Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

larger tragedy.”
    “And deeply disappointed our father,” Cassie added. “He hasn’t been the same since that aborted pregnancy.”
    I shook my head. “I still don’t understand.”
    “In your subconscious mind, you’re having the baby who was lost and giving your father awonderful gift,” Dr. Samuels said. Cassie nodded when he looked at her again.
    “No,” I said. “I never—”
    “It’s like any mental aberration. You’re not in full control of it, but in time, you’ll get better,” Dr. Samuels said. He finally smiled. “There’s nothing really to do about this. No medicine to take. Some people go to a therapist, of course.”
    “We don’t need to do that,” Cassie said quickly. “We’ll handle this ourselves.”
    Dr. Samuels nodded.
    “I don’t do anything else?” I asked.
    He shook his head. “In time, you’ll begin to lose the symptoms. You’ll go back to being a normal teenage girl.” He patted my hand and closed his bag.
    “I’ll walk you out,” Cassie said. “Just wait here, Semantha,” she told me.
    I couldn’t move, anyway. I was as solid as a statue and just as cold.
    Cassie returned ten minutes later. She began to pace in front of me as she often did when she was doing some serious, deep thinking.
    “Okay,” she said, pausing and turning to me. “Here’s what we’ll do. If this continues and you do indeed grow larger, you’ll wear a girdle.”
    “A girdle?”
    “Yes. It’s something women used to wear often. It will hold you in so that Daddy especially will not notice anything.”
    “But maybe we should tell him, Cassie. He’ll be angry.”
    “I doubt it. He’d only find a way to blamehimself for something else. It’s enough that he thinks he can’t be a good father without Mother at his side. Your condition will only reinforce that guilt in him and make him even more unhappy, as hard as that is to imagine. When it’s all over, we’ll tell him, and he’ll be proud of you and me, proud that we handled a serious situation ourselves without troubling him.”
    “Maybe this will stop,” I said hopefully. Then I realized something else. “What about school, Cassie?”
    “What about it?”
    “We’ve got to arrange for my attending a new school after the summer.”
    “Not while you’re in this condition.”
    “But … if I don’t get better, Daddy will wonder why I’m not going. We’ve got to tell him about this.”
    “No!” she shouted. She immediately calmed. “I mean, we’ll hold off as long as possible, especially while he’s under such pressure.”
    “What will we say?”
    “We’ll say you decided you wanted to continue home-schooling. I’ll tell him we visited some schools and none was very attractive to you or to me, for that matter. Don’t worry. I can convince him as long as you tell him the same thing.”
    “But … I want to go to school.”
    “You will, as soon as this is over.”
    “How do we get it to be over?”
    “I spoke with Dr. Samuels a little more about it when I escorted him out. He suggests a little tough love.”
    “What’s that mean?”

    “You already know what that means. I explained it when we had the problems with Mother.”
    “But how does that apply to me now?”
    “It means don’t expect me to be sympathetic to your aches and pains and complaints, Semantha. I’m not going to stay home and babysit you, either. However, you are not to leave the house now. Our little trips are ended until this situation changes. I don’t want the grounds workers seeing you, either, just in case you forget to wear your girdle or something. Understand?”
    “I’ll be like a prisoner.”
    “You’re a prisoner of your own condition.”
    “But I don’t feel that way. I don’t want to have any baby, for Daddy or anyone. I’m not doing this to myself!” I cried.
    “Yes, you are!” she screamed back at me. She looked angrier than I could ever remember. “You’re doing this for the Heavenstones.”
    I was speechless at her rage and also confused. She made it sound as if she were angry and approving simultaneously. I shook my head.
    “Just do what I said,” she added in a calmer tone. She could turn her moods on and off like a hot and cold faucet. “I’ve got to go to the office. Watch yourself,” she warned. “Remember. Don’t embarrass the family.”
    I remained in my room for almost an hour after she left. Her words had made me tremble, and the trembling didn’t want to subside. I was still in