The Mercy Academy Box Set: A Complete High School Bully Romance Series

by Lane Hart

  “Blake called and told me what was going on. He was worried about Caroline, so I told him I would meet him here,” my mom explains as she searches the room until she spots me.

  “Well, I’m here now, and Charles is parking the car, so you can leave,” Candice says as she follows her over to me. “Where’s Caroline?”

  “They just took her back to get her checked in,” I answer.

  “You let her go back alone!” her mother exclaims.

  “I didn’t have a choice! I tried, but the nurse stopped me.”

  “Watch your tone with my son,” my mom mutters. “It’s not Blake’s fault Caroline has high blood pressure.”

  “It is Blake’s fault she’s pregnant!” Mrs. Prince shouts loud enough for the whole waiting room to hear. “Maybe if you had spent less time seducing my son and more time teaching your own boy about birth control, Caroline wouldn’t be in this position!”

  “How dare you!” my mother scoffs.

  “Oh, don’t even try to play the victim, you child predator!” Mrs. Prince yells back.

  “And yet you wonder why Caroline doesn’t want this kid to be raised by our families,” I grumble as I scrub my hands over my exhausted face. “Adoption seems like the only decent thing we can do for the baby at this point.”

  “What?” my mom asks with a gasp, her face going the same pale color as her platinum hair. “Caroline’s not keeping the baby?”

  “No.”

  “And you-you’re not?” she asks.

  “No, we’ve found a couple who is going to adopt the baby as soon as it’s born.”

  “How…how could you do that, Blake?”

  “At least there’s one thing we can agree on,” Mrs. Prince mutters.

  “You don’t get to judge my decisions after the messed-up ones you made,” I tell my mother through clenched teeth. “But either way, this isn’t the time or place to be talking about it.”

  The door behind us opens, and then the scowling nurse is back. She takes in the three of us standing there and says, “I can take you back to Miss Prince now.”

  I start to turn toward her when someone grabs my arm. Looking down, I see Caroline’s mom gripping my elbow. “You should go home. I’ll stay with Caroline.”

  “I told her I would stay,” I counter.

  “You’re not her family, and you’ve done enough,” she remarks. “If you hadn’t taken her out tonight, maybe we wouldn’t be here at the emergency room right now!”

  “I don’t have all night!” the nurse grumbles while I stand there, still wondering if Mrs. Prince is right, if it’s my fault that Caroline came out tonight even though she didn’t feel like it. So, I don’t go back with her before the door shuts and locks again.

  “I don’t…I have no clue what the fuck I’m supposed to do,” I admit to my mother as I throw my hands up in frustration.

  “Do you love her, or was this all just a big mistake?” my mom asks.

  Of course I love Caroline, but the problem is I can’t ask her to keep the baby, to erase the future she wanted in order to become a mother. I don’t want her to regret anything or ever put me through what my mom has done to my dad because they got married and had me when they shouldn’t have ever been together.

  “It was a mistake,” I say, which is only a partial lie.

  In another world or maybe in another lifetime, I would’ve given anything to be with Caroline and start a family with her.

  But that is just a fairy tale and not reality.

  “You look exhausted,” my mother tells me as she gives me a hug and I let her, because at the moment I think I need someone to try and hold me together when on the inside I feel like I’m falling apart. “Let me take you home,” she suggests. “Candice will take good care of Caroline, and then you can try to see her tomorrow.”

  “Yeah,” I agree. “I’ll see her tomorrow.”

  Chapter 36

  Blake

  June

  Every day for the last two weeks I’ve gone to see Caroline, who was put on bedrest for a high risk of preeclampsia. Now it’s just a waiting game until she’s far enough along for the doctor to deliver the baby or until Caroline’s organs start shutting down and they have to deliver early. Either way, someone is pretty screwed.

  Right now it’s Caroline.

