The fatherhood mandate, p.4
The Fatherhood Mandate, page 4
Sam blinked. “Do you think that they can just give it to someone without seeing Rylee?”
“Maybe,” Josh told him. “There’s only one way to find out. Have someone other than you or Rylee give them a call. That way, they can’t directly trace it to you.”
“That might work,” Sam said, turning the idea over in his head. Could it really be this easy?
“Don’t take too long, though,” his brother told him. “According to what I’m seeing online, the pill only works early on. The cool thing is that it doesn’t show up in any blood work they do. That makes it untraceable.”
“Lemme talk it over with Rylee,” Sam replied. “I’m sure she wants out of this as much as I do!”
“Sounds like a plan,” Josh said. “Now, can you try to stay out of trouble until I move back home, dumbass?”
Sam snorted. “Whatever, dude. I gotta go.”
“Hang in there, Sam,” Josh told him. “I know that Wendy will do everything she can to make you as miserable as possible. But things will sort themselves out. They always do.”
They said their goodbyes, and that left Sam with a burning question: could it be this easy?
The rest of the day went by in a blur. The student portal didn’t help, and it took multiple calls to the Registrar’s office to get a live person. They were overrun with last-minute requests that could have been handled online, or so he was continually reminded.
Unfortunately, there were very few courses available for remote learning and none of them would apply to his major. However, he was able to confirm that his German Literature and Uncertainty Analysis classes were available for him to take via remote learning this quarter. His choice was to either drop down to part-time status or take a few filler courses that didn’t count toward his degree.
He thought about it for a moment, grabbing a chewable antacid from his desk drawer. Did he really want to risk his GPA on some random online classes that didn’t really count toward his major? Nope. Part-time it was.
He sent Professor Carr an email to advise him about the reduction in his course load and to request that his study plan be updated for departmental approval. Then, he left a message for Coach Swan. Obviously, his tennis scholarship was toast. But, if this didn’t last more than a few months, maybe there was a way to regain his spot on the team.
Maybe.
That left one last call to make. Sam sat down at his desk, staring out the window as he waited for the antacid to kick in. Probably better to just get it over with.
AJ picked up on the first ring. “Hey, man!”
“Hey, AJ,” Sam said. He could hear the uncertainty in his own voice. "You gotta minute?”
“Sure, man,” AJ said. “What’s up?”
Sam paused for a moment and considered his words very carefully. “Something’s come up and I have to switch to remote learning for a while,” Sam told him, trying hard to sound like it was no big deal.
AJ wasn’t having it. “Dude! What the hell?” he snarled.
“I know,” Sam said as calmly as he could. He couldn’t afford to lose friends over this. “I’ve got a situation right now and I probably won’t be able to leave the state for a while.”
“So, what about rent?” AJ demanded. “This isn’t going to work without you!”
“I know,” Sam thought fast. “I can list it as a sublet, maybe?”
“This close to the start of the quarter?” AJ was pissed, no doubt about it. “You signed a lease with us, remember?”
“If I could get out of this, I would!” Sam told him, pressing one hand against his forehead. “There’s this stupid court order that keeps me from leaving the state. I’m appealing, but I’m pretty sure they’re not going to let me go.”
AJ snorted. “What’d you do, murder someone?”
“Nah, man,” Sam said with a sigh. “I hooked up with Rylee again, and . . . she’s pregnant.”
“Rylee, huh?” AJ said with a bitter laugh. “So, what if she’s pregnant? Can’t leave the state because it’s a shotgun wedding? Her daddy all pissed at you?”
“No.” Sam felt his gut clench as more acid flooded his stomach, overriding the pill he’d just taken. “Apparently, a new law went into effect. We had to appear before a judge, and I’m not allowed to leave the state until after the kid is born.”
“That’s insane,” AJ retorted. “Do you even want to have a kid?”
“No!”
“So, what’s the problem?” AJ demanded.
