After getting all my stuff out of the cars, Jesse helped me get the spare room organized before leaving me to get settled. I was in the middle of putting up little knick knacks around the room when Charlie trotted in and hopped up on my bed.

"Oh yeah? Are you claiming that as yours now?" I said with a laugh as I walked over to the bed where Charlie lay wagging her tail.

I flopped down beside her and stroked her silky black fur. Charlie let out a huff, and started sniffing my stomach curiously.

"Looks like someone's comfortable," a voice said from the doorway.

I turned to see Asher leaning against the door frame with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, she seems really interested in my baby." I made a face as I said my baby. It still didn't feel real, even though I was having to wear sweatshirts to hide the baby bump.

Asher walked over and sat down next to me. He didn't say anything, just took my hand and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles.

Charlie paused in her investigation of my stomach, and gave a little woof, and looked at Asher in confusion, like she could smell something, but she couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

Asher snorted and rubbed Charlie's head. "You're just gonna have to wait and see what happens, girl."

Charlie let out another huff and looked away, like fine.

Asher smiled at his dog then turned to me.

"You good?"

"Yeah," I replied, meaning it this time. "My whole life, I've had to be careful around my dad. I never knew what would set him off. I was constantly walking on eggshells. You know what I mean?"

Asher nodded. "My mom dated several guys in the past, and most of them didn't like the fact that she already had a kid. They would always look for reasons to be mad at me. I think they were looking for women that didn't have anything that would prevent them from devoting one hundred percent of their attention to these guys. Finally, my mom had enough of how they were treating me. The last guy she dated was when I was in fifth grade. But when she would break up with these guys, they would be so mad that she was leaving them because of me, she would have to leave the city, sometimes even the state because they would find her and harass her."

"Oh my god," I whispered. Damn, Jesse really did have it hard. And knowing all of this made me respect her even more.

"Even though she was running from these men, she was still trying to protect me. Every time one of these guys would find us, I would just be settled in, and just starting to make new friends, and then we would have to pack up and leave. I didn't understand that these men wanted to hurt my mom for leaving them. I was just a little kid, and I was constantly mad at her for making me move when I was just getting comfortable. I had no idea the danger we were in."

I sat in silence as my mind reeled.

"As soon as I was old enough to understand, my mom told me what was going on, and why we were constantly moving," Asher continued, stroking Charlie's ears as she slept in between us. "When she told me, I couldn't believe what she had gone through because of me. But the thing that shocked me the most was that she was still so positive about everything. How she could still laugh at the little things, and still find the good in humanity." Asher stared at Charlie the whole time he spoke, only looking up at me occasionally.

"My mom was the same way," I said, surprising myself. I didn't talk about my mom to anyone. "Growing up on my grandparents farm was tough. They were very strict, and when my mom turned eighteen, she had enough. She packed up and moved to the city. She enrolled at UCLA to pursue a career in journalism, and that's where she met my dad. My mom was dragged to a party by one of her friends, and she happened to run into my dad there. They started talking, and within a few days they had started dating. Everyone thought they would fizzle out within a month, but they ended up getting married later that year, only eight months after they started dating."

I paused to calm my nerves. Asher sat silently, waiting for me to continue.

"When my mom got pregnant, they were both ecstatic. They couldn't wait to find out what gender the baby would be. But when they went in for the ultrasound to figure out what I would be, my dad was less than excited. He wanted a boy, but my mom was happy with whatever she got. As soon as they were done at the hospital, my dad drove straight to an abortion clinic, and tried to force my mom to get an abortion. My mom refused, and the nurses couldn't do anything about it. My gender put a strain on my parents' marriage. When I was born, my dad refused to have anything to do with me. He didn't even go to the hospital with my mom.

"My mom always tried to do her best to make my childhood the best it could be, but it was always overshadowed by my dad's resentment toward me. I would always see kids laughing and playing with their dads at the park, and I would wonder why my dad didn't want to play with me. Over the years, my parents tried to have another child. Well, my dad tried to. He would force my mom to have sex with him every single night for years, until it became evident that she couldn't have another child. After that, I became the object of my father's hatred. No matter what I did growing up, it was never enough to please him."

I paused as Charlie jumped in her sleep a little. Asher put his hand on her shoulder, and she calmed down with a small sigh, slipping into a deeper sleep.

