Thread of Truth, стр. 8
If Olivia cared, though, she didn't show it.
“I didn't want it,” she said. “I mean, I'm a senior in high school. I wanted to go to college. I don't know how to be a parent.” She glanced down at the baby in her lap. “I still don't know how.” Her voice was soft, almost as if she were speaking to herself. “I knew something was wrong with me. I was late. I felt sick. I had no idea what was wrong. Then it sort of hit me.” She put her index finger on the baby's fist and he reflexively reached for it. The tiny fingers gripped hers and she smiled. “I went to the store and bought a pregnancy test. It said I was pregnant. So then I went and bought two more.” She laughed at herself. “As if I might find one that disagreed with the others. But they didn't. They all confirmed I was the stupidest person alive.”
“You're not the stupidest person alive, Olivia,” her mother said, putting her hand on her daughter's shoulder again.
“Felt like it,” she said. “So I had to figure out what to do. I told Desmond first. I figured he'd be just as freaked out as I was. But he wasn't. Like, not at all.”
“So he was supportive from the beginning?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, totally,” she said. “We went to get something to eat after school. I was super nervous to tell him. I didn't want him to hate me. He realized I wasn't eating my sandwich and he asked me what was wrong. And I just blurted it out. He stared at me like he didn't understand, so I said it again.” She went quiet for a minute, and her gaze shifted to the ceiling, as if she were conjuring the memory in her mind. “And he just had this massive smile on his face and said 'we're really going to have a baby?' And then I said I didn’t know. He couldn't figure out what there was to know. So I told him I didn't think I was ready to be a parent and all that.”
“So he pressured you into having the baby.” Bill grunted. “That sounds about right.”
“No. He did not.” Olivia’s voice was sharp. “I'm capable of making decisions for myself, in case you didn't know.”
Her father frowned and looked away.
“What changed your mind then?” I asked.
She thought for a moment. “I think it was a lot of things. One, the fact that Desmond wanted the baby was a surprise, so I realized I wouldn't be alone if I had it.”
“You wouldn't have been alone,” Sharon said quietly.
Olivia gave a quick glance to her mother and shrugged. “I don't know. I was pretty afraid, and I just thought the easiest thing would be to not have it. But then Desmond got excited, he reacted differently, and...I don't know.” She looked at me. “It just changed for me. We started making plans. And then it was like I couldn't imagine not having it.” She looked down at the little boy in her lap. “Him.”
“When you say you started making plans, can you give me examples?” I asked. “What exactly did you do?”
“Well, it was really Desmond more than me,” she explained. “He just sort of took over.”
Her father made some sort of noise, halfway between a grunt and a sigh.
“Not in a bad way,” Olivia clarified. “He just...he just got serious about it. He asked for more hours at work so he could make more money. He bought a whole bunch of stuff for the baby.” She pointed over my shoulder. “He bought all of that.”
I turned around. There was an infant swing tucked in the corner of the room. Nearby was a car seat, and next to that was a white wooden crate full of what looked like toys.
“He bought a ton of stuff,” she continued. “Diapers, clothes. We spent one night making a list and he bought it all. He wasn't spending money on anything else. Then he told me about the apartments.”
“The apartments?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He'd filled out a couple of applications at different apartments. So we could move in together. He'd even opened up a savings account so he would have a little money to pay for a wedding.” Her eyes misted a little and she blinked rapidly. She drew in a deep breath and held it for a minute. “But he had it all laid out,” she finally said. She looked down at the baby. “So he wouldn't have just taken off. He just wouldn't have.”
Sharon patted her daughter’s shoulder again.
Bill looked like he'd just sat on a nail.
I studied him. “You seem like you don't buy any of this.”
Bill frowned and, instead of answering verbally, responded with a shrug.
“Is there a particular reason?” I asked. “Was your relationship with him not good?”
“My relationship with him was fine until he got my daughter pregnant,” he answered.
Olivia’s arms tightened a little around the baby but she said nothing.
He leaned forward. “Look, Desmond isn't a bad kid. He's had his issues and I was willing to overlook those. But they are too young to have a baby.”
“We already did,” Olivia snapped.
“I didn't agree with their decision and I haven't hid that.” A muscle in his temple twitched. “But this...this just feels too coincidental to me.”
“How do you mean?” I asked.
He bit his cheek. “He puts on a big show of being excited about the baby. He says all of the right things to Olivia. Always saying the right things.” His lip curled. “But then when it's put up or shut up time, he just disappears?”
“Dad.” The warning in Olivia’s voice was unmistakable.
“Come on. He's a kid who got scared. And ran.” Bill’s laugh was bitter.
“You don’t know that!” Olivia shot her father an accusatory glance. “You don’t know anything!”
“I