Chapter 299: Looking for Mandy
"Go home for now," Frank said calmly as he tried to soothe old man Milkovich. "I'll give you an explanation for this."
"Frank—"
Terry Milkovich looked like he still had more to say, but when he met Frank's gaze, he swallowed the rest of his words.
"This is only because of you," Terry snorted coldly. Then he turned and left.
Once Milkovich was gone, the kids started cleaning up the house. Everything had happened too suddenly—plates, forks, and cups were scattered all over the floor.
"This isn't your fault. Nothing's going to happen," Frank said to Ian.
Frank knew Ian and Mandy's situation inside out.
But if Milkovich said Mandy was pregnant, it wasn't coming out of nowhere. Mandy had been showing up at their house every now and then.
That said, her real reason for coming over wasn't Ian at all.
She was there for Lip.
"Fuck," Frank cursed under his breath. "I told that kid again and again to use protection."
In Frank's eyes, this had to be Lip's mess.
Unfortunately, it was a school day, and Lip wasn't home—he was still at college.
Ever since starting university, Lip had been living on campus, only coming home occasionally on weekends. But something this big? School could wait.
One phone call later, Frank ordered Lip to get his ass home immediately.
As for the others—Sammi, Fiona, and the rest—Frank sent them off to do whatever they needed to do. He had Ian call in sick and stay home.
"Mandy is pregnant?!"
Lip looked completely stunned when he heard the news.
"It's yours, isn't it?" Frank said flatly.
"Mine? No way!" Lip shook his head immediately.
"She's always hanging around with you," Frank raised an eyebrow. "And you're telling me it's not yours?"
For a moment, Frank wondered if Lip was trying to dodge responsibility. He didn't remember ever raising his son to be the kind of guy who bailed after pulling his pants back on.
"It really isn't mine," Lip said seriously. "I always used protection. And these past few months, I've been buried in experiments."
It was true—Lip and Mandy had been messing around, and sometimes he even snuck her into his dorm room.
But that didn't automatically make the baby his.
But Lip had been extremely busy lately. Between working on a military-cooperative drone project, keeping up with classes, and now studying the design blueprints Frank had brought back, he barely had any time to spend with Mandy.
Over the past few months, Lip and Mandy hadn't been sleeping together much—sometimes only a few times a week.
More importantly, Lip really had taken Frank's advice to heart. He used protection every single time, and he was meticulous about it. Logically speaking, Mandy shouldn't have gotten pregnant.
"But Mandy is pregnant," Frank said with a frown. "Judging by Milkovich's reaction, it doesn't look fake."
"Even if you used protection, pregnancy is still possible," Frank added.
Condoms aren't a hundred-percent guarantee—there's always a small chance. Even women with IUDs can get pregnant. There are real cases where babies were born clutching the damn thing in their fists.
So maybe Lip was just incredibly unlucky and hit that tiny probability.
"Who knows whose kid it is," Lip said flatly.
The words sounded bad—like the excuse of some scumbag trying to dodge responsibility.
But Lip wasn't really insulting Mandy.
Between him and Mandy, there might have been some feelings, but most of the time they were just fooling around. They weren't an official couple.
And in the South Side, fidelity wasn't exactly sacred. Sleeping with one person today and another tomorrow was completely normal—just like how things used to be between Lip and Karen.
Think back to Fiona's high-school days. That infamous black diary of hers said it all.
It was very possible Mandy had other "more-than-friends" male companions—Lip wasn't necessarily the only one.
So Mandy being pregnant didn't automatically mean the baby was Lip's. It could just as easily belong to someone else.
That said, guessing like this was pointless. They needed to find Mandy and ask her directly.
"Where is Mandy now? At school?" Frank asked.
It was a regular school day. Under normal circumstances, students should have been in class.
"She's not answering her phone," Ian said. "But she's definitely not at school. Whenever something like this happens, she hides until her dad cools off."
Ian was Mandy's closest friend—he knew her patterns well.
"Where would she hide?" Frank asked.
"She has relatives in South Justin," Ian replied. "I think it's her aunt."
"You know the exact place?" Frank asked.
"Yeah," Ian nodded.
"Good. Then let's go see if we can find her—"
Frank stood up, then immediately sucked in a sharp breath and grabbed his leg.
His ankle was still badly swollen and hadn't gone down yet.
"Who's got a driver's license?" Frank asked. He clearly wasn't in any shape to drive.
"I've got a few," Lip said casually, rubbing his nose.
"Then you're driving," Frank said, not bothering to ask how Lip had "a few" licenses.
With Ian giving directions, the three of them drove off to Mandy's aunt's place.
"Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you want?"
True to Milkovich blood, Mandy's aunt was extremely polite—she opened the door with a shotgun in her hands, barrel pointed straight at Frank and the others.
"I'm Frank," Frank said calmly. "These are my sons, Lip and Ian. We're here to see Mandy. There are some things—"
"Mandy's not here," the aunt cut him off before he could finish.
"We need to see her," Frank said.
"I told you she's not here. You deaf or just stupid?" the aunt snapped.
"Alright then," Frank said evenly. "If she comes by, tell her this isn't a big deal. Uncle Frank will help her handle it. She doesn't need to worry about her dad."
"You'd better get off my property before I ventilate your guts," the aunt said, slamming the door shut.
Back in the car, Frank spoke quietly. "Mandy is definitely in there."
The aunt's reaction made it obvious—Mandy was hiding inside, just refusing to see them.
"So what now?" Lip asked.
Mandy didn't want to come out, and there was no way they were charging in. That shotgun wasn't for decoration.
"We go to the Milkovich house," Frank said.
They drove back to the South Side and parked directly in front of the Milkovich place.
"Hmph."
Old man Milkovich was sitting on the couch drinking when he saw them, letting out a cold snort.
"Where's Mickey?" Frank asked casually, not bringing up Mandy right away.