1027 Confession of Rose West
The rest of the ride home was quiet and none of them uttered a word, except for a few occasional glances at each other.
The car stopped near the front gate of their house, but none of them got out of the car. The awkwardness between Lucy and Rose was unbearable.
"So…" Rose let go of the steering wheel and turned off the car. "Umm… we are home."
"I know."
"Are you… not going to get off? I need to park the car," Rose asked nervously and glanced at Lucy.
"I have… something on my mind. I have a question." Lucy turned to Rose and asked, "I am deeply disappointed in you. Although I never had any respect for you in the first place, but…"
Lucy let out a weary sigh and shook her head in disbelief before continuing, "I don't know what to say. Whatever dad did to deserve a terrible wife like you. I am truly saddened that you got my custody instead of dad."
"..." Rose sat there and quietly listened to Lucy's comments.
"Once I turn 18, I am moving the shit out of this house and moving in with dad," Lucy asserted and turned to open the car's door to leave.
"Won't you listen to what I have to say?" Rose immediately asked. "I listened to you and let you speak. Now it's my turn."
Noticing the never before seriousness in her mother's eyes, Lucy decided to stay and allow Rose to explain herself.
"First of all, you are absolutely right. I am a terrible human being. However, I am a good mother. You can't deny that. I never compromised in anything to raise you and always placed your happiness my priority," Rose asserted with a composed look on her face.
"..."
"Feel free to deny that. If you prove me wrong, I will instantly agree," Rose added.
"..." Lucy spent a few seconds thinking of a perfect response to prove Rose wrong, but she couldn't come up with one. Sure, she could simply make up anything and lie about it, but she would never do that.
It was Rose's good parenting that made Lucy a good person, unlike Paul, who had become a scum under Joe's terrible parenting.
Feeling somehow defeated, Lucy rolled her eyes and asked, "Are you done?" "Not yet. While we are talking about it, let's talk about Joe. He is not like what he seems."
"Yeah, of course. Now you will feed me some lies about him and expect me to hate him instead of you, right? Or are you going to play victim and gain my sympathy?" Lucy remarked with an intentional scoff.
"Joe is indeed a good guy… a very good guy. In fact, he is the kindest person in the world," Rose stated.
"Uhh…" Lucy was speechless. She didn't expect Rose to praise Joe.
"But the problem is that he tries to be kind to everyone and ends up making serious mistakes. In order to become a saint, he ends up becoming a fool."
"See? I knew it! You were going to badmouth dad!" Lucy shouted.
"I am not. He comes from a religious family. His father was… well, father. The bishop of the cathedral. And my father worked under his father. We didn't even live in the same town, but whenever there was a gathering of priests, my father took me with him.
I would meet Joe and other boys and girls, who were also sons and daughters of the other priests. Joe's father also ran a bakery, as you know. I was super interested in baking ever since I was a kid, so I would go to his bakery and learn to bake there.
Now, we don't have time and I am not going to narrate the entire story to you. So… Joe had already crossed puberty and, just like every boy, he had sexual tension. All of his friends had girlfriends already, while no girl was ready to date him— even though he was handsome— because he was the son of the head priest.
The only girl he was close to was me. One day, I began to notice changes in his behavior towards me. I would catch him looking at me and… my boobs, my ass. But I would ignore it."
Rose let out a short sigh and chuckled a little.
"Actually, no. I liked whenever he checked me out. Not just him, but even in school and on the streets. I liked when boys looked at me and gave me that… lustful look."
"Wow. That's a slut behavior," Lucy clapped with a disappointed look on her face.
"I was also at age, okay? I was raised in a strict environment so I liked getting attention like that. Not that I would let any boy touch me," she shrugged. "That never happened. I used to dress very modestly, and they still looked at me. I was not to blame, you know?"
"So, how did you end up getting pregnant?" Lucy raised her brow.
"It was my birthday and Joe had baked a cake for me. I was very happy that day and went to the cathedral to express my gratitude. There, Joe got down on his knees and expressed his love to me. Now, I want to clarify that I didn't particularly loved him, but I didn't hated him either.
He was so sweet and kind. How could anyone hate him?"
"What did you do then?" Curiosity brimming in Lucy's eyes.
"Of course, I told him that we can't be in a relationship because of our family background. In response, he told me that he has a perfect solution for that. Since he was training to be the priest, he had knowledge. He said if we got married, we can be in a relationship.
I was obviously baffled after hearing that. He was talking about marriage all of a sudden. But… Being a foolish and innocent girl, I did as Joe told me. He chanted some verses and told me that we were now married."
"Wait a minute… 'innocent girl'? You?" Lucy scoffed. "Come on, try something else."
Rose furrowed her brows at Lucy and asked, "Are you seriously doing this?"
"What happened after?" Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Joe told me that since we were married now, we should do what came next. Of course, I knew what he was trying to say, but I wasn't sure about it. So I told him that I didn't know what to do. He told me a few things and asked me where I wanted to do it.
Obviously, our homes were out of the question. We couldn't go to the bakery either. We didn't know other places to go, so we decided to… sigh… I feel ashamed to say this, but… we did it in the cathedral."
"...."
"In the confession box, to be precise."
"You weren't against the idea of having sex? Like, you were okay with having sex with him even though you weren't in love with him?" Lucy wondered.
"It wasn't about him. I was curious about sex. My friends and classmates always told me how great it feels and how it helps them become more beautiful. I wanted to know what sex felt like and thus… I ended up making a big mistake."
"You got pregnant by having sex once? That's impossible."
'The chances are not zero, but I didn't get pregnant when Rudy and I were…'