The Chosen One

by Marla Meyers

  That night, she once again made love with Brycen—over and over, almost subconsciously wanting there to be no doubts in his mind.

  In the next few weeks, Brycen as an unsuspecting player, continued to help Marissa full proof her plan. Much to Marissa’s surprise, they had never even discussed birth control. She thought Brycen probably assumed that she was on the pill. Or, maybe not. She certainly was not going to bring it up now.

  Many sleepless nights followed their love making, for Marissa. As Brycen slept, she found herself watching him. Sometimes she would just hold him, relieved he was sleeping and couldn’t see the tears pouring from her eyes. What kind of person does this, she wondered. Several times she had thought to just give it up—give Brycen up. But, she wanted so badly to have him in her life. He felt so good, so right. Besides, he would never have to know.

  Little by little Brycen had moved most of his clothes and personal items to Marissa’s townhouse. They were together every night now. Still, there was no talk of officially moving in together or anything more permanent.

  Several times Marissa came close to ending the relationship. Sometimes she felt like what she was doing was so wrong. But, she always faced her guilt with thoughts of she, Brycen and the baby and them as a family. He was so wonderful. She knew he would love this baby.

  As the scale showed a five-pound increase, she was starting more and more to want to share this experience with him. Besides, she knew she would have to do something soon. Soon it would look like more than just too many late-night bowls of ice cream. With constant coaching from Becka, she assumed she would tell him soon.

  To her surprise, she didn’t have to wait too long. “Marissa,” Brycen began late one night after they had made love, “do you want to talk about anything?”

  Her eyes surely revealed the panic she felt in her heart. Brycen looked so serious. God, he knows, she thought.

  Somehow. he knows.

  “Babe I can tell something is wrong. Talk to me,” he said, almost pleading with her.

  “It’s nothing. really. I’m just tired.”

  He looked into her eyes, while gently rubbing her hand between his, looking unsatisfied with her answer.

  “Marissa…I know you’re tired. I can see that,” he began, “but, I have also noticed something else.”

  “What?” she asked, knowing immediately that she sounded much too alarmed.

  “You haven’t had a period since we’ve been together. Are you pregnant?”

  Her heart was racing, her bottom lip trembling. She took her eyes from his, removing her hand from his.

  God what is he thinking? Does he know? The moment of truth was here.

  “Baby, if you’re pregnant I couldn’t be happier. You know how much I love you. I know we haven’t really talked about making our situation permanent, but I guess well, I guess I always just assumed we would someday. Will you talk to me…please?”

  He looked so sweet. Part of her wanted to tell him everything about Joshua about the plan she and Becka had come up with all of it. Instead, she began to cry, before answering him. “Yes I am.”

  “Marissa, how long have you known?” he asked, reaching for her hand again.

  Knowing this would be the tricky part, she tried to select her words carefully, knowing that she was indeed going to make Brycen believe this was his child. She knew she would deserve the lonely pain of the lie she was about to tell, but even worse she couldn’t bear to lose him.

  “I just did a pregnancy test yesterday. It was positive, Brycen. I’m sorry. My doctor had always told me that he didn’t think I would be able to have children, and I just…” she was starting to ramble, when he interrupted her.

  “Don’t you dare apologize to me. I love you. I am forty-two years old. My biological clock is ticking away, too ya’ know? I would love to have a family with you. Silly woman! Don’t you know anything?” he asked, grinning and pulling her close to him.

  “Brycen, I don’t want you to ever feel like I trapped you. That was never, never my intention,” she said, cringing to herself at how truly deceitful those words were.

  “I want us to get married!” he said, sounding more and more excited.

  This should have been one of the happiest moments in her life, she knew. Instead, it represented the biggest lie that she had ever told one, that she would have to live with the rest of her life. Her heart yearned to tell him the truth. Maybe he would understand. Maybe he would still want her and the baby. They could still be a family. She could explain everything. He would understand, or would he?

  After briefly toying with the idea of telling him the truth as wrong as she knew this was, she decided she just could not risk losing him. Then she blurted out, “Brycen, I do love you so much. Yes I want very much to marry you!”

