Chapter One-Two-Four: Badly

"What?"

I ask, thinking- no, hoping that he meant to say something else.

"I'm saying, let's get rid of it."

"Are you...are you serious, Matteo?"

I ask as I pull away from him, but his arms pull me right back into him as if I were not allowed to put distance between us.

"I am. Olivia, I don't want you to die. I don’t want your life to be at risk because-"

"I won't- I won't die, okay? We can monitor this. That's what prenatal care is for, and plus, I had twins for my first birth; that’s traumatic for the body, okay? Maybe I needed extra care that I didn’t have time to focus on because of the things going on around me; I don’t know. But hopefully, this time, it's just one child and-"

"Olivia-"

He interrupts while shaking his head as if he didn’t even want to consider what I was saying.

"Matteo.”

I speak before him.

“If I can't go through with the abortion because of my own internal motivations, you can't make me.”

I say firmly, making sure he understands what I mean.

“I stared at those p