[chloe]
I stared at the door for as long as I possibly could do before I accepted that there was no way out of this situation which I had now created for myself. I had just told John, in the most unspectacular manner I could have done it, that I was carrying his grandchild and I knew that he would waste no time on telling Vivienne that when he got home from work—I also knew that he would inform Matthew that he knew the truth.
I didn't want to think about what Matthew was going to do when he realised that I had been unable to keep my mouth shut. He was going to be unimpressed with me and, because I knew Matthew as well as I did, I knew that he would also deny having anything to do with the child.
"He actually told you that he didn't want anything to do with the baby?" I could hear something in his voice which I didn't like the sound of, almost as though he didn't believe what it was that I was telling him, and I wasn't prepared to be called a liar just because John didn't want to accept what it was that I had told him about his son.
"Sure. Let's just go with that," I muttered. I pushed myself up on the bed and turned my back towards John, not wanting to look at him when I told him that his son told me that getting an abortion was the best thing for me. That his son had told me to kill our child without even taking the time to think about it.
"Is there something you aren't telling me, Chloe?"
The man knew me too well and, sometimes, it scared me just how well it was that he knew me. But then I remembered that he had been a part of the family since the day I was born, given that he was the man who helped my father deliver me, and he had been there for me when my parents had been too busy to be there for their daughter. He was almost like a second father to me and, when we were younger, Matthew was just like another brother to me, as well as being my best friend.
"No. It doesn't matter," I sighed.
"If it involves my son and his child, then it certainly does matter. Now tell me what it was that he really said," John demanded. I knew that he was annoyed and, honestly, it did scare me a little because I had rarely seen John close to losing his temper with someone. But, for all the things which Matthew had said and done to me, I didn't want to admit to John what it was that his son had actually said to me.
"He just told me that he wanted nothing to do with the baby. I agreed to keep my mouth shut, which I have clearly done such a great job with doing, and he promised that he would stay the hell away from me." I finally turned myself around so that I was looking at John and meeting with his eye line.
"Either you tell me, or I will phone Matthew and make him tell me what it was that he said." I had told him the truth and I knew that he wouldn't bother with Matthew until he had finished work, and that meant that I had the time to hide myself away so that I wouldn't have to face the inevitable argument which would be coming my way.
If I was going to be technical about this though, Matthew was the one who broke the agreement because he was the one who came to my house and he was the one who brought his girlfriend with him as well when he turned up on my doorstep. If he had kept to his side of the agreement and Jason hadn't overheard our conversations, then none of this would even be happening right now, and instead I would probably be arguing with Braydon over something or other.
"He didn't want to tell you that he was the father of my child. Do you really think that he's going to tell you the exact words he said when he found out the truth?" I could feel my temper getting the better of me and I didn't even know why I was feeling this way.
"I have a right to know. He's my son."
"You only have the right to know that I am carrying your grandchild. I don't have to tell you anything which happened between your asshole, selfish son and I if I don't want to." I stood up from the bed and threw my hands in the air. I knew that I needed to calm down and control my temper, especially when I was already a high blood pressure, but I was annoyed with his attitude towards me and his instance that I tell him everything which happened between Matthew and I.
"I just want to help you. I want to make sure that Matthew does his part at the father of this child."
"I don't want him to do his part. In fact, I don't want his sorry ass anywhere near my child," I snapped. Matthew had made his view extremely clear and I wasn't in the mood for his father to try changing that view either, and neither was in the mood for John to defend what Matthew had said and done to me when he realised that truth about the baby.
I didn't need someone like Matthew in my life. I had already had to deal with enough pain and disappointment to last me an entire lifetime, mostly at the hands of those who were supposed to be my friends and my family, so I wasn't going to allow there to be an opportunity for either of those to make a show in my life again.
"You don't have the right to prevent him from seeing his child," John's anger was more evident than it had been for the duration of our conversation and his words were dripping with venom.
"He lost the right to be a father to my child when he told me that he wanted me to have an abortion. He told me that we were too young to have a family, which I can respect, but I couldn't have killed my baby because their father told me to do it." I hadn't meant for the truth to come out as it did, and I immediately regretted saying what I did once the words left my mouth, but I didn't feel an ounce of guilt that John knew the truth nor did I feel bad for telling him what Matthew had told me to do. "He was the one who told me, that if I kept the child, then I was to tell them that their father was dead because he didn't want anything to do with it."
"I brought Matthew up better than that. There is no way that he would ever behave in such a disgusting manner," John defended his son, and I would expect nothing less from the man who loved his son and would die to protect him, but I was also somewhat hurt that John was branding me a liar and refusing to believe what I was telling him.
So I did the one thing which I thought was most appropriate, and that was laugh. I laughed in John's face and walked out of the room, wondering how it was possible for both parents to be so damn naïve to the behaviour of their own child. They really were disillusioned if they thought that their son was a gentleman who would actually help out the girl he inevitably got pregnant.
