Broken Bells • Bishop Losa

Chapter 17: Manifesting Doubt

The muffled squeals of Camila pulled Annabelle out of her sleep. She was unsure of when she had finally managed to fall asleep but based upon the still early hour of the morning she had not slept long. She forced herself out of bed and followed the child's noises of delight all the way out to the kitchen where she found Rosa making pancakes and Camila playing on the floor with Chewie. Annabelle leaned against the counter, trying to quell her nausea as the smell of slightly burnt pancakes invaded her nostrils- motherhood had not helped improve Rosa's cooking skills which is why Annabelle always kept her out of the diner's kitchen.

"Let me take over." Annabelle insisted once she caught her bearings, taking the spatula from Rosa and proceeding to flip the extra crispy pancake. Rosa watched as her friend focused all of her attention on the task at hand, Annabelle not daring to meet her friend's eyes.

"Hank called me this morning." Rosa watched as Annabelle's eyes slightly widened. "Apparently, a little birdy told him that I might be pregnant."

"I'm so sorry." Annabelle nearly slid the pancake onto the floor instead of the plate as she looked at Rosa with a slightly panicked expression, "I ran into Angel, Gilly and Coco at the store when buying the tests and it just slipped."

"It's alright, I told him it was a false alarm. No harm done."

Annabelle set the last pancake on the plate, handing them over to Rosa so she could get her daughter's pancakes made the way she liked them. "I should go, there are a few things I need to do before I head to work tonight."

"Getting some more sleep and booking a doctor's appointment should be on that list."

"Of course, mom." Annabelle pet behind Chewie's ears as she attached his leash to his collar. "I'll talk to you later."

-

The last time Annabelle had been at the clubhouse it was busy, but now the yard was empty and the air was eerily silent. She had spent her morning debating of when she was going to tell Bishop about the pregnancy and as soon as the thought floated through her head that maybe she didn't have to tell him, she could just disappear and the pressure she felt on her shoulders would disappear with her- she knew that it needed to be done right away. She sent Chucky a wave when he popped his head out of the small office as she passed, she avoided conversation as she knew that could derail her determination. Bishop's bike was one of the few that was parked in its designated spot, but she had already known he would be here as she had texted him merely twenty minutes ago to double-check his whereabouts. Her low heels clicked against the wood steps as she climbed them, rubbing her hands along her black skirt as she pushed open the clubhouse door. The room was silent, she assumed Bishop had told his brothers to make themselves scarce after receiving her message about them needing to talk. Bishop entered the club's main room as he heard her shoes against the wood, his own boots announcing his presence. The exhaustion that showed clearly on Annabelle's face and the fidgeting from her nervousness caused Bishop's own apprehension to intensify, he didn't know what to think after receiving such a cryptic text from his girlfriend and as he spent the past twenty minutes wrapping his brain around their last encounter to find discrepancies he had come up empty-handed. Annabelle sat at one of the empty tables, gesturing for Bishop to sit in the chair adjacent to her. She kept her gaze focused on her fidgeting hands, her eyes only glancing up to Bishop once finding a stone-cold look in his eyes- she felt bad for making the man feel as though he needed to put up a defensive front at that moment.

"What's going on, sweetheart?"

"This certainly isn't how I pictured things going for us but..." Annabelle trailed off, not sure how she wanted to word the next half of her sentence.

"But what?" The booming tone of Bishop's voice caused her body to jolt in her seat, she had never experienced the true authority that he held before.

"I'm pregnant, Obispo."

The silence that followed her confession made Annabelle feel like she was ready to vomit. It seemed that everything that could possibly go wrong so far had so why would Bishop's reaction be any different. Annabelle stood unable to take Bishop's silent, furrowed stare any longer.

"Look, I know this is not what you signed up for and- if this isn't something you want, I understand that." Annabelle struggled to keep her voice steady as she met Bishop's stare, "We can act as if none of this ever happened, you can carry on here like you never met me and I give you my word that I will never bother you for money or anything."

Bishop finally moved, leaning back in his chair as he ripped his dark gaze away from Annabelle's watering eyes.

"I have a doctor's appointment next week," Annabelle slipped a small crumpled paper from her pocket and slid it across the table, "Date, time and everything are on there, I hope you come."

Annabelle paused by the door, placing a kiss against her fingertips before pressing them against the Virgin Mary's heart as she stepped out the door. She ducked her head as she passed the bikers who had just arrived on the lot, letting her curly locks curtain her face so they were unable to see the tears that had begun streaming down her cheeks.

Annabelle sighed as she glanced into the rearview mirror using it to clean the black streaks of makeup off her face before she walked into work.

Annabelle's heart ached as she arrived home, Chewie meeting her at the door in an excited frenzy. She made her way to her bedroom, changing out of her work clothes and into a soft pair of sweatpants, slipping one of Bishop's forgotten hoodies over her body before she took Chewie into the backyard for his last outing of the night. Annabelle lay in the middle of the grass, her eyes glued to the stars above as Chewie ran around the yard. She pulled the oversized hoodie closer to her body, bringing the collar up to her nose to allow Bishop's scent to bring her comfort as the feelings she had to bury at work began to resurface. God, why did she always have to make things so difficult for herself?