Pia whistled softly. "Mother loves me a lot," she said in a honeyed voice. "She loves to indulge me and I love to be indulged. After all, I am the princess of my clan. She treats me like one."

Caleb smiled. "That you are."

​​

Dawn pursed her lips. How she wished that Pia became quiet for the time she sat at the table and breakfast. She ate a double fried egg waiting for more innuendos from Pia but there were none. She looked up at her and found her struggling to form words with her lips. Every time she wanted to say something, some force stopped her from speaking. It was as if she had become mute. Really? Did her wish come true? Dawn had to throttle her chuckle in a cough in her fist.

Daryn's concerns were raised high. Immediately he started to pat her back. "Are you okay baby?" he asked. "You don't feel like vomiting?"

She gazed at Pia with a prizewinning smile. "I am fine darling," she assured him. She picked up a piece of cake and ate it. "Let's go to the hospital."

"Yes, let us," he said. He got up and gave his hand to her to get up.

All the while Pia kept watching with a sour face.

Dawn walked hand in hand with Daryn out of the door and into the car aware of Pia's gaze on her back.

She had to give one thing—Daryn always looked out for her even if they fought. It was like he couldn't bear her pain, and not because she wasn't strong enough, it was more out of love, out of his need to protect her every time. She squeezed his hand in the car and said, "I am sorry…" Her hand was so small in his, but fitted like a glove.

He stroked her hand with the fingers of his other hand and said, "I am sorry too…"

She leaned her head against his arm. "Can we not talk about your father or my father until I can wrap my head around it?"

"Sure baby," he replied in a soft tone.

They reached the hospital in less than an hour. The doctor wasn't ready so they had to wait. She had gone for an emergency operation. The assistant had informed that she would be available in forty-five minutes. Daryn fretted that why had they not been informed, to which the assistant shrugged.

"My wife needs rest and I could have used those forty-five minutes to make her rest," he snarled at her.

The assistant winced at the way he spoke, and his personality was so overbearing that she actually flinched. "I am sorry sir, but she received the page just five minutes back."

Dawn smiled and called him back through her mental link, "Relax hubby. It's not like we have anything important to do."

A grrr sort of sound emanated from him and he went back to her. Dawn held his hand and patted it softly. Daryn shook his head in disgust and picked up a magazine to read it. It was about how to take care of your toddler baby. Dawn busied herself on the phone. They were both pretty engrossed in their work when all of a sudden they heard commotion.

"Father, please I want to keep this child," said a girl who looked as if she was barely out of her teens. Her tummy was pretty blown and she looked at least seven months pregnant.

"Don't you dare call me father!" the man growled. "You are going to get this bastard baby aborted. We don't have money to feed another mouth."

The girl sobbed quietly. Her eyes were red. "Then I will work for my baby and feed him."

"Work for him? You are eight months pregnant. The baby is going to pop out any minute and you will be a liability on us. I married your mother not to inherit her baggage. Your mother wants me to keep supporting you, but I have crossed my limit. I don't have another penny to support you. So this is my last ultimatum—either get the child aborted or get out of my house," he barked at her.

Everyone was looking at the two of them with shocked expressions. A man called from behind, "You can't force her to abort!"

The father of the girl hissed back at him. "Try me." Then he looked at the girl and said, "It is your decision to keep the child or not, but I am very clear – I will not take back a bastard child with an unwed mother. If you want to come back to us, you have to get rid of your child." Saying that the man stomped out of the hospital.

The girl kept gazing at his back until he disappeared with unbelieving looks. When he was out of her sight, she sagged in her chair and sobbed with heaves.

Looking at her condition Dawn couldn't help thinking how much Gayle supported her for the pregnancy when no one was with her, when only three people in the world believed her and supported her in the world—Daryn, Cole and Gayle. Emotions roiled in her gut. A storm stirred when she peeked at the damage her past had done to her. Her fears returned with full force when she remembered the days when Pia called the council to get her child aborted. She knew that the fears in her came from another place and a different time, they had absolutely no connection to the present situation, but she could relate to them through that girl. Everything became so clear. Her father-in-law supported her and she couldn't see… Still…

Daryn felt her heartbeat accelerating and turned to look at her with a questioning gaze. "Baby?" he asked.

"Give me a minute, Daryn," she said and walked to that girl.

The girl had leaned on the chair and her head was in her hands. She had fisted her hair and was murmuring, "I won't let you go baby, I won't…"

Dawn pressed her hand on her shoulders. The girl looked at her alarmingly.

"Can we talk?" asked Dawn.

"About what?" she asked not exactly in the mood of friendliness. "I don't feel like talking to anyone."

Dawn sat beside her and crossed her legs. She took a hanky out of her purse and gave it to her. "How old are you?" she asked gently.

"I am eighteen," she said and dabbed her eyes. A stranger extending sympathy to her was indescribable after what all she had gone over the past few months in her house.

"And what is your name?"

"Cara…"

"That's a lovely name," Dawn smiled.

"Thanks…"

"Cara, are you in high school?"

Cara shook her head. "No," she whimpered. "I can't afford… My mother and I live in a truck on the outskirts of the town… She works in a salon." Then she inhaled deeply as the dry heaves left her chest. "I work as a waitress in a restaurant in the town, but the last few months have been tough." She looked away, wiping another tear from her cheek. The way her father had spoken so loudly, she knew that everyone must have heard, and what was there to hide?

"That man is your father?"

"Step-father," she said with anger. Her fists balled. "He works in the same salon as my mother and is now living in our truck…"

"Hmm… You want to keep the baby?"

Cara nodded vehemently.