Today's Promises Read Online Free PDF

telling us.
    Bowing her head, she says, “Sixteen.”
    “Maybe she ran away?” I offer, grasping at any explanation so Jaynie doesn’t have to hear this. Her nightmares are horrid enough.
    But Mandy, her eyes moving from me to Jaynie, then back to me, crushes that hope when she says, “Mmm, I don’t think so, Flynn. The last place this unaccounted-for girl was ever seen was at Mrs. Lowry’s house.”
    “What are you saying?” Jaynie says, at last.
    Her voice is more strained than I’ve ever heard it before. So I reach for her hand, to offer any comfort I can.
    Jaynie is trembling when her hand slips into mine.
    And frankly, I start to shake as well, especially when Mandy says, “Someone up on that property, either Mrs. Lowry or Allison, had to have killed that poor girl. And then they probably hid the body.”

Jaynie
     
    “S hit, Flynn, this is bad. Really bad.”
    Those are the first words out of my mouth when we settle into Bill’s car.
    Flynn buckles his seat belt and closes his eyes. I’m sure he’s imagining some poor girl, a girl like me, meeting her untimely end at the hands of Mrs. Lowry, or that bitch, Allison.
    Shuddering, he says, “God, I hope it’s not true.”
    I let out a scoff of disbelief. “Oh, I’m sure it’s true. Think about it. Think how close we came to being finished off up there.” I make a sound of disgust. “We’re not talking about kind benefactors here.”
    “True.” Flynn scrubs his hand down his face. “I’m sure something bad did happen to that girl.”
    Thinking of how Allison treated us so much worse than her mother did, I say, “I bet Allison did it. She’s vicious and violent.”
    I know firsthand the extent of Allison’s rage.
    Flynn agrees with me, but then, when he sees how worked up I’m becoming, he says, “Let’s talk about something else on the ride home.”
    “Yeah, that works for me.”
    On the drive back to Lawrence, I try with all my heart to push all thoughts of Allison and her evildoings to the back of my mind. And I do pretty well, until that night when a nightmare wakes me up.
    After dreaming of Allison kicking me in the abdomen, and thusly killing the child who was growing within me, Flynn rocks me back to sleep with words of comfort. His own tears intermingle with mine, and we press our cheeks together and cry for what could have been.
    “It’s over, though, Jaynie,” he tells me. “She can never hurt you that bad ever again.”
    But it seems she can when—a couple of days following my nightmare—I show up for an appointment at the local free clinic. The plan is to finally start on birth control. But it may be a moot point when the repercussions of the violence Allison inflicted on me rears its ugly head.
    I’ve been thinking all this time that Flynn and I have just been lucky. I mean, we have sex all the time, right? And I’ve not yet become pregnant.
    And now I know why.
    I am informed, during the routine exam, that I have severe scarring in my uterus, scarring that was never there before, scarring that may render me infertile for the rest of my life.
    I am numb.
    I’m still given a contraception shot on the slim chance the doctor could be wrong.
    But I know she’s not.
    I leave the clinic in a daze, devastated by the possibility that not only has Allison taken away my baby, but now, thanks to her brutality, I may never call myself a mother.
    I’m scheduled to work that evening in the sandwich shop, but as soon as I get back I request the night off. Flynn had that stupid interview in Forsaken today, and when I wander upstairs I’m sick to find he’s still not home.
    “Oh, great,” I mutter to myself in the lonely silence of our bedroom. “I can see how relying on the bus to get to and from work is going to make for some long-ass days for everyone.”
    Flynn finally arrives home when it’s well after seven.
    By that time, I am miserable.
    With the news of today so fresh, and Mandy’s update the other night still in my