Unplanned (A Kennedy Stern Christian Suspense Novel Book 1)

by Alana Terry

  “I think I’m going to put my volunteer work on hold.”

  Sandy turned a corner. “Well, that’s fine by us. We figured you may need time off after all you went through.”

  “It’s not just that.” Could Sandy ever begin to guess what was going on in Kennedy’s heart? Kennedy hated to acknowledge it even to herself, but there was no way she was worthy to rejoin the pro-life movement. Not now. Probably not ever. As they drove, Kennedy told Sandy about the doubts that had plagued her since she took the first call from Jodie. “I just don’t really know where I stand on abortion at this point. I know it’s wrong. I know it’s taking an innocent life. But, I mean, what about someone like Jodie? She’s so tiny. I don’t think her body would have been able to carry a baby to term, and even if she could, I wouldn’t have wished that on her.”

  Sandy was quiet. Kennedy expected her to come back with a Bible verse or a pro-life platitude to cover over all of Kennedy’s doubts and uncertainties like a miniature Band-Aid. The silence was unnerving, so she kept talking.

  “There was a point when I realized they wanted to give Jodie the abortion pills, and a little part of me was sad that she was too far along in the pregnancy to actually take them. I mean, wouldn’t that be infinitely easier on her body?”

  “Easier?” Sandy repeated, and Kennedy stared out the passenger window.

  “I don’t know. I just, I wanted Jodie to be safe.” She was shaking. Could Sandy tell? The singer on the radio crooned quietly about God’s glorious majesty, and all Kennedy could think about was the puddle of blood on the floor of that bathroom.

  She waited for Sandy to respond, for her to tell her that it was normal to doubt. It was normal to feel the way she did. But Sandy only turned another corner and said, “We have one more quick stop.” It wasn’t until Kennedy saw the blue signs on the side of the road that she realized where they were headed.

  When they parked in front of Providence Hospital, Kennedy’s legs refused to move. I can’t do this, she wanted to say, but she couldn’t find the breath to form the words.

  Sandy put her hand on top of Kennedy’s. “There’s someone here who’s been asking to see you.”

  Two silent tears streaked unchecked down Kennedy’s cheeks.

  Sandy insisted they borrow one of the hospital’s wheelchairs since Jodie was staying in the children’s section, two towers over and four stories up. Kennedy and Sandy made their way through hallways painted in bright primary colors, watched a clown performing for a few dozen kids in hospital gowns, and passed dozens of patient rooms, but they still reached their destination before Kennedy was ready.

  “Are you all right?” Sandy asked.

  Kennedy blinked her eyes, and Sandy rolled the wheelchair in.

  A nurse was busy adjusting some funny gadgets on Jodie’s feet. She looked even smaller in her hospital gown. A shy smile inched its way across her face. “Hi.”

  Kennedy sniffed. “Hi.”

  Sandy wheeled the chair right up to the bedside. The nurse silently excused herself, and Sandy exclaimed loudly, “You know, I’ve been needing to find a restroom since we left the house. I’ll be back.”

  Kennedy had no idea what to say. One of Jodie’s arms was bruised near the indent of her elbow. The other had an IV hooked up to it. Her face was puffy, but she looked stronger and had better color. She was sitting up in her bed and looked as embarrassed and unsure of herself as Kennedy felt.

  “How …”

  “Did you …”

  They both began at once, and both stopped at the same time with nervous chuckles.

  “How are you?” Kennedy finally asked. Their voices were hushed, as if Dustin and Vinny were right outside the door, listening in on everything they said.

  “I ended up needing surgery. They …” Jodie swallowed and stared at her Curious George sheets. “They, um, they said I’ll be able to go home in a few more days.”

  “That’s great news.” Kennedy tried to sound positive but knew she had failed.

  “I’m glad they got you out safe,” Jodie said. “My dad told me as soon as he heard.”

  “Me, too.” Kennedy tried to swallow. “I … Well, you were really sick. I was happy to hear you made it to the hospital.”

  They stared blankly, and a few seconds later they both let out another round of nervous laughs, still under their breaths, still hushed, still haunted by the memories they both shared.

