Ghosts (A Christian Yelich Story)

Chapter Eighty-One: Dizzy

"I need to get out of the house. Will either of you walk the beach with me?" I asked Hannah and Andrew who were busy baking brownies in the kitchen. All because I off-handedly mentioned that I wanted chocolate.

They both looked up at me with deep concern in their eyes, which caused me to roll mine. "I'm fine. Seriously. I just want to take a bit of a walk. Fresh air would help."

Hannah nodded. "I'll come. Andrew will finish these brownies. Let me just grab a sweatshirt."

"Do you need anything else?" Andrew asked while I waited for Hannah.

"No, I'm okay. Thank you. For everything." I had just met him, but he was quickly becoming one of my favorite people. He was always so considerate and kind.

"Let's go," Hannah said, as she pulled me out the door. We walked the short path from my house to the beach.

"How are you, really, Annie?" Hannah asked, linking her arm with mine as we walked.

I gave a laugh that could only be described as sad. "He broke up with me over FaceTime while I'm carrying his daughter. I've been better." I gave her a forced smile.

"So you do realize Asher is full of shit?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "I mean, I just wanted to be certain. I don't remember every single moment of that night. I don't want to damn Christian to a lifetime of fatherhood if she's not his baby." It only seemed fair to do the test.

"You should have waited to tell him about the paternity test until after it proves he's the dad."

"I wanted to be honest about what was going on in my life." I brushed a few tears away and kept most of my focus on the walk. The cool nighttime sand felt good between my toes.

"Of course you did. Honesty is your thing. Will you take him back when he comes begging?" she asked me.

"I don't know." And I didn't know. "Maybe. Probably. He seemed pretty absolute in his decision, so I don't think I'll have that choice to worry about, though."

Hannah rolled her eyes at me. I could just make her gesture out in the darkness of a half moon. "He loves you. He's going to regret this."

"I love him too." I chuckled. "I actually thought we might get married one day. After he proposed, I started to think about it more . . ."

"You're going to marry him, Annie. Just a hunch I have."

Before I could reply to her hunch, I all of a sudden felt weak and dizzy — much like I had on that fateful afternoon I found out about the baby. I hunched over to maintain my balance.

"Oh my God, Annie. What is it?" I felt Hannah's hand soothingly rub my back. "What do you need? How can I help?"

I tried to stand up straight again, but I felt a stabbing pain in my stomach and a jolt of extreme pain in my head that caused me to stumble backward.

The last thing I heard was Hannah screaming my name.