The Quarterback's Love Child (A Secret Baby Sports Romance Book 1) (5 page)

“Mom, you need to get me out of here. Tell Grandma to let me stay with her. I can get a transfer or something. Anything?”

I pleaded with her as she crept into my cage and laid clothes by my side. I needed a bath. I needed to see light. Surely, she must have known that this was wrong. There was no way that God would think that it was okay to lock up children and treat them like this, as if I was some kind of savage or something.

“Michelle do you know what you have done?”

It played on my mind for a while, but then I got to the point that I didn’t care. I was cold, naked and had been urinating in a bucket for what felt like a lifetime. The reason for it didn’t seem important. Besides, Carl and I had decided to cool it for a while and soon we would be married and have babies and everything would be normal.

No more Dad.

No more Mom.

No more being locked in a cage.

There was only one thing that I needed to sort out. I had to figure out a way to make sure Mia would come to live with me. She had to know that she was my daughter, not theirs. I hated the idea of leaving her and, when she was my age, Dad would punish her the same way he had done with me so many times.

She spat out, “You haven’t had your period.”

I was locked in a cage eating bread and water, what did she expect to happen? I needed to be fed, clothed and not treated like a dog. My body, mind and soul were going through turmoil and she was concerned about me having a period.

“So what? I haven’t eaten, bathed or anything. It’s dark here and I’m so cold, Mom. I’m scared.”

She choked, “So what? You’re pregnant again and all you can say is so what?!”

She started to walk away and then it hit me. My period was due, and that was the reason for him doing this to me. Because I had skipped a period. That didn’t mean I was pregnant, it could be for a number of reasons.

“Mom, I’m never on time. Sometimes I go a day or two without it. It doesn’t mean that it’s happened again.”

She nodded as she started to head up the stairs.

“Yes, Michelle, but not three weeks.”

I slumped down as the reality of what she had said hit home. She must have seen that I hadn’t used my period pads or something. I wasn’t allowed to use tampons. Nothing could be inside me, it was considered impure, just like me. I covered my face and I started to sob as the memories of what had happened before hit me and all I could think was no, not again.

Chapter Sixteen

Carl

After talking to Dwight, he seemed to think that the best thing to do would be to see her dad. I thought about my weekly confessions and that there was a game tomorrow, so I had no practice today. The last game of the season. Normally, I would be happy, but I just couldn’t think straight.

Why were there screams?

Were they beating her?

I’d left her at home, naked on her bed. I’d kissed her forehead, then both her cheeks and finally her lips, vowing that our love would stay true and for that reason she was being punished. I felt sick to my stomach knowing that I was the reason for that punishment.

Normally, when I went to church I would step right in. It felt like my place of haven. One that understood me and knew that everything I did was because I was young and easily influenced. I didn’t feel that way this time.

This time, I hated stepping inside. I took a deep breath as I held on to the door handles, wondering if this was all a mistake and if I should just get my dad and some of the other guys. Dwight said that he would talk to his dad about it and then we could confront Michelle’s father about it.

The problem was that in this small town, there was hardly any man that would defy Father Roger, he was considered a saint. I had got to know that he was anything but a saint. In fact I wondered if he was the devil. I had seen the marks on Michelle’s body. She had never told me what created them, she just said it was part of her punishment. How could scars be considered a punishment for someone as beautiful as her?

The church was quiet, as it was normally around this time. I bowed in front of the sign of Jesus on the cross as I entered. I didn’t know what I was going to say or do, apart from stand up to him. The question was, what choice did I have when he was the superior one? The one that people looked up to. I was just some eighteen-year-old son of a woman who thought that she was better than everyone else in town. She gave the appearance of being a happily married woman. But I knew the truth about my parents’ relationship and, as a show of respect, I just never talked about the fact that they slept in different bedrooms. Or that on the weekends, when dad was fishing, he was really off to Rhinebrook to see his mistress. My parents had secrets like most people in this town. No one spoke about them, but most people knew that they existed.

“My son, how can I help you?” He asked as soon as I sat in the confession box.

Part of me wondered if he had been waiting for me. If he’d known that today I would come to talk to him, but not about my sins. Only his.

“I want to know, where is Michelle?”

He cleared his throat as he had done so many times, but normally it wouldn’t annoy me as much as it was doing right now.

“You are in my confession box. In the Lord’s house. Confess your sins. The same way my daughter has been doing over the last few days.”

So, she was locked up somewhere confessing her sins? Was that what he was trying to tell me?

