Family Merger

“I’m your father.”

“I’m sixteen.”

Was there a single teenager in America who didn’t think turning sixteen made him or her an adult? “I’m still your father. If you hadn’t come home soon, Margaret would have called the police. I would have had the SBI and the FBI combing the state looking for you. You should have told me you were in trouble.”

“You can’t do anything about it.”

“I could have tried to help.”

“I don’t need your help. I can do this on my own.”

Despite the twitching toes, she didn’t appear frightened or overly angry. It was almost as though he were a momentary obstacle she had to deal with before she could move on.

“When were you going to tell me about the baby?”

She didn’t answer.

“How were you going to keep it a secret?”

“I’ll stay here until after it’s born. I don’t have to go to school when I really start showing. Miss Roper has people come teach us. I can get my GED.”

He spent ten thousand dollars a year to send her to the best private school in Charlotte, and she was talking about a GED! Didn’t she have any idea how important it was to graduate from the right school? No matter what he had to do, he was determined Cynthia would do that.

“We’ll worry about that later. Are you okay? You look pale.”

“It’s because I’m pregnant.” Cynthia stumbled over the word that described her condition. “Mrs. Collias fixes meals especially for pregnant girls. She says she can make sure I have enough for the baby without getting fat.”

Ron had almost forgotten Kathryn was still in the room. She had taken a seat near the door and was leafing through a magazine. She didn’t trust him alone with his daughter, but at least she had the decency to pretend she wasn’t listening to everything they said. He wondered if she was this protective of her other girls.

“All expectant mothers are supposed to gain weight.”

His wife had gained forty pounds then lost it within a few months.

“If I get fat, I’ll never get it off.”

Ron didn’t know how the conversation had drifted onto something as trivial as weight.

“What about the boy?” Ron asked. “The baby’s father.”

“He doesn’t know.”

“You have to tell him.”

“No, I don’t. It’s my baby. Besides, I don’t want to ruin his life, too.”

“This is not going to ruin your life. I won’t let it.”

“I’m a pregnant, unwed teenager,” Cynthia said, anger now rising to the surface. “There’s nothing your money can do to change that.”

He felt as if he were being punished for working so she would never have to endure privation. “You still have to tell the father. It’s his baby as much as yours. He has a right to know.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

For the first time since seeing her, he sensed fear. “I’m sure he’ll guess when you don’t return to school.”

“I told everybody we were moving to Connecticut.”

Ron knew it would be impossible to keep her baby a secret even if they did move to Connecticut, but he would deal with that later. Right now he needed to get Cynthia home and settled into her own room. And he needed to get out of Kathryn Roper’s house.

“Get your things,” Ron said. “I’m taking you home.”

Cynthia pulled back from him. Something about her expression changed, something subtle that made her look less like a child and more like a woman.

“I’m not going home. I’m staying here.”

Ron knew his relationship with his daughter wasn’t the best in the world, but she’d never refused point-blank to do anything reasonable. “Why not?”

“I just told you,” Cynthia said, sounding impatient. “I don’t want anybody to know.”

“They’ll know soon enough.”

“Not if I stay here and you go back to Switzerland. They’ll believe we moved to Connecticut, just like I said. I told them we were keeping the house with Margaret and everybody else in case we didn’t like it. I told them I didn’t want to go but some of your Yale buddies had talked you into it because it would put you closer to New York, that it would be good for your business.”

Ron didn’t bother pointing out that such a story was so full of holes it probably wouldn’t last a day. The school would call if she missed more than one day without an excuse. Her friends would call. Neighbors would ask questions. There was no way she could keep her disappearance a secret.

“Why don’t you let me take you home?” Ron asked. “We can both get a good night’s sleep and try to come up with a plan in the morning.”

“A plan for what?”

For the rest of your life Ron thought, exasperated. She didn’t appear to realize nothing would ever be the same after this. She would be a mother. That was a barrier that would separate her from her friends almost as effectively as moving to Connecticut.

“Everything is going to be different after this,” Ron said.

“I know that,” Cynthia said. “I’m not stupid.”

“I never said you were, but even intelligent people can have trouble thinking through unfamiliar situations. There are so many things you can’t know at your age—”

“If you tell me even once I don’t understand because I’m too young, I’ll walk out of this room.”

“You don’t understand,” Ron said, “not only because you’re too young but because this is beyond your experience. Hell, your mother and I didn’t understand, and we’d been planning for you for three years.”

“Age and experience have nothing to do with it,” Cynthia said as she got to her feet. “You’ve been a father for sixteen years, and you still don’t understand a thing about children.”

“I don’t understand why you’re more upset about your friends knowing you’re pregnant than you are about having a baby. I half expected you’d be nearly hysterical begging me to help you get an abortion.”

“I’d never do that! I want this baby. I need this baby.”

“Cynthia, you’ve just turned sixteen. You’re in the tenth grade. How can you need a baby?”