Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(79)

“That far along?” She wanted to be sure she understood right.

“I’d estimate about seven months along, and it’s remarkable how little you’re showing.” He gave her a disapproving stare that mirrored the nurse’s. “So I believe that you truly might not have known. However, you’ve been too careless for a more palatable solution to your problem. There are places you can go to finish the pregnancy and no one will ever know. You should do that.”

The use of the word “careless” so soon after she’d been thinking it herself stung.

“No,” Terry said. “I’m not giving her up.”

“We don’t know the sex of the baby. You’re just developing an irrational attachment. Hormones will do that.”

God, was this where Stacey got the “pregnancy hormones” refrain?

He went on, as if to impress his wisdom upon her. “You’ve made an error in judgment, and it’s better for everyone if you let this baby go to a home where two loving parents can care for it.”

Terry wasn’t entertaining suggestions on what she should do with her baby from this guy, but she could see she’d get nowhere if she argued. She needed actual information. “Tell me what I should know, about the rest of the pregnancy. Can you tell if sh—the baby—is healthy?”

“Everything seems normal.” The doctor steepled his fingers and peered down his nose at her. His eyebrows were like untidy bushes. “I can recommend someone for you to see, but talk to your family. They’ll tell you the same thing as me.”

When Terry glared at him, he continued. “You’ll need to increase your caloric intake—the baby should start to take on more weight and so should you. You may need to urinate more frequently. And you’ll want to leave school…”

“The semester’s over next week.” Thank god. She might get out of this without the school discovering and kicking her out for a morality infraction.

Decent girls didn’t get pregnant while they were unmarried. But it was almost comical how far shame was from Terry’s concerns. She didn’t care about that at all. She was too fixated on the monster who’d pumped her full of chemicals, and what his goal had been. If he thought her baby was the next generation of anything to do with him, he was beyond mistaken.

She almost asked the doctor for confidentiality, unable to trust that Brenner wouldn’t find out about this appointment. Except…

Seven months. Seven. Months. Brenner must have known…for how long? And he’d continued to bring her there. He hadn’t told her on purpose, just like Alice said. So he could keep dosing her.

No, shame could wait, maybe forever. Her current main concern boiled down to one word: escape.

There had to be a way to get out of this situation without anyone getting hurt. But first? She needed to get word to Andrew that they were having a baby.

“I’ll see myself out,” she said.





2.


The dorm lobby must rival Grand Central—Terry couldn’t be sure, since she’d never been there. But this was how she pictured it from movies she’d seen, everyone speeding along double-time because they had places to go. Finals were only a week away. This was a frenetic season of trying to cram in all the facts to make it through tests and papers and enough fun to cover a summer spent back home.

She had to wait for the phone, of course. Four people were in line ahead of her. She pulled out her book, but skimmed the lines without taking in much of it. The orcs still had Sam and Frodo. Eventually she gave up trying.

Calling Andrew’s mom was the best she could do for now. The hope was that Mrs. Rich could arrange for him to phone the dorm at a certain time. Terry had already rehearsed her line to him: So, how would you feel about forgetting this officially-not-together thing and getting engaged instead? Because we’re having a baby this summer…

When it was her turn, she dialed the number from memory and shifted from foot to foot while the phone rang. She almost gave up before Mrs. Rich answered. Another sniffle into the phone, like the other day.

Terry barreled ahead. “Mrs. Rich? It’s Terry. Ives. I really need to talk to Andrew as soon as I can. Could you ask him to tell you a time he can call the dorm, and I’ll make sure I’m standing by?”

“I’m afraid…I’m afraid…” The phone dropped to the floor. Seconds later, a male voice came on. Andrew’s dad. “Who is this?”

“It’s Terry, Andrew’s girlfriend. I was hoping to get a message to him.”

“I’m sorry, Terry. I’m sorry to have to tell you…”

Terry barely heard the rest.





3.


Ken was in his room studying for a physics exam when the feeling came to him. A cold, dark certainty. A light dimming, then extinguishing. An overwhelming sense of loss in his world.

He had asked for this answer, time and again, and now that it was here he didn’t want it.

But in every fiber of his being he knew it as truth: Andrew was gone.





4.


Alice knocked on Terry’s dorm room door. She never felt entirely comfortable on the campus. At first she’d wanted to poke in every corner—and elevator—and determine how it was all put together, this world that had always felt so close and yet so secret. Now she knew people from this world, and it seemed both more and less like her own.