“I can’t leave the state. The judge told me that I’m a flight risk,” Sam told him. “I really don’t understand what she means by that. I mean, Northwestern is just two hours south of here!”
“All because some bitch got pregnant,” AJ said. He sounded resigned.
“Yup,” Sam confirmed.
“What the hell, man!” Sam could hear the outrage in AJ’s voice.
“I know! I don’t even want to be a dad or be with Rylee anymore.” Sam slouched down in his chair. “I have no idea what I’m going to do.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Sam,” AJ admitted. “I take it that abortion is out? She doesn’t want one?”
“That’s the thing. Abortion is illegal in Wisconsin,” Sam reminded him.
“So, have her do a quick televisit and pick up some pills down here! Abortion is still legal in Illinois,” AJ told him. “Hell, they even have that medical spa right over the border for women who are at high risk and might need an abortion if the baby dies before they’re born. Problem solved.”
“It’s not that simple,” Sam confessed. “She’s not allowed to leave the state, either.” He didn’t want to go into too many details. Just the idea that Rylee’s embryo was a ward of the state gave him the willies.
It was AJ’s turn to pause. “Huh,” he finally said. “I’m glad that I live in Illinois.”
“Yeah . . . ” Sam breathed. “Lucky you!” He paused for a moment and sighed. “Look, I’ll reach out to the landlord and find out if they’ll accept something from the Court that lets me out of the lease. If not, I’ll find some way to get you the money until we find someone to move in.”
“Maybe we should wait a few weeks,” AJ suggested. “I mean, what if you win your appeal? You’ve already paid the rent for September.”
Sam snorted. “I had to downgrade to part-time this quarter,” he told him. “If I’m able to return to campus next quarter, I’m pretty sure that I can grab some on-campus housing.”
“Okay,” AJ groused. “Just lemme know.”
“Will do.” Sam hung up the phone and grabbed a sticky note off his desk. He scrawled a reminder and stuck it to the board on his wall. Just another thing to keep track of!
Dinner that night had been a disaster. Wendy had spent the entire time ripping the governor apart for lying about how the new law actually worked and yelling at Sam for having gotten her into such a horrible situation.
He fled the table as soon as he could. He wandered around the house for a while, then settled down in the game room. He snagged his XR goggles from the entertainment center and sat down on the couch. It was early enough that a few of his friends should be online. Maybe a game of Intergalactic Rogue would help settle his stomach.
What if Mom’s right? Sam thought as he waited for the system to log him in. What if it was someone else’s embryo and, therefore, someone else’s problem?
No one was online. Sam briefly considered flipping to solo mode, but the game was so much better when you played in a group. He shut his goggles down, put them back on the charger, and grabbed his shoes. Maybe a good run was what he needed. Anything to get out of the house for a while.
As he ducked out the back door, he could hear his mom on the phone with yet another relative, fake crying about how her life was ruined. That she was too young to be a grandmother. That, somehow, Rylee had trapped poor Sam in an awful relationship and there was no way to get him out thanks to the Governor! First, the legislature let that ridiculous law from when Wisconsin first became a state stand as is. Then, they put laws in place, forcing boys like Sam to choose between fatherhood and his future! How dare they ruin her life! What will her prayer group say when this gets out?
It was just too much. Not everything revolves around you, Wendy, Sam bitterly thought as he popped his ear buds in. He paused long enough to pull up a random playlist before sliding his cell phone into his arm sleeve. Finally. Time to pound pavement.
He tried to settle into his pace, but he couldn’t seem to focus. Obviously, people were making too big a deal about all of this. Sure, they’d had sex. And, okay, some of it had been wild, but so what? Why was he stuck raising some kid with her?
Sam increased his speed, heels slamming into the road. He was so screwed. Even if his attorney won the appeal and Sam could eventually return to campus, this quarter was a wash. Sure, if he was able to continue paying rent, he might still be able to move into the condo eventually, but then what? Take an extra class for a few quarters or try to squeeze something into the summer instead of his internship? Delay graduation?
