Free The Ground Rules: Undone by Roya Carmen

stick. I clear my throat. “Not exactly.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
His mark is all over me.
    E leven weeks. The day I’ve been waiting for, both dreading and anticipating, is almost here and I still have no idea what to do. According to my book, the baby is about two to three inches now and weighs about half an ounce. How can something so small potentially mess up so many lives?
    It’s not too late to make all this go away. But I’ve already decided I wouldn’t do that. This is not just a mistake, a messy scribble to erase — this is a life, this is my child.
    It’s time to tell Gabe. He needs to know.
    Soon.

    Claire bounces up and down on the bed. “I’m so excited,” she thrills. “I just can’t wait.” And my heart sinks, deep. We’ve planned this trip so long ago. It’s all the girls have been talking about. There’s no way we’re not going through with it.
    One more week.
    I’ll tell him when we get back , I decide as I tuck the girls’ bathing suits into the suitcase. My throat grows thick as I realize this is probably the last week we’ll ever have together, as a happy family. I bite back a tear as I watch Chloe diligently packing her little princess suitcase. She hums a song as she packs her favorite stuffed dog and her little glittery yellow purse, not a care in the world. She has no clue what’s about to hit her.
    And for what?
    For primal desires of the flesh. For a moment of weakness…okay, several moments of weakness.
    Lust. One of the seven deadly sins.
    That’s what this all comes down to.
    I dash to the washroom, and close the door gently behind me, hoping the girls do not notice that I am gone. I turn on the fan and I squat to the floor and cry. I cry until I am completely drained.

    “What kind of food do they like on Pelo Island?” Chloe asks, her hand in a bag of chips.
    “Pelee Island,” I clarify. I look back at her, glad to see her seat belt is on. I always have these sudden moments of temporary panic when I think I’ve forgotten to fasten the girls’ seatbelts. “I’m not sure what kind of food they like,” I tell her. “Probably the same stuff we eat. But they’re Canadian, so probably bacon too.”
    “I want to try lobster,” Claire pipes in. “Can we have lobster?”
    I smile at her. “I’m not sure. Someone’s got expensive taste. I’m not sure they have lobster on Pelee Island.”
    “Why not? There’s a big great beach there, isn’t there? I bet they have lobsters.”
    “Um…I’m not sure they have lobsters in fresh water lakes. I think that’s more of an ocean thing.”
    Gabe shoots me a smile. “Yeah, sweetie, we’ll see about the lobster.”
    An hour or two more in the car to Sandusky, a two hour ferry ride, and we’ll be in heaven.
    This moment could almost be perfect; the sun is shining, the music on the radio is great and we’re all together.
    If only…
    I look out at the road ahead of us. I don’t really see it because there’s so much going on inside me. I rest my hand on my stomach, and I think about Weston. I wonder what he’s doing.
    I’m suddenly brought back to the last time we saw each other — those last few precious minutes…
My back was still pressed against the back door of the café, the bottoms of my ballet flats resting on the old oak floor. My arms had reluctantly let go of him.
“You seem quite fond of quirky little coffee shops,” he teased.
I smiled up at him. “And you seem to have a thing for posh restaurants up high in the sky.”
Weston toyed with the pendant of my necklace absent mindedly — a diamond studded cross — a gift from Gabe. How ironic, I realized, the cheater wears a cross over her heart. I’ve turned my back on all the teachings of the Church I’ve learned growing up. If only the God I prayed to as a little girl could see me now. My younger self could have never imagined doing something like this. I’d always thought Gabe would be the only man I would ever be with. I couldn’t have even imagined