Rags 2 Pitches: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (16 page)

Chase

I quickly turned my head around and, as Reg had confirmed, Kayla was sleeping. She looked peaceful this time, not like when she’d passed out.

“Why did you leave Miles?”

It was a stupid question, but the GPS was telling me that we only had five minutes to get there and I was scared. Too many fucking overflowing emotions in one night were doing my head in.

“Cause he’s messed up in all sorts of shit. I meant to tell you,” he paused as I took a corner, “but sometimes I just think that you’re too distracted for your own good. Ever since you got together with her.”

I knew he was right. Part of me was pissed that Reg hadn’t been honest with me from the start. We shared everything. But there was no denying that if I wasn’t studying, I would be spending my time in the woods, just trying to get out of my fucking head. I had always been a good student.

Dad was already pissed that I hadn’t tried to play professional football, but my head was never in the game. I was a geek at heart; being in high school and on the football team was kind of cool, but when you go to college, it’s a whole new world.

“Not saying I shouldn’t have told you. So don’t get all sensitive and shit on me. Just saying, you’ve been distracted.”

Curiosity got the better of me as the GPS said we were only two minutes away. “You going to tell me what kind of shit?”

Reg cut his eyes at me, probably hoping that I would forget the whole conversation. After all, we had more shit to worry about than Miles’ problems.

“He ran out of money from like the first day he was in college.” He stopped to clear his throat. “So he kind of got into this thing by gambling.”

That made no sense to me. In around two or three weeks, we’d be out of college. How come he was still at it? Miles could easily get a job if he wanted, instead of going to medical school.

“Shit, one minute left,” I confirmed, more to myself than to Reg.

“Yes, but he got hooked on the gambling, and three months ago when we went to a fight, he got beat up pretty bad. He didn’t need the money, but he just seemed to get off on the buzz of it all. Shit, maybe it’s all the drugs he keeps taking? That’s why he keeps doing it for the money?”

Reg was trying to make sense of it all. I remembered that one time, when Miles took some time off from school to go back home. He’d said that one of his relatives was sick or something.

Okay, another lie.

“But I thought he went back home?”

“Nah, he just stayed in some hotel. Had some friend who is a nurse back home or something come and check on him. That was where he was that time.”

I nodded. We were at our destination, in front of the church as the old man had demanded we should be.

Reg and I were speechless when we saw the old man. I realized what my gift was as Reg said, “That’s the old man, right?”

I nodded. I couldn’t even speak. I was fucking speechless.

What the fuck was going on?

“So, that must be my gift.” I confirmed as I looked at what the old man was holding in his hand.

I turned to the backseat because I was pissed. Reg got out of the car and started to head towards the old man.

“Kayla, fucking wake up.” I shook her furiously. I was so damn angry. “You got some fucking explaining to do. Get up now!”

Kayla

“Chase, what is it?” I choked. I sat up as he got out of his seat. The next thing he did was rush over to open my car door, and then he bent down to point at her.

“Her. Who is she?” Chase spat out. Tears were in my eyes as I turned to face him as he spoke with disgust. His face was so close. Every single time before now I would have kissed him. Even teased him. Right now, with his eyes bright and ready to explode. I felt like all the punches that were inflicted on my body earlier were nothing compared to the way he was looking at me right now.

“My daughter,” I whispered.

That wasn’t the answer he wanted, but it was all he was getting for now. I couldn’t tell him the truth, not yet. Not as she rushed to the car and gave me kisses as soon as she saw my face. Reg came over and broke the tension that was building as Chase couldn’t take his eyes off us.

“Mummy?” Sydney asked as I held her in my arms like a precious jewel. I knew what was going through her mind; the tears that rolled down her cheeks told me more than my two-year-old could speak.

“The old man said, “this is your mommy’s friend”, and gave me her hand with a message for Kayla.”

Reg turned to face me, “He said that she found out. He couldn’t help you. This was the only way.”

It all hit home. Hannah had found out that Willy was helping me. She probably would have kept me prisoner if I hadn’t left. After all, I had won the big fight. Hannah would have thought about ways to make me stay. Threatening me. Using Sydney. Until she would take my soul and there would be nothing left of me. I stroked Sydney, thinking that as pissed, hurt and angry as Chase was right now, it was nothing compared to the wrath of Hannah.