  She barely speaks to me when I visit her. I try to talk to her, but mostly she just watches television while tears silently drip down her cheeks. It’s the most painful thing to endure, which is why I usually leave after an hour or so. For some reason, I get the feeling that she doesn’t want me there.

  And since Caroline is on bed rest, I never expected to see her in the crowd at our graduation ceremony with Aric’s mom and dad, sitting with Maddie’s brother and sister.

  Caroline

  “What are you doing here?” Blake asks when he comes up to me after the graduation ceremony.

  “Today’s my brother’s graduation. I couldn’t miss that,” I answer, which I swear makes his shoulders slump in his navy-blue cap and gown. “Congrats to you too, by the way.”

  “You should be in bed,” he tells me.

  “It’s nice to get out of the house for a little while, but I’m heading straight back as soon as my parents make the rounds talking to everyone.”

  “How are you feeling?” he asks.

  “Fine.”

  “Just fine?”

  “I’m just fine,” I answer. It’s not like I can tell him the truth, that every day that I get closer to my planned early induction date of July ninth, it gets a little harder to imagine giving our baby to strangers, despite how amazing Ben and Keri are. They’re just…not me and Blake.

  “Right,” he mutters and glances away while clearing his throat. “So, um, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I have to start training on Monday.”

  “Oh,” I say in surprise. “You’re leaving on Monday.”

  Blake cringes and tells me, “Actually, I’m leaving tomorrow so I can get settled into the dorm and be ready to go Monday morning. Unless…I mean, if you think I should stay…”

  “No, of course not,” I answer without hesitation.

  “I’m going to come back and be here on the ninth,” he promises.

  “You don’t have to…”

  “I am going to be here that day, Caroline.”

  “Okay,” I agree.

  “Blake!” his dad yells for him.

  “Well, um, I guess he’s ready to go,” he says.

  “Yeah, go.”

  “Promise you’ll go straight home?” he asks.

  “I will,” I assure him. “Good luck at Duke.”

  “Thanks,” he says. “I’ll check in with you every day.”

  “You don’t have to…” I say.

  “I will,” he promises as he walks away with a wave.

  Since my mom and dad are still chitchatting with friends of theirs and Aric and Maddie have already left, I decide to start walking back to the parking lot since I’m slower than a snail now. Once I’m next to the car, I lean against it while texting my mom to wrap it up. The woman could talk the ears off an elephant.

  Shockingly, we’ve actually been getting along since the night at the emergency room. She no longer looks at me with disappointment but with worry, for me and for the baby. I know she’s still hoping I’ll change my mind about the adoption, but she hasn’t said a word about it.

  “Caroline?” a woman says, drawing my attention up from my phone. It takes me a few seconds before I recognize that it’s Collette Sullivan approaching me. Her hair is still cut in a short, platinum style that makes her look like a celebrity that never ages, but her sleeveless pink dress isn’t exactly high school graduation appropriate. I guess she’s not either since she slept with a boy in the graduation class. Not that I can throw stones…

  “Caroline, how are you?” she asks. “Wow, you are getting so big!”

  Yes, how big I am is exactly what all pregnant women love to hear.

  “How are y
ou doing, Collette?” I ask.

  “I’m doing good, thank you,” she replies. “I still can’t believe my baby just graduated.”

  I consider making a snippy comment about how he’s still her baby, but she slept with my brother, who is the same age, but hold my tongue.

  “I know I’m not your family’s favorite person, and you probably don’t care what I think, but I just wanted to tell you that I believe you’re making the right decision with the adoption,” she goes on to tell me. “It was surprising to hear at first, but I’ve been in your shoes. The night at the emergency room Blake told me that this was all just a mistake, that you don’t love each other. There’s no reason for you to try and force anything just for the baby. You’re making a difficult choice but the best one considering the circumstances.”

  Blake seriously told her all that? Wow. He doesn’t care about me. And damn the stupid pregnancy hormones for making my eyes water.

