I Let Her Ruin Herself Chapter 12
Taylor saw their demands as control, but she treated being called “Mrs. Miller” as a declaration of love.
Her parents refused to provide housing for her and Derek and urged her to learn about all her medical options. In response, Shirley started livestreaming from the Spencers’ front lawn, accusing them of trying to kill her great-grandchild and threatening to camp in their driveway.
Taylor refused counseling, pointedly leaving pill bottles on her nightstand. “If you make me leave Derek,” she said, “I’ll kill myself.”
Neither the family doctor nor the crisis counselor could change her mind. Within weeks, her parents looked years older.
They came to our house once, hoping I could talk some sense into her.
Mom didn’t even open the door.
“She framed him once already,” she said through the wood. “Taylor’s medical decisions are not Adrian’s responsibility. Please leave.”
Taylor was an adult. Her parents had no choice but to accept that she was going to have the baby.
Derek had no real job, living off Shirley’s Social Security and shaking down younger kids for protection money.
Once Taylor was pregnant, he moved into the Spencer house under the guise of taking care of her. When Shirley lost her lease, she moved into the guest room, too. Neither of them ever left.
To get away from them—and to make sure Taylor couldn’t come looking for me again—my parents sold our house and we moved to the other side of Philadelphia.
But I still knew what was happening in the Spencer home.
I paid one of Derek’s friends to keep putting a bug in his ear. “Once Taylor gets to college, she’ll meet better people,” the friend would say. “You really think she’ll stick around?”
Derek was terrified of being abandoned and had no intention of letting Taylor see a bigger world. He started sabotaging their contraception, convincing her that another pregnancy would prove their love.
I just gave the teetering rock a little push.
The choices were still theirs.
He got a partner, a child, and a free ride. Taylor mistook it for a love that would last forever.