43. Emma

Past

From August to September 2009

The month of August ended and the first weeks of September consumed me in a pathetic spiral that led me to sleep everywhere, to cry like an idiot and to be listless. My father kept me locked up most of the time after that disastrous fight in which he proved that I was the worst of them all.

"Emma is punished until further notice, she has to spend time at home and not walk around like a street person," he snapped before slamming the door in my aunt's face.

It was hell and it opened up when days later my mother asked me for pads because theirs had run out. That set off alarm bells everywhere because for the first time I was aware that I was late for my period.

On a day when my parents went out, I checked the calendar and counted the weeks. I was a week late; a whole one I didn't think about while I was a mess in bed crying for Luc.

"It can't be, it can't be," I said to myself, curling up into a ball on the bed.

I thought about what the hell to do, thou