Page 9 of Unbound

“Think of anything else you need?” I ask, feeling like we’ve covered most of the bases.

She peers down at the cart, her cheeks flaming. She reaches for the pink box of hygiene products and places them on the shelf. “I don’t need those.”

Shit. Got the wrong kind.

“That’s fine. You wanna go pick out some different ones?”

She shakes her head, exhaling as she places her hand over her belly. “I won’t need those for another … seven months.”

And suddenly, it all clicks.

Eden is pregnant.

4

EDEN

“They’re … religious. Very religious. When I started seeing Michael, he was not, and they didn’t approve. I met him at the mechanic shop when I went with my brother to get the tires replaced on my mom’s fifteen-passenger van. I guess, in the end, they were right because he …” My voice trails off, and I wrap my hands around my neck.

Flashbacks flood through my mind.

Sterling is a good listener. I’m not normally as quiet as I’ve been since meeting him. Now that I’ve started opening up about how I ended up in this situation, I can’t stop spilling my guts.

“Anyway, when I found out I was pregnant, I ran away. Michael said I could move in with him. Even though I knew it was wrong to live together before marriage, I did it because I had nowhere else to go. But then he started getting angry about things, like little things. One day, he asked me if I’d thought about getting an abortion. I started crying, which he thought was annoying, and … I really tried to make him happy. Once there was a baby coming, I think I was too sick to … he just …”

I don’t really know how to continue because I’m not sure what happened. Maybe that’s who he was all along. I only lived with him for five weeks before he started getting violent when I didn’t feel like having sex with him because I was so nauseous that I couldn’t even keep crackers down.

After a few minutes of silence, Sterling clears his throat. “Where does Michael live now?”

“He lives near Green City, Texas. I got to Shreveport with a truck driver.”

“Someone you knew?”

I shake my head. Sterling exhales, gripping the steering wheel tighter. His tricep muscles are bulging. My mouth waters, and I resist the urge to lean closer to him.

Get it together. This is how you ended up pregnant the first time! Stop lusting.

Sexual desires and intimacy are strictly forbidden in my family. Sex should only be for procreation once you’re married, not before.

I’ve heard the lecture a thousand times—from the pulpit and from both my parents. I wasn’t really even exactly sure how pregnancy happened biologically until Michael taught me. I honestly don’t really get what the big deal is with sex now that I’ve done it a few times. It felt okay. It was mostly uncomfortable. Michael seemed to enjoy it, and I liked making him happy.

“So, your parents wouldn’t have helped you because you’re pregnant and not married?”

I nod.

“No. They would have forced me to marry someone in the church.”

I shiver when I think about the available bachelors in the church. My father had one in particular he always wanted me to marry. He was an elder, twenty years older than me, balding, and his wife had died a few years back. He already had four kids, and he’d made it known he wanted a new wife to help take care of them.

“I’m assuming you lived with your parents and your siblings?”

“Yeah, they’re farmers. I worked on the farm near the house and the garden mostly.”

“What high school did you go to?”

“Public schools teach a lot of really bad things to kids, so we were all homeschooled. But they didn’t think us girls needed much math or history or anything. We focused more on homemaking, baking, cooking, sewing, music, those kinds of things.”

He rubs a hand over his face, shaking his head. “Damn.”