  “You probably need your rest,” Kennedy finally stated. When would Sandy get back? Why had she ditched her here?

  “Yeah, my mom’s been sleeping with me at night. Oh!” Jodie’s eyes widened. “Did you hear? It looks like we’ll probably be able to adopt Charlie.”

  Kennedy forced a smile. “That’s great news.” As hard as she tried, she couldn’t drag any degree of enthusiasm into her voice.

  “Yeah.” Jodie’s expression fell flat again by degrees. “I was really glad to hear that. He was fine, by the way. The day I was babysitting, I mean. He was fine. The police found him at his grandma’s.” She cleared her throat.

  Kennedy glanced at the clock. How long was Sandy going to take?

  “You know about my uncle?”

  The question caught Kennedy off guard. Was Jodie asking if she knew he was dead? Or something else? She nodded tentatively.

  Jodie let out her breath. “The doctor said something about giving the baby a DNA test. I guess you can do that even after … Well …” She bit her lower lip and stared past Kennedy. “At least Samir won’t get in trouble. Once they get the results back, I mean.”

  “So it really was …?” Kennedy couldn’t bring herself to complete the thought.

  Jodie let out what sounded like a bad imitation of a laugh. “I didn’t want to tell my parents, you know, because I thought it might hurt the election.”

  Kennedy didn’t know what to say. From their first phone conversation, there had been a connection, a certain camaraderie between her and Jodie she couldn’t explain. Now, she felt like they were slipping apart, pulled away from each other by a gravity far too strong for either to resist.

  “It was a boy, you know.” Jodie’s voice was a small hush.

  Kennedy felt her face scrunch up awkwardly. The corners of her eyes felt warm.

  “A little, tiny baby boy,” Jodie breathed, staring past Kennedy’s shoulder.

  “I bet he was beautiful.” Kennedy tried to cough but ended up making a painful choking noise deep in the back of her throat.

  “I told my mom …” Jodie let out her breath nervously. “I told my mom I wanted a picture. He just, he was so perfect. Do you think that’s weird?”

  Kennedy shook her head but couldn’t form any words.

  “I decided to name him Wayne.”

  Kennedy tried to say she thought it was a perfect name, but she wasn’t sure she got it out right.

  “They even let me hold him for a minute or two. I talked to him. Just a little. I told him I was sorry for thinking about, well, you know. I told him I hoped he wouldn’t forget me.” She looked over at Kennedy with shining eyes. “I want him to remember me when I get to heaven. Because when I’m there, I know I’m going to recognize him right away. Don’t you think?”

  Kennedy didn’t know who started crying first. She didn’t know who reached out for whom. But when Sandy came to the door, Kennedy was up on Jodie’s bed. They were curled up into each other’s arms and sobbing, mourning little Wayne, releasing all the fear and trauma of the past few days. Kennedy cried for both of their lost innocence, for the depravity that made such a sweet child suffer unimaginable torment, for the cruelty that spilled over into a world Kennedy had previously assumed was safe.

  Sandy caught Kennedy’s eye and pointed to the hallway, mouthing, I’ll be out here. Half an hour later when their tears were dried up, Jodie said her mom would stop by with Charlie to visit soon. She and Kennedy both chuckled a little again as they said good-bye, and then Kennedy let Sandy wheel her back to the car. They didn’t say anything on
the way home, but the silence filled Kennedy’s wounded, weary soul like words never could.

  CHAPTER 28

  As soon as they got back to the Lindgrens’, Kennedy took her pain meds and went to the guest room to lie down. Carl and Sandy would be busy that afternoon getting ready for the pregnancy center’s big dinner. It would be Wayne Abernathy’s first public statement since his daughter’s kidnapping. They had to make a last-minute room change because even St. Margaret’s huge fellowship hall wasn’t large enough to accommodate both the guests and the press who would be there. Nick recruited a bunch of kids from the youth group to stop by after school to set up tables in the sanctuary. There would be extra security too, although everyone assumed with Anthony dead and the computer confiscated the attacks wouldn’t proceed as planned.

