Chapter 5 Thrown into the Streets

Katia

"Get out!" my mom screamed, her voice tearing through the hallway like a bomb going off in a small room.

The sound hit the walls and bounced back so violently, like the house itself was flinching. Even the air felt startled, buzzing with the kind of tension that makes your skin crawl. My heart slammed against my ribs, not from surprise, but from inevitability. This was the moment I'd been bracing for since the pregnancy test turned positive, since the ring had caught her eye, since her fantasy version of my life collapsed like a cheap stage prop.

I didn't even flinch because I knew it would come to this. I just knew it. The second she saw the ring, the second her fantasy of me being some corporate bride-to-be shattered, I could feel the sentence forming behind her teeth. I could practically hear the gears turning in her head, grinding down whatever affection she pretended to have left for me and replacing it with raw rage. And there it was. A weapon wrapped in spite and fury.

"Martha, stop it!" my dad barked, stepping toward her like he might physically block the words from coming out of her mouth. "She needs to tell us who got her pregnant. That's what we need to focus on!"

That was cute. He thought logic was still on the table. He thought this was still a conversation and not a public execution.

"I don't care!" she snapped. "She was supposed to marry Julian Windsor! And now, now she's pregnant for some crazy man!"

She spat the word like it tasted poisonous. Her eyes dragged over my face, scanning for shame, for tears, for something she could grab onto and weaponize. Her mouth twisted like she'd already decided I disgusted her more than usual, which honestly felt like a competitive sport in this house.

"Do you even know who got you pregnant?" she hissed.

Did it matter?

I stayed quiet. My silence only made her louder and more unhinged. It always did. Silence terrified her. It meant she didn't have control.

But let's be real: she didn't care about the truth. She didn't care about my body or my decisions or even the baby growing inside me. She cared about Julian Windsor.

Julian fucking Windsor. The man I was apparently betrothed to, like I was livestock in some Victorian tragedy. A man I'd never met. Never spoken to. Never even seen in real life or on a screen or on a grainy news clip. He existed in theory and in contracts and in whispered business conversations behind closed doors.

Not that I didn't try. Delia and I had searched him online once late at night, half curious, half bored, scrolling through search results like teenagers hunting for gossip, but we found nothing. No photos, no online interviews, no social media presence. Not even a blurry LinkedIn profile or a suspicious Wikipedia stub. Julian Windsor didn't exist, not in the way normal people exist. All we knew was that he was ridiculously rich. Like old-money, owns-an-island, probably-has-a-butler-named-Cedric rich. The kind of rich that doesn't need publicity because money itself is already power.

And for some reason, my parents thought tossing me at him like a bargaining chip would fix everything wrong with their company, their reputation, and their fragile egos.

My pregnancy ruined that plan. And no, I couldn't tell them I didn't know who the father was. Not because I was ashamed; shame was a luxury emotion in this house, but because I didn't have an answer. Vegas was a blur of neon lights, alcohol-soaked memories, half-remembered laughter, a ring, a promise made in chaos, and a reality I hadn't fully unpacked yet. I couldn't hand them a name even if my life depended on it.

"Oh my God, Kat, you're pregnant?" Delia's voice sliced through the tension like an excited knife.

Great. Just what I needed. The audience had arrived.

She appeared at the top of the stairs, barefoot, wearing one of those silky little nightgowns she always saved for dramatic moments, like she was auditioning for some spoiled heiress role in her own fantasy movie. Her hair was twisted into that perfectly messy updo that probably took thirty minutes and three hair products to achieve. She leaned against the railing, eyes sparkling like she was about to witness something deliciously scandalous.

She looked down at me like I was a soap opera she'd been waiting to binge. "Does that mean..." she gasped, pressing a hand to her chest theatrically, "I'll be the one marrying Julian Windsor?" She said it like she just won a billion-dollar lottery.

I scoffed, dryly and bitterly. "Glad to see someone's living the dream."

Delia didn't even pretend to be offended. Her smile widened like Christmas had come early.

I turned toward my mom, hoping maybe this was the moment she'd shut Delia down. That she'd say no, that she'd insist I was still the daughter promised, that she wouldn't trade me in like defective merchandise.

But she didn't. She looked at my dad. And she smiled. "David," she said softly, with that tone that always meant a scheme was sharpening its claws.

My dad hesitated. His eyes met mine for a split second. Dark. Tired. Worn down by years of surrender. I saw the exact moment he folded, the exact moment he decided peace was more important than protecting me.

"They... insisted on our eldest daughter," he said quietly, and the words sank into my chest like ice water.

I was the contract. The pawn. The deal. And now I was broken merchandise.

"Well," my mom snapped, "she's pregnant! David, you know we can't give them a pregnant daughter."

My father nodded. "Okay, we give them Dalia."

She turned back to Delia, something wild lighting up her face. "Yes," she said, her voice climbing with excitement. "YES." She actually leapt in place, clapping her hands once like a child who'd just been told they were going to Disneyland.

"I always said you were the beautiful one," she gushed, grabbing Delia's face and kissing her forehead like she'd just been crowned queen. "You're going to marry old money, baby."

Delia beamed, soaking it in like sunlight.

Then my mom turned to me.

The warmth evaporated instantly.

"David, the city is going to laugh at us if she stays," she said sharply. "Katia needs to leave this house."

My dad's mouth opened but then closed. His jaw clenched like he was chewing a broken glass. He didn't say no. He didn't say anything. And just like that, it was happening.

She stepped toward me with that clipped, decisive pace she always used when she'd already made up her mind. Every step felt like a countdown.

"Get out!" she barked. "You do not take anything that your father and I bought for you. You are a woman now. Go to whoever got you pregnant."

Her voice cracked at the end, not from pain, but from pure disgust. Like I was something spoiled sitting on her counter that needed to be thrown away before it contaminated the rest of the house.

I looked at my dad again, and he looked aside. He turned his head away from me like I wasn't there anymore.

That hurt worse than the slap. Worse than the screaming. Worse than being treated like disposable trash.

He was supposed to love me. He was supposed to be the one who didn't fold.

I waited a beat. Just one fragile, stupid second hoping he'd change his mind, but he didn't.

So I turned. I didn't speak. Didn't cry. Didn't scream. That would've given them too much satisfaction, too much power over what was left of my dignity.

I walked down the hallway like a ghost, the bathrobe around me suddenly feeling thinner than it had a moment ago. The air felt colder with every step, like the house itself was already rejecting me. I passed the family photos, forced smiles, staged vacations, and framed lies pretending to be memories. A younger version of me stared back from one picture, eyes hopeful and unaware of how conditional love could be.

My chest felt hollow.

I reached the door.

Opened it.

The outside air hit me like a slap. It was colder than I expected. The kind of cold that cuts through fabric and pride in one blow.

I stepped outside in nothing but my robe, with no shoes. The only thing I had was my phone. And it was because they didn't see it on me; if they did, they could have taken it from me. And the door closed behind me.