"Answer your mother, boy."

"Daryl!"

"Just answer him, D…"

"Nobody's pregnant," I conceded, for the sake of my own mental health, as I walked back into the kitchen, knowing that I needed my throwing arm in working order for the game tomorrow.

Pushing back against Wren was too risky when the state championship was on the line. Asshole would snap my damn bone just to prove a point that he could.

"I don't know where Ashley Thomas got her inside scoop, but it ain't true."

"What about the other part?" Mom demanded. "Are you dating that whore's daughter?"

"You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, Mama."

"Answer your mother!" Wren roared, slamming me against the refrigerator. "Answer her now, boy!"

"What's the point?" I snapped, balling my hands into fists at my side. "When she already knows the answer."

"Sophie, go upstairs," Wren instructed sternly. Whenever those words came out of him mouth when I was kid, I would panic and start to cry.

Not anymore.

Never again.

"Please stop this," Sophie sobbed, pushing out of her chair and running straight for me. "Daryl, just tell them whatever they need to hear." Sniffling, she threw her arms around my neck and clung to me. "Please, D… Don’t make this harder for yourself."

"It's okay, Soph," I replied, giving the only innocent person in this family my attention. "I can take care of myself."

"Upstairs, Sophie," Wren repeated, his words twisting into a harsh snarl. "Now."

Bursting into tears, Sophie barreled out of the kitchen, crying loudly, and fuck, the sound all but broke my damn heart.

44 Molly

As I stared down at the sonogram in my hands, I accepted that there was no denying it now.

I was very much pregnant.

Almost sixteen weeks along, to be exact, and well on the way into my second trimester.

To her absolute credit, Mercy stayed with me for the appointment with her mother's gynecologist. She never once let go of my hand as the doctor reeled off more rules and guidelines than I knew what to do with.

When it was time for an ultrasound, and I was too scared to look at the screen for fear of something being wrong with the baby I hadn't realized I'd been carrying, Mercy was strong and supportive.

Miraculously, the baby seemed to be perfectly healthy. The doctor assured me that my lack of pre-natal care to date hadn't caused any damage to him or her.

According to the size and development of the baby, I had to have conceived back in August – my first time, not to mention the one and only time we hadn't used protection – and was due in May.

Right around graduation.

After Mercy dropped me home, instead of going inside and facing my father like I knew I should, I went for a walk and hadn't stopped since.

Numb, I walked every street and pier in town, every beach and walkway on the shoreline. I walked and walked, and then I walked a little further.