Though this probably isn't a conversation they should have from separate rooms and she knows it, Molly isn't expecting Lee to come into the kitchen before she can walk out, and she sure as hell isn't expecting him to reach for her hand. For a moment, she's tempted to pull away, but she doesn't. Angry or not, she needs to get this out before she picks a fight or circles back around to that, and she's too caught up in her own head to switch gears like that now anyway. She's known since yesterday that she was going to have to tell him about this, but that doesn't make her any more prepared to now. It just isn't something she talks about, and with good reason. But it's relevant now in a way she never imagined it would be, and especially in the face of what he's had to say, there isn't really any getting around it.
"Back home, I slept with my boss," she says, figuring she might as well cut to the chase on that front, not yet lifting her gaze. "This guy running for president, whose campaign I was working on. He was married, had a kid. It wasn't supposed to be a big deal. I mean, it was just the one time, and he's the one who came on to me, and it wasn't like it meant anything. Except I wound up pregnant." She swallows hard, taking a deep, unsteady breath before she continues. "It was a liability. I was a liability. His career, my career, my dad's career, they all would have been ruined if it ever got out. So... I had an abortion."
She's wondered sometimes what she would have done if it were anyone else's. At twenty, she'd been even less ready to have a baby than she thinks she is now, but she can't really see herself making the same decision under any other circumstances, either. The situation being what it was, she hadn't really had one at all. Now, she does, and however much she might not want it, whatever damage has already been done here, the one thing she is certain of is that she won't do the same thing this time.
Finally, she looks up at Lee, swiping her free hand over her cheeks as she lets out a laugh with no humor behind it. "You know, the really funny thing is, the guy who took me to the clinic? When he dropped me off, he said he'd be back. I waited around all night for him, too."
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"Back home, I slept with my boss," she says, figuring she might as well cut to the chase on that front, not yet lifting her gaze. "This guy running for president, whose campaign I was working on. He was married, had a kid. It wasn't supposed to be a big deal. I mean, it was just the one time, and he's the one who came on to me, and it wasn't like it meant anything. Except I wound up pregnant." She swallows hard, taking a deep, unsteady breath before she continues. "It was a liability. I was a liability. His career, my career, my dad's career, they all would have been ruined if it ever got out. So... I had an abortion."
She's wondered sometimes what she would have done if it were anyone else's. At twenty, she'd been even less ready to have a baby than she thinks she is now, but she can't really see herself making the same decision under any other circumstances, either. The situation being what it was, she hadn't really had one at all. Now, she does, and however much she might not want it, whatever damage has already been done here, the one thing she is certain of is that she won't do the same thing this time.
Finally, she looks up at Lee, swiping her free hand over her cheeks as she lets out a laugh with no humor behind it. "You know, the really funny thing is, the guy who took me to the clinic? When he dropped me off, he said he'd be back. I waited around all night for him, too."