"Chloe, don't you walk away from me. We are not done here." I turned to see that John was now following me down the corridor. He actually thought that I was going to stop and have a normal conversation about this with him, which was never going to happen when he had already made it clear that he thought me to be a liar and refused to accept that his son wasn't ready for the responsibility of being a father.
"You need to just leave me alone; I can't talk to you right now. I need time to calm down before I say something which I only end up regretting."
"Matthew is a good kid," John sighed almost in defeat. "He's probably just—"
"Just what, John? Scared? Worried? Unsure?" The commotion between the two of us now had doctors and nurses filtering out of their rooms and into the corridors, each of them hoping to get a sneak peak of what was happening between a doctor and his patient. "How do you think I feel? I am seventeen, pregnant and on my fucking own."
"I—" but that was the only word which came from his lips. I had, for the first time, rendered John Jenkins absolutely speechless and actually given him something to think about before he opened his mouth again.
"That's what I thought," I muttered to myself. I had never expected anyone to understand how I was feeling, least of all John, but it would have been nice if there was someone other than Jodie who was there for me and actually supported me. Rather than it feeling as though the entire world is against me and that no one truly understands just how tough this really is for me. "How Matthew feels isn't a patch on what I am feeling right now, so excuse me for not giving a fuck about your son and how he feels."
"Chloe—"
"I might not have had a lot, but now I have lost that all, and your son is the only one to blame for that. If he had just, for once, taken responsibility for his actions and been there for me, then perhaps things would be different. But he had made his choice, John," I laughed humourlessly at the thought of everything which I had lost, either because I had told people who the father was, or because I refused to tell people who the father was. Matthew Jenkins had successfully ruined my life and I could only hope that he was proud of himself, even if we were once best friends, I hoped that he would one day understand what he has taken from me.
"You can't blame Matthew—"
"You're right. I can't blame Matthew entirely, and I don't, but I blame him for the majority of things which have happened to me." I took a step closer to John and I loved that he was completely unnerved because of my actions, but I could only wish that he was listening to what I actually said, and that he would finally understand I would rather do all of this on my own than with the support of people who don't really give a shit. "I lost my boyfriend. My parents are even more disappointed with me than they were before I announced that I was pregnant, they don't even want to admit that I am their daughter to people. I lost one of my best friends because she was the one who went behind my back and told Matthew that I was carrying his child. I am the talk of the school as they all attempt to figure out who it was that I slept with, and your fucking son has done nothing to help me with the hate which I have had to tolerate since everyone found out that I was to be a teenage mother."
"Perhaps we should go to my office. We can talk about this in there without the entire hospital hearing what you have to say," John spoke harshly.
"I don't want to go anywhere with you, Doctor Jenkins. I just want you to leave me alone so that I can get the hell out of here."
"Chloe, please, just come with me and we can talk about this properly," John begged. In the entire time John had been a part of our family, I had never seen him beg for anything, not even when he asked for my father's forgiveness after he slept with my mother one night. John had never been one to beg for anything and to know that he was begging for this, he must have been desperate to keep prying eyes away from our conversation, but I also knew that was only because he was concerned about his and Vivienne's reputation around the hospital.
"You just need to accept that your son is a joke. He isn't a good kid, and I doubt that he will ever be a good father. I don't want someone like him anywhere near our baby."
"Someone like him? What is that supposed to mean?"
"I mean someone who thinks it's acceptable to sleep with girls, just so that he has something to discuss with his friends during break. Someone who thinks he is the best lay a girl will ever have when, in reality, his dick is smaller than my little finger and have received more pleasure as my own hand than I did with him. Someone who thinks that he has the right to disrespect and degrade girls, simply because he's popular. Need I continue?"
I took his silence and blank expression as my cue to stop because, although there was so much more which I could have said, I didn't want to give John anymore of my time. I didn't even want to waste my breath speaking about the boy who was the father of my baby because that's really all he was.
He was a boy who had never really grown up. He was a boy who thought that the world still revolved around himself. And he was a boy who didn't know the definition of the word responsibility. He was a boy who was once my best friend, and now he is a boy I wish I had never been foolish enough to associate myself with.
"If that it is all, Doctor Jenkins, then I think I will be leaving now. I do hope that you have a pleasant day," I said as I turned on my heel and walked out of there with a smile on my face, knowing that I had had the last word and left John speechless. There was also in a satisfaction in knowing I had given almost every employee on this floor a show which they wouldn't forget in a hurry and that they knew about the type of child who was the son of their beloved Doctor Jenkins.
But, when I caught sight of my father at the end of the corridor, my smile quickly disappeared. His usually expressionless face now telling me a thousand different stories and, from the cold glint in his eye, I knew that he had heard my conversation with John and that he was ready to kill someone.
He was ready to kill Matthew Jenkins.