“But, Daddy, how is it that Momma could sleep with another man and it not be on her conscience? She’s no better than you. And now she’s been exposed because not only did she have twins, her babies have different daddies.”
“You’re talking about your mother, Ivy. She’s been a good woman for as long as I’ve been with her. It looks bad, but she’s not the only one to blame. I hate your husband.”
“Hate is a strong word, Daddy. Especially since you and Malik used to be best friends.”
“I know, Ivy, but Malik crossed the boundary of our friendship. He was the one who preached to me about my infidelity and how I was disrespecting your mother, for him to turn around and do the same thing.”
“Daddy, do you think Malik loves me?”
“That’s not a fair question for me, Ivy. Since he married you, I would hope that he does. All he needs is one time for you to come and tell me he’s treating you badly before I seek him out and beat his lousy ass.”
“It’s not going to come to that, Daddy.”
“I hope not, baby girl. But I do have a question for you.”
“What?”
“Do you love Malik?”
There was a long pause. Ivy stopped in front of the elevator and turned to look at her dad. “I do, Daddy. I really love Malik. Now, I’ve got something to tell you.”
A frown crossed Jefferson’s face. “What is it, baby?”
Ivy smiled. “You’re going to be a grandfather; I’m pregnant.”
“A grandfather? I wasn’t expecting that.”
“I’m going to have a baby—Malik’s baby. That’s why finding out that one of my baby brothers is also my husband’s child hurt me so much. I want to hate Ian, but I realize it’s not his fault. He didn’t ask for this. But I want to be the bigger person, Daddy. If I have to take care of Ian, I want to do it. At least that’s what I’m saying now.”
“Your mother isn’t going to let that happen, but do your part while she’s recuperating.”
“Daddy, you have so much wisdom. I’ve missed you.”
“Missed you too, baby girl.” Jefferson reached down and kissed Ivy on the forehead.
They both stopped as Jefferson’s BlackBerry began to sing. Jefferson pulled the phone from its cradle on his waist and viewed the number. He held a finger up to Ivy, asking for a minute, then answered the phone.
“Hello,” he said.
“Are you still coming? I’ve been waiting for you.”
“I’m still at the hospital. Getting ready to talk to the doctor about one of the twins. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it.”
“Look, Jefferson, I know that your family needs you . . .”
“I’ll be there later on, but I’ve got to see about my family right now.” Jefferson didn’t wait for any goodbyes; he hung up the phone.
“Who was that?” Ivy asked playfully. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a girlfriend already.”
“No girlfriend. It’s a client that I’m on a deadline with, but I’ll make sure I’ll finish their work this evening.”
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. I know motor mouth Winter will give me the lowdown.”
“I promise you, there’s nothing to run down. Now, let’s get in this elevator and see Ian.”
“Okay, Daddy. Love you.”
“Love you, back.”
Forty-One
Disgusted, Toni threw her BlackBerry on the bed. After Jefferson’s earlier call, she’d been anticipating their rendezvous, but his attitude a moment ago was almost foul. Maybe she was wrong about him, but she knew that he had enjoyed her company on last evening as much as she enjoyed his. But she hated to be set aside like an appetizer that had gotten cold, regardless of the reason.
She crossed the room to her office and stared at her computer. She thought about the tidbit of information Jefferson had volunteered about Malik being the father of one of Margo’s twins. That piece of news would eat up the airwaves when it hit, but Toni had to think rationally. There was no way she could let loose this cannonball because her only source at the moment was Jefferson, and she had no plans at the moment of abandoning her conquest to capture this man as her trophy.
She went back to her bedroom and picked up her BlackBerry and thought about calling Jefferson again. Then her rational self took over and she gently laid the phone back down. There was no reason to seem desperate. She knew where Jefferson was and why he was there. She needed his heart and mind clear when he came to see her, and if that meant waiting another day, so be it. She reminded herself that Jefferson was a caring man, and right now his family needed him. She’d wait.
• • •
Dr. Anderson was waiting for Jefferson and Ivy with a warm smile when they reached the pediatric ward. She extended her hand when the two approached.
