“No. I actually envy you for being able to get pregnant, Semantha. I’ve been trying to get pregnant for some time, and when I was obviously unable to, I went to see a specialist. I have a condition known as endometriosis. That’s a big word for you, I know.”
“What?” She was right. It was a big word, big enough to choke on. “What is that?”
“It’s simply misplaced tissue that supposed to be in a woman’s uterus. In my case, it’s growing outside my ovaries.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll give you a little lesson in female anatomy. Every month, hormones cause the lining of a woman’s uterus to build up with tissue and blood vessels. If a woman does not get pregnant, the uterus sheds this tissue and blood. It comes out of the body through the vagina as her menstrual period.
“Each month, the growth adds extra tissue and blood, but for me and others who have this problem, there is no place for the built-up tissue and blood to exit the body. As the misplaced tissue grows, it can cover or grow into the ovaries and block the fallopian tubes. This can make it difficult, if not impossible, for women with endometriosis to get pregnant.
“It’s not that uncommon. It’s uncommon for someone my age, but that’s my burden. Everyone has a burden. For your prurient information, it actually causes me to have pain during sex, but I endured that hoping to bring Asa here. In other words, I was with Porter before he was with you, so you can toss your theory out the window. When I began to experience other symptoms, I saw the specialist and was told.”
“Couldn’t he cure it?”
“There is no cure. There is only treatment for the pain. Eventually, I’ll probably have an operation, but in the meantime … no babies, no Asa growing in my body.”
She looked in the mirror at herself again and fiddled with strands of hair around her ears.
“So, he grows in yours,” she continued. “We’re the Heavenstone sisters,” she added in one of her whispers. “It’s the same thing as if he was growing in me.”
“I don’t care that we’re the Heavenstone sisters. He’s not growing in you; he’s growing in me!”
She was silent.
“How are we … are you going to explain this to Daddy now?” I asked as the next realization struck my brain.
“Simple. I’ll tell him I didn’t know you were pregnant until very late in your pregnancy, and we decided to hide it from him and everyone so that you could give birth here without anyone knowing you were so promiscuous.”
“You’ll make me look terrible in his eyes.”
“For a little while,” she admitted, “but once Asa is born and I convince Daddy to keep him and I agree to take care of him, he’ll change his mind and his feelings about you. You’ll have given him the one thing he wanted most.”
“No, I won’t, Cassie. I’ll tell him the truth, that I was raped. I’ll tell him what Porter did, what you got him to do.”
She smiled. “If you do that, “I’ll back up Porter. I’ll tell Daddy you seduced him, and then you’ll be exposed as just another pregnant teenage girl. Good luck in your new school or your old one, because I’ll see to it that you go back there. I won’t help you with anything. And most of all, I’ll hate you forever.”
She glared at me.
“Let me tell you something more, Semantha. Men, including Daddy, never look at a girl who’s been a rape victim the same way. No matter what, they can’t think of her as anything but partly responsible. It’s unjust, I know, but that’s the way most men think.”
She shrugged.
“In some countries, the girl, the victim, is even ostracized by her own family. They don’t do it as openly here, but it’s in their thoughts, in their eyes. Wait until the young man you want, you fall in love with, learns you were raped and had a child. You’ll think he was born to walk backward.”
Despite my determination to fight back and defy her, Cassie’s words were sharper than darts and all aimed at my heart. I couldn’t keep my eyes from filling with tears.
“There is absolutely no reason for any of that to happen to you, if you just follow my plan and do exactly what I tell you to do. First, I want you to wear a face of shame. Daddy won’t be able to stand it, and he’ll eventually be sympathetic and concerned for you. You’ll see. He’ll make you feel better. Second, you’ll have the baby secretly, as I said, and we’ll get this over with quickly. And third and final, as soon as you’re up and ready, I’ll make sure we get you into a good school, and this will all be behind you.
“Well?” she asked.
The pounding under my breast reached into my ears.
“I’m afraid,” I said.
She smiled. “Don’t be. I’ll be there right beside you the whole time. I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you. I’ll protect you the way Henry the Eighth would protect one of his wives who could give him a male heir. For the rest of your pregnancy, I’ll make sure you’re treated like a queen. I’ll pamper you and hold your hand whenever you like. In fact, I won’t leave this house again after we tell Daddy. I’ll send out for everything we need. I’ll never leave your side.
“Tomorrow,” she said, turning back to look at herself in the mirror, “we’ll open the nursery and make it spic-and-span. Did you know that Daddy had all sorts of boy’s baby clothes bought? I know where they were placed in storage. We’ll wash it all and get it all organized. He’ll want a nurse, of course, but I’ll convince him it’s unnecessary with me here. Look,” she said, rising and going to her bookshelves. She ran her hand over the binders of a half-dozen books. “These are all books written by baby experts describing how to care for an infant from day one on. I practically have them memorized.”