Slice by William Patterson Page B

told him that the test had shown that she was indeed pregnant. Todd vowed to stick by her. He broke up with Jessie, though until he and Monica could decide what to do, he didn’t give her the full reason. He just said he wanted to be with Monica.
    Jessie, of course, was devastated. Monica even found herself feeling a little bad for her sister. But not too much.
    Meanwhile, Monica and Todd discussed their options. An abortion? Monica wasn’t sure she could go through with it. Todd, who’d been brought up Catholic, said he thought it would be murdering his child. Giving the baby up for adoption? Then they’d still have to deal with the scandal, while losing their child forever. How convincingly Monica had cried in Todd’s arms. How tenderly he had consoled her. And in the course of it, they’d fallen deeply in love.
    Or at least, Monica liked to believe that they had.
    Most of the time, she had no trouble believing that Todd loved her. But occasionally those pesky little doubts crept up in her mind. She’d gotten quite proficient at shooing them away.
    She knew that Todd’s feelings for Jessie had been strong. Although he’d vowed to stay by Monica’s side, Todd kept hoping Jessie would forgive him, and Monica feared they’d get back together. So she had quickly lied again, telling Todd that she’d already broken the news to Jessie and that Jessie had insisted they stay together for the sake of the baby. The only request Jessie had made—or so Monica had lied—was that Todd never, ever bring up the subject with her. It would break her heart all over again—or so Monica insisted Jessie had told her. So Todd reluctantly agreed never to bring up the issue with Jessie. After that, the two of them pretty much ceased all communication, and Monica breathed a sigh of relief.
    Then, just at the moment when Monica should have started showing her pregnancy—the moment she and Todd planned to break the news to their families—Monica suddenly had a “miscarriage.” At least, that was what she informed Todd. It generated a new round of tears and intense emotion, further bonding him to her. With Jessie avoiding him and Todd afraid to approach her, there was no chance of a reconciliation. Monica had won. Todd was hers.
    Many times during the ensuing years Todd had commented on the fact that Monica had gotten pregnant so easily when she was sixteen years old, on their very first try. But after that, every time they would try for real, her body failed to respond. Todd wondered if the “miscarriage” had left her unable to conceive. Doctors thought that unlikely. And all the while, Monica stayed mum about the deception that had brought them together, sometimes even swearing her doctors to silence when they discovered there had never, in fact, been a pregnancy all those years ago.
    Yes, indeed, if she believed in karma, Monica might have reckoned that her teenage treachery against Todd and Jessie was catching up with her. But she didn’t believe in karma. And she hadn’t given up hope that one day she’d truly be pregnant with Todd’s child.
    If only he still wanted to make love to her . . .
    â€œMonica!”
    She was startled out of her reverie from a voice, coming from outside.
    It was Jessie.
    â€œWhat the fuck?” Monica said, swinging her legs out of bed. “What is Jessie doing outside?”
    She flew to the window, looking down into the dark. Jessie stood below on the grass, wrapped in a white terrycloth robe, looking up toward her sister’s bedroom.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Monica called down.
    â€œDid you hear anything? Something that sounded like a scream?”
    Monica hesitated. “Actually I did,” she admitted. “A little while ago.”
    â€œYeah, Abby heard it, too. And Inga isn’t home.”
    â€œWhere is she?”
    â€œShe went over to John Manning’s house to get some