"Then, when I was fifteen, I bugged my mom to take me to get a new phone. I had been saving up for one for about a year, and I finally had enough to purchase it. All my classmates had phones, and I didn't want to be the exception. So we hopped in her Nissan XTerra, and we went and bought the phone. On the way back..." My voice choked up. It was still painful to talk about her death. I still felt responsible.

"On the way back, my mom was sitting in the passenger seat. She insisted that I practice my driving, so that I would be ready for my Jeep when I turned 16. I was driving through an intersection when a drunk driver passed out at the wheel, and slammed into our car. My mom died instantly. The force of the impact sent our car flying across the intersection where it wrapped around a utility pole. Somehow I made it out alive. I spent about a week in the hospital, recovering from my injuries. When I got home, my dad told me that my mom had died in the crash."

I remembered the moment like it happened five minutes ago. When Devon dropped me off after picking me up at the hospital, I walked in the house, expecting to hear my mom calling out my name, asking if I was home. But I was met with silence. I walked, or hobbled I should say, through the house, looking for my mom. I never found her.

When my dad got home, he wasn't happy to see me.

"Oh, you're home?" was all he said. No, "Welcome home!" or "I'm glad you're doing better." But then again, what else did I expect? It wasn't like he hadn't cared about me for the past fifteen years.

"Where's Mom?" I remember asking him as he settled into his chair and turned on the TV.

"You don't know?" He side eyed me, and I could see he was enjoying this.

"No, where is she?" I repeated, a cold feeling of dread slowly trickling down my spine.

"She is not coming back," He said nonchalantly, grabbing a beer from the coffee table and taking a deep swig.

"What do you mean she's not coming back? Where'd she go?" It didn't occur to me that she had died in the crash.

"I mean, she's dead." My dad said flatly.

My head spun. I stumbled back, nearly losing my balance due to the crutches and my broken leg.

"Now that you're here, that means I don't have to make myself food," he said to himself. "Go make dinner," he said, glaring at me.

I was about to protest when he interrupted me.

"Go, before I make you." He growled.

I backed out of the room, shell shocked and confused. I never talked to my dad more than I had to, and I avoided any interactions with him. I always had to watch what I said around him, not knowing how he would react.

"After my mom died, it seemed like my dad had finally been freed from the restraints that kept him from openly 'punishing' me," I said, putting air quotes around the word punishing. "Every time I would get a low grade on a test or an assignment, he would punish me, most of the time hitting me with something. For the next year, I lived in fear of punishment."

"That's not punishment, that's physical abuse," Asher said, taking my hand and rubbing his thumb over my knuckles.

"I know, but i was too terrified to do anything about it. I didn't want to say anything in case my dad found out and beat me again. I was scared of what he would do to me."

Asher nodded, then motioned for me to continue.

"Finally, a teacher noticed. I had just come in with a black eye, and she asked how I got it. When I couldn't come up with a good excuse, she called my dad and asked if he knew I had injured myself. I think that call spooked him, and after that, he resorted to emotional abuse. He figured out what my weaknesses were and exploited them."

I shook my head ruefully. "When he found out I was pregnant, I was seriously scared for my life. I have never seen him so angry."

"Well, at least you don't have to deal with that anymore," Asher said softly. I nodded in agreement.

We sat in silence for a couple minutes, before Asher stood up to leave.

"I should go. You need sleep." He said, as he moved to the door.

"Yeah. I'll see you in the morning then," I replied as I stood up to find my pajamas.

Asher smiled at me before he walked out the door.

Once the door closed, I grabbed my bag with my overnight stuff, and pulled out my pajamas. I quickly changed and as I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I noticed how the top was getting a little snug around my stomach.

When I got back to my room, I pushed Charlie's butt so that I had space to actually lay down. She looked up at me indignantly, like why did you move me?

"My bed," I muttered as I pulled the covers over my body.

Charlie let out a huff and scooted herself closer to me, and promptly fell back asleep. I couldn't help but smile.

I lay awake for a while, my mind swirling. I thought about what Asher had told me, and how much Jesse had gone through. It made me appreciate how much support I had. Finally, I was able to drift off to sleep, and for the first time in years, I felt safe.