Chapter 31: Forgiveness
Jessie’s voice is as distant as the past she speaks of. “I was young,” she tells me, as if she feels the need to explain herself to me. “I didn’t want a kid, you know? I didn’t want to get married or settle down—and if you got knocked up, that’s what you did back then. I just couldn’t see myself as a wife, a mother, not at that age.”
“How old are we talking?” I ask softly. I’m guessing somewhere around my own age, and I can’t imagine a child of my own, not at this point in my life, no matter what my mom wants for me.
“Twenty-six.” With a sad smile, Jessie reminds me, “Clara passed not five months before I missed my first period. Five months. Can you imagine what that does to someone? Seeing your little sister die giving birth? I didn’t want that to happen to me.
