I went back to the hotel I’d stayed at before that first night. I wasn’t sure what I would do, or where I would go, but I knew when I’d heard Aiden on the phone talking to that other woman and telling her what a failure I had been, that I couldn’t be there with him any longer. Some might say it was partially my own fault for not telling him right away that I was pregnant. That may be true, but the coldness he had shown, over and over was a fact. My own heart was at stake as well as the welfare of an innocent child. I had to be strong and do what I needed to do to protect us both. I wasn’t going to hand my child over to someone who drank away their problems. I’d lived with that for far too long and it would be horrible of me to knowingly subject my child to the same kind of life. I didn’t think that Aiden was an alcoholic, but if he continued to turn to alcohol to solve his problems then it was a strong possibility for the future.

Aiden hadn’t called me the first time I left, but he did call this time, after he sobered up and realized that I was gone. He called and text over and over again. I was afraid at first that the doctor had told him about the pregnancy, but as I listened to the messages, it was apparent that he didn’t know.