“I have no sins. I want to see Michelle,” my voice rose. I was sitting waiting for him to tell me how to repent. Michelle had said to me that the church was a haven, a place that people went to, to justify all the bad things that they did in their lives.

I thought that she was being melodramatic and was looking at life in a simplistic view. It was only now that I realized she wasn’t. I was the fool for believing that any of this was true.

“I want to...”

Before I could even finish my sentence, the door was swung open by Father Roger. He was standing by my side and pulling me out. I tried to fight him, but he was stronger than I, which surprised me.

“Leave my daughter alone. You hear me?”

I should have nodded and told him that I would be a good boy. That I wouldn’t go near Michelle again, but I couldn’t because I was scared. His face was so near to mine that his glasses touched my head.

I moved his hands off my collar and, before I could say another word, my dad came to the rescue followed by Dwight’s dad. Just as my best friend had promised, he had followed through.

“Let go of my son!” Dad yelled out as he ran to my side. Father Roger let me go and pointed to me and said, “Stay away from Michelle.”

“Son, you okay?”

I nodded and tried to catch my breath. Dwight’s dad and mine were talking about going after Father Roger and getting to the bottom of it, but I realized that I had made the mistake. The reason Michelle was being punished was because of me. Anything my dad or Dwight’s dad did would make it even worse. I couldn’t risk her being hurt any more than she had already.

Eventually, he would have to let her go to school, now that he knew there were others going to stand up to him.

He couldn’t afford to diminish his reputation.

I was telling dad and Dwight’s dad, Ken, to let it go. They stood and said that if he did this to me, then what was he doing to Michelle? They hadn’t thought that he was capable, but seeing it with their own eyes had made it clear that Father Roger abused his power as the town’s priest to do whatever he wanted to do.

I didn’t understand why they had never seen it until now. The Mayor didn’t implement any changes to the town without Father Roger’s consent. Even the sheriff consulted him on matters that only the police enforcement should be party to. It wasn’t until we got outside that I heard them speak and I realized why they had been blinded by Father Roger’s actions.

“He’s been using his power of authority and pulling the wool over our eyes,” Dad sighed and then it hit me.

They thought that Father Roger was a man of God, that he did everything in his power to protect them.

“For far too long,” Ken sighed as he headed in the opposite direction for his car. I was happy that I had opened their eyes, because now I knew that there were not only kids on my side, but adults too.

Chapter Seventeen

Michelle

I needed to escape. Run away from home. I wouldn’t involve Carl in it, otherwise he would have to give up his football scholarship or, even worse, his offers. It was better for him to go to college and then, after I had the baby we could be together. I had heard about shelters that helped girls like me. I just had to behave, get out of here, and then I could be free.

I wasn’t going to let them take my baby.

No, not again!

I got up with new strength. I started reading every time they told me to do so on the camera. I put my bucket at the top of the stairs and tried to act normal as if the stench that was coming out of my body wasn’t mine. I had to be set free. I couldn’t live like this any more and in time I would get my high school diploma and then do a side job or something until Carl came for us. Everything seemed so simple, unlike last time.

Before, I’d been sixteen with a boy who said that he loved me and, the moment he slept with me, he told me that he had to go away. I cried with him as he told me that he was joining the army. I didn’t realize until after that it was all a lie. He had used me, but Carl was different. He wasn’t like Isaac. Not one little bit.

“I think that the demons are leaving you, my child.” Dad spoke through the camera and I nodded like an obedient child. I had to get away from here. Have my baby and, in time, I would come back for Mia. She was only fifteen months old, but in time she would forget about this life. Only think about the good things, like the love that Carl and I shared. I had to think of Carl as being real. I bet he was sick to the stomach, worried about me disappearing and, as the doors closed, I felt as if there was a ray of light shining above. Even though I knew it was only the kitchen light.

“Come here, my child.”

Really? He was calling me his child after he’d locked me in the cage?

“You are being released from hell and, once you finish school, you will go to Kansas like you did once before.”

That was the real name for the cage. Hell. When Dad talked about Hell, people thought about the one that they described in the Bible. They never knew that Dad had created his own version, the one that he used to lock me up in for a day or two as a child, but as I got older, when I fell pregnant that was the first time that I slept in there overnight.

Dad said that abortions were a sin and that there was no turning back from murder. But kidnapping and holding someone against their own will apparently didn’t seem to be an issue.

I’d hated him when he first put me in hell.

I’d despised him even more when he told me with a smile on his face that everything that Isaac had ever told me was a lie. 

And I abhorred him when he said that Mia would be brought up as his daughter and not mine.

