Chapter 4: Yet another obstacle.
"I really wish you'd consider adoption, Cornelia." Mrs. Hale said quietly as she washed the dinner dishes. "I think you'd prefer that once you understood that this child won't let your life stay the same."
Cornelia, doing her homework, looked up at her mother. "Mother, we've had this discussion a million times now." She said impatiently as she put down the pencil. "I don't want to give her up for adoption, and I don't want to even talk about that now!" She flicked her mane of golden hair over her shoulder and looked up at her mother with the expression of someone stressing over a subject that should be closed.
"Cornelia, I really think you should listen to me." Mrs. Hale insisted. "Does the father of the baby even know?" Her daughter was silent, and the woman put down the towel and turned to face her daughter. "Cornelia, does he know?" She repeated.
"No." Cornelia blurted. "I...I...we broke up, okay?" She put her head down in her hands and began to cry. "We broke up about 4 months ago, and he's dating a girl. He doesn't know--he doesn't need to know!"
Mrs. Hale sat down across from Cornelia. "Alright, here's what we need to do." She said after a moment. "You're going to look at apartments and try to get some papers to be homeschooled. We need to get you some maternity clothes, too. And then we'll see if we can't move to a new city and--"
"Hide the baby?" Cornelia said sharply. She stood up and shook her head. "No! I refuse to hide this child now." She shouted. With angry gestures, she jerked her jacket (which could no longer close over her belly) on and took off running down the road to the Silver Dragon.
Meanwhile...
Will shoved her hand under Hay Lin's face. "Look!" She said eagerly. "Look at this!" On her left ring finger a pretty ring glittered looking for all the world like a small metal flower on Will's finger.
Hay Lin stared down at it. "Very pretty." She agreed quietly. "So he agreed then?" She added after a moment or so of thinking over the events.
"Of course he did." Will said primly. "He's getting an apartment here and everything. After all, he does claim responsiblity for it." She flipped her red hair over her shoulder and began to laugh to herself. "I have to tell the rest of the Guardians tomorrow."
Cornelia dashed in and looked around eagerly, but by a freakish air current she could hear what they said.
"Can you believe that soon you'll be a mommy?" Hay Lin squealed. She stared at Will's stomach as though she could see the child forming in it. "I sure can't."
Will laughed. "Caleb's ecstatic." She admitted. "He said that he always wanted to be a daddy and this is giving him a perfect chance to be one. Of course, he gave me the promise ring too, and we're having a civil ceremony in a few weeks, but even he says that he probably never would have committed to any one if it hadn't been for the little one!"
Cornelia's eyes welled up for a moment. Oh my gosh...if I had just told him that we were having a baby he would have supported me! And now he can't ever because he's going to get married! She thought wildly. Tear began to roll down her cheeks. And Will's having a baby too! Now what? Will Caleb father every Guardian's child! She took off running out of the Silver Dragon and put her head in her hands, crying bitterly.
Finally she looked up at the sky. "Somehow, I'll survive this." She told the sky. "Somehow I'll tell him and Will before everyone knows...and somehow I'll raise this child." She began to cry again. "Caleb doesn't love me now. He can't. He loves Will." Then she spoke the awful, lonely truth, the knowledge she had held in her heart for so long but had never dared to speak aloud. "But he never loved me anyway."