by Gigi Thomas
“She’s mine isn’t she?”
Once again, Kenya looked at the last person she expected to see, this time, saying the last thing she expected to hear. Her greatest fear was happening as Caden stood in the room before her. He was panting as if he had run all this way, and his green eyes blazed. She opened her mouth to speak though not knowing what to say, but he continued before she could.
“Tell me the truth,” Caden continued, as Kenya struggled to collect her thoughts. “Is she my daughter?”
She looked around the conference room at the sea of faces staring at her with expressions running the gamut from annoyed to disapproving. Smiling, as if unaffected, Kenya tried her best to handle the situation. She turned back to Caden.
“As you see, I am in a meeting,” Kenya began. “Any misunderstandings there may be to discuss, I am sure can be discussed at a later time.”
He crossed the room to her, slamming his hand on the table before her. “Tell me the truth, damn it! She’s my daughter isn’t she?”
Damn him! How could he just barge in here as if he owned the place? How could he just place demands on her as if she had to answer to him? The granite in Caden’s eyes showed that they would not be easily moved, and Kenya couldn’t risk him staying in the conference room with all those investors any longer. Her bosses in New York were going to have her ass on a platter for this. Kenya turned to the group, with her well-trained unaffected smile.
“Excuse me ladies and gentlemen. I have a small matter to attend to. If you would be so kind, we can pick this up at our meeting tomorrow. I have literature for the point by point and the statistics.”
Kenya nodded to her assistant, and the dumbfounded woman quickly collected herself and began passing out the folders to each meeting attendee.
Before she left, Kenya spoke to the group with a polite smile. “And of course, I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone that those nondisclosure agreements that you signed applies to everything said and heard while in this meeting. Thank you all. Have a good day.” She turned to Caden with an equally polite smile. “If you would follow me, I’m sure we could clear up this misunderstanding.”
Caden opened the door for Kenya and stepped through behind her. They were silent on their way through the office, all eyes on them as they walked. The sleek contemporary building with its glass interior walls made it so everyone had watched the confrontation unimpeded. If that was not enough, Kenya’s presentation was being live streamed to the offices in the New York, San Francisco, and Chicago as well, ensuring her humiliation was broadcast to people in several time zones on two continents.
CHAPTER THREE
Father of the Year
Kenya calmly entered her office, closed the door behind her, and shut the blinds. She whipped around to face Caden and slapped him hard across the cheek.
“You selfish son of a bitch!” she hissed. “How dare you just burst into my office, interrupt my meeting making demands? Do you have any idea how hard I have worked to get where I am, everything I had to endure? You have probably destroyed all that in less than two minutes.”
“I'm sorry. Wait...no!" Caden continued, apparently remembering again that he was supposed to be mad. “You still haven’t answered the question, Kenya. Is Cadence my daughter or not?”
“I don’t know what you want me to tell you,” Kenya said crossing her arms.
“I want you to tell me the truth. I demand to know.”
“You demand?”
“I have a right to know, damn it!”
“You don’t have a right to anything, Caden. You gave up your rights when you abandoned us. Now, what? You think you can just walk into Caydee’s life as if—”
“So it’s true. It is true. She’s mine.” Caden smiled as he sat on the sofa in Kenya’s office. Eyes glazed, he just looked off into the distance. "A daughter. I have a daughter. With you! We have a daughter, Kenya! My mum's going to flip."
"Yes," Kenya mumbled. “I bet she is.”
Kenya had never seen anyone so elated. Of all the reactions she had expected, even the ones she secretly dreamed about, the ones she would never admit to herself in daylight, Kenya never imagined Caden being this happy about the news. It was annoying. He would take a deep breath and exhale with such a mixture of laughter and relief that she wasn’t sure if he was entirely right in the head.
Caden looked up suddenly, as if surprised to find Kenya there, and crossed the room towards her.
"I'm sorry for bursting in here like that, Kenya. Oh, I'm such a prat. An ass. I'm so sorry. I just... I couldn’t think straight. I had to know."