  And, with that the lie was concreted in stone.

  That night, Brycen went to the store to get some ice cream, seemingly caught up in the thought that Marissa was having cravings. He was like a child and she loved seeing him like this.

  While he was gone, she quickly phoned Becka.

  “Hey,” she said when Becka answered.

  “‘Marissa…hey. What’s up?”

  “It’s done…I mean, Brycen knows I’m pregnant.”

  “What? I thought you were going to wait a little longer before you told him,” Becka said, sounding disappointed that Marissa had veered from the plan.

  “I was, but he asked me. We’re going to get married. You were right, Becka. He is thrilled! He is at the store right now, so I’ll have to make this quick. I have to tell you, though. I feel like crap. I just don’t want to lose him, though.”

  “Listen, Marissa don’t do this to yourself. Go with it. You can have a great life with Brycen. Do NOT I repeat do NOT…let guilt eat you up. He will love this baby. You owe it to you, him and the baby to keep this secret. No- one but you and I will ever have to know.”

  Convincing herself that Becka was right, they hung up, after promising to never talk about the baby’s paternity again.

  Chapter 15

  Three weeks later, Brycen and Marissa were married.

  It was a small ceremony in Brycen’s house, with about fifteen close friends. Marissa was glad to do it that quickly. She and Becka worked together making all the arrangements. It turned out really nice. Marissa wished Paul could have been there, though. Still overseas, she had talked to him on the phone and told him all her news. He sounded so happy for her. She really missed him.

  Becka brought Charlie, her new beau, to the wedding. About eight years Becka’s junior, he was quite a looker. Tall, muscular build, bouncing long blonde curls and a deep, golden tan. He was indeed a little cutie. Becka seemed thrilled to have him on her arm. She had met him at the gas station, of all places. He approached her as she was putting gas in the vette, commenting on what a beauty both car and driver were. Becka said it was lust at first sight.

  They had joked the last few weeks about how Brycen was old enough to be Charlie’s dad. But, Becka couldn’t have cared less. She truly lived for the moment. And, at the moment, Charlie was what she wanted, for now and that was all that mattered…and he was hers, for however long she decided to hang on to him, which Marissa assumed wouldn’t be too long.

  “Marissa, you look great!” Charlie said to Marissa, as she walked into the kitchen and away from the crowd for a minute.

  “Thanks, Charlie,” she said, turning around to see him following her into the kitchen.

  “I hope me and Becka will be doing this soon,” he said in such a sweet, sincere tone.

  Marissa, a little surprised, asked, “You mean, get married?”

  “Sure!” he said, very matter of factly. “I’m crazy about Becka.”

  Marissa thought to herself you poor, poor boy, don’t you know you are only a temporary accessory for Becka, she’ll never marry you. But, instead she said, “Charlie, that’s so sweet. I didn’t know things were so serious with you and Becka.”

  “She probably
doesn’t either,” he said, munching on a Swedish meatball, as he headed out of the kitchen to join everyone else.

  Marissa thought about that for a minute. Then she glanced down at her now protruding belly, trying with no avail to suck it in. She smiled to herself at the thought of Becka and Charlie married. What curly-headed little children they would have, she thought, amused. Both of them with all those bouncy curls…red heads, like Becka or California blondes, like sweet Charlie, she wondered.

  Looking around at Brycen’s kitchen, she noticed all her cup towels and nick-knack's everywhere. They had been slowly moving into Brycen’s house over the last couple of weeks. It was a large, four-bedroom older home. Brycen had told her that he remodeled it about a year ago. Marissa knew that Brycen had lived there with his wife, but she tried not to think about it. Instead, she had begun adding her own woman’s touch to it. It was a beautiful home, and although she didn’t feel like it was hers yet, she was making every effort to eventually get to that point.

  It had a big back yard. Perfect for the swing set, jungle gym and all the toys Brycen was planning to bestow upon this child. The backyard was the first thing Brycen mentioned when they talked about living at this house. “Kids need a big place to play” he had said, excitedly. And Marissa loved the way the azalea bushes hugged along the outside of the breakfast room windows and around to the dining room.

