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that this is your mistake, Kasey, so you now have to live with the consequences.”
     
    Joseph’s voice jolts me from my memory. “Why didn’t you go to my parents for help?”
    “I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I was too scared of what they’d think of me, or that they wouldn’t believe me,” I reply, remembering my thoughts from just moments ago. “I didn’t know I was pregnant, but my mother noticed right away. She knew before I did, because I was so sick all the time and all I wanted to do was sleep when I wasn’t working.”
    His brow furrows as he asks, “You said you tried writing to me, when?”
    “Several times, actually. The first letter I left in your parent’s mailbox the night before I was scheduled to leave, hoping they’d get it to you somehow. I didn’t leave any details, only that I was moving up here to Wisconsin with my aunt. Then again when I was seven months pregnant, knowing you’d be done with boot camp, hoping it would get to you in time before I delivered. I waited everyday, up until the day I delivered for you to show up, but you never came. The last time I wrote to you was right after Josephina was born. To notify you about Josephina, but it came back a couple months later stamped: return to sender . I pretty much gave up after that.”
    I didn’t cry the day my parents confronted me. I couldn’t. The fear had taken over. It wasn’t until the day I received the returned letter that the tears came. Until then I had stayed strong, waiting for him to rescue me, waiting for my knight in shining armor. Instead, that day I learned Joseph was never coming for us, and there was nothing I could do but move forward with my baby.
    I don’t know if it’s the pain of remembering everything, or knowing that Joseph never knew. Regardless, it’s all caught up to me, and the tears are uncontrollably falling down my face. They keep coming like a broken dam.
    Desperately needing them to stop, I quickly wipe them away, not wanting Joseph to see my weakness, but it’s too late. He stands up from the bench and engulfs me in his arms. I hate that I look weak in front of him. I never wanted him to see me this way, but now that I’m back in his arms, I can’t help but feel loved and secure. They remind me of the only night we were together. Even then I knew it wasn’t love, but I still wished it had been.
    “Why didn’t you try calling my parents house, asking where I was?” I hear his deep voice rumble into my ear that is pressed against his chest.
    Sniffling up the tears in order to answer him, I respond a little broken up, “I couldn’t, we didn’t have a phone where I lived. It’s why I tried writing to you.”
    I hear him sigh, his chest taking in a deep breath as he holds me.
    “I came back for you after boot camp. I thought about you every day during those three months, Kasey. The day I got back, I came looking for you, but you were already gone. I believed your parents when they told me you had changed your mind and went to a college out of state. I was pissed you had left, but I thought that it was probably for the best. A couple of months later, when my parents passed away, I briefly came home. But you were still gone. I haven’t been back since then. I should’ve tried harder to look for you, but I didn’t, and I’m sorry for that. It’s something I’ll regret for the rest of my life,” he explains, his sorrowful words making me continue to sniffle.
    “I’m sorry about your parents, Joseph,” I mumble, not knowing what else to say.
    I hear a piercing scream from the jungle gym and I recognize it immediately as Josephina’s. Shoving Joseph away, I start running towards the playground without hesitation, needing to get to her. When I reach her, she is on the ground gripping her knee. Tears are streaming down her cheeks, matching the ones I just had.
    Bending down, I look at her knee and see she’s scraped it pretty badly. I know she doesn’t usually cry unless it’s