“Well now you know.”
“What does she know... about me?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean about her father. What does she know about her father? Does she know my name? Who I am? What did you tell her about me?” he asked, taking her hands in his.
Kenya stared at the unnerving eagerness in his eyes and slipped her hands from his.
“I...I didn’t know what to tell her. What do I say? That her dad left, and be what, a stereotype? Another black-single-mom from the ‘hood’?” She said the last word using air quotes with her fingers for emphasis. “It wouldn’t matter what I did or what I knew, that’s all I would be seen as. And she’d always have that stigma: a black girl with a no-show daddy. I wasn’t going to give her that narrative. So, I gave her a better one.”
“A better one?”
“She thinks he...well, I guess, you...were a soldier...who died while deployed. Well, I haven’t really said died exactly, because I didn’t want to have to explain death to her at such a young age, but she believes he’s gone. And you were.”
“So, my daughter thinks I’m dead?”
“Hell as far as I knew, you were. You might as well have been,” Kenya snapped, but the crestfallen look on Caden’s face made her pause. Her words seemed to cut him to the core, and he looked broken. No. No, no, no. He does not get to look sad and make me feel bad for him, Kenya fumed. “Really, what was I supposed to do?”
"I don’t know...Google me? Something. Anything!” Caden yelled. “If you really wanted to find me, I’m sure you could’ve figured it out. I know how resourceful you are. How capable when you set your mind to something. I can't believe you, Kenya. How could you not tell me?"
“Not tell...? How dare you? I called and I texted and I emailed you. For months. I kept asking where you were, what happened, if you were okay, and I kept saying that I needed to talk to you. You never responded. Not once, Caden. Not even to say goodbye.”
Kenya’s breath hitched in her throat as she was thrown back to one of the most devastating times in her life. That the emotions hit her so strongly was unexpected. It had been years. She thought she’d put all this behind her. Caden leaving shouldn’t still affect her. The fact that it did made Kenya feel pathetic. It was made even worse when Caden reached forward, as if to console her, with a look akin to pity. Kenya immediately snapped back on the defensive.
“What the hell did you expect me to do?!” she yelled. “Hire a private investigator to track down someone who obviously wanted to have nothing to do with me? Even if I could’ve afforded that, what’s the point in finding someone who obviously didn’t want to be found? A flake who can just disappear on a person without notice.
“I figured my child would be better off thinking its father was a dead hero than a deadbeat. You’re the one who left, Caden. You left me, damn it! You leaving is what created this mess. So don’t you dare get angry with me about how I decided to clean it up.”
He really had some nerve, Kenya fumed, as she threw herself into her office chair, the force of her anger causing it to roll a bit. She turned her back to him and, facing the window, surreptitiously wiped a tear or two. How the hell was he going to be mad at her? For what? Not looking for him hard enough after he went all Houdini on her?
Her job wasn’t to find him. Her job was to take care of the baby she’d just found out she was carrying
and finish grad school while doing it. The last thing she needed was to drag him back to where he obviously didn’t want to be. Her child would’ve just been saddled with a father who was in and out of her life at best.
They remained silent for a few minutes, each swimming in their own oceans of thought.
“I want to see her,” Caden finally said. His voice was low and heavy.
“What?” Kenya slowly turned around to face him again.
“I know you did what you thought was best, and I...I’m not angry at you for that…I…” Caden sat pensively, leaning forward resting on his thighs, his fingers intertwined. His voice was thick, and he cleared his throat before he continued. “I’m the one who left. You’re right: I created this mess. But, she’s my daughter, Yaya. She’s my daughter. I have to get to know her while I have the chance. You have to let me.”
Caden looked up at her with such openness, such longing in his eyes that it almost made Kenya forget her anger. Almost.
“I don’t have to do anything, Caden.”
"Yes, Kenya. You do," Caden answered, his eyes turning stone cold as they met with hers.
