Saving Grace Read Online Free PDF Page A

clenched so tightly I could feel my fingernails cutting into my hands.
    Dr. Marriot put her hand on my arm. “Let’s all take a deep breath,” she said. My father and I glared at each other. I could feel the anger in the air—the same prickliness there is right before a thunderstorm.
    â€œIt’s a big decision,” Dr. Marriot said. “Why don’t you go home? Take a few days. Think about everything. Then come back and see me and we’ll talk about the options.”
    Dad and I got in the car and headed home without talking. He wouldn’t look at me either. When we pulled into the driveway, he turned off the engineand just sat there. Finally he let out a long breath. “Who’s the father, Evie?” he asked.
    â€œYou don’t know him,” I said. “And I’m not having an abortion. I mean it. I really will run away.”
    â€œThen you’ll put the baby up for adoption,” he said. “There’s no way I’m letting you throw away your life over something like this.”
    We went inside the house and I went up to my room. I stood sideways in front of my mirror and lifted my shirt. You couldn’t tell there was a baby growing inside me. I lay my hand on my stomach. I couldn’t feel anything. It didn’t even feel real, but my and Justin’s baby was inside me.

Chapter Eight
    Of course I had to tell my dad who the baby’s father was. Dad went to see Justin’s parents. I don’t know what happened, but they all decided it was better for everyone if they just gave my dad some money and Justin and I didn’t see each other anymore.
    But we still managed to be together. I figured, why shouldn’t I be with Justin?I mean, we loved each other, and it wasn’t like anything was going to happen because it already had. It wasn’t easy, because Dad was watching me all the time, plus Jade’s mother wouldn’t let her hang around me anymore so she wasn’t any help. Jade was kinda pissed at me anyway because I hadn’t told her about Justin in the first place.
    I got out of last class a couple of times by signing my dad’s name on a note saying I had a doctor’s appointment. Then Justin picked me up just down the street from the school. And I managed to sneak out a few times at night by piling my pillows to make it look like me under the blankets. That was so lame, but it worked.
    I still puked up first thing in the morning for about another month. Then it just stopped pretty much. Except I couldn’t stand the smell of fried eggs. If I smelled a fried egg, everything came up, it didn’t matter what time of day it was. At least I didn’t get any weird cravings,except for grape Popsicles. I wanted those all the time.
    When I told Justin that my dad wanted our baby to be adopted, he said that’s what his parents said too. We were in the truck in the woods just off the dump road—the same place the condom had broken. “You wanna be stuck with a baby at your age?” He shook his head. “It’s the best thing, Evie,” he said. “The baby will get a good home and then it’ll be like this didn’t even happen.”
    Except it didn’t work out that way.

Chapter Nine
    I looked over at Justin, driving with one hand, elbow up on the doorframe. Since I’d had the baby I hadn’t seen that much of him. I’d heard a rumor that he was seeing some other girl. Some of my so-called friends just couldn’t wait to tell me stories like that. I didn’t even listen because I knew it was just certain people who were jealous of me and Justin andwanted to hurt me. I’d even told Justin about all the gossip and he’d said it wasn’t true—which I knew. He’d said he hadn’t been around much because he didn’t want to do anything to get my dad pissed off at me. But now we were going to be a family. Once we got to Montreal it’d just