“I’m confused,” Jake says. “Do we like Mrs. Martha?”
“Yeah,” I laugh.
“Mrs. Martha would be who Sadie could talk to when she’d get overwhelmed, and we weren’t close or available,” Dean says.
“She would also give me cake,” I laugh. “We are going to go set our stuff down so I can go see Dad. I told him I would talk to him, but that should happen before the funeral.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Martha says. “Does he know about the baby?”
“No, I only just now got to the doctor,” I say. I laugh when she narrows her eyes.
“Sadie Graves. You’d better be kidding,” Martha says.
“No, I uh… went through a lot with Paul and his family. My best friend was murdered by the same person who assaulted me, and I was terrified of being like my mom, so I ignored it. The possibility of my rapist being the biological father was terrifying. I was afraid his family would try to get custody of the baby. The guys finally got me to admit it, and I actually got my first scan yesterday,” I explain.
“I heard about Paul killing himself,” she says. “I feel like there is a lot I don’t know.”
“Uhm. Yeah… Paul assaulted me when I was eleven and again a few weeks before his death. His cousin Leo is the one who raped me and murdered our friend a few months ago,” I explain.
“Ah, Leo,” Martha sighs. “His parents mentioned someone murdered him or something.”
“Uh. Yeah,” I laugh nervously. “Something like that.”
“She beat the piss out of him with the butt of a gun,” Dean says, and Martha laughs.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh about that. Leo was just a big boy,” Martha says.
“Like an angry spider monkey,” Mason chuckles.
“Anyway. I’m going to go scold my father like a child,” I smile. “Love you, Mrs. Martha.”
“Love you, too, girly. Stay out of trouble,” she says with a kind smile.
We get all our bags into the rooms and get back into the car to drive to Dad’s house. When we pull into the driveway, Dad is already on the porch.
“You ready?” Dean asks.
“Uhm… Yeah. I’m just not in the mood to be called a whore,” I say with a sigh.
“If he starts being disrespectful, we leave,” Lance says simply and opens the door. Everyone else gets out, and Dean gets to the passenger side door and opens it for me. When I step out, and Dad sees me, he smiles.
“Hey, Dad,” I say as I step onto the porch.
“Sadie,” he says with a tearful smile. When I get close enough, he puts his hands on my belly and then hugs me tightly. “You’re pregnant.”
“I am,” I say. When he pulls away, he wipes his face.
“Come in, everyone,” Dad says. “The neighbors are being nosy.”
“They’re good for that,” I say. Dad opens the door for us, and we all walk in.
“I remember some faces, but not all,” he says.
“You know Dean, Mason, and Lance, but this is Todd, Jake, Del, Ben, and Billy,” I say.
“It’s nice to meet you boys,” Dad says, and they all greet him back. I look at Dean, Lance, and Mason in confusion because I’m not used to being respected in this house.
“I figured we should talk before the funeral tomorrow,” I say.