Eventually, her eyes ran out of tears and the feeling returned to her feet. She got up and poured herself a drink. The glass was at her lips before she remembered she wasn’t allowed alcohol. She tossed it down the sink, then slumped on the bed and rubbed her stomach, wondering if the little person inside of her knew what was going on. She’d heard that babies formed an awareness of the environment outside their mother early on.

“Hi, baby,” she said tentatively. “It’s your mummy. Did you hear all that? Your mummy’s got herself into a tricky situation.” Oddly enough, talking to her unborn baby soothed her. “I love you, baby,” she murmured. “But your daddy confuses me. You want to know the truth?” She leaned forward as if she were sharing a secret with her belly. “He’s a good man, and I like him a lot. I might even love him. But I’m scared that his family will never accept me. You don’t know me yet, baby, but I don’t handle rejection well. I’m kind of a big wuss.” She lifted her feet onto the bed and curled into a ball. “Was I right to play it safe, baby?” She rolled her eyes. “Why am I asking you? Of course you think I should have taken a chance on your daddy. All babies want to have two happy parents.”

Aria recalled the words he’d said before leaving. He was right to call her a coward, but her fear came from a real place. She’d been judged and found wanting before. At the time, she had told herself that her colleagues’ opinions didn’t matter, but they did. It might make her weak, but she couldn’t help caring what people thought of her.

Even though she knew all this, she knew Eli had spoken the truth when he said he would never intentionally put her through something like that.

Everything was so damned hard. She needed her parents, and it was past time she told them the truth.

When she arrived at her parents’ house, situated in the swampy area near the lake, early on Tuesday evening, Geoff, her dad, was outside mowing the lawn. Although it had been a dry summer, the damp ground meant the lawn had stayed green. The yard sloped down toward a section of rocky shore and the small jetty where Aria and her brothers used to moor their dinghy. She hadn’t been out on the lake often because the motion of the water made her queasy. Instead, she’d sat on the grass and read while Justin and Cooper fished a couple of hundred yards from shore.