  “You’re welcome to come with us.” Carl took a noisy slurp of soup that Sandy had whipped together for a late lunch.

  “I’ll see how much reading I get done this afternoon.” Kennedy was glad when Carl didn’t push the issue any further. The thought of being there with so many people left her paralyzed.

  When the time came to set up the church, Carl asked Kennedy again if she wanted to come. “If you’re not ready now, one of us could swing by and pick you up a little before six. No problem.”

  Sandy laid her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “I think she needs to rest.”

  In this case, Kennedy was happy to let Sandy answer for her.

  “Well, just text us if you change your mind,” Carl called out as he went to the bedroom to hunt for his lost keys.

  Once the Lindgrens left, it was the first time Kennedy was alone since the kidnapping. She hobbled around to make sure both the front and back doors were locked. She wasn’t in the mood to read, and Crime and Punishment wasn’t the right kind of book for a day like this anyway. Her usual spy or thriller novels wouldn’t be the right kind of distraction, either. Would she be stuck reading historical romances like her mom for the rest of her life? She heated up a bread roll Sandy left for her, glanced at some of her reading for her general chemistry class, and tried to remember where she had put that Bible someone had left her in the hospital. She found it a minute later in the guest room and returned to Psalm 139.

  For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Kennedy sat staring at the words. Shouldn’t they speak to her? Shouldn’t they mean something at a time like this?

  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. What did Jodie’s baby look like? She almost wished Jodie had offered to show her the picture she had. Was he a tiny version of his mother? Kennedy tried to swallow away the lump in her throat with another bite of bread.

  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. God had loved that baby. She knew now that Jodie had, too. Was that what pastors and politicians meant when they spouted off terms like sanctity of life?

  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. All the days. Did that include baby Wayne’s days in the womb? Had he been knitted together in time to know how much God loved him? To know how much his mom loved him, scared and young and ill-prepared as she was?

  Kennedy’s eyes hurt. She shut the Bible and thought about calling Reuben. She wasn’t quite sure why she hadn’t yet. Part of her was scared he would ask too many questions. Another part of her didn’t want to admit anything had changed. She didn’t want to talk. Especially about the past few days.

  Kennedy checked her phone. Tomorrow, Carl would take it in to get the surveillance bugs removed. Did she really want to use it yet? She stared at her empty plate and her assignment notebook for another twenty minutes before she finally picked it back up and found Reuben’s name in her contacts.

  “It’s about time I heard from you!” There was both relief and good humor in his voice.

  Kennedy couldn’t help laughing. “I’m sorry. It’s been a busy few days.”

  “I’m sure it has. I’m hearing all about it right now, actually.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Check out Channel 7 News and then call me back.”

  Kennedy wasn’t sure she wanted to hear some newscaster recount the horrid details of her and Jodie’s capture. She was sure they wouldn’t spare Jodie any courtesies on account of her age. She knew Carl had been right. Anything that might stink of scandal this close to the election was going to make huge headlines.

  Reuben had already ended the call. She didn’t want to spend the rest of the night in such suffocating silence, and she knew Reuben would probably want to know how many details from the news report were accurate. Part of her wondered the same thing. Fortunately, the Lindgrens’ TV was one of the old-fashioned kinds that were really easy to use. She flipped to channel 7 and saw Wayne Abernathy’s face instead of the floating head she expected. The news ticker at the bottom flashed details about Jodie’s capture and child-abuse allegations against the late Anthony Abernathy, but Kennedy was paying too much attention to Wayne’s speech to try to read them all.

  “I’ve been the front-line man when it comes to the war against abortion for some time now. It’s a cause I believe in deeply, a cause I’ve fought for zealously.” He was wearing a red, white, and blue tie and one of those little American flag lapel pins. Fitting for a pre-election speech.

