Chapter 74: Heidi’s News

Heidi sat at the dinner table with her parents, her fingers lightly gripping the stem of her water glass as she braced herself for the conversation ahead. The smell of her mother’s home-cooked roast and potatoes filled the dining room, but Heidi’s appetite was nowhere to be found.

She had practiced what she was going to say over and over in her head, keeping her tone light and casual, like this wasn’t a big deal. She knew better, though. Everything was a big deal to her parents.

Taking a deep breath, she set her glass down. “So ... I have some news.”

Tim, Sylvia, and Leslie all turned to look at her.

Heidi kept her tone upbeat but measured. “I’m moving into a new apartment in Sandy Springs.”

The room went still.

“You’re moving?” Leslie asked, eyebrows raised.

Her father, Tim, set his fork down with his jaw tightening. “Heidi Why? What made you decide to do this?”

Her mother, Sylvia, blinked in surprise, clearly taken aback. “Sandy Springs? What? Why would you want to move that far?”

Heidi was prepared for this. “It just makes the most sense with my new schedule. Law school is only getting more demanding, and now that I’ve started working as a TA, commuting back and forth from Bartow County is just going to be too much. Sandy Springs is way more central, it’ll cut my drive time significantly.”

Tim exhaled sharply, already irritated. “This is ridiculous, Heidi. You have a perfectly good home here. You don’t need to be wasting money on some overpriced apartment just because you ‘don’t feel like commuting.’”

Heidi fought the urge to roll her eyes. Here we go.

“It’s not just about the commute, Dad. I just feel like ... I need my own space.”

Sylvia folded her hands together, frowning. “Sweetheart, we just don’t see why you need to live so far from home. We’re your parents, we’re here to help you, and Sandy Springs? Really?

“And you know how much of a disaster Fulton County is.” Tim chimed. “It’s run by a bunch of liberals who don’t know the first thing about—”

“Oh my God, can we not make this about politics?” Heidi cut in, already exasperated.

Tim leaned back in his chair, shaking his head. “It’s not just politics, Heidi. You know what kind of people live there. Crime is higher, it’s overpopulated, and don’t get me started on the kind of riffraff that hangs around those areas.”

Heidi’s stomach twisted at the blatant undertone of his words. “The ‘kind of people’? Jesus, Dad, just say what you really mean.”

Tim narrowed his eyes. “Heidi ... Watch your tone.”

Sylvia reached out as if to calm things down. “We just want you to be safe, honey. That’s all. You’re a young, beautiful woman. If something happens to you out there, we won’t be close by to help.”

Heidi took a slow, deep breath. She knew this wasn’t just about safety or money. This was about control and keeping her in the conservative bubble they’d built for her. That bubble had already popped though.

“I appreciate your concern. Really, I do,” she said, softening her voice slightly. “But this is my decision. I’ve already signed the lease, and I move in next month.”

Tim stared at her for a second, then finally spoke again. “You signed a lease? When?”

“Yesterday.” Heidi responded.

“I thought you were with Stacy yesterday.” Sylvia said looking more concerned. “That’s what you told me last night.”

“I was with Stacy,” Heidi lied confidently. “But that was after I visited the apartment complex and signed the lease.”

“Heidi ... sweetheart ... we’re just concerned. This feels ... really rash. Maybe we can call the complex, and we can talk about reversing the—”

“There’s no reversing it, Mom.” Heidi interrupted more sharply than she intended. She took a breath before continuing. “It’s signed and it’s done. And even if I could reverse it, I wouldn’t. I I’m set on doing this. I’m ready.”

Leslie hadn’t said much during this whole exchange, but she was looking at Heidi with a mixture of shock and something else Heidi couldn’t quite place.

Tim scoffed. “Unbelievable.”

Sylvia looked at her with something like disappointment. “We just don’t understand why you’d want to leave the home you grew up in.”

Because I’m pregnant with the contractor’s baby, and if I stay here, you’ll find out sooner than I want you to, Heidi thought.

Heidi swallowed the bitter truth, instead keeping her expression neutral. “Because I need to start my own life. That’s all.”

Her parents didn’t like it, but there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it.

Later that evening, Heidi was in her room studying when her younger sister Leslie walked in and shut the door. Heidi watched her from the side as she sat on her bed.

Then Leslie said something that rocked Heidi’s world: “So how long have you and Jalen been a thing?”

Heidi’s heart nearly stopped. Her grip tightened on the highlighter in her hand as she stared at her open law book, her brain slamming the emergency brakes on whatever she had been reading. Slowly, she turned her head to look at her younger sister, who was casually sitting on her bed like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb in the middle of Heidi’s life.