His phone buzzed against his right bicep. “Rylee,” his earbuds announced. Of course, it was. He slowed to a walk. For a split second, he considered pushing it to voicemail, but it was probably better to just get this over with. He touched his right earbud to answer the call. “Yeah?”
She sniffed. “Is now a good time?” she asked.
Sam gave his head a small shake as he bent over, sucking in air. Interesting. The Rylee he knew lived by one simple rule: never ask for permission.
“Sure,” he panted. “What’s up?”
“I’ve been going through the program information online and there’s a lot of things that will need to be scheduled,” she told him. She sounded like she was about to burst into tears again. “I created a calendar to help us keep track of this. I can share it with you, if you’d like,” she told him.
“What’s on the list?” he asked, staring at the pavement as he worked to catch his breath.
“We need to meet with a program social worker,” she told him. “And sign up for the parenting classes. I mean, most of them are online and only take a few hours, but it looks like the in-person classes can be combined in a single day for each trimester or broken up into four-hour classes. We need to get these locked in so that we can plan other things around them.”
“Like my regular classes?” he asked sarcastically.
“That, and medical appointments,” she responded, completely skipping over how important his classes were. But, before he could call her on it, she added, “I made my first appointment with the doctor.”
“Oh.” He backed up until he found the curb and sat down. “When is it?” he asked, curious.
“September 12th,” she said. Sam bit back a curse. Just a week before classes started. “It’s the earliest I could get in. The nurse said there’s a lot of paperwork that we’ll have to complete online before we go. Because of the courts, you know.”
Sam sighed. He looked down the street. “What kind of paperwork?”
“I don’t know. She was kinda vague on the phone. Probably medical information from both of us. I know that I’ll need to have blood work done and probably another ultrasound.”
“Geez,” Sam said. “How much do they need to do to make sure you’re really pregnant?”
Rylee burst into tears. “I don’t know, Sam!” she sobbed. “I’m just not ready for this!”
“Calm down,” he told her, irritated. Neither am I. “Look, I’ve been thinking. Maybe we can have someone pop over the border and pick up some of those pills that the judge was talking about?”
There was a long pause. “I don’t know, Sam,” Rylee finally replied, sniffling. She sounded scared. “My lawyer told me that if I have a miscarriage that we could face premeditated murder charges.”
Premeditated murder? “But it’s just a cluster of cells that can’t even look human at this point. How could they charge us with murder?” Sam fumed. Why was Rylee making a big deal about this?
“You heard the judge,” she wailed. The sound almost overloaded his earbuds. He partially pulled them out to try to minimize the noise. “She said that if I miscarry, there would be a criminal investigation. I even have a list of stuff I’m not allowed to take without supervision. Like herbs that I’ve never even heard of and even stuff like acetaminophen!”
“That’s insane!” Sam exclaimed. “What if you have a headache?”
“I know!” Rylee whimpered. “I can’t believe this is really happening!” She started hyperventilating through her tears.
Sam dug his fingers into his forehead. She was overreacting, just like the time when the drive team lost contact with Invictus in the semi-finals for robotics. “Rylee, it’s going to be okay,” he finally told her. “See if you can get a friend of yours to call one of those clinics just over the border. Maybe all they need is for someone to drop off something from the doctor, confirming that you’re pregnant.”
“That won’t work, Sam,” she whimpered. “They’re watching our every move. Maybe even listening to our phone calls.”
“The pills won’t show up in your bloodwork, so there’s no way that they can charge us with something if we’re careful,” he told her, trying hard to sound reassuring.
Rylee sniffed, then pulled the phone away to blow her nose. “I’m not taking any more pills, Sam,” she said. “I gotta go. My mom’s calling me.”
