.
Ivy wasn’t surprised but Emily was shocked to hear those words from her mother.
“Mom! How can you ask her to abort her baby?!” Emily gasped out.
“I am doing her a favor! Who knows if the child might be another bad luck like her?! Just imagine! She doesn’t even know the father of her child.” Mrs Rivera argued.
Emily stared at her mother in disbelief.
“I am sorry for causing you so much trouble and pain throughout these years. You really don’t have to worry about more mouths to feed. This is my cross and I am ready to carry it. I will keep my baby.. and I will do best to raise.. my child alone. And if that’s the only thing I am going to achieve in life then I will do it over again just for my baby. I will leave and I will never return so you can be at peace and live as a happy family.” She said before walking out.
“Ivy! Ivy! Ivy! No you can’t leave!” Emily tried to follow her sister.
“Stop it Emily!” Mrs Rivera screamed as she grabbed Emily’s upper arms. “Just let her go.”
Emily jerked free from her mom’s grip aggressively. “Are you going to let her leave like that?! She doesn’t…” Emily paused as more tears dropped down her cheeks.
“She has no where to go. Ivy has no one else but us. Why are you like this mom?! Ivy has always loved you irrespective of how you treated her! Not once had she talked bad about you and dad with the way you treated her! She didn’t move in with Aunt Julia who could give her a better life because she doesn’t want a be apart from her family. But her own family that thinks she is a bad luck.. Mom.. Ivy is pregnant.. and as her family we have to help her.” Emily cried.
“She made herself that way!” Mrs Rivera countered.
“No! Ivy never did anything wrong! It is all you and dad’s fault! If you had treated her the way you treat me she wouldn’t have ended up like this. She wouldn’t have given herself to a man who show her love and care and affection in just one night.” Emily wept.
“I never forced her to give herself to several men! Get that into your head and don’t talking nonsense!” Mrs Rivera interjected.
“No! It is not men! It was just one man! She… gave herself to just one man! She hasn’t been sleeping all the time you accused her. You and dad will one day regret everything and how you treated your own child!” Emily said before storming out of the house on a close run to search of Ivy.