Diamonds Are Forever - Brooke St. James Page 0,1

of it was that I fell madly in love with Bradley Clark.

He was the star quarterback and the most popular boy at my school (and probably even all of Galveston). We dated for all of my sophomore and part of my junior year.

At first, it was amazing. I had always been the quiet girl, and I was easily charmed by Bradley who knew and had the respect of everybody in our town. I actually thought he loved me, and I got swept away by my own feelings.

All I can say is that the choices I made seemed justifiable at the time.

I had been with Bradley for long enough that I thought it would last forever. I ended up pregnant, and that was the end of our relationship. Bradley didn't take it well when I told him. He got mad and accused me of cheating. And then knowing that wasn't the truth, he resorted to crying like a baby and begging me to put a stop to it. I told him I'd think about it, but I knew I couldn’t do it. I came back to him the next day to tell him that I was going to have the baby.

During that conversation, he basically told me it was my responsibility since he already voiced his opinion about it. He was out. He washed his hands of us without a second thought. He asked me to lie and say that he wasn't the father because he had a big life planned with a football scholarship, and this unplanned pregnancy would ruin everything for him.

We broke up, but I didn't tell anyone I was expecting a baby at first. I knew if I said I was pregnant but that it wasn't Bradley's I would come off looking like a tramp who had cheated on her boyfriend.

I stayed quiet during the first four months of the pregnancy, and when I say I stayed quiet, I mean I barely spoke at all. I had gone through a lot in my early childhood, and I had a few other episodes when I got 'quiet', but none were as long or intense as the one when I was first carrying Mac.

Everyone assumed it was because of the breakup with Bradley. My parents finally figured it out after a few months, and they came to me saying they knew—that they could tell.

I broke down and told them everything, and they decided to help me keep the secret.

We didn't do this as a favor to Bradley. We did it primarily because we didn't want Bradley to have the right to be in the baby's life after he made it clear that he didn't want to be. We stayed quiet about it until I couldn't hide it any longer, at which point, I got pulled out of high school and continued school at home.

I was sure a few of our close family knew the truth about Bradley being Mac's father, but even now, almost four years later, no one ever talked about it. I was just the girl who got pregnant and was now a single mom. It was entirely possible that people talked about it behind my back, but no one had ever even asked me who Mac's father was. Maybe they all just assumed it was Bradley and didn't say it.

Either way, Bradley now played football at Baylor and was extremely successful like he thought he'd be. He had never met Mac, who was now three-and-a-half years old.

Mac had been my partner since the day he was born. I loved that boy with all my heart, and there was never a time, even in the midst of sickness or sleepless nights, when I regretted keeping him. He was my masculine protector from day one. By the time he was one, he was catching lizards and hunting snakes. At two, he was protecting me from other various forms of scary wildlife like spiders and sharks. He was hilarious and passionate, and we were as close as any mother and son had ever been.

Thankfully, my parents helped us afford a comfortable lifestyle, considering my circumstances. They were content to let Mac and me live in the detached apartment. They owned a hardware store, and I worked there thirty hours a week. My mom usually watched Mac when I was working, but Dad was happy to babysit, too, and so were my brothers, both of whom lived at home.

I showed up to the hardware store and did tasks and helped