Surprise Bidder

I shake my head. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to him before that whole disaster happened.

“Are you still telling him?”

I shake my head again. “No.”

Why should I? He doesn’t care about me anymore. He can barely look at me anymore.

Besides, he’s shown me what kind of man he really is- someone who would do anything to preserve his reputation, someone who would rather believe in deceit than innocence. A heartless man. A coward. I don’t want a man like that to be the father of my child.

Giselle looks at me with creased eyebrows. “So you’re just going to go on with your pregnancy and then give up the baby?”

“No,” I answer more quickly and more firmly this time.

I glance down at my belly and place a hand over it.

No. There’s no way I’m going to give up my baby. That decision has not changed.

I look at Giselle. “I’m going to keep my baby.”

She looks more puzzled. “But how? I thought you said…”

“I’m going to run away,” I tell her.

It’s the only option left to me now.

“I’m going to pack as many of my things as I can so I can sell them later. I have jewelry, too. I can pawn that.”

“And where will you go?” Giselle asks.

I shrug. I haven’t figured out that part yet.

“Somewhere far away from here. A small town up north, maybe. Or down south. Maybe I’ll stay at a motel first and then get a small apartment after I find a job.”

“Do you really think someone will give you a job when you’re that pregnant?”

I purse my lips.

Giselle squeezes my hand. “Don’t you have anyone to go to? Anyone who can help you?”

I shake my head. If I did, I wouldn’t be here in the first place.

Giselle sighs. “Fine, then. You can stay at my grandfather’s old cabin.”

My eyes grow wide.

“Well, he’s not really my grandfather. He’s my grandfather’s brother, so more of a granduncle. Anyway, he has this cabin in Minnesota near some lakes and some woods. He left it to my father, but ever since he had his stroke, he hasn’t gone near it. I think he’s forgotten about it.”

“I can stay there?” I ask hopefully.

Giselle nods. “No one is staying there. Of course, the place will need a little fixing up since no one has been there in a while. But once that’s done, you can stay there as long as you like. Of course, you’ll still have to find food and work and…”

“It’s a start,” I interrupt her. “Which is what I need. But can I really stay there? I mean, why aren’t you staying there instead?”

Giselle shrugs. “Because I don’t like lakes. I nearly drowned in one once.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, what would I do there all alone and so far away from civilization?”

I chuckle.

“If I’m with you, though, then I don’t think it would be so bad,” she adds.

My eyebrows arch. “You mean you’re coming with me?”

She nods. “If you’re gone, I won’t be needed here anyway.”

I frown. “I’m sorry.”

Giselle shakes her head. “Besides, I don’t think I really want to work for a man who whips women. And more importantly, you need me.”

She squeezes my hands.

I can’t deny that last bit. In fact, I don’t know what I’d do without her.

I give her a hug.

“Thank you. I promise I’ll repay your kindness someday.”

“Shh.” She pats my back. “You’ve been just as kind to me, if not more. Besides, we’re friends, right? Friends help each other out without expecting anything in return.”

I touch her cheek after pulling away. “I really am lucky to have a friend like you.”

She smiles, then turns serious as she grabs my hands. “So, when are we running away? I get my next pay on Tuesday, but my next day off is Thursday.”

I nod. Tuesday is also when I’m supposed to get my next allowance, which I’m going to need. If I’m still going to get it, that is.

“Then we’ll go on Wednesday.”

“Okay,” Giselle agrees. “I’ll make preparations. We still have to find a way to sneak out, though. And by we, I mean mostly you.”

She’s right. And now that I’m supposed to be grounded, it’s not going to be easy. Even so, I can’t just give up, not now that I have a place to run away to and someone to run away with.

I may not have Gavin’s support, but I have a friend and that’s enough for me to start anew.

And I will start anew.

“I’ll think of something,” I promise myself and Giselle.

No matter what, I’m leaving this place and keeping my baby.

Chapter Twenty

Gavin

“The plane is leaving in five minutes,” Sylvia tells me before strapping herself in the seat across the aisle.

“Good.”

I look out the window at the sky painted in the palette of the sunset hanging over the tarmac. The clouds are burnt orange, like the blow-torched surface of a creme brulee.