Forbidden

Denial

The next few hours were stained with disappointment.

Disappointed wasn't even the word, do describe the emotions that ran through everyone in the sitting room. It has been quiet, ever since Isabelle broke the news of her pregnancy.

You could hear a pin drop silence.

Then finally. Her mum spoke.

"Are you sure you're pregnant, Isabelle?"

That was the least of all the questions she had expected.

"Did you go to a hospital?"
Her mum asked again. More fiercely this time.

"No" Isabelle's voice was barely a whisper. "I used a pregnancy kit-"

"Who is the father?"

"What?"

"Don't act like you didn't hear what I just said"
For the first time, Isabelle looked at her parents.

One look was enough, to see everything that they were feeling.

"Isabelle?"

She coughed.
"I don't know"

Her father's eyes were filled with rage.

"What do you mean by that?"

Sultan's words floated over her head now. The words of his denial. The way he had shook her and had made his point known. It wasn't that she wanted to keep him secret. She just wished she never had any contact with him in the first place.

"I do not know who he is"

Even Nadine was staring at her like she was crazy.

"You don't know the man that you voluntarily opened your legs for?" Her father yelled.

"Simeon" Her mother said softly.

Her father stared at her in unbelief. Before standing up, walking towards her and pointing his finger at her belly
"You will tell me who that boy is or I guarantee that you won't have rest, not with that thing in your belly, I promise you. "

She let go of Nadine's hand. Tears stung her eyes.

"What did we ever do to you? Isabelle. What?" Her mother started softly now.

"Were we bad parents? Did we hurt you in a way that would make you want to do this to us? We brought you up in the way of the Lord, and this is our reward? Pregnant at sixteen?"

Her father walked out, murmuring to himself.  Her mother followed.

Well, that didn't go well.
But it wasn't even supposed to.

"Who is the boy, Isabelle?" Nadine asked. Isabelle looked up at her. Nadine's eyes didn't carry what she was expecting. It didn't carry the burden of disappointment.

"I don't know where to start from. I... I was being pressured. All.... all my friends were doi..... were doing it" She stammered, heart beating fast and body shaking.

"That wasn't the question I asked" Nadine stood up.
"Bring the boy to us tomorrow, Isabelle"

With that also, she had walked away, leaving Isabelle to the emptiness of the living room.

******

Dear Diary,

I don't know where to start from. Or how to explain the depth of disappointment....

********

There would be no sleep for Isabelle tonight. After the meeting with her parents, she had paced round her room, and thought of ways to get Sultan to come with his parents, to this house. It was too much for her and she feels so full, so over with it.