Page 137 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

“My aunt is taking care of it with Luca. He’s paying for it all. He said he would. He doesn’t have to. You can tell him that. He asked me if I wanted to bury?—”

The teen’s voice broke off.

Gabriela looked up at the ceiling to stop the tears from falling.

She didn’t know why. It wasn’t going to work and it didn’t.

There was no surprise that Luca would have done that.

“That is your choice.”

“My aunt named him. She’s taking care of it all. I can’t. I don’t want to. I just want to forget any of this happened.”

It just wasn’t that easy, but at sixteen, she knew she willed some of those thoughts also.

Not that she ever had anything this serious in her life to worry about.

Taylor was going to have a long road ahead of her if she couldn’t come to terms with what happened, but it’d take time.

The best they could do was offer as much help as possible to Taylor and her aunt.

“You have to do what works for you,” she said, rubbing her hand on Taylor’s. “I’m sure Dr. Young will be in to see you soon. I’ll be back later tonight to check in also.”

“How long will I be here?”

“Normally two to three days,” she said. “Don’t rush. Please. Take the time you need.”

Taylor turned her head away.

There was no use trying to talk again. You couldn’t force conversations, you couldn’t force feelings either.

When she was walking out of the room to go to her office to start appointments for the day, she ran into Cora coming off the elevator.

Rather than climb on, she stepped aside. “I just saw Taylor.”

“How is she doing?”

“Physically, she seems decent. I read the chart from last night. She’s in pain and will be, but they are monitoring that. I told her she’d be here for two to three days and not to rush it.”

“I told her the same thing,” Cora said. “And maybe I need the solitude to grieve some too.”

“It was a hard night for everyone.”

“I knew we weren’t going to keep the baby, but I just didn’t think this was going to happen. Taylor has some mental health issues. She gets depressed but would never take any meds. Then she gets out of control with her actions. Like there are no consequences.”

Things she wondered if Luca knew about. She was betting he hadn’t.

Not that it would have changed him wanting the child.

“We’ll try to get you in contact with some good resources. She needs to take time for herself. Maybe be evaluated for any kind of mental health issues that you think. The strongest of people crack when something like this happens. Losing a child, she’s going to need a lot of support.”

“I know,” Cora said. “I’m trying. I’m struggling myself, but her mother is of no help. I called my sister this morning to tell her and... you don’t need to know what the response was.”

No, she didn’t. But she could only imagine.

“I’ll come back and check on Taylor later tonight.”

“When you see Luca, can you thank him? I’m not sure if we will again, or when he works next.”