Kenya was taken aback by Caden’s suddenly menacing look. This was nothing like the playful mischievous eyes Kenya remembered. She swallowed away the surprising reaction in her refusal to be intimidated.
“Wha...what is that supposed to mean? Are you threatening me now?”
“No. At least, I don’t want to be.” Caden rose from the sofa and moved to her with determined strides.
Even his voice was different, Kenya realized. It was guttural and, at the moment, demanding.
Caden sat before her on one of the chairs at her desk and continued to speak. “But, I won’t be kept from her. I will see my daughter, Kenya. I hope we can do this amicably, but I will go to the courts if you leave me no other choice. I don’t want to have to put her through—”
“Court? Do you really think any court would—”
“You’re in England now, Kenya. Cadence is the daughter of a Baron. She is a member of the peerage. It wouldn’t be hard for me to establish my rights. Her rights.”
“You arrogant bastard.” Terrified, Kenya sprang to her feet. “If you try to take my daughter—”
“I’m not trying to take her from you, damn it!” he bellowed. He closed his eyes and took a slow breath before he continued. “I just want to see her. I want us to get to know each other while we can. Please.” He opened his eyes again, and the suppliant look that shined through rattled Kenya’s emotions even more.
This mother-fucker didn’t have some; he had all of the nerve, Kenya fumed. He goes from being nonexistent to acting like he’s father of the freaking year all of a sudden. Like he is so concerned, so happy, so desirous to be in his daughter's life. No. This is how he fooled her before. He charmed her by saying what she wanted to hear and looking genuine when he said it. Kenya was not going to let him do the same thing to her daughter and hurt her as well. She’d have to figure out a way out of this.
“I’ll see what I can arrange. Now, can you leave, so I can attempt to salvage what’s left of my career?”
“Right. I’m sorry for being a bit of a nutter earlier,” Caden said, the light returning to his eyes a bit. “So, when do you think you might be able to arrange something? Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? No! I...I need time to... I’ll call you.” Kenya just wanted him to get out of her office. As soon as he left, she was going to contact a lawyer and see what can be done.
Caden still stood before her, not taking a step to leave.
“I’ll call you,” she assured.
“Don’t you need my number then?” he said.
“Oh, right.”
Kenya took it grudgingly, and she was forced to give him hers in return. If she didn’t, he might just come back into the office again to contact her. She could not have him storming in again and acting a fool like he did today. Already, she could see the way her colleagues were looking at her. Now, she would be the black woman in the office with baby daddy issues! Great. As soon as Caden left her office, she contacted a lawyer.
To Kenya’s dismay, the news from the lawyer was not very promising. As Cadence’s father Caden had rights, since he had never officially given them up. A simple court ordered DNA test would confirm his paternity claim if Kenya refused to let him see Cadence. Then there was the fact that he was part of the nobility. That came with its own additional set of headaches and, in cases like these, usually it favored the titled British parent.
Kenya was stuck. She couldn’t exactly take her daughter and run away, because she kinda needed her job, if she still had one after today. Caden had the resources to search for her, and she didn’t have the strength or desire to live out her life in obscurity in some unnamed locale just to avoid him. Besides, she wouldn’t do that and take away her daughter’s future. She was up against a wall. And fucked.
Kenya sat before her cousin Tasha, who was unemployed at the moment and came to take care of Cadence. Kenya met her at the airport that afternoon, and her cousin could tell from one glance that something was wrong. Three glasses of wine later, she had filled in Tasha on the whole story including the disappointment from the lawyer. Cadence was asleep, exhausted from playing catch up with her Aunt Tee, and Kenya sat in the living room with her cousin trying to form a game plan.
“So, let me get this straight. Caydee’s dad—that white boy you told me was turning you out that first year of grad school—is back, and he is a what now? A Baron?”
“Pretty much, and now he wants to be in her life, all of a sudden. What am I supposed to tell her? I don’t want to get her hopes up about Caden only for him to disappoint her in the end.”