  As Marissa returned to their guests in the living room, she walked over to Sheila. Sheila was the only person from the office that was invited to the wedding. Brycen thought it would be best if they kept their personal life as distant from the office as possible. That was hard to do, though. At Marissa’s insistence, Sheila was invited. She wouldn’t have felt right if she wasn’t there.

  “Marissa, I love your dress,” she said, referring to Marissa’s tea length, ivory lace dress.

  “Thanks, Sheila. I’m so glad you could be here,” she said, hugging her.

  “So, you and Brycen aren’t going on a honeymoon?”

  “No…we have so much to do. We need to put my townhouse up for sale. We have to start getting things ready for the baby. Not to mention, you know how much stuff is going on at work. Speaking of work, what is everyone saying? Do they think we rushed things?”

  “Marissa, don’t worry about it. Really. Everyone seems genuinely happy for both of you.”

  Marissa grimaced a little half smile, wondering if everyone thought Brycen married her because she was pregnant.

  “Marissa really. I mean it,” Sheila said again, trying to sound more convincing, then continuing, “Actually, Jordan seems thrilled about it and even took some of the credit for introducing you guys!”

  “You’re kidding,” Marissa said, laughing a little and feeling better. Then she said, “Yeah I’m not sure how long us working together will work out…being married now and all. I don’t know…We have had so much to think about lately, I guess we haven’t gotten that far. I mean, we would work together all day and then come home together all night hum ” She really hadn’t thought about that too much.

  “Aunt Marissa, can I go outside?” they heard a tiny little voice ask.

  Marissa looked down at Nathan, who seemed rather bored with all of this, as he tugged at his crisp, white shirt. “Sure, Sweetie…go ahead,” she answered, motioning him towards the back door. It was great to see Kelly and the boys.

  Sheila had walked back over to the table with the food on it, so Marissa began floating around the room, chatting with all her guests.

  Everyone hung around about another hour before saying good-bye to the newlyweds.

  Becka hugged Marissa good-bye, tightly, then looked into her eyes and said, “You know I love you. Be happy. You deserve it.”

  Marissa quietly whispered in Becka’s ear, “I love you, too,” thinking that she didn’t know what she would do without Becka.

  That night Marissa and Brycen stayed at his house, or their house now. They opened all their wedding presents and talked late into the night about their future together.

  The next few weeks were spent moving the rest of Marissa’s things to their new home. Then they ended up renting out Marissa’s townhouse to Marcella White, a woman that worked in accounting at their office. She was getting a divorce and had approached Marissa about possibly renting the townhouse. With so much to do, she and Brycen agreed, not wanting to have to fool with trying to sell it right now.

  Marissa missed a few days of work. The morning sickness really hadn’t lasted too long. She was confused as to why they called it morning sickness, though it struck at all hours of the night. She and Brycen stayed busy at work and busy at home readying things for when the baby arrived. Brycen did, indeed, play the role of the proud Daddy-to-be. It was becoming easier and easier for Marissa to forget that he was not the father.

  She had done all her preliminary dirty work, as far as lying to Brycen about her due date, and was careful to set up her doctor’s appointments when she was sure he would be tied up at work. Luckily for her, he seemed sort of old fashioned about it all and didn’t push her about tagging along to the doctor.

  For having been together such a short time, she was glad, and a little surprised at how well they had fallen into sync together. There were the petty little disagreements and such, but Marissa couldn’t remember being this happy. Yes, they fit together quite nicely.

  Chapter 16

  “Marissa!” Becka said, as she entered the baby’s room early one Saturday morning,

  months later. “Everything looks great. Look at this little bear!” she said, squealing and holding up a stuffed teddy bear that had been a gift from someone at the office. “I can’t wait!” she went on, excitedly.

  “Becka, look at me!” Marissa said, sounding exhausted, as she poured herself into the rocking chair in the nursery. “I am enormous!”

