Read The Deadline (The Friessens: A New Beginning) for Free Online Page B

until after church one Sunday, after our Sunday dinner, and then I asked Mom and Dad if I could talk to them. Maybe I thought they’d be more forgiving of me, it being Sunday, but when I told them, Mom started crying and then yelled at me. She called me a slut and slapped me across the face. Dad…I’d never seen him look at me with such disappointment before.
    “ They made me feel ashamed and dirty, and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I had never imagined it could get much worse, but I was so wrong. It was awful. They sent me to my room and then forbade me from going to school the next day. My two younger brothers—Chad was eight, and Brian was twelve—well, they both knew something was wrong, and they kept asking why Mom and Dad were so upset. They thought I had been kicked out of school, and they asked me what I’d done, but I couldn’t tell them. When Chad and Brian were at school the next day, Dad came home early, and he and Mom sat at the kitchen table, side by side, holding hands, looking across at me as if I was a stranger. I felt so alone.
    “I t was Mom who said I had to get rid of it. I was shocked she would even say it, as the church is so against abortion. I couldn’t do it, Andy. No matter how terrified I was, there was a life growing inside me, and I couldn’t abort him. I said no. I don’t know where I found the courage to stand up to her. Mom handed me a suitcase and said I had to leave, as she wouldn’t allow me to remain under their roof as a bad influence on my brothers, putting a blemish on the values they had tried to instill in us. I was fifteen and terrified, a disappointment to my family. Dad didn’t say a word. He wouldn’t even look at me as he got up and walked away. It was horrible. I begged Mom, and I even got down on my knees. I was crying, and she just shook her head and told me to leave, so I packed the suitcase and walked out the front door. I was humiliated, as the neighbors were outside, watching. I’m sure they’d heard the yelling.
    “ I just started walking. I went to Tyler’s house and waited around the corner until I saw his car pull into the driveway. I thought for sure he’d at least help me—after all, it was his child—but when he opened the door and saw me standing there with a suitcase, he got worried. At first I thought it was for me, but I quickly realized when I heard a girl inside that he was worried for himself. I told him I was pregnant, that he was the father and that my parents had thrown me out. He just told me to go away, and he shut the door in my face. I never saw him again, and I never saw my parents, either.”
    She dipped her hands in the water, and Andy could see her shaking. He stepped behind her and slid his arms around her, holding her tight. He rested his cheek against her head.
    “I’m so sorry , Laura,” he said. He wanted to kill her parents, to seriously hurt them—and Tyler, too.
    She nodded , choking back a sob. “You know, it was so hard, Andy. I was terrified. I walked for hours, and I didn’t know where to go, who to call. I went to a shelter, and they asked me how old I was, so I lied. I said I was sixteen because I was afraid someone would try to take my baby from me or force me to get an abortion. I got a job at a fast food restaurant, but I started to show, and the social workers came sniffing around. They asked me who my parents were, how old I was, telling me I had a future ahead of me and was too young to raise a child. They kept asking what I was going to do with the baby.
    “W hen I went into labor, I took a cab to the hospital, and someone there called the social worker, who showed up when I was in labor. I thought they were going to take Gabriel from me. I called my mom, and she said I could come home if I gave up the baby. She said everything would go back to normal. I hung up that payphone and left the hospital with Gabriel. We left Arlington, and that was how we ended up in North Lakewood. I met Aida,