True Colours Read Online Free PDF

both worked and were very free and easy with their kids. Lisa and Frank, his brother and sister were older than him and both at work so their house was often empty during the day. Sometimes after school I’d go to his house and we’d play videos or listen to music but then things grew more serious between us and one day we got carried away and things went too far. It was just the once, but as they say – once is all it takes.
    I took it for granted that Pete would stand by me but when I told him I thought I might be pregnant, I was completely shattered when he refused to take it seriously.
    ‘You can’t be. It was only the once and everyone says it can’thappen the first time – unless….’ He looked at me in a way that turned my heart to ice.
    ‘Pete! You can’t think….’
    He shrugged defensively. ‘Well, how do I know? If you did it with me how do I know there haven’t been others?’
    I was speechless with hurt as I watched him walk away. After that he ignored me, refusing to speak to me, even when I followed him home and begged him. It was the most miserable time of my life. I didn’t know which way to turn. As the weeks went by I couldn’t face telling my parents so I took the line of least resistance, trying to convince myself that if I ignored it maybe it would simply go away.
    No one knew. Pete obviously hadn’t told anyone and I didn’t even confide in my best friends. I carried on at school and took my exams. To my relief nothing showed and by the time term ended and I was six months pregnant I was as slim as ever, but after that it gradually began to be noticeable. I made excuses not to go out, wore loose tops and stayed in my room a lot until eventually Mum’s suspicions were aroused and she came upstairs and asked me outright if I had anything to tell her. It was then that I blurted out the truth, relieved in a way to get it out in the open.
    My relief was short lived. Dad had to know of course and their reaction was even more awful than I’d anticipated. They sat in judgement on me, appalled that I could have behaved so immorally – let them down so badly after their careful upbringing, and they were furious when I refused to tell them who the father was. I wasn’t protecting Pete. I was afraid he might repeat his earlier accusations and that my parents might believe him. It was made all too clear to me that I was an ungrateful child and an enormous disgrace and disappointment. It was also made clear to me that there would be no question of keeping the baby. As soon as it was born it would go straight for adoption. At sixteen and still living under my adoptive parents’ roof I had no choice but to agree.
    ‘
Mum! Watch out, the chip pan is smoking
!’
    I spun round at Harry’s alarmed warning and pulled the pan off the heat, smiling reassuringly at him. ‘It’s OK. I was miles away. Tea will be about ten minutes so the three of you just have time to wash your hands.’

    Dad drove me down to Dorset soon after my shame was revealed. I was to stay with his sister, Aunt Mavis, until the baby was born. Mavis wasn’t my real aunt of course and it was clear from the start that she resented having me to stay. I helped as much as I could with the housework and shopping. She wasn’t exactly unkind but from time to time she spoke of how she had warned her brother and sister-in-law at the time not to take the risk of adopting. She would make snide remarks about ‘bad blood’, saying that adopted children were always ‘a gamble’ and an ‘unknown quantity’, reminding me of my obligations and how ungrateful I was to reward them in this way. Once she looked me up and down and shook her head. ‘Who’d have thought it?’ she muttered. ‘A dowdy little thing like you.’
    When I went into labour she drove me to the hospital and left me there. She picked me up when I was discharged and a week later I was on my way home, my baby girl no more than a fleeting memory of blonde hair as soft as