Chapter 228

Helens POV

The end of my first trimester came and went, and sadly Justin missed a large chunk of it. After the news about one of the twins belonging to the Huntsman, he moved back into his father’s mansion and left me alone at my house. He came for dinner most nights, but we talked about silly things like the weather and, now that spring was arriving, what we were going to do for the pack at the new park he had planned.

Every time he came over, my heart leaped with joy, and every time he left, I wanted to cry. In fact, most nights, I did. Justin would go, and I would crawl into my bed upstairs, all shades of miserable. After having a long discussion with Justin and Randy and our two doctors, we decided that we would keep both babies and we wouldn’t try to do the banishing rite unless the baby turned out to be horrible.

But Lisa and Russo were already starting to train two additional witches that she was friends with in how to do the ritual, just in case it ever needed to be done. After we told them about the one twin, Lisa and Russo had refused to speak with me. Somehow, I’d become a pariah again through no fault of my own. Only this time, it felt worse than it had with my parents.

At least when my family had ignored me, they had all ignored me from the very beginning. It wasn’t hard to adjust to a change in people’s perceptions when people’s perceptions never changed. My mother and my father treated me like garbage from the moment that I was born, well, my father and my stepmother. I guess I didn’t want to claim that woman as my blood.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t write off my friends as easily as my stepmother, especially when they were the ones choosing not to claim me. My only friend that would come and speak with me was Julianne. And speaking of Julianne, the knock on the door was probably her.

Julianne had invited herself over, and we were supposed to talk about new cookies to try making. But I just have an appetite. I hadn’t had much of one at all, not since the news.

I managed to get myself dressed in my pajama pants, tank top, and my slippers in order to drag myself, shuffling, down to answer the door. Being pregnant with twins, I was warm all the time, so I didn’t need fuzzy winter clothing, not this year. Like eating, I also didn’t feel like getting dressed.

Besides, since there were two babies inside me, I could tell that I was very quickly going to need maternity clothes. And going shopping was completely unappealing.

I opened the door, and Julianne clicked her tongue in disappointment at me. “Look at you,” she scolded. “What have you been doing with yourself?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled.

She took me by the shoulders and led me into the living room, and sat me down on the couch, standing over me like a mother lecturing her child. “This is pathetic. How can you let yourself go like this?”

“I’m miserable,” I said.

“So you’re going to punish yourself and make yourself feel even more miserable? I’m not suggesting that you get dressed up and prance around and try and act happy when you’re not.” She wrinkled her nose. “At least bathe.”

“Why?” I gave my shoulders a shrug. “It’s not like anyone comes to see me except you.”

“Well, then do it for me,” she said, gagging. “You stink. Come on, upstairs with you.”

She grabbed my arm and pulled me off the couch, dragging me up toward the main bathroom. “I don’t want to hear any of your excuses,” she lectured. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Despite my protests, she yanked my pants down and pulled my tank top over my head. While the water ran in the tub, she dumped in several essential oils until the bathroom smelled like a spa.

“There now, get in,” she murmured, soothing. “I’m going to go downstairs while you soak and decompress, and I’m going to make you a proper breakfast with everything you and your growing children need. Then I’m going to come back up here, and I’m going to scrub you, whether you like it or not.”

She pushed me to sit in the warm water. “Now, once you’re all clean, we’re going to get you fed, and we’re going to see if maybe you aren’t just a bit less miserable when you’ve taken proper care of yourself.”

I mustered up the smallest smile, but it was the best I could do. “Thank you for continuing to be my friend.”

She waited until I was sitting in the water, then drew the curtain on the bathtub shut. “It’s not like you did anything to warrant any of this,” I heard her grumbling on the way out of the bathroom. Before the door clicked shut, I heard her grumble, “The rest of them are just assholes for putting you through this.”

I leaned back. I wanted to muster up anger because I agreed with her. Everyone around me was kind of being shitty in their reaction to the news about my baby, at least in the way they were treating me. It wasn’t my fault the Huntsman raped me, and I got knocked up by him. And, given the disgusting circumstances, I could use their support.

Because no matter how much they were sickened by the events or the resulting baby, it was my body going through this. I’m the one with a part demon growing inside me. I was the one that would have to carry him or her to term. It was me that would have to give birth to this child. It was me that would have to suckle it and mother it.

The rest of them only had to put up with the mess. The least they could do would be to support me while I tried to do the rest. But no matter how much I tried to get angry, I just couldn’t. It felt like all emotion had been leached out of me, and now I was some dry husk, and the only thing left was misery.

I let tears drip down my face. What did it matter anyway if Julianne came back and saw me crying? She already knew how miserable I was, and it wasn’t like I was getting anything wetter since I was sitting in a bathtub. At least this way, I could let all the poisonous emotions out here in the tub. Then maybe we could have a conversation without the tears after she came back.

Before I’d gotten a handle on myself, Julianne barged in and to my shock, yanked open the shower curtains and pointed the phone at me, camera side out.

“You see,” she snarled into the phone. “Do you see what you guys are doing to her?”

I squeaked and grabbed the shower curtain, trying to hide everything from my breasts down under its folds. “Who all is on that phone call?” I demanded.

“Don’t worry. Most of them have seen you naked already.” She tossed the thin assurance my way. “Anyway, it’s just Justin, Randy, Russo, and Lisa. I thought they should know exactly how miserable their treatment of you is making you. I’ve tried scolding them in person, and yet every time I come, you’re still all alone.”

She turned her attention to the others on the call. “How can you guys do this to her and call yourselves her friends or family?” Julianne shook her head at the phone. “You guys are pathetic. It makes me sad to call you my friends. That you can let this happen to a good woman . . .”

She turned the phone away from me. “Everyone on this call is perfectly aware that Helen had nothing to do with her current situation, and yet you’re torturing her like she deliberately went out and got knocked up by that wretched Huntsman instead of treating her like the victim that she is. If anyone in this scenario makes me sick to my stomach, if anyone is acting like a demon, it’s the four of you.”

And with that, she hung up the phone and tossed it onto the counter.