“One condition, Michelle.”

I couldn’t talk. I felt so weak, my body was cramped and I didn’t know how long I’d been locked down there, but it felt like an eternity.

“If I ever hear of you talking to that boy, you’ll go back to hell and next time I won’t even think of letting you out.”

I nodded but I had my own way of dealing with the matter. He wouldn’t get a chance to put me in there, never ever again.

Chapter Eighteen

Carl

Faith sent me a text in the morning that Michelle was coming to school. It had been two weeks since I’d last seen her and so much had happened since then. I had gotten the college offers that I had wanted and there was nothing to stop us being together. I didn’t know if I could wait four years. The idea that her dad had been hurting her made me not want to wait. I spoke to my dad about it and he said that his sister in New York would look after Michelle if that was what Michelle really wanted, to get out of Stowe Peak.

My mom was more worried about going against Father Roger. She talked about not being able to show her face in church again after what we’d done, but dad ignored her and I had a feeling that when I went to college I wouldn’t be the only one leaving town, so would he.

Everything seemed perfect until lunch time. I couldn’t believe that, today of all days, I had no classes with Michelle. Once again, I couldn’t concentrate or think about what to do, only about protecting her. As soon as the lunch bell rang, I ran to the hall. I wasn’t expecting to see Michelle straight away, but as I waited, I saw both Harmony and Faith. Then I saw the girl behind them was dressed from head-to-toe in a cloak. I wondered what he had done to Michelle, and I couldn’t help but run over to her to rescue her from this madness.

It needed to stop today. Her parents didn’t love her. Not the way that I did. No, this was a punishment for something they did in their past lives and they were taking it out on her. Was I the only one that saw the bags under her eyes and, as she took the hood off her head, I froze and took in her pale complexion.

What had he done to her?

I marched up to her, wanting her to know that there were options and she didn’t need to live this way, but she brushed past me as if I didn’t exist. I grabbed her hand.

“Let go of me,” she whispered in a voice so soft, as if she was unable to speak.

“Michelle?” I wondered if it was another girl with dull blue eyes that was standing in front of me.

“Let go of me,” she repeated, and then I was completely lost. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t going to let go of her. Not today. Not ever, and she knew that.

Her eyes gazed on the floor as if I wasn’t standing in front of her.

Then she spoke, with confidence, and said something that I never expected to hear from her lips.

“I am a whore. I need Satan’s demons to leave me. They come when you are near. Please let go.” I dropped her arm. I didn’t know what had happened. Had her dad brainwashed her somehow?

Everyone was staring, but I didn’t care. Something had happened and she needed to wake up from this nightmare coma that she was living in.

With both hands I held on to her, trying to reassure her that it was all going to be okay.

She undid the buttons on her cloak and there, in front of everyone in the dining room, she dropped her cloak. Her body had the markings of the signs of the cross on her breast, her stomach and her legs. She was naked underneath her cloak and I gathered it and wrapped it around her body as she started to cry.

Mrs. Turner rushed to her rescue and told me to let go off her. I protested, saying that she had to get out of here and that her dad was abusing her.

Michelle shouted, “He never did it. I did it to myself, because I’m a whore.”

No one spoke; it was as if everyone in the dining hall had disappeared. Everyone was in shock as Mrs. Turner covered her with the cloak. They watched as Michelle left the hall and Faith spat at me as she left.

Was this really all my fault?

Was I really the bad guy?

Dwight came up to me and said, “Please just leave her alone.”

I left the dining hall, unable to eat. The love of my life had turned into a former shadow of herself and as I hit the men’s restroom, I slumped to the floor and I started to cry.

Chapter Nineteen

Michelle

After what happened in the dining hall, I had been excused from church. Mom stopped going to choir practice and, apart from going to school, I had no contact with the outside world. I had been stealing one dollar from her purse every couple of days. It was just a matter of time for her to notice and I had even told Faith about my plans. She had an allowance from her parents and she said that she would help me escape.

She had become a real best friend. I used to hang out with both her and Harmony just because they were considered decent girls that I was allowed to interact with, but after I went back to school, they welcomed me with open arms.

The irony of it all was, even a couple of the cheerleaders started to be nice to me. It was as if the whole school didn’t mock me for what had happened; they surrounded me with love and kindness, something that I’d never had the whole time I had lived in this Stowe Peak.

Real friends.

People that cared.

I knew that going to stay with Grandma wasn’t an option. Even she was scared of Dad. Heck everyone was and the best way to be free from him was to disappear.

