Chapter 10 #2
“Taylor told us about the baby,” Elizabeth said with a severe expression of disapproval. “We’ll want a DNA test to make sure it’s his,” she said coldly, and Felicity stared at her in disbelief.
“You think I cheated on him?” she said in a small voice, and glanced at Taylor. He didn’t look at her, and she couldn’t imagine what he had said. “Of course the baby is his,” she said, shocked. She looked at Taylor then and addressed him. “Is that what you think?”
“I don’t know what to think. Maybe that’s why you want to get rid of it. Because you know it’s not mine and you don’t want me to find out.”
“That’s so twisted I don’t even know how you got there.
I told you, I don’t feel ready to have a child.
I want to work on my career in art for a few more years without distractions, and have a baby when we’re ready, but not yet.
But the baby is most certainly yours. I haven’t slept with anyone else since I met you, and I think you know that. ”
“We’re not so sure,” Elizabeth interrupted her. “We want proof.”
“And you do too?” Felicity asked Taylor.
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“And believing that this is someone else’s baby, you still want me to have it? That makes no sense. If you think it’s someone else’s, then let me have the abortion.”
“It’s still a baby and deserves to live,” he argued.
“I’m willing to have a DNA test, but I think it’s disgusting that you want me to. Especially you,” she directed at Taylor, and he didn’t respond. He looked faintly uncomfortable.
“Until you prove that this is Taylor’s child, we’re assuming it isn’t,” Elizabeth said harshly. And Felicity realized at that moment that she hated her. She wasn’t just a bore, she was a bitch, and she was furious with Taylor too for believing it wasn’t his child.
“Good. Then you won’t have a problem with my having an abortion, since you’re so sure it’s not his,” Felicity said to her future mother-in-law.
“If it’s not, then you have nothing to say about it.
Actually, I think I like that scenario better.
I don’t have to prove anything to you. Just assume it’s not your son’s,” she said to Elizabeth and stood up to leave and Taylor put a hand on her arm to stop her.
“Don’t be like that, stay for dinner,” he said weakly, as Felicity looked at him in a new light.
“Are you crazy? Your mother is accusing me of cheating on you, being pregnant by someone else and lying to you, and implying that I’m a slut, and you want me to stay for dinner?
I don’t think so. Why don’t we just quit right here?
You move out of my apartment, I get the abortion I want, and we all go our merry ways and don’t have to spend a fortune of my mother’s money on a wedding.
And be sure not to call me again or send me a Christmas card,” she said to all three of them.
“Felicity, don’t be like that. What do you expect? How do my parents know it’s mine? They think you’re trying to squeeze money out of me.”
“For what? The rent you’ve never paid? The wedding you haven’t paid a penny on and my mother is paying the whole load to support someone else’s baby?
You and your family are sick. This isn’t about money.
It’s about my life. And thank God I don’t want to bring a baby into a family like yours.
” She turned to Taylor then. “And I hope you told your parents that you assaulted me yesterday, as long as we’re being so open here. ”
“He told us that you slapped him, very hard,” Elizabeth said to Felicity, and Felicity stared at them, stunned.
“I slapped him?” She had no words left to express what she was feeling, and clearly they thought their son could do no wrong and she was a whore.
She put her coat on then and looked at his mother.
“Thank you for dinner. It was delicious. Good night.” Elizabeth didn’t say a word, and Taylor followed her to the front door, looking panicked.
“Felicity, don’t, please, everyone’s just upset. They misunderstood what I told them.”
“I don’t know who you are or what to believe,” she said sadly. “I can’t marry you. I’ll go to my mother’s tomorrow. Please get your stuff out of my apartment when I’m out.” She didn’t wait for the elevator and hurried down the stairs, and Taylor went back into the apartment to his parents.
She was shaking when she got to the street, and hailed a cab to take her to Tribeca. She didn’t even cry on the way home. She felt like she was living a nightmare or a very bad movie. All she wanted was out now. She was pregnant, and Taylor was insane. He was making her feel crazy too.
She was going to call her mother and tell her to cancel the wedding, and then she was going to get an abortion as fast as she could.
The night before he had told her he would kill her if she got rid of his baby.
Now he and his mother were saying that it was someone else’s.
His father hadn’t said a word. He was probably too drunk to care.
* * *
When she got to the apartment, she had a drink to calm down, in spite of being pregnant.
She only took a few sips and put it down.
Two hours later, Taylor called her and begged her to let him talk to her.
He said he was sorry for everything his mother had said and he didn’t believe any of it.
She was about to hang up on him, and she could hear that he was crying and telling her he loved her.
She felt as though she owed him one conversation before she canceled the wedding and got rid of his baby, which she at least knew for certain was his, even if he and his parents doubted her.
She agreed to let him come up for half an hour. She looked hard and angry when she opened the door to him ten minutes later. He had called from downstairs.
“That was surreal,” she said, and he started to cry as soon as he sat down on the couch and begged her forgiveness for slapping her the night before, and everything his mother had said.
“She gets carried away sometimes,” he explained.
“Of course I know it’s my baby. I just don’t want you to get rid of it.
Give us a chance, let’s get married and have it, and love each other.
” As he said it, she remembered the little hand she had seen on the sonogram, and the strength of the heartbeat.
It was alive inside her. Taylor loved her.
He got down on his knees and begged her forgiveness, which seemed pathetic, and by the time he was finished, she was crying too, and she was less sure about the abortion.
She suddenly felt some responsibility for the child she was carrying and a duty to protect it.
She hadn’t felt that before but she did now.
“I’ll think about it,” was all she would commit to. But suddenly it didn’t seem so easy to abort. And maybe he was right and she was wrong.
“Can I stay here tonight?” He looked at her imploringly. “I swear, I won’t touch you, I won’t hurt you, you’re the mother of my child.” She wanted to slap him when he said it, but she didn’t.
“You can sleep on the couch.” She wasn’t sure which night had been worse. The night he slapped her, or the night his mother had called her a whore.
She put on her heaviest nightgown and her thickest bathrobe, wrapped it around her and tied it, climbed into bed and pulled up the covers.
She lay there for a long time wide-awake, tense, and thinking of everything they had said, and she finally fell asleep.
When she woke up later in the night, he was lying next to her, looking at her adoringly, and he whispered to her.
“I’m sorry for everything I said. I know it’s mine, it’s ours, which is why I want it so badly.
Please don’t kill my baby, Felicity. I’ll do anything you want.
I’ll help you. We’ll get a nanny so you can paint.
Give me a chance to be a good husband and father.
I want to take care of you and our child. ”
It was everything she had said she didn’t want. An instant family, and the baby was only six months away.
Taylor gently touched her face as she looked at him in the dark, wondering which part of him was real, the good part or the bad part.
He kissed her gently, and she kissed him back, and they lay in each other’s arms all night, and when she woke up in the morning and saw him next to her, she knew he had won.
She wouldn’t call off the wedding and she wouldn’t get rid of the baby.
It was too late. For better or worse, the die was cast.
She told him before he left for work. “I’ll keep it,” she said in a soft voice, wondering if she would regret it or love it.
“You won’t be sorry. I’ll be a model husband and father. I swear.” She watched him go, hoping that he was telling the truth and afraid he was lying. But she loved him, so she was giving him a chance to prove it. It seemed like the right thing to do.
* * *
She was going to call her mother that afternoon to tell her that she was pregnant, but she didn’t have the energy.
She felt emotionally drained by the last two days.
She decided to wait and tell her over the weekend.
She had no idea how her mother would react.
Felicity went to bed and slept all day instead of working. She couldn’t get out of bed.
* * *