“She was a mistake!”
Wide-eyed and stuttering back, Clara couldn’t believe the words that just escaped her fiancé’s mouth. Her grip on the little bundle she was holding automatically tightened as she processed what was happening.
“She. Is. Our. Child!” Clara stuttered out, shocked and furious. “How could you even say that?”
“We had a good thing going, Clara. Everything just started picking up, but-”
“But what, Jace?! Are you telling me Fayth ‘shouldn’t’ve happened’? That she’s, what, a disturbance to our lives?!”
Clara could do nothing but glare at the man she thought she loved. She wasn’t so sure at this point, not when he was calling their child an aberration.
She thought he’d taken the news of her pregnancy ok, although he’d been away on an extended business trip at the time. He hadn’t returned until she was counting down the last few weeks, and even then, she hadn’t gotten to see him much due to work.
The few times he checked up on her, he’d seemed…amicable? Now that she thought about it, while he hadn’t looked displeased, he also hadn’t looked thrilled either.
“I just,” Jace paused, seemingly at a loss for words. “I don’t think I’m ready to be a father.”
Clara sighed. “It’s not like I’m ready to be a mother either. There’s no magic moment where all of a sudden we become the best and most prepared parents in the world. We’ll learn as we go, all parents do.”
She could tell that Jace was struggling, but why couldn’t he understand that this child need them? Their child needed them.
Having grown up with her grandparents because her good-for-nothing father had divorced her mother and then walked out on her, Clara had sworn she would be nothing like her birth parents.
She knew that when ― not if, but when ― she had a child, no matter what the circumstances, she would love and protect him/her to the end.
“I-I can’t.” Jace forced out, snapping Clara out of her reverie. “I thought I could do this, support you and start a family with you, but Clara, I-”
“Okay.” Clara interrupted, hoping her usually calm demeanour would hold her through this.
“What?” Jace looked confused. “Clara, did you hear what I just said? I can’t raise this child with you.”
“I know, and you don’t have to. She’s mine.”
“But how will you-”
“I won’t ask you for anything Jace. I wanted this child, and I will raise her even if you don’t want to.”
Exasperated, Jace ran his hand through the rough, auburn-coloured hair Clara had always loved. Not anymore though, she thought. If there was one thing women couldn’t forgive, it was cheating. Calling their child a mistake was miles above that on her black list.
“We’re over then Jace, please leave.”
Alarmed, Jace shot her a pleading look. “What? Clara honey, listen, I-”
“Nothing you will say can change anything. How can you still want to be together if you aren’t willing to start a family with me?” Clara cried. Knowing she was on the verge of tears, Clara turned away, looking out her backyard window instead of at the man who should’ve been her child’s father. “Just leave Jace. Lock the door on your way out.”
She heard nothing at first, but then the floorboards creaked, her front door lock clicked, and she knew the person she’d thought she would spend the rest of her life with had just walked out. On her and her baby.
“It was for the best,” she whispered, comforting both herself and the child she still held.
No child should ever have to grow up thinking she was a mistake. And certainly not hers.
“We’ll be fine.”
We have to be.
Art credit to Kilted-Saru, Deviantart
Mistake
/məˈstāk/
noun
an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong
There is no mistake that you cannot learn from, else why did you commit it? Mistakes are an everyday occurrence in life. Growing up, children are often raised believing that mistakes are bad, and should be avoided at all cost. While of course parents shouldn’t encourage children to screw up, they should also not instil a sense of fear in children in regards to making mistakes.
When someone tells you to “learn from your mistakes”, the tone of delivery can change the meaning of this phrase. A soft “learn from your mistakes” encourages you to take this as a lesson and move on, while a harsh “learn from your mistakes” warns you to remember it and be careful about ever committing it again.
At the end of the day, it’s all about taking note and moving on. Like the typography below, the worst mistake is to not make any. Second worst? Being stuck on them. Third? Well, if you need to be told a third, then we need to sit down and have a chat.
Art credit to WRDBNR, Deviantart
Sundry Ethos 