On One Life to Live, seventeen-year-old Destiny Evans (Shenell Edmonds) discovered that she was pregnant. Destiny and Matthew Buchanan (Eddie Alderson) had been intimate just one time.
Matthew and Destiny aren’t the typical couple as they are best friends. She had a crush on him, but he moved onto Dani. Eventually Dani fell for Nate, and Destiny and Dani overcame their differences to become best girlfriends. Matthew took a dark turn after losing Dani, and started to behave badly. While Destiny wasn’t happy with how Matthew was acting, she didn’t turn her back on him.
Matthew became even more troubled after he assumed his mother Nora and father Bo were cheating on one another with Eddie and Inez respectively. This was untrue, but this information caused Matthew to do the unthinkable. He found the guy who kidnapped his mother (Eddie Ford), who happens to be Nate’s father, and shot him. Eddie taunted Matthew, and bang. Matthew lied about killing Eddie and nearly allowed both Nate and Inez to go to prison for the murder.
Before finding out what Matthew, did Destiny and Matthew kissed, but he couldn’t deal with her at that point. While Destiny did date someone else (Darren) after Matthew said he wasn’t interested, that relationship broke apart due to Darren’s insistence she reconcile with her grandparents that lied about her origins. After Matthew told Destiny the truth, she comforted him and they had sex, losing their virginity to each other. They did it off screen (considering the actors are both teenagers this is understandable). Matthew admitted to Destiny that what happened between them meant something beyond friendship.
Destiny’s brother Shaun (actually her uncle, but since she was raised by his parents they were treated as siblings) overheard Destiny and Matthew talking about what happened between them. Destiny lied to protect Matthew as Shaun would have been horrified hearing about her having sex.
Unfortunately for Destiny and Matthew, Nate found out about Matthew killing Eddie. Nate confronted Matthew and punched him. Matthew fell to the ground and hit his head. Matthew remains hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury and no one knows if he will ever fully recover.
At first, Destiny was in denial about being pregnant. She took a test that came up positive and confided in Dani. Eventually Vivian, Shaun’s doctor girlfriend figured out what was going on another test was run. Shaun, Vivian and Dani were there for Destiny as she decided what to do. Finding out you are pregnant as a teenager must be difficult, but in Destiny’s case having the father in the hospital potentially forever makes it even worse.
Destiny decided to have an abortion as she wasn’t ready to be a mother and Matthew wasn’t able to support her. Due to her age, she needed her grandmother’s consent. This crisis brought Destiny and her grandmother Phylicia closer, and they reunited. Phylicia as a social worker was uniquely qualified to help her granddaughter. Since there is a 24-hour waiting period, Destiny went to visit Matthew and told him about the abortion. Matthew’s mother Nora overheard the one-sided conversation. She pleaded with Destiny to have the baby, as that may be all they have left of Matthew as he is incapacitated. Destiny took Nora’s words to heart and decided to not have an abortion.
Due to how far Destiny is in her pregnancy, it looks like she will have Matthew’s child in a few months. Finding out what Nora said to Destiny angered Phylicia and she confronted her with a slap. Making her granddaughter have a child based on guilt is wrong. Even if Nora and her husband Bo raise the child, Destiny will be a mother when she isn’t ready. Nora to her credit understood where Phylicia was coming from even if she is relieved her son looks to be having a child. During this fight the race issue wasn't mentioned explicitly, but with Matthew being Jewish and white and Destiny being African-American, it almost felt like it was implied. As Nora has an interracial daughter from her first marriage Rachel, who lives in Chicago, race doesn't matter to her.
In the next few months, we will see how Destiny copes with being a pregnant high school senior. Having a child changes everything, and all of her future plans including college are up in the air. It won’t be easy, but with the help of her friends and family she will have a lot of support. Hopefully Matthew will get better so she can share this experience with him.
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