My sister could eventually get an unwarranted child support settlement out of him, but outside of that, I didn’t see where her situation would get any better. In fact, I didn’t feel like she deserved a settlement. They had sex together, and she had gotten pregnant by him, but they had options to come to a sane conclusion. However, Juanita’s decision was forcing them both to act insane. It would be the wrong decision made for the rest of her life. But she refused to listen to reason.

I asked her, “Are you still dead set on having this baby?”

My sister didn’t answer me immediately. There was an extralong pause. She finally said, “I don’t know anymore, and I can’t think about that right now.”

“No, you need to think about it right now,” I insisted. “Because the same feelings you have right now are what you’re gonna be dealing with for the rest of your life.”

I said, “It’s never gonna get any better than this, Juanita. You need to understand that now. This is not a soap opera. Nobody can change the episode and make this guy come back to you. There is no happily ever after in this shit. Do you understand that?”

“Well, if he felt that way, then he shouldn’t have gotten me pregnant,” she whined.

I couldn’t believe my sister. She sounded like a spoiled teenager, and I was not in the mood for sympathy. She was twenty-eight years old. I know she had better sense then that.

I shouted, “You sound like a damn fool, Juanita! How the hell is this man gonna get you pregnant without you lying down with him? You don’t let this guy take control of your life. And you don’t let an unborn child do it either!”

I said, “This is still your life, and if you allow this situation to dictate how you live the rest of it, then that’s on you. But you’re not getting sympathy from me, so don’t call me with this shit no more!”

My sister hung up on me just like I expected her to. She just caught me at the wrong damn time. I had a bunch of anger still running through my system from what had happened to me that night. I still had my own stressed-out phone calls to make. But then I thought back to my sister. What if she got too disturbed to drive home?

I got nervous and called her back. The first three times she didn’t answer the phone. When she answered my fourth call, she cried, “Look, if you’re gonna treat me just like he does, then I don’t ever need to talk to you again. You fucking men are all the same!”

“Actually, I was calling you back to see if you were all right,” I told her.

She asked me, “Why, because I’m your little sister? What if I was just a regular woman? Would you call me back if I was just one of your many girlfriends?”