Love Unconditional

It was mid-September, and the nights had grown unseasonably cold. Chloe knew she had not ended up in the most ideal location for the birth of her child, but she didn’t know what else to do. The sixteen-year-old runaway lay shivering on the floor of a Jersey City parking garage as the final labor pains gripped her. The lonely sound of her cries echoing aimlessly off the concrete walls and asphalt floor were to her but a small representation of how she felt. She had spent months avoiding people, but now she desperately hoped someone, anyone, would come to her aid. 
Even before Chloe discovered she was pregnant, she would wake up in cold sweats after dreaming about giving birth. The location of the event was the same every time. Before this night, she did not know why there were always vehicles around in her dreams. As she lay holding her son, she felt compelled to name him Joshua since that was always the name of the baby in the night-visions. “But why?” was all she could wonder as she began to feel very faint, her mind racing as if it were trying to keep pace with her heartbeat. Thoughts of the past few years overwhelmed her as she faded in and out of consciousness. 
Chloe was the wayward daughter of an elder in one of the largest evangelical churches in New York City. She was beautiful and witty, but was also imprudent and rebellious, a combination that proved to have lasting consequences. Once Chloe realized she was pregnant, nearly all her thoughts were consumed with an intense mental struggle over whether to carry the baby to term or abort it. She grew up being taught, and she strongly believed, abortion is murder, but that was before it was her life that was being affected. As tempting as the thought was at times, Chloe just could not fathom taking the life of her child. Instead, she concealed her pregnancy as long as she could; but once she began to show she decided the only option at that moment was to run away from home. 
She was an only child, mainly because her father, Shawn, did not want any more children. The truth was, he didn’t want her from the moment he found out his wife was pregnant. He had his plans for the blissful future he and his wife would have when they married, and Chloe’s introduction into the world drastically changed all that for him. 
As a respected leader in the church, Shawn played his part there well, yet he was a hard and apathetic man at home. When he did show emotions, they were usually anger or hatred. Chloe knew that her father would not tolerate what her pregnancy proved regarding her promiscuity. She was certain his desire to appear to have his family in check so he could remain an elder was more important to him than she or her child. She felt she was going to have to leave one way or another, so why not do it on her terms? 
It was not very challenging for a pretty young woman to find eager arms in a place like New York in spite of her age and pregnant state -- at least for a while. Once she really began to show, Eddie, the man who had picked her up off the street, forced her out of his house into the late-spring night. 
“The last thing I want is some homeless jailbait popping out a kid in my house. Why don’t you go get rid of it? There are places that will do it this far into it. You’re of no use to me anymore the way you are. If you get rid of it, come on back,” stated Eddie. 
“Seriously! I’m not going to kill it, no matter how much I don’t want it. Someone out there will take it home,” replied Chloe contemptuously. 
“Why I let you stay here in the first place is beyond me,” retorted Eddie, his thin face showing his distain even more. “I must have been desperate. Oh, well. At least I knew I would not get you any more pregnant than you already are! Now get out!” he ordered as he pushed her out the door. 
Chloe fell hard to the ground as she slipped off the porch. Slowly, she stood up, rubbing her left wrist that had twisted slightly as she hit the concrete. She was so conflicted. She hated the man for many reasons, especially for what had just taken place; but now she had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Roaming the streets again was an unbearable thought, especially now as everything was becoming more difficult because of how far along she was. Suddenly she rushed up to the door and started pounding on it. 
“You promised to take care of me! You told me you would. You...you lied to me!” cried Chloe, her pleas drowned out by the noise of the busy evening traffic as she beat on the wooden door. 
Chloe’s blue eyes brightened for a moment when she heard the latch turning and watched as the door reopened. 
“Who do you think you are? Go back home and cry to your daddy. I don’t want you here if you even think about having that baby!” declared Eddie loudly before he once again slammed the door in her face. 
So emotionally distraught she was unable even to cry, Chloe slowly turned and picked up her pink and black backpack that had held her schoolbooks only months earlier. Now, the pack held what few items Chloe could call her own. 
Chloe realized her family was looking for her, and that they thought she had been kidnapped. Her story had been in the paper and on the TV for weeks after she left. She intentionally put very few items in the backpack, which she had rarely brought home from school, hoping her parents would not notice anything missing when she left. 
Chloe looked down at her dirty skirt and tattered hooded sweatshirt. “There’s no way I can show up now. Not looking like this! What a media sensation that would be. ‘Prodigal daughter shows up at door step...pregnant.’ Yeah, nice headline. I don’t think so.” Chloe mumbled to herself as she turned down what she hoped was a deserted alley. 
For the next few months, Chloe managed to remain undetected. The police were not looking for a young woman in her third trimester, so they did not look twice at her when they happened to see her wandering the streets. When she left home, there was no reason for her parents to think she was pregnant. Chloe knew that her parents, or at least her mom, trusted her. She never intended to become so sexually active; but once she started down that road, she could not seem to stop. 
Trevor seemed like a nice guy, and Chloe had a crush on him even though he had a reputation for targeting virgins at their high school. Chloe even had a friend who had lost her virginity to him. In spite of his reputation, Chloe thought she could resist his sexual advances, so when he asked her out, she did not hesitate to say, “Yes.” 
Chloe liked the attention she received both from Trevor and from other students. She viewed dating Trevor as a challenge -- almost like a game. She understood what he wanted and would try to get, and she was determined to be known as the one who withstood the most notorious person in her school.