  Clearing the emotion from my throat, I tell her, “Thanks, I guess.”

  “You’re welcome,” she replies as if I was actually being sincere. I don’t give a rat’s ass what this child molester thinks, even if she does agree with my decision.

  In fact, having her support makes me second-guess the adoption more than I ever have before since she notoriously makes horrible decisions.

  Chapter 37

  Caroline

  July

  “Do you have any twos?” Mandy, Maddie’s little sister, asks me.

  “Go fish,” I tell her.

  The two of us along with Matt and Maddie are sitting around my bed, playing cards. They’re here to keep me company even though I know Maddie would probably rather be at the new house Aric bought them instead of in my room where I’ve spent the last few weeks confined to bed. My mom brings me meals, and so I only get up to take quick showers and to use the bathroom.

  Speaking of the latter…I freeze when I’m suddenly soaking wet between my legs, trying to decide how peeing myself in my own bed in front of witnesses ranks on my list of most embarrassing moments. Oh fuck, I don’t think that’s urine…

  “Are you okay, Caroline?” Maddie asks. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  “I think my water just broke,” I whisper.

  “Oh my god! The baby’s coming?” Maddie exclaims.

  “But…noooo!” little Mandy exclaims. “You’re not supposed to have the baby until next Friday!”

  “I guess he or she has decided they don’t want to wait.”

  “So we should probably get you to the hospital,” Maddie says as she jumps off the bed and puts on her flipflops. Eying me, she says, “Ah, Caroline? Are you coming? Can you stand up?”

  “I’m scared,” I tell her honestly with my eyes and throat burning.

  “Aw, don’t be. You’re going to be fine,” Maddie promises me when she comes over to help me stand up from the bed.

  A few minutes later and I’m checking into labor and delivery where my doctor comes in to give me an exam before I’ve even got the hospital gown on. A nurse also performs a quick ultrasound at the same time.

  “Okay, Caroline, I don’t want you to panic,” Dr. Rhodes says, which of course has my panic jumping up to a 20 on the ten-point scale. “But it looks like the baby has wrapped the cord around his neck, so we’re going to need to do an emergency C-section. I’ll go book the OR and the nurse will start getting you prepped.”

  “My parents aren’t here yet and I haven’t told the father…” I explain to her.

  “I’m sorry but we can’t wait any longer. We have to get that baby out now!” she says before hurrying out of the room while barking instructions to the nurse.

  “What?” I exclaim, looking to Maddie and Aric. “Did she say now? I’m having the baby now? And did she say his?”

  “Yeah, she definitely said his,” Aric replies.

  “It’s a boy and he’s trying to kill himself. The poor little thing!” I say before bursting into sobs.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Maddie says when she takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. “You’re going to be fine.”

  “But…is…the baby?” I ask through the hiccups.

  “The doctors probably see this type of thing all the time,” Aric says, and I don’t know if that’s true or he’s just trying to reassure me. His eyes are wider than saucers, looking as terrified as I feel. “Should I, ah, should I go call Blake?” Aric offers.

  “Yes, and, Maddie…will you find my phone and call…call Ben and Keri Barton, the adoptive parents? I need to tell them…”

  Blake

  Training has been brutal, making me feel so out of shape for the months I’ve taken off. At least they gave us an hour break for lunch. As soon as I get back to the locker room, I check my phone and see a new message from Aric. Since he hasn’t texted me in months, I quickly pull it up and then have to throw my palm out to catch myself on the closest lockers when I read it.

  Caroline is at the hospital in labor! They’re about to do an emergency C-section, and I’m an hour and a half away!

  I try to call Aric, but he doesn’t answer, neither does Caroline, which isn’t all that surprising if she’s getting ready for surgery. As soon as I get dressed, I walk outside, trying to remember where my car is, which is when I get a call from my dad.

  “Can’t talk right now. I’ve got to get in the car and get back home. Caroline’s having the baby right now,” I tell him.