  “Unfortunately, my commitment to the pro-life movement has had a price, a price my wife, our children, and our extended family have had to pay. Last year, many of you blessed us with your condolences, prayers, and well-wishes when my sister-in-law passed away. Moriah was a beautiful, angelic creature, who chose to delay chemotherapy treatment when she discovered she was pregnant. Her choice was a personal one, not forced upon her by any pastor or priest or politician. It was a choice her doctors may have disagreed with, but they respected it as a choice that she alone could make.”

  Kennedy leaned forward to listen.

  “Moriah died shortly after giving the precious gift of life to my little nephew, Charlie. Our memories of her will be of a woman who was strong, courageous, who found strength in God and wasn’t afraid of dying. Everyone who knew her suffered when she passed, but none more than her husband.”

  Wayne cleared his throat. He would probably make a good actor. Kennedy could picture him on stage next to Willow.

  “I’m sure most of you by now have heard of the charges and allegations brought against my brother, Anthony. Charges of vandalizing the new Cambridge Community Pregnancy Center, whose opening we celebrate tonight. Charges of targeting my campaign in order to stop the pro-life cause in our state. And, unfortunately, charges that hit much closer to home.”

  Kennedy turned up the volume so she wouldn’t miss a word.

  “My daughter, as you have already heard, was pregnant when she was abducted Tuesday morning. It was as much as a shock to us as it was to you, believe me. Unfortunately, Anthony learned about the pregnancy before we did and tried to convince our daughter to kill her unborn baby. He eventually resorted to kidnapping her with the intention of forcing an abortion. We assume it was an attempt to smear my campaign. Any motivations beyond that are purely speculation at this point, and I ask that in deference to our family’s privacy and to our daughter’s young age that none of us allow the spread of ungrounded, malicious rumors.”

  Staring past the blinding, dazzling spotlights and camera flashes, Kennedy was surprised at how many wrinkles were on Wayne’s face. Not something she noticed the other times she had seen him.

  “I would like to publically thank God as well as the FBI team who responded at the rescue scene to ensure my daughter and the other hostage involved were delivered to safety. Unfortunately, injuries sustained during my daughter’s abduction resulted in a spontaneous miscarriage. Please note that this was not the result of an elective abortion, and that if her mother and I had known about her condition …” Here his voice caught. He took a drink of bottled water. “We would have done everything in our power
to give our daughter a safe and healthy pregnancy. We would have opened our arms and our home to give our grandson a loving, caring childhood. I would also like to take this chance to publically announce that even if our daughter had gone through with the abortion procedure like her uncle wanted, we would have loved her unconditionally, just as God loves his own children.”

  Kennedy’s throat was parched, but she didn’t want to get up for a drink. Not yet.

  “Because of these recent events, I have decided to withdraw from the gubernatorial race next week. My priority right now is to be with my family, to ensure my daughter gets the rest and healing she needs, and to protect our privacy during this difficult time. My wife and I have also assumed guardianship of my nephew, Charlie, and we will be busy helping him adjust to life without either his father or his mother. For those of you inclined to prayer, I ask you to remember us.”

  The next few minutes were filled with questions from the press and comments from the newscaster, who was a little zealous in reporting that one of the kidnapping suspects was still at large. Kennedy finally turned the TV off, wincing as she stood up from the couch. Her back was stiff. She thought she could use a hot shower but wasn’t sure she had the energy to move down the hall.

  There was a knock on the door. Kennedy froze.

  “Kennedy? You in there?” Her heart raced as fast as spinning electrons. She grabbed her phone, ready to call 911. “Kennedy?”

  If she could slow down her heart to remember where she had heard the voice before …

  “It’s me, Nick. From St. Margaret’s.”

  Kennedy shuffled toward the door, still not sure how she felt about the intrusion into her evening of solitude. “Hi.” She held the door open but couldn’t mask the question in her voice. Nick looked halfway normal in khaki pants and a dark blue sweater. He could have passed for any one of Cambridge’s thousands of young men in casual work attire if it hadn’t been for the dreadlocks. What was he doing here?

  “Carl sent me. He says they have way too much food, and he wants you to come get your fill.” Nick lowered his voice. “But Sandy wants you to know it’s totally fine if you stay home and rest. She’ll make sure Carl doesn’t give you a hard time for it.”