Reg chocked, “Then he left. Just like that! Seriously, what is going on?”

I shook my head, because Chase didn’t say a word as he got back in the car. He must have been in shock. He closed the door and his legs didn’t move and, as Reg got in, memories of that last day on campus flashed through my mind.

******

My father wasn’t dead. And somehow, he’d ended up at my campus. There was no way I could have just laid low and then gone back to my old life. Contacting Mom would have definitely blown her identity, too.

But I still couldn’t get it out of my head.

We’d seen the news; they had said that Dad was dead, that we were all dead. Mom had been planning it for weeks. It was the only way we could escape. No one wanted to admit, especially the police department, that one of their boys was a bad husband, let alone a bad father. It was kind of like they had a halo over the men who were cops. The ones who were supposed to protect and look after us. Yet, that seemed to be so far from the truth.

I’d gotten to the stage as a kid that I hated going back home.

Seeing him on campus had brought that memory back to me, and I realized that nothing was going to change.

Dad must have found me somehow, and I had no choice. I couldn’t go back. Sure, I could trust Chase and he wouldn’t tell them where I was, but my dad was a cop. If I had told Chase about the problems and pretended to disappear and he had called me or anything, then the cops would have been able to trace the calls and find out.

I was so confused about Dad turning up at Stanford. How had he found me? Then, it all fell into place.

“Mindy, how’s college?” Mindy was our neighbor and had looked after me as a kid. I remembered her mom telling me that she was coming home. I couldn't think of anything more exciting then having her around. She knew about Dad and what he used to do to us. Unlike most people, who turned a blind eye, Mindy used to practically have me stay with her, or she would hang around the house to keep me safe. When she went to college, my world just got worse.

“Hey, little sis.”

She used to treat me like a sister, and call me that. It used to make me feel special.

“You miss me?”

I nodded like an obedient dog.

“Well, I missed you too. Stanford is fantastic. The sun. The classes. The rooms and, most of all, the boys.”

The smile on her face had sold it to me already. She needn't say anymore. I had known from that moment onwards that I was going to go to Stanford when I grew up. And I talked about nothing else. One day I would be going there, but I thought we couldn’t afford it. Until Stephen stepped in and told me that we could.

***

Three months after I left, I was in the motel, feeling sorry for myself. Such a short time ago, I had been thinking about being a business major, I’d had a boyfriend, and everything in my life felt like a dream. That was when I began to feel sick, and I thought it was strange. I had lost my appetite, which was weird, because a few weeks before I couldn’t stop eating. I put it down to the stress of training and losing my job at the diner. Also, being on the run meant that I was constantly paranoid. If I saw someone that looked like Dad, Mom or Chase, my whole body would go into a frenzy.

I looked down, and my nipples were erect for no reason. They were blatantly hard through the bra that I was wearing.

Then, I started to get more indecisive. Thinking twice about absolutely everything. From what I was going to wear, to what I should eat, every single day. I could spend hours just walking around the block, thinking about it. I never had the luxury of eating at different places. The options were simple: somewhere cheap, cheap, or cheap.

Crazy indecisiveness had taken over my body like a drug. That was when it hit me. I hated chips, yet I was eating them like crazy lately. I loved hot dogs, but the smell of them suddenly made me feel sick.

My body was being sent into a whirlwind, and then I remembered that one night. The one where Chase and I were slightly drunk and didn’t use a condom, and I’d vowed that I would go and get the morning after pill the next day.

I’d thought I had three days to take it.

The next night, I’d seen my dad. I’d found out that we hadn’t killed him. I held my hand to my face as I sat in the tiny room that I’d rented, with the cracked walls and worn out carpet, thinking,
baby
?

I ran to the drugstore and picked up a pregnancy test. I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers waiting for the results.

It showed exactly what I’d suspected it would.

I was pregnant, but there was no way I could keep it.

I went to the clinic, only to discover it was eight hundred dollars to have an abortion and the crazy thing was that was the price of the pill, without even having an operation. They had developed a pill, but instead of the whole thing being cheaper, it felt like they had made it even more expensive. Not that I knew how much it was before the pill.

Neither did I care.

I was fucking stuck. But not alone: I had a baby on the way.