  “I know. I’ll be in front of the training facility to pick you up in five.”

  “Wait…what?” I ask. “You’re here? In Durham?”

  “There was no way I was going to let you get behind the wheel of a car right now,” he explains.

  “But don’t you have to work?”

  “My appointments can be rescheduled,” he says. “See you in a few.”

  I’m sliding into the passenger seat of his Mercedes four minutes later.

  “Thanks for coming,” I tell him since I’m shaking so hard and in such a hurry that he’s right, driving would’ve been dangerous. “They’ve already started the C-section! We’ll never make it there in time!”

  “Son, I know you want to be there for her, and you should be, but just don’t make any rash decisions in the heat of the moment.”

  “Decisions? What decisions?” I ask him. “And drive faster!” I order him when we finally get on the highway.

  “Today is going to be a stressful day. It’s best if you don’t see the baby before…you know. It will only make this more difficult.”

  He trails off, and I wince as I understand what he was going to say. I shouldn’t see the baby before we turn him or her over to the Bartons.

  “I-I can’t even think about the baby right now. I’m too worried about Caroline! She’s high risk already with the preeclampsia and now this? I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her.”

  “She’ll be fine,” my dad says. “And you will be too if you’ll finally let her go today too.”

  “I can’t just let her go!” I exclaim. “I love her,” I admit aloud to him and to myself.

  “You only think you love her because of the situation you’re in together.”

  “No, I love Caroline and-and I don’t regret having a baby with her despite everyone telling me I should! That’s my kid! Our kid. I love it too, and I don’t care if I go to college or ever play football as long as I have them. This adoption isn’t happening! Even if Caroline doesn’t want me or my baby, I do, dammit!”

  The car is silent other than the roaring of the engine as we speed down the highway, passing cars on the left and the right.

  Finally, my dad speaks, and I fully expect him to tell me this is what he meant about rash decisions today. Instead, he says, “I, ah, I think Caroline may have been having second thoughts about the adoption.”

  “What? What do you mean?” I look over and ask him. “She had second thoughts? How the fuck would you know that?”

  “Because we talked a few weeks ago,” h
e responds. “And I, ah, I told her not to ruin your life.”

  “What? Why would you do that?” I shout at him. “What did you say to her?”

  “I knew you were thinking about going to Hawthorne just to be with her, and I didn’t think she felt the same way about you. I didn’t want you to get hurt once things ended badly.”

  “When? When did you talk to her?” I ask.

  “I don’t remember the exact date. It was a few weeks ago, before the May first deadline for Duke.”

  “Is that why she blew me off and said we should stop seeing each other? Because you ran your mouth about shit you don’t know anything about?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m not you, Dad! I love Caroline so fucking much that I know my only regret will ever be not telling her how I feel about her sooner.”

  “You don’t have the first clue about what love is,” he mutters.

  “And you do?” I challenge. “I love her, not because she was my first and not because we made a baby together, but because I can’t imagine being with anyone else. I would rather spend the rest of my life alone than with someone who isn’t her.”

  Chapter 38

  Caroline

  Fear. Relief. Sadness. Guilt.

  There’s a barrage of emotions hitting me all at once like an inescapable tidal wave, the sobs and tears coming so fast I can’t even catch my breath. And I’m not sure if I’m glad that everyone, my family, the doctor and nurses, have all disappeared, leaving me alone in my hospital room or not.

  I’m halfway through a box of tissues when I hear Blake’s voice in the hallway, asking frantically where I am. A moment later, he comes running through the doorway, so drenched with sweat he looks like he swam all the way here.

  “You’re okay! Oh, thank god,” he says as he throws out a hand to catch himself in the doorway, reminding me of the day he found out I was pregnant. After taking a few deep breath to slow down his gasping pants, he finally comes over and scoops me up into a hug. I bury my wet face in his chest and hold on to him even tighter.