“Faith told me what’s going on. I can give you around ten bucks per week,” Harmony held on to my hand to reassure me that she was going to help me.

“I can’t believe you need to go,” Faith interjected. They were picking on their fries as if they had lost their appetite along with me.

I knew I was pregnant and needed to keep my strength up, but I was in a dark place. The only light that would shine through would be leaving town. I had to get as far away from here as possible, and I had to believe that otherwise I had no hope.

My life would never change and I would just be stuck forever. It had been one week since Carl had seen me naked, since I had told him to leave me alone. I’d expected him to fight for me. But, he didn’t and we were strangers once again.

I hated it, but I knew that it was the only way for my plan to work. Then again, I didn’t expect either Harmony or Faith to help me out and they were going out of their way to do that.

“Graduation day!”

“What?” I was sweating under the oversize sweater and pants that mom made me wear. I was no longer allowed to wear dresses. Apparently, my dresses were leaving nothing to the imagination, unlike sweaters and pants at the end of spring. It just made me look stupid, but I had to play along. In a few weeks I would be out of there, but if I disobeyed him and he stuck me in Hell, then they might go through my room and find the money that I had stashed away. Then I wouldn’t be given another opportunity, seeing as school was coming to an end. I couldn’t afford to do that, I just kept reminding myself that I had to play along. Just for a little while. It would be worth it in the end.

“Okay, so we’ve got family going from Iowa and New York,” Harmony nodded, “I can get them to give you a lift to wherever you want to go.”

I sighed, “Guys.” I looked around to make sure that no one was listening, I had to confess to them that my only plan was to leave. “I don’t even know where I’m going. I wanted to search in the library but I couldn’t because of my student pass. It would log that I was looking for shelters and then they would tell my parents and then…”

Faith said, “Michelle, that’s what we’re here for. Both of us.”

They both squeezed my hand from across the table.

“Okay, so when I get home, I’ll look at shelters and see which route my family are taking and which one can accommodate you.”

“And Mia,” Faith whispered and I wondered why for so long I had kept it a secret. Sitting down with them, planning my escape route, I realized that they could be trusted in more ways than I had ever given them credit for.

I had heard a rumor about Carl standing up to my dad with his dad. Then, his dad was threatened by the sheriff or something like that about crossing the state line with his gun and he didn’t have a permit for that. I didn’t know the whole story, but as much as I wanted to talk to Carl I couldn’t, but ever so often, when we were in the dining hall, I would look at him. I would relive the moments that we’d shared, like a couple that didn’t have a care in the world. I used to pretend that no one was looking at us, it was just us sharing our lunch. Talking. Having fun, like real couples do. In four years it would come back. I knew it would.

Harmony sighed as she followed my gaze, “You know that he can’t know about it now. Or even after?”

I quizzed her, “Why not after?”

Faith said, “Because he will be the first person that they will suspect helped you. If he knows where you are, he could be followed or anything. Whereas Harmony and I would never risk it. We know how to get around things like this and how to be careful.”

“Yeah, he’s just too emotionally involved. Maybe in time when he comes home during the holidays or something I will tell him if I get the chance,” Harmony reassured me.

But, she was right and I thought about my dad. Would a few months go by and he would just be forgiving and never look for me? Nah, he was a man of vengeance. I had seen him carry it out with people that had double-crossed him.

“What about you guys? I should never have gotten you involved,” I took my hands and covered my face. There would be consequences for them too.

“That is why,” Faith took a deep breath, “This is the last lunch we will have together. You will give us the combination of your locker and we will deposit the money every Friday morning, before anyone gets to school. We’re going to carry out a scene now.”

Harmony remembered something. “When I find out the best place for my family to drop you, I will talk to my cousin who comes here every five years. He’s cool, young, and good at keeping a secret. I will put the instructions in your locker when it’s all sorted. You don’t have to worry about anything.”

And they both stood up and shouted abuse at me as they walked together arm-in-arm out of the dining room. I watched and tried to protest, but I was never good at acting, unlike them. Harmony winked as she went through the door. Carl stood up and I knew that he was going to see if I was okay. Dwight held him back and shook his head. Again, Mrs. Turner came over to rescue me. Again, I cried in the dining hall, because once again I was alone. I officially had no one to talk to, but the only good thing was the fact that I would be free.

I smiled at her and said, “I think that I just want to graduate in peace.”

She smiled at me and said, “You will do so, my dear, and then this nightmare will be over.”

She didn’t realize how true her words were, only after graduation would this whole nightmare be over.