That amount of money was so out of my reach, I felt suffocated. I went to the gym to talk to Hannah about it.

“I can’t train anymore,” I wailed like a baby through my words. I couldn’t believe the one opportunity that I was being given I had to turn down. My whole body felt numb.

“What do you mean? We had a deal. You told me that you would fight. You promised that you would go through with it all -”

We were in Willy’s small office above the gym. He lifted his hand and nodded for me to continue speaking, “I’m pregnant.”

I thought there was no need to beat around the bush. I was and I had no-one to turn to, apart from two people that I barely knew and the worst part was, they didn’t even know my name.

“You knew,” she snarled at me.

No, I really didn’t know.

Our deal was that I would fight my first fight. Once I did, then Hannah would take me under her wing and I would make big bucks. Right now, she was supporting my training, feeding me and paying my motel bill.

Shit, I had little money and time was running out. I didn’t even know how far along I was.

“Well, she’s been in the ring. Training like crazy. I doubt she knew.” Willy had a way of calming Hannah down, with simple words. She never retaliated, if anything she would just sulk. But, I had seen her with the fighters. If they tried anything, she would slap them into place. Let them know who was boss.

I avoided looking at either of them. I just couldn’t think straight.

It seemed I had just one option.

The one I didn’t want to take.

This meant that I had to go back; I really had no choice.

I couldn’t afford an abortion or anything else. And soon, I wouldn’t have a place to live. With a baby, I had to take a chance and go back to Chase. Maybe that was what I should have done in the first place.

“You’re going to pay for this,” Hannah practically spat on my face, before she stormed out.

I got out of the chair to leave Willy’s office. He sighed. “Go home, kid. Whatever it is, this is not worth it. Just go home.”

I should have listened to his advice. Instead, Hannah was waiting outside of the gym. She cornered me and said, “I could give you money for an abortion. That way you could fight and pay me back what I am due.”

I had calculated that she had given me a grand, but I knew that she meant more then that. A lot more. I shook my head. I was thinking about what Willy had said; I should just go back home.

Hannah handed me a card, “See Doctor Burt tomorrow morning. I spoke to him already. He will give you the abortion pill. Take the rest of the week off and come back on Monday. Understood?”

I nodded, but that was the wrong thing to do. I went to get the pill, that didn’t work. Only later on did I find the real reason why; the great Doctor Burt wasn't even a real doctor. Hannah just wanted me caught up in her web. She wanted insurances that she would get paid back. She told me all about it one night when she was drunk. I should have left then, but I stayed. Too scared to leave, unsure if being out in the open with my dad trying to find me was worse then staying with Hannah. Either way, it was all fucked up. I’d had our baby, and now I was paying the price for it. Not only for having her, but for keeping her a secret.

***

I just hoped when he looked into her eyes and held her in his arms he would forgive me.

“Drive!” Reg blurted out. Between Willy disappearing and Sydney being in the car, Chase had just seemed to freeze. He just sat there.

“Let’s just get the fuck out of here.” Reg avoided looking in the back. The whole thing was making me uncomfortable. Chase didn’t say a word. Reg’s phone kept ringing until he decided to turn it off, and Sydney just kept holding me for dear life.

I had no clothes.

No money.

No mobile phone.

The whole damn thing was a mystery to me.

I was so fucking confused. “Chase, did you know Willy before tonight?”

That had to be the answer; he had set up the whole thing with Chase. I had mentioned him once, by accident, when Sydney was a few weeks old. I had said to Willy that she looked just like her dad, Chase, with his blue eyes and fair hair. Looking at her must have been like looking in the mirror. That was why Chase was so mad. There was no denying that she was his child.

Either way, it didn’t matter now. I didn’t even know where we were going. Reg gazed at Chase, waiting for him to answer. Chase didn’t, and I knew what that meant. He was driving way over the speed limit. His focus was forward as if he had to pretend we weren’t in the car.

“We’re going back to the dorm,” Reg replied quietly, but loud enough for me to hear. He didn’t look at me, but just lifted his head as he spoke. Then, he directed his attention out of the window. I just held on to Sydney with all my might.

Sooner or later Chase would have to talk.

There was no way he was going to the dorm with me in bloody clothes, never mind with his child in my arms.

A secret that I had kept hidden.

Until now.