Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Four
Despite all the turmoil, resentment and anger, Milana slept fitfully and woke up when the sun rose. She took the test from the table and peed on the stick. She sat on the edge of the bathtub as she waited for the timer to go off.
A single tear escaped from her eye as she looked at the two stripes on the test. She was pregnant. She’d need to go visit a doctor, confirm exactly how far along she was. Her eyes snapped up towards the mirror as she realized a few things.
One, she had no job and no place to live.
Two, she couldn’t leave a trail or use the Alexander name.
Three, she didn’t have insurance. She had assumed that Kelley would take care of it and had never asked and he’d never said anything or given her a copy of their insurance.
Four, she was all alone.
Five, the money would only last so long and then she’d have nothing.
The next two weeks were spent visiting a clinic where she paid cash since her card was blocked. She’d almost started crying at the atm as the machine swallowed her card and then anger took over as she realized that it had to be Kelley.
The clinic confirmed that she was already twelve weeks along. Her due date, she realized sadly, was for mid-February. She’d sent out her resume with her maiden name on it but she hadn’t had one call back for an interview.
In utter desperation she’d gone to a job hunting firm and paid the $100 to register. She had a meeting with one of the agents the following morning. She desperately needed to find a job, get an apartment or something because her search for a shared apartment in the better part of town had yielded nothing.
Nobody wanted to share with a pregnant woman and have a baby in their space in roughly six months’ time. With a bright smile on her face she walked into the office building and reported for her appointment.
“Good morning, Miss Romano. I’m Molly Whittaker,” a pleasantly sounding woman said and Milana stood up to shake her hand.
“Good morning.”
She followed the woman through to a small office that didn’t look nearly as grand as the outside of the building did. She sat down in the chair in front of her desk and declined the offer of water. The woman rummaged through stacks of paper and smiled briefly when she found what she was looking for.
“Your resume shows that you don’t really have any experience in office work,” Molly said as she flipped through the two page resume. “There’s not much I can do with you without any experience.”
“Any job would be welcome at this stage,” Milana said, sounding more positive than she felt on the inside.
“This might not really interest you but one company we do hire for has an opening, it’s part-time and at this point you’d work Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. It’s an office cleaning job from ten pm to four am and it pays weekly.”
“Part-time will have no benefits, right?”
“No, you won’t be offered any benefits but it’s a foot in the door. There’s always room to grow for someone that works hard,” Molly said.
“How much is the hourly rate?”
Molly scanned another page before answering. “It pays $15.76 per hour.”
Milana gathered courage from somewhere and smiled at Molly. “When can I start?”
Three hours later Milana walked out of Molly’s office with a copy of her contract and a number to call to go for training before she started work on the Friday night. Molly assured her that Bing would give her all the instructions she’d need to be able to do her job.
Nerves wracked through her body. She was a hard worker and she’d never thought of herself as better than other people, but somehow this job still felt demeaning, but she’d do it to the best of her abilities.
Training consisted of learning what cleaning solution went into what colour-coded bottle and how to pack and unpack her cleaning cart. They had a cleaning van that picked the employees up at a designated spot and dropped them off again at the end of their shift.
Milana would also get a travel allowance since she was the only temp working at the moment and would be cleaning one company’s offices. She was given an ID badge and told where to report and who to ask for the next night.
Milana sat in the diner on the next corner from the motel and flipped through the newspaper. Her eyes spotted an apartment for lease and she typed the address into her phone. It wasn’t the best part of St. John’s City but the rent was cheap, even on her meager salary.
Milana went to view the apartment, cringing at the smell when the landlord unlocked the door. It was a one bedroom apartment and they had a laundry room in the basement so she wouldn’t have to spend too much money on dry-cleaning.
She signed the lease and paid the deposit and first month’s rent. She had one night left at the motel and she knew she’d have to use her time wisely. She needed to deep clean the apartment, go for training on the Thursday and move out of the motel and on Friday night she started her first shift.
Milana spent hours cleaning that apartment and when she was done the place didn’t look any better than it had earlier in the day. She was exhausted when she returned to the motel and when her alarm went off the next morning she groaned at her aching muscles.
She showered, dressed and packed her bag. She sighed when she locked the door behind her and returned the key to the front desk. She took the bus to her new apartment, trying to save as much of the cash as she had left.
It wouldn’t last long at all because she needed to buy groceries, pay utilities and buy crockery. The apartment had a bed, a couch and an old box tv. No pan or pot, not a knife or spoon or plate was in the cupboards.
She would survive. She’d been through worse. Her life was in her own hands now. She had a baby on the way and she was determined to survive that as well.
