Chapter 4

Friday arrived. Health screening day.

I drove Ashley and Emily to the campus clinic, my knuckles white on the steering wheel.

"Good luck, girls," I said, forcing a smile. "Call me when you' re done."

"Will do, Mom," Ashley said, already halfway out of the car.

Emily just nodded.

I waited. The hours crawled by.

My phone rang. It was Ashley.

"Hey, Mom. We' re done. They said they' ll send the results to us and the college health office next week."

Her voice was too casual.

"Okay, honey. I' ll come pick you up."

That evening, the email arrived. Addressed to Mark and me, cc' d to the girls.

From the college health services.

Subject: Important Health Information.

My breath hitched.

I opened it.

"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Miller, following today' s mandatory health screenings for incoming students, we need to inform you that both Ashley Miller and Emily Miller have tested positive for pregnancy..."

There it was. Official.

Mark came into the study. "What' s that?"

I turned the laptop screen towards him.

He read it, his face draining of color.

"Pregnant?" he whispered. "Both of them? How?"

He looked at me, his eyes wide with shock and dawning horror. "Sarah... it' s not... it can' t be me."

"I know, Mark. I know."

We called the girls downstairs.

They stood in the doorway, their faces carefully blank.

"We got an email," Mark said, his voice hoarse. "From the college. About your health screenings."

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"It says you' re both pregnant," I said, watching them closely.

No surprise. No denial.

"Who is the father?" Mark demanded, his voice rising. "Who are the fathers?"

Ashley sighed dramatically. "We' re not ready to talk about it."

Emily looked at the floor. "It' s complicated."

"Complicated?" Mark exploded. "You' re seventeen and eighteen years old! You' re pregnant! And you won' t tell us who the father is?"

"We don' t have to tell you anything," Ashley said, her voice suddenly cold.

"This is our house!" I interjected, trying to stay calm. "You live under our roof. We are your legal guardians until you turn eighteen, Ashley, and Emily, you still are."

"Not for long," Ashley muttered.

The air crackled with tension.

Mark was shaking with anger and disbelief.

"Get out of my sight," he finally said, his voice low and dangerous. "Both of you. Go to your rooms."

They turned and left without another word.

Mark sank into a chair, his head in his hands. "What is happening, Sarah?"

I didn' t have the answers yet. Not all of them.

But I knew this was just the beginning.

The next morning, it began.

My phone buzzed with a notification. A friend had tagged me in a TikTok video.

I opened it.

Ashley and Emily.

Tears streaming down their faces.

Ashley was speaking, her voice choked with emotion.

"We have to tell the truth," she sobbed. "We can' t protect him anymore."

Emily nodded, clutching Ashley' s hand.

"Our adoptive father... Mark Miller... he... he did this to us."

The camera zoomed in on their tear-stained faces.

"He forced himself on us. Repeatedly. For years."

My blood turned to ice.

"And our adoptive mother, Sarah... she knew. She must have known. She did nothing."

The video ended with a plea for help, for people to believe them.

It was already going viral.

Thousands of views. Hundreds of comments.

"Monsters!"

"Lock them up!"

"Poor girls!"

The nightmare was starting all over again.

But this time, I was awake.