02

"No way! Forget it!" I snapped.

As if the space between us, or even the furniture in the room, could protect me from them, I positioned myself on the other side of the room, panic rising within me, with the certainty that if my mother really wanted to inseminate that semen in me, there was nothing I could do to stop her.

"I wouldn't be asking you if I had another way. Look at our situation. A child from that man could change our lives forever. It can pay for a good college for you. Isn't that what you want so much?" my mother tried to reason.

"Mom, wake up! I am not going to get pregnant by a man I do not even know. I will not be a part of this," I firmly replied.

“You won't have to do anything. When your belly starts to grow, the school year will be over. You lock yourself in the house and do not come out until the child is born. You do not even have to go through the trouble of creating it; I'll do it for you," Scarlet added.

“You promised my father that I would never get involved in his schemes," I reminded my mother.

"I know. But it is not long before you turn eighteen, and the pension will end. It is better to risk having something better," my mother persisted.

"I will not do that!"

"That ungrateful fuck doesn't have to agree; she just has to obey!" Scarlet snapped. "She eats at our expense for a long time; it is time to pay for the expense."

"It is not true. I support myself with the money from my work, and I still have the pension, which I do not see a penny of," I defended myself.

"Are you going to throw that in my face now?" My mother made a hurt expression.

Scarlet took a step closer to me, her light brown eyes filled with aggression, fixed on my face.

"Lie down right there and open your legs, you fucking idiot. It is high time you did something for this family. It is not just us who have to sacrifice."

As if I had the power to see into the future, I foresaw what was going to happen, and I trembled from head to toe, taken by the certainty that they were going to force me to do that, without me having the slightest chance to defend myself, to fight against the three.

Still, acting purely on reflex, clinging to some instinct for self-preservation, I ran for the exit door, sure I had some chance to escape, to reach the street and call for help. 

However, Michel was much faster and stronger; before I even had time to turn the doorknob, he had already reached me. 

He grabbed me around the middle with both arms and pulled me to him, ignoring my protests.

I screamed, kicked, lashed out with my overgrown nails where I could reach, but it was a futile effort. He was much bigger and stronger, and soon he was laying me back on the bed, putting himself on top of me, dominating me completely. 

Even after exhaustion overcame me, I continued to thrash around and try to break free.

"So what's it to you!" Scarlet said, helping Michel to hold me. "It is like we're trying to kill you. It is just a fucking pregnancy! In a few months, you'll be free and full of money."

I did not realize my mother had left the room, but I watched as she emerged from her room, carrying a smaller syringe, which I knew contained a sedative.

A thousand times damn it!

"No, mother. Please, do not do this."

"I wouldn't if I had the other option, but I am not going to miss an opportunity like this to change our lives."

"Mom…you do not understand."

She approached me. As the other two pinned me down on the bed, she bent down and inserted the small needle into my arm, causing a slight prick.

"Believe me. One day you'll thank me for this," she said, her face close to mine, the stench of cigarettes sickening me.

Gradually, her face disappeared from my view, as well as everything else around me. An unexpected silence enveloped me, an invincible languor taking over my limbs, making me softer and heavier. 

As much as I struggled, I could not shake the numbness that made my eyelids slowly droop.

"Please, do not..." I stammered, barely hearing my own voice, but I could not complete the sentence before I was swallowed by the deepest, most peaceful darkness.

**

Rylee! 

Rylee! 

Rylee! 

I heard the voice calling me in the distance, and for a moment, I believed I was dreaming because I never needed to be woken up to go to school. Since I was a child, I have always done this alone.

I opened my eyes and felt my head spinning, my body heavy, an unusual sleep ordering me to continue sleeping. Then I realized that I was not on the sofa bed in the living room but in my mother's room, on her bed. 

The realization invaded me at the same time that I remembered the events, and I sat up in bed suddenly, the room spinning around me, my mother's face, accommodated on the edge of the mattress, entering my field of vision.

"What happened?" I asked, with a thread of voice.

However, I did not need her to answer. I knew that she had sedated me and injected me with that man's semen. I could feel the slight burning sensation between my legs caused by the syringe's invasion. My body looked unbelievably different, and I was pretty sure I was pregnant, although it was too soon to tell.

Holy shit! 

I could not even imagine a more bizarre fate than being a virgin and being pregnant by a complete stranger. Really, the Creator was in a bad mood when he traced my paths in life.

"You are sleeping too much. I am starting to get worried," said my mother.

Worried about me?

It could only be a joke! 

"I'll never forgive you for what you are doing to me," I said, emotions welling up inside me, stirring up an old hurt.

Hurt for all the times she left me home alone to go to bars with her lovers, for allowing these men to harass me when I brought them home, for always being there for Scarlet, even when she hurt me, for the contempt she always directed at me. 

"On the contrary. One day you'll thank me," she said.

"You really put that man's sperm in me, did not you?" 

The situation was so absurd that I needed confirmation to believe.

"If... if you did get pregnant, you and all of us are guaranteed a future. This is wonderful. Have you ever imagined joining the best college money can buy?"

"You do not have to pretend you are doing this for anyone other than yourself."

"I am doing it for all of us."

"Stop being a hypocrite!" I snapped, losing my composure. "You never gave a shit about me, you never did anything for me. And to top it off, now you are using me to get what you want, like I am one of those idiots you and Scarlet take advantage of day after day!

"Down with me, girl!" 

I wanted to scream and kick and fly at her neck and strangle her. But she was right, she was my mother, and because I was a minor, she still had a certain amount of power over me, which did not stop me from hating her with all my might.

"Wants to know. I go to school, which is better."

I got out of bed and tried to head for the door, but she stopped me, standing in my way, haughty and ghastly as ever.

"You'd better stay here for a couple of days."

She flipped the little key in her hand, letting me know the door was locked. Instinctively, I glanced at the window and was shocked to see it nailed shut.

"Are you going to keep me trapped here?!"