“Her hopes up or your hopes up?” Tasha asked, cocking her head a bit to one side.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure,” Tasha said, stretching out the word as if it had ten letters. “Look, I told you this was a bad idea from the beginning. But, you wanted to be all bourgie, talking about you didn’t want to be a baby mama when what you really didn’t want was to admit that it hurt you when your boo left. Every mama is a baby mama, okay. Get over yourself.”
“He’s not my boo. And you know what I mean. You know how it is.”
“Yeah yeah yeah, you didn’t want your judgy bosses looking at you sideways, but you the one who decided to make up a story. Shit girl, you would’ve been better off if you said he was a POW or missing in action or something. At least then when he showed up you could just go ‘Oh my Lawd; they found him! It’s a miracle!’” Tasha, who had her hands raised in exaggerated surprise and praise, threw her head back, laughing at her own joke.
“Shut up. You not helping.”
“I’m sorry, lil’ cuz. He really does have you some kinda way, doesn’t he? Ohh, yass! Okay, I can see why. He’s kinda fine, and you know I don’t even like vanilla.”
“What? How do you know what he looks like?”
Tasha looked up from her phone. “It’s called Google, girl. Like your Baron-boo said.”
“Are you here to help me or are you here to annoy me?”
“Both?” Tasha answered. “But, seriously. All this time, and you didn’t internet stalk him at all?”
“You don’t think I tried that?!” Kenya realized how emphatic she sounded and dropped her head embarrassed. “I’m sorry. Trust me, I Googled him, a lot. Especially for the first two years. I never found anything. It makes sense now. No one refers to him as Lord Caden. It’s either Lord Hargrove or Baron Hargrove, so looking up Caden Lord never brought up the right results, or at least nothing that made sense to me. I’m sure there’s stuff with his entire name listed, but those were probably buried so many pages deep or I glanced at the name and ignored it, because that’s not who I was looking for was it? Hell, even if I did stumble upon it before, unless there was a picture of his face, I probably just ignored it. Eventually, I just stopped looking, because I didn’t know what was worse: not fin
ding anything or the fact that I was still chasing someone who ran away.
“I’m sorry, cuz,” Tasha said, reaching out to her. She sighed. “I know this is hard, but I think you have to let him see her.”
“What? Why?”
“Because, at the end of the day, he’s her father.”
“He’s not a father, Tash. He’s just a mother-fucker,” Kenya countered.
“Be that as it may,” Tasha began, but she decided to take another tack. “Look, if he’s going to flake out on her, he will, but you have to give him a chance to be a dad to her. He might be a better dad than he was a boyfriend, and if he isn’t, you’ll be there for her. But, you can’t deny her the chance of knowing him. She’ll just be mad at you, not at him, when she gets older if you keep them apart now.”
Kenya knew Tasha was right, and she hated it. She hated it whenever anyone else was right, but this one was a hard one. How was she going to explain to her daughter that she lied to her about her father?
~
"Hey," Kenya greeted Caden warily. She stood in the doorway, a part of her still unsure whether or not this was a good idea. Well, she had no choice, she remembered. She was doing this for Caydee. "Come in."
Caden gave an uneasy little smile, as if he read her hesitance, and cautiously stepped into the apartment. He held a large plush purple unicorn, the size of his torso. He also had a bag that almost reached his thigh, which was filled with toys, games, and costumes he and Copper found at Harrods. Everything that they thought a four-year-old would enjoy, they bought.
"Sorry, I'm a little late."
Yeah, about five years late! Kenya knew it would not help either one of them to pursue those thoughts, so though her eyes may have conveyed it, she bit back the comment. She decided to continue lightly.
"One thing I have learned is that when you have a child, time is merely a suggestion."
They both chuckled, and their eyes met for a few moments before Kenya quickly broke their gaze.
"Well, I hope you are ready. She has big plans for you." Kenya warned.