Dear Mason,
In all honesty, I wasn't planning to respond to your letter that I received a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't really sure how you found my address and why you chose now to get in contact with me after all of these years. However, Vanessa (I'll explain who that is later) found your letter and said that I should at least write you back. After some time, I decided that it was a good idea so that I could tell you about everything you've missed out on.
When I was sixteen, I found out that I was pregnant with our child. You can imagine how terrified I was. Sixteen years old, still living with my alcoholic mother and abusive father, no source of income for myself, barely a senior in high school, and in the end, no help from the child's father. I told you I was pregnant, and the first thing you did was tell me that it wasn't yours. I couldn't believe it. The man that I was in love with since freshman year, was denying our child. I remember your exact words after. You said, and I quote, "We've been having sex for three years, there's no way you can suddenly be pregnant when we always use a condom. Go find the real father of your baby, you slut." You didn't know that the condom had popped the last time we had sex and I didn't even contemplate telling you, because I thought that no matter what happened, we would be alright. How wrong was I?
After that, you broke up with me and I had to fend for myself. The bullying started again, and I was heartbroken to see that you were the ring leader. I didn't care that you made sure not to aim for my stomach while you beat me. I just couldn't fathom that you were beating me in the first place, when you promised that you would never be like my father. It went back and forth. One minute you'd be beating me and the next it was my dad. There must've been a true angel watching over me because not once did my stomach get hurt.
When I was five months pregnant, the entire school found out. I couldn't really hide it anymore under big and loose clothing. The bullying and beatings at school stopped, because anyone who dared to lay a finger on me would be considered sick. Who would beat a pregnant, sixteen year old boy? Oh yeah, you. You would beat me in private, always threatening to kill me and my child if I ever uttered a claim saying that you were the father. You even went as far as damaging my vocal chords so that I couldn't speak anymore. Can you even imagine how it felt to wake up in the hospital, permanently unable to use my voice? No, you can't.
But I pushed on. That same day I woke up in the hospital after what you did, I found out that I was having a baby girl. The loss of my voice didn't diminish my happiness in knowing that I only had four more months before I would be able to hold her. After leaving the hospital, two weeks later, I didn't return home. My Aunty, bless her soul, took me in. She didn't know that I was living in such poor conditions until the hospital called her about my damaged vocal chords. I had made sure to put her name on file when I registered with the school earlier in the year. My pregnancy came as a surprise to her, but she welcomed me into her home with opened arms. I also started online school instead of having to return to my second personal hell, home being the first. She even helped me to enroll in sign language classes since I couldn't talk anymore.
Fast forward four months later, and I was going into labor. I was walking from an ice cream parlor late one night when my water broke. After crashing to my knees in the middle of the sidewalk, people hurried to help me. When they realized that I couldn't actually voice what was happening, they found other ways to aid me. One lady in particular knew sign language. I had been practicing for four months and I was getting fairly good at it. I signed to her that I was in labor and asked her to call both the ambulance and my Aunty. She was so kind and helped me until the ambulance arrived. My Aunty came rushing from work and she stayed by my side the entire time once I hit the delivery room. I was in labor for six hours before my beautiful baby girl was born.
