"Ava... who's the father?" Riley asked softly.
Ava flinched at the question. Her stomach was turning, and her hands were clinging to the side of the bed. The words were not able to come out of her mouth.
Marcus…she was unable to say his name. Not now, not ever. It was his thought of him, of that night, of what she had done, that made her chest painfully tight.
It is... it is Mark, she said, but barely above a whisper.
Riley gazed and gaped at her, and a horror and doubtfulness fell on her face. "Mark? Are you serious? You... you slept with him? You allow yourself to get into this position?
"I... I did not intend for it to happen like this," Ava said hastily, shaking her head. "I just... I didn't think properly okay? I wasn't thinking straight."
Riley rubbed a hand down her face and was exasperated. "Ava, you have to be careful! You cannot simply sleep with someone, not like this! Not at the time you are still in school and not before you consider the ramifications! You let your guard down. Didn't you use protection? You should know better!"
"I know!" The voice broke a little, and Ava snapped. I did not wish that it should happen to me!
Riley sat back with a jerk. "We need an adult here, Ava. You're still in school. The baby... the father... everything... this cannot be a one-man job. You need your mother."
Ava was hesitant and her hands were shaky. She churned her stomach at the thought of her mother and of the lecture as well as the anger of Patricia. But she knew Riley was right. She picked up her phone and called home.
"Mom," Ava said, attempting to maintain calmness in her voice. "I'm at the hospital. Can you come get me?"
"Is everything okay?" Patricia questioned instantly with a tense voice.
"Yes... Come... just come," Ava answered. She never said anything about the pregnancy, the father, or anything. She could not.
It was only a few moments before Patricia came. She got answers, and she did it at a glance when she entered the room.
"What is going on, Ava? Why am I here?" she enquired, with the voice of authority and concern.
Ava swallowed hard. She may have felt her heart beat in her heart. She turned her head away and did not look at her mother. At last, she talked, and it was little more than a whisper.
"I'm... I'm pregnant," she admitted.
Patricia blanched and her face changed to disbelief. "Pregnant?!" she shouted. "Ava Thompson! How could you? Who... who is the father?"
"... it is Marks," Ava repeated the lie. "But I... I left him. He cheated on me, Mom. That's why I left him."
Patricia flushed with anger. "You left a man... over cheating?" she yelled. "You ran away from him on the grounds of cheating? And now... You are pregnant so young? What do you think will happen now? Do you know how you have humiliated our family?"
Ava shuddered at the words of her mother. She was just about to open her mouth to respond, but Patricia was not done.
You believe that you can afford to make mistakes like this and nothing will happen? My daughter is not going to be a baby mama. Do you hear me?" The voice of Patricia was severe and uncompromising, and reverberated in the hospital room.
"I... Mom... I don't want to..." Ava attempted, but her words failed her.
"You will marry him!" Patricia screamed and her face was hard and set. You will put this mess you have made right. My daughter shall never raise a bastard. And you have to get back with Mark Rivera at once!
Ava's stomach dropped. She shook her head violently. "I... I can't! I don't want to! I can't marry him!"
Patricia's jaw tightened. "No arguments, Ava. You defy me, and you will cause more disgrace to this family than you have already caused. This ends now. You are going to marry him and that is all.
Ava's mind raced. She felt trapped. Her chest was panicking and her hands were trembling. How could she marry Mark? What could she tell... anything? She would have screamed, cried, run, but she made no noise. Her mother was categorical and there was no bargaining.
Riley gave her a squeeze of her hand, which was all she could do to comfort her. "It will be all right," she said to Ava. "We'll figure this out. You're not alone."
Ava smiled weakly, her tears on the verge of bursting out. She was angry, frightened, and helpless simultaneously. The eyes of Patricia remained steady on her, undaunted, unswerving. It was a question of no compromise, no middle ground. It was not the choice of Ava and until then, all she could do was to comply.
Patricia now shifted her gaze to the exit of the room and was content to believe that she had given her verdict successfully. "You will get married, Ava, this is the last time I am going to say it!" her voice was cold and firm. So she walked away with Ava and Riley were left to the emptiness of the hospital room.
The silence that followed was heavy. Ava sat up against the bed, her thoughts whirling. She was caught between the fear and anger over the truth of her pregnancy and the impossible decision her mother had taken on her behalf.
At her elbow sat Riley holding her hand. "We will see this out, Ava," said she. "We'll get through it."
Ava agreed, yet in her heart, she understood that life would never be easy anymore. The Mark lie was established, her cover concerning Marcus still hidden, but now another fight had started--the one that would define her future and make her face decisions that she was not ready to make.
Her thoughts wandered to the window, the sun shining in very mean and sharp. She had a desire to get away, to flee it all but she could not.
"You will marry him," she said to herself as she remembered listening to Patricia earlier on, and it was on her mind over and over.