“Okay,” Sam said. Dammit. He rubbed a fist against his forehead. “Talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
Chapter Five
“And there’s the baby,” the technician said, moving the wand along Rylee’s stomach. Sam leaned forward, looking at the screen intently. “That’s the gestational sac and if you look closely, there’s where the baby is! Nine weeks strong.” She sounded so cheerful. It was depressing.
Rylee took a deep breath. “It’s so tiny,” she whispered, looking a bit awestruck.
Tiny? Sam thought. It looked like a smear on the screen. Definitely not a baby.
The image moved on the screen and the smear enlarged to look like a tongue sticking out at them. Figures.
“If you look over here, you can see the heartbeat,” the tech said. Sam could barely see something that looked like two tiny threads rapidly flickering on and off, like the filaments of an old-fashioned light bulb. “Your baby is 22 millimeters now.”
Sam pulled out his phone and converted millimeters into inches. Almost 7/8 of an inch. That blob had ruined his life.
The technician pulled the wand away and handed Rylee a wet cloth to clean her belly. Then, she cleaned up the wand and put it next to the monitor. “Be right back,” she said.
Rylee sat up and pulled the sheet higher on her lap. She looked at Sam, then placed a protective hand on her belly. “It just doesn’t seem real,” she said.
Before Sam could reply, there was a knock on the door, followed by the doctor and technician entering the room.
“I’m Dr. Zastrow,” the man said, moving to sit at the desk. The technician closed the door behind her but stood next to it, almost as if she was blocking their exit. “I understand that you were referred to us by Milwaukee County Children’s Court?”
Rylee nodded. “That’s right, but my sister recommended you because you really helped her after she finally got pregnant with her last IVF.”
“I see,” the doctor said, a slight frown ruffling his eyebrows. “You would be our first court referral, Rylee,” he said. “Looks like there’s a lot of paperwork.” He looked at Sam and raised one eyebrow, perplexed.
Sam nodded. What was there to say? Sorry that they’d had sex, and the state was piling on the paperwork?
The doctor cleared his throat and looked down. “Normally, we’d offer to walk you through the services that our center has to offer, including a birthing doula, wellness and nutritional classes, a birthing class, as well as prenatal and postnatal exercise classes to help you prepare for your child’s birth and aftercare.” He stopped to clear his throat again. “It looks like some of this will be covered by the mandatory parent training classes. I can give you our package information, but I’m not sure how much overlap there will be or how much your BadgerCare insurance will cover.”
It was Rylee’s turn to frown. “But I don’t need BadgerCare,” she told him. “I’m on my parents’ insurance.”
Dr. Zastrow shook his head. “The paperwork refers to BadgerCare, but you should be able to keep your regular insurance as a secondary insurance.”
“I was hoping to get a doula. Chloe really liked hers,” Rylee told him. Sam knew that sad pout. That doctor didn’t stand a chance.
“Well . . . ” the doctor said, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Why don’t you talk with your caseworker to find out what is and is not covered,” he finally told her. “We can always move the doula to your secondary insurance, or you can pay for it out-of-pocket, if you’d prefer. Going forward, I’ll need to see you every four weeks until you’re in your thirty-second week, so please get those scheduled before you leave.”
He looked at Sam, then back to Rylee. “Do you have any questions or concerns to discuss today?”
Sam shook his head and looked at the tech standing next to the door. She took a hint and moved aside.
“Okay then,” the doctor said. He stood up and handed Rylee a folder. “Please let the nurse know if you have any questions. See you in four weeks.”
And, with that, they were gone.
Sam looked at Rylee. “Now, what?” he asked.
“That’s easy,” Rylee answered, her face relaxing into a soft smile. “Let’s go shopping!”
As he eased his car onto I-43, Rylee insisted that now was the time for her to look at maternity clothes. “Winter stuff has been out for weeks,” she told him, sounding like she was trying to make herself sound excited. “There might be some great stuff on sale!”
“You’re only nine weeks pregnant,” Sam reminded her, annoyed.