“Hello, Mr. Myles,” Dr. Anderson began, “and this must be your . . .”
“My daughter, Ivy,” Jefferson said. “How’s Ian?”
“Ian is going to be just fine. He suffered lacerations and abrasions as you know, and he also endured a small puncture wound, no doubt from the metal on the stroller on impact. There wasn’t any internal damage as we first thought. We’ve cleaned and bandaged his wounds. He can be released tomorrow, but we want to keep him overnight for observation. Will you be picking him up?” Dr. Anderson asked Jefferson.
“My sister, Winter, and I will,” Ivy replied.
Jefferson looked at Ivy in amazement, but remained quiet. “May we see Ian now?” Jefferson asked.
“Yes, follow me. He’s resting. He’s been fed and may sleep for the balance of the evening if you’d like to go home and get some rest after you see him.”
Jefferson and Ivy followed in silence until they reached an area similar to the baby room in the maternity ward. There were three other small infants—two in an incubator and the other in a crib with wires and tubes attached to several parts of its tiny body. Dr. Anderson stopped in front of a small acrylic bassinet marked Myles. Ivy stood over Ian and stared. Dr. Anderson backed away. And then as if she knew that Jefferson and Ivy needed time to themselves she spoke up. “I’m going to leave you now, but should you have any questions, please have the nurses get hold of me. Your little man is going to be fine.” And Dr. Anderson was gone.
“He’s so small . . . so fragile. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.” Ivy took her baby finger and brushed the side of Ian’s face. “He’s handsome.”
“He is,” Jefferson replied. “He looks a little like J.R. when he was born.”
“Really, Daddy?” Ivy asked. Jefferson nodded and Ivy reached over into the bassinet and placed a kissed on Ian’s forehead. “If I have to take care of my brother, I will.”
Jefferson smiled and squeezed Ivy. “You’ve grown up, baby girl. You’ve grown up.”
“I’m ready for something good to happen in my life. I’m having a baby, and he may have someone to play with. I’m down with it, Daddy.”
“I’m glad. Now let’s go see your mother.”
Forty-Two
Winter, Winston, and J.R. were no longer in the waiting room when Jefferson and Ivy returned. They looked around as if they had lost something, but the suspecting nurse called them over with her hand.
“Are you with the group who were here to see Margo Myles?” the nurse asked.
“Yes,” Jefferson said. “Did they leave?”
“Mrs. Myles has been placed in a private room and you can join them there.” The nurse gave Jefferson the room number, and off he and Ivy went.
Upon their approach to Margo’s room, they could hear Winter’s big mouth. Yep, they were at the right room all right, but Ivy wasn’t sure she was ready to see her mother.
Making amends with her father hadn’t been as hard as Ivy had anticipated, but the reunion with her mother wouldn’t be easy. It wasn’t just that she’d stayed away and refused to contact her mother, it was the knowing that her baby brother, Ian, was the product of her mother and new husband, and that ma
de seeing her a more difficult pill to swallow.
What kind of conversation would she expect to have with her mother? A hey, mom, I’m home conversation? Why did you have to screw up my life by having a baby with the man I married? Was she supposed to tiptoe on eggshells and not say a word? She had to make a decision fast because her daddy had pushed open the door to her mother’s room and Margo was wide awake and staring at her.
It was as if the air had suddenly been sucked from the room. The crew, who only moments before had been lively and animated, were now zombies, watching the prodigal sister as she entered their mother’s room. Ivy held on to Jefferson, as if that would give her comfort but more like a crutch as she inched her way forward. And Margo’s eyes stared, not believing her eyes as Ivy continued to approach.
Margo seemed groggy to Ivy, but she forced herself to move ahead. As she got closer, Ivy noticed a slight smile form on Margo’s face. She stood by Margo’s bedside and slowly reached over and patted her hand. “Hello, Momma. How are you feeling?”
“Could be better,” Margo managed to say in a soft whisper. “Happy to see you.”
“Happy to see you, too.” Ivy glanced away and looked in the direction of her siblings who watched with