"I must have hit the jackpot in my first dating ever," Amelia said as she talked to Joey, and they would both marvel at how William was the perfect boyfriend and how all men should be like William.
But the rosy relationship almost came to an end when Amelia discovered that she was expecting.
After only one night with William! How the hell would such a thing happen?
She felt as though her whole world had come to an end, but William was supportive and willing to do what was right for her and their unborn child.
They would then arrange for both parties to meet each other's parents. Amelia was scared to death because she knew she had disappointed her parents.
She imagined them closing the door on her and William's face and cutting ties with her.
"William, what do you want to do?" William's father, Ben, had asked him seriously.
"Marry her," William answered without thinking twice. He was holding Amelia's hands, and they both smiled, though Amelia was dying inside. She wanted the meeting to be over and done with.
"Just like I thought. It's the right thing to do if you both want it." Ben said.
William's mother, Margret, was over the moon and couldn't stop blushing in excitement. She was so warm towards Amelia, treating her as though they had known each other all their lives, and Amelia wished the woman before her was her own mother.
She smiled and softly touched her growing belly anytime Margret asked for her opinion on something, and in doing so, she thought of the kind of mother she would be to that baby.
'I love you, baby,' she whispered to the growing fetus.
~
"Wow. That was much easier than I thought." Amelia said once they were out.
She hadn't wanted to leave Margret, but she knew she had a bigger demon to face. She would thank the heavens if she came out of her parents' house alive.
"I told you not to worry. Our next battle is with your parents. I hope they won't have any problem," William said hopefully.
He was smiling and beaming contagiously, and if it were not for the thousands of butterflies Amelia had in her stomach, she would have also smiled.
A day later, when they got to Amelia's parents' home, it was like Amelia had feared.
The mom, Jenny, was sympathetic, but her hands were tied. She was a traditional woman who didn't believe in going against the husband, and so, she sat and watched how her husband and Amelia's father, David, was mean to Amelia and William.
She sat and watched as though it was a scripted soap opera being aired on TV, which she couldn't do anything to change.
Maybe, that is what had hurt Amelia the most.
David was so adamant that he didn't want anything to do with Amelia because he thought she had brought him nothing but shame.
"I wish you were a boy," David had at times told Amelia, and she had never taken his words to heart except at that very moment when she sat with those she had thought were her greatest pillars.
Sitting with her arms folded on her chest across David's chair, Amelia had seen for the first time how much David thought she was good for nothing.
She wondered how she had been so blind to see it all those years, but at least she was grateful she knew where she stood: there was absolutely no place for her in her father's heart.
With tears in her eyes, she looked at the mom and had spite and pity for her.
"I will never be a woman like you. You couldn't stand up for your own daughter. Hell, how can you when you can't even stand for your own self?" Amelia had told the mom, then got up and left, followed by William.
With a heavy heart, the two lovebirds went back to the small house William had rented near campus.
Throughout the flight back, Amelia wouldn't stop crying, but William assured her that he would be there for her every step of the way, and she nodded, though she wasn't sure she believed him.
Which man would stay with her if her own parents had rejected her?
But life, as they say, is very unpredictable, and people are always warned against saying never because never can change to always.
That's exactly what had happened to Amelia because years later, when Amelia and William had two children, Bill and Dan, Amelia would end up abandoning her kids.
Unlike when her parents had rejected her for what they considered her mistake, Amelia would abandon her kids for something that was purely not their fault.
It was hers.
She hadn't been honest with William from the beginning.