AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another short chapter, but okay. Read and enjoy.

Chapter 6

Cal sat on a chair in the middle of the hallway, his mind in a cloud. He closed his eyes, which were heavy from lack of sleep. When he felt himself falling asleep, he opened his eyes again and reached for the glass of water near his chair. The glass tipped over and water spilled on the floor. He sat back, sighing in frustration.

It had been a week since Rose told Cal about her pregnancy, and he was still in shock. He was praying for it to be untrue; Rose wasn't completely sure. But this morning, the doctor came over and confirmed it; Rose was four months pregnant.

All he could think of was "I'm not the father." He couldn't possibly be the father. They never slept together. Ever. And Rose had an affair with Jack.

Rose was wrong; Cal didn't hate her at all. He pitied her. He hated Jack. Jack. The name itself was enough to make Cal pull at his hair. From Cal's point of view, Jack took advantage of an innocent girl. And to make it worse, that bum left her depressed and alone with his child. In a small way, it was Cal's fault. He should have stopped it. He wasn't fast enough. And now, Rose was hurt.

He didn't hate Rose. But he was mad at her. How could he trust her? If a woman couldn't stay faithful to her fiancé, what were the chances she would stay faithful to her husband? This had to be the worst thing a woman could do to her husband.

He thought about Rose last night, when she told him she was pregnant. He was so shocked, that he didn't say anything. Rose told him she was sorry. But he didn't listen. He just told her to sleep as he walked out of the bedroom. He spent the rest of the night in the hallway, where he fell asleep on the chair.

Now, here he was in the same chair in the hallway, thinking. What was he going to do with that child of hers? Cal just couldn't think of keeping that child. He couldn't, just couldn't, spend the rest of his life, knowing that he fathered a child that wasn't his. Especially one that came about from adultery. That was just asking too much.

There was a solution to the problem, or at least he thought it could be. There was abortion. He heard about people doing it, killing the unborn child. People in poorer areas did it, people who didn't have the time or money to feed another mouth. It did seem like a good idea at first.

Yes, it seemed like a good idea at first. But there were some problems with the idea. There was his reputation. What if someone found out he had aborted his child? They would ask questions, and questions had to be answered, and the most important thing was to keep the answer from coming out.

And then Rose. Not all abortions were successful. Not all people who performed abortions were professional doctors. Some women were known to bleed to death from abortions, if it was done the wrong way. And Cal wouldn't be able to live with letting Rose die like that. And besides, would Rose be willing to let go of the child? She never said anything about giving up the child. Of course she wanted the child.

Cal considered all of these things. He wasn't sure what to do exactly, so he sat there in the hallway for the rest of the afternoon, thinking of which way to go.

Rose spent her afternoon in the usual place, locked in the bedroom. But instead of mourning and crying, she was worrying. The future of her child was at stake. She wasn't sorry at all for sleeping with Jack. She was, however, sorry for getting pregnant alone and having Cal find out. And now, something might happen to her child. She didn't want to lose it, but she had a feeling Cal wouldn't let her keep it, knowing where it came from.

She knew Cal was angry about it. He rarely spoke to her now. He didn't ask questions. He didn't do anything. Or anything Rose didn't know of. He could have already sent for someone to take away her child.

The door opened. She sat up in her bed as Cal walked into the room. Instead of closing the door this time, he kept it opened.

He swallowed hard. "Rose, come downstairs and eat something. That child is probably starving. If you want that baby to be born healthy, you'll have to eat."

As Rose got up, she stopped and looked at Cal. What did he say?

"Cal . . . will I . . . will you . . . "

He sighed. "I thought about it. You'll have to keep the child. But if I let you, you have to eat, and be active, and try to be healthy for the sake of the child. Understand?"

Rose nodded. Anything for my baby, she thought.

"Good." He came closer to her. "And another thing: the child is mine. Don't let anyone think otherwise."

She nodded silently.

It was August and Rose was five months pregnant, and Cal finally told everyone about the expecting child. For that entire month, all of their friends, and family members came over to the Hockley house to congratulate the couple on the expecting baby.

The Kingswoods and Ruth came to the house on the same day. Mr. and Ms. Kingswood told them congratulations, and all that sort of thing. Their daughter, Leila, however, said nothing. She kept her distance from everyone, and Rose would sometimes catch Leila glaring at her, and then turn away. There was one point when Leila stalked away before anyone could notice.

Leila felt a little hurt about all this. It was bad enough Cal married that Rose, and now his child was growing inside of her. She wanted desperately to carry his child instead.

She was now walking down the hallway leading to the kitchen. She stopped when she heard something. It sounded like Cal's deep, charming voice. She listened to it more.

And then, she listened more, and heard something else: crying.

She came closer and closer to the room the sounds were coming from and then looked through the crack in the door. There in the room, she could see Cal standing up against the table. And Ruth, Rose's mother, was sitting in a chair crying silently. She listened to the conversation . . .

"Cal," said Ruth through her tears. "I think I know better. The Titanic, I know what happened. Tell me the truth–is it . . . "

"No, no it's not," replied Cal, quietly. "We never did."

Ruth shook her head as tears fell from her eyes. "I knew this would happen. We should have stopped it sooner."

"Listen," said Cal. "This isn't a good time to talk about it but I'll tell you this . . . we can't let anyone know the truth about that child. For our sake. And the child's."

"Of course we can't!" exclaimed Ruth. "We can't let them know. And make sure Rose understands that. "

"She knows . . . "

At that moment, Leila walked away slowly and quietly from the door, suddenly afraid she would get caught eavesdropping. But she was full of curiosity. Something was wrong. But what? What didn't they do? What happened on the Titanic? And what about the baby Rose was carrying? What was wrong with it that they didn't want anyone knowing about? All of those mysterious questions, were swirling in her head.

And Leila was determined to find out the answers.