  Becka grinned slightly, but sympathetically. “Honey, you’re pregnant. You’re supposed to be enormous.”

  “Look at my feet! I can’t hardly stuff them into my shoes anymore. I have no figure. My boobs squirt milk constantly. I have to go to the bathroom all the time, all night long! Ooooh.”

  Becka went and sat on the floor next to Marissa and gently touched her foot. “Mel, it won’t be much longer. Then just think, we’ll have a baby! Little Tara or Jared!” she said, referring to the names Marissa and Brycen had picked out.

  “I know, I know,” Marissa said. “I’m just SO ready!”

  “How’s work?” Becka asked, changing the subject.

  “Uh okay, I guess. I get tired a lot. And, Brycen comes down to my office at least eight hundred times a day. I think he is afraid I will drop the baby in the middle of my office and he will miss the whole thing!” she said, starting to giggle.

  “That’s sweet, though, Marissa. A lot of guys aren’t as involved as Brycen. He is so excited. I think that’s great!”

  Marissa smiled. “Yeah…I know. He is excited. He’s funny sometimes. He’ll come in here and sit in this rocking chair and just look around, or he’ll straighten up all the little stuffed animals in the crib.”

  “Where is he, anyway?” Becka asked.

  “Playing golf with a couple of clients. Thank goodness. I can’t get anything done with him around here. He kind of hovers over me. I keep telling him I’ve still got a couple more months,” Marissa said, quickly looking up at Becka to see if she would acknowledge the fact that they both knew she only had one more month.

  Instead, Becka went over to the closet, and opening it, began looking through all the new little clothes hanging on the hangers, then said, “It’s a girl. I know it is. I can’t believe you didn’t find out. I wouldn’t have been able to stand it!”

  Relieved that Becka had veered from the previous conversation, Marissa got up and walked over to the closet, then said, “I almost did. I am so curious I can’t hardly stand it. But, Brycen wanted it to be a surprise. And, I really do, too. But, I know it’s a girl.”

  “Aunt Becka will be here to spoil h
er rotten. You know that don’t you?” Becka said, grinning ear to ear.

  “No doubt,” Marissa said, before asking, “where’s Charlie today and what’s up with you guys?” referring to the fact that she hadn’t heard her mention him lately, and surprised that they had stayed together this long.

  “Who knows,” she said dryly and rolling her eyes.

  “Uh-oh. Are you okay?” Marissa asked.

  “Oh yeah. He is probably off playing somewhere,” Becka said, sarcastically, obviously referring to Charlie’s young age, then adding, “He’s probably with some of his buddies or perhaps with some hot young babe. Or, maybe he’s fucking the twenty-two year old next door, that he constantly makes small talk with. Or,” she continued, her tone getting more hostile, almost daring Marissa to question her, “maybe…” then she paused again “he is packing all his shit and moving the hell out!!”

  “Oh God, Becka!” Marissa said, alarmed and surprised that Becka hadn’t mentioned any of this before. She had been surprised that Becka and Charlie had lasted this long, but she had also assumed that eventually Becka would be the one to end the relationship not Charlie. And by the tone of Becka’s voice, she could tell that Charlie must be calling the shots right now.

  “What happened with you guys?” Marissa began.

  “He’s a little fucker, that’s all,” Becka said dryly, not smiling and trying to hide the hurt that her eyes revealed.

  “Why didn’t you call me, Becka?” Marissa asked, wondering if she had been so wrapped up in her pregnancy that she hadn’t noticed things were not so good for Becka.

  “I’ll survive, Mel. I really didn’t want to talk about it. And seriously, I’m pretty sure he is moving out today. He didn’t say so, for sure, but, I doubt he will be there when I get home. We had a big fight last night and well, it’s pretty much over. It’s for the best,” she said, trying unsuccessfully to sound convincing.

  Marissa could see that Becka was trying to be strong about this. She didn’t ever remember seeing Becka this upset about the demise of a relationship. Of course, it was usually Becka telling someone to hit the road, and it was usually Becka that was ready to move on. It didn’t appear that was the case this time.