Poverty Challenge: the Less Family
Warnings: language, rape mentioned, allusions to past incest
Part Two of Two
Part One can be found here.
“No, Dream! No! I won’t let you do it. You can’t do that to me, to Eric, or to this baby! I won’t let you, and Eric won’t let you! When he finds out about this...” Heart’s hands clenched into fists. “This is the last straw, Dream! It’s over!”
"Oh no, sister dear... it’s only begun! Eric’s on his way over here right now. You better prepare to tell him that you’re fucking done with him. That he fucked everything when he boned me and knocked me up, and now it’s good fucking riddance. Think you can handle that?”
Heart: “No... no I won’t do it, Dream! You can’t make me do that! No.”
Dream: “Um... yes, I think I can. And you fucking know why.”
“That won’t work, Dream! Mom and Dad are gone! They’re dead! You can’t threaten me with that anymore! I’m in love with Eric, I’m having his baby, and we’re going to get married and move away. End of story.”
“And it would be happily ever after, is that it?” Dream snarled in a mocking tone. “Well, consider this, Heart... Don’t you wonder what Eric would think if he knew our wonderful mother and father were actually brother and sister?”
Heart: “Dream, Daddy wasn’t our biological father. Mom had several boyfriends before she...”
Dream: “That’s what we’ve always been told, Heart, but how do we know for sure? More importantly, how would Eric fucking know? Do you honestly believe that if he thought there was even the slightest chance we were spawned from incest, he’d want to procreate with either fucking one of us?”
Heart was stunned. She had thought once her parents were gone that there was no way Dream could use their relationship against her ever again. But Heart couldn’t understand why Dream would want Eric to think they both were products of incest! It wasn’t only a potential stain on Heart’s past, it would affect Dream as well!
Heart couldn’t wrap her mind around that at all.
“Dream, what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense! Why would you tell him that when it also applies to you? If you have him believe we were both born from incest, you could lose him too!”
“Come on, Heart... do you really think being with Eric is what I’m concerned with?”
“My God! How can you do this, Dream? You’ll end up with a husband that hates you, and a baby you don’t want... that’s not even yours! And for what? Just to make me miserable?
Dream: “Better you than me, Heart. Do you think I’ll let you end up getting married to Mr. College Graduate and have your own perfect little family... while you leave me here to rot? No fucking way. If any of us gets out of here, it’s going to be me. And that baby is my ticket out.”
Heart: “But Eric will know! He’ll be able to tell you’re not pregnant, Dream! How exactly are you planning to pull that off?
Dream: “He won’t fucking know. Men are stupid when it comes to that shit. By the time he graduates from college, the baby will be born, right? And if I have to see him before then, I’ll wear a fucking pillow under my shirt. Problem solved.”
Heart: “But the dates... the dates won’t add up, Dream! I’m already three months pregnant! How would you explain that?”
Dream shrugged. “The same way. I’m telling you, men are stupid. I’ll tell him the baby was born early or some shit. What’s it matter? Sprogs are born early all the fucking time, aren’t they?”
Heart: “Yes, but... three months, Dream? Three months? A baby born that premature would be very small and need a hospital stay at the very least! You won’t be able to take a full term baby and pass it off as...”
“I’m fucking telling you, men are stupid! And let me get it through your thick-ass skull, Heart. It doesn’t fucking matter anyway, because if Eric has any doubts about the baby being his, he could have a paternity test done. I mean, it’s not like he knows he has anyone else knocked up.”
Heart squeezed her eyes shut and bit back her tears. She didn’t even ask how Dream knew she hadn’t told Eric about the pregnancy yet, but she wasn’t surprised. Dream always seemed to know everything about Heart... and use it to her advantage whenever she could.
“Dream... I can’t believe you would do this to your own sister.”
Dream: “Half-sister. And if you screw this up, I’ll tell Eric everything. I’ll tell him our mother fucked her own brother for most of her fucking life, and I’ll let him draw his own goddamn conclusions as to why we called our uncle ‘Daddy,’ especially since we’ve never met our supposed biological fathers...“
Heart: “Dream, please... please don’t...”
Dream: “...and I’m sure Eric won’t want to take any chances when it comes to who will join him in the gene pool, Heart. He’ll see us as fucked up goods and get the hell out of Dodge.”
