Brothers at War [#Wattys2017]

three

"You know, hiding from the world and ignoring Matt isn't going to solve anything." I should have known that someone was likely to follow me after I ran away from Matt, and I should have known that it would probably be Markus who followed me. "Your daughter—"

"You can say her name, Markus," I sighed.

"Callie is beautiful, and it looks like she's a very happy little girl." I looked down at the floor where Callie was playing with her Barbie and her favourite teddy, the one I bought for her when I found out that I was having a little girl, while she was babbling away to herself. "Do you ever plan on telling my brother that he is a father?"

"He told me he was infertile, Markus. He insisted that he couldn't have children, so I am sure you can imagine my surprise when I discovered I was three weeks pregnant with his baby."

Admittedly, when I had I had paid that visit to the doctor and they had confirmed that I was, indeed, pregnant, it was a shock. For a moment, and only for a moment, I considered getting an abortion because of how terrified I was.

I was barely twenty-one and was just out of University. I didn't think that I could raise a child alone, especially when I couldn't look after myself half the time, and there were occasions where I would forget to feed myself or where I simply wouldn't want to get out of bed; that wasn't a life I could bring a child into.

But, as soon as that moment passed, I knew that I could only do my best by my baby. I might have been young and I might have had no money, but I had enough to know that I would love my child and to know that they would never go without anything.

"Sophie—"

"He would never believe that Callie is his daughter, and I don't want to give her false hope." I found my gaze drifting back to my little girl, a grin on her face as she remained oblivious to the world around her and the turmoil which was going on inside her mother right now, and I found myself relieved that she was as innocent as she was. "Call me selfish, but Callie is my baby, and no one is going to take her away from me. Especially not your brother."

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When the night came, I found that, not only was I hungry because I had deliberately skipped dinner by telling my mother that I was unwell, but I also couldn't get to sleep.