Strong Enough

Alternate Chapter 16

Kim looked on as Adam moved to the window, his face unreadable. She went to him and placed her hand on the small of his back.

"Adam?" It was almost a whisper, his body rigid under her hand, "Can I see it?"

He turned and placed the letter in her hand, he said nothing as he walked past her and out the front door.

It was then she knew, she didn't bother reading it. His reaction had told her all she needed to know, the child she was carrying was the child of the man who had brutally raped her and destroyed her fiancé.

She wanted to scream, she wanted to rage at the world. She was devastated, all the progress they had made fell around her like a house of cards.

The engagement ring on her finger glistened as the sun's rays hit it, she slipped it off her finger and placed it on the counter, she wouldn't hold him to his promise. She loved him enough to release him from his commitment.

It killed her, but she knew it was for the best. She wouldn't force him to take care of another man's child one that had hurt her and ultimately ended their relationship.

She gathered the courage to read the letter, seeing her child's father listed as Jeremiah Miller made her skin crawl, she continued to read it and felt her stomach flip, 'gender, Male'

A son.

She was having the son of her rapist.

His hands still shook, he placed his palms on the railing he tried focusing on the horizon anything to calm the rage he felt.

The image forever burned in his head, it was the son of the man he hated with all he had.

He kicked at the post, and screamed. He was glad he was alone, he knew he looked like a rabid animal.

When he could no longer feel his foot, the post splintered and broken he went and sat on the ground leaning against the brick wall separating the parking lot from the pier.

He could feel it build within him, it was part of the reason he had left so abruptly he didn't want her to see him cry.

He cried for the child he so desperately wanted to be his, one he had dreamed of every night the last few weeks. He'd envisioned a little girl who looked a lot like Kim, but had his eyes and smile.

He pictured a little boy who was his carbon copy, a mini-Adam. One who followed Kim's every move, your typical mama's boy, a little boy who thought his mom hung the moon.

Now, it was replaced by fear.

A fear that overwhelmed him, he wanted to fulfill his promise to Kim, but could he see past his hatred of Jeremiah Miller and love that kid as if it was his?

What would he see when he looked in the kid's eyes?

Maybe if it was a girl it would be easier, but it wasn't it was a boy.

His fiancé was pregnant with the son of her rapist.

He remembered a discussion he had once with the Intelligence unit, they talked about violent offenders and how it seemed that each one had a father who was just as violent. They questioned if there was 'violence gene' could he overcome that?

Was it set in stone that Kim's kid would grow up to be just like his father? Would he one day get the phone call that the kid had been arrested for attacking a girl in his school, that he had tried to rape someone?

He stood up, he felt the bile rise up in his throat and he turned and vomited the contents of his stomach in the trash can.

He sat on the bench and watched the ebb and flow of the lake, wishing life was as simple as the tide.