A life was at stake. Layla didn't wait for him to finish. She was already turning back into the yard, wheeling out the family bicycle. She told me to stay and watch over the younger ones; she'd be back as soon as she could.
I sat in the courtyard until the sky turned pale. I made breakfast for my siblings. Only then did Layla come home.
Blood had smeared across her clothes, soaking her white top red.
"Here, wash up."
I brought her a basin of water and told her to change so I could scrub the clothes.
"No point. This one's done for."
She drank some water, then sat me down beside her.
"Listen to me." Her expression was dead serious, her eyes fixed on my face. "If you ever end up pregnant before you're married—no matter who the man is—you absolutely cannot just buy pills and try to deal with it on your own. You tell me. I'll take you to a clinic."
I pulled free of her grip, stunned. "What are you saying? I'm still a virgin. Why would you suddenly—"
No. It wasn't sudden at all.
Nathaniel's panic. Vivian's unstoppable bleeding. Layla's warning. The pieces locked together in my head and formed one truth.
Vivian was pregnant. And the baby was Nathaniel's.