“Why should I care what you tell him, Dream? Either way I’ll lose him! So why does it matter?”
Dream: “You’re forgetting about your little bun in the oven, Heart. If you do what I say, your little crotch nugget will at least have its father around. But otherwise...” Dream shrugged. “Think of your baby, Heart. Think of how fucking bad you’d feel if that kid never knew its father and it was your fault.“
Heart: “Dream... please...”
Dream: “It won’t be so bad. Once I move away I’ll send you pictures. Maybe.”
Heart: “You’re evil. Only an evil, demented, and sick person could do something like this.”
Dream: “Think whatever you want, Heart... but I’m going to get my way in the end. I always do.”
A flash of light crossed the far wall, indicating the turn of a car into the driveway. Dream glanced out of the window and smiled.
“Eric’s here. Now, you remember what I said. I’m going upstairs to give you and Loverboy a bit of private time so you can have a nice little talk.”
“You’re going to tell him I’m so exhausted from being pregnant that I had to go to bed early, and then you’re going to tell him you’re so pissed off that he fucked me and knocked me up that you can’t fucking stand the sight of him. Then you’re going to say you’re done with his ass, and break it off. Completely, Heart. You have to tell him you never want to see him again.”
Heart choked on her sobs. “Dream, please...”
Dream: “Once you do all of that, I’ll take it from there. Starting when I call him in about a week and work on mending his broken heart.”
“You just remember what you’re supposed to say, Heart,” Dream warned as she left the room.
Heart heard her sister’s footsteps ascend the stairs just as the doorbell rang. Sorrowfully, Heart opened the front door, and stood face to face with the man she loved.
The anguish evident in Eric’s eyes and in the planes of his face made Heart’s breath catch painfully in her chest. He looked as though his entire world was crashing down around him. Indeed, as far as he was concerned, it was.
“Is it true?” Eric asked in a hoarse whisper. “Heart, is what Dream told me true? Is she having my baby? God!” He sniffed and heaved in a shaking breath. “I wanted a baby one day, Heart... but not like this. Not a baby that was made from what she did to me! Oh, Heart...” he sobbed. “How will I ever be able to look at that baby and not remember? What kind of father could I be to that kid?”
He collapsed against her and Heart held him close.
Heart was sickened by what Dream was doing to Eric. Everything she had put him through... first the rape, and now making him believe he had fathered a child on her during that horrific act! It was appalling!
Dream couldn’t get away with this. It had to stop, and it had to stop now.
It was one thing for Dream to hurt Heart. Heart could take it; she’d been living with Dream’s behavior for most of her life. However, it was entirely another thing for Dream to hurt this man, whose only crime had been to fall in love with Heart, and it was even worse for Dream to take the innocent baby Heart carried from its mother and make its father believe it was the result of a rape!
Heart would not let it happen. Enough was enough.
“Eric, we have to talk,” Heart said simply, disengaging his arms from around her and leading him further into the kitchen. They sat down in chairs facing each other, and Eric warily looked into Heart’s determined face.
“Heart?” Eric asked questioningly, his voice trembling. “What’s going on?”
Soon he’ll know. God help me, soon he’ll know it all.
Heart was going to have a talk with Eric, but it wasn’t going to be what Dream had dictated she tell him, and in all honesty, Heart didn’t know if what she was about to reveal would turn out to be good or bad. However, it was the truth... and what was it she had always heard about the truth?
The truth shall set you free.
For too long, Heart had lived with the secret of her mother’s incestuous relationship buried deep within her soul. She’d been so fearful of what would happen if anyone ever found out, that she’d never considered telling anyone about it herself.
Now she realized that had to change.
It was time to let someone else in. It was time to allow the burdens to be shared. If Eric loved her... and more importantly if she loved him... she had to open up to him. She had to give him the chance to decide for himself what he felt.
Heart had to admit Dream could be right about what Eric would think regarding her parentage, and there was no way to prove otherwise. Telling Eric her family secrets might cost Heart the love of her life, but she had to do it. It was the only way Dream would stop having a hold over her. It was the only way Heart would be free.
Heart took Eric’s hand, looked into his eyes, and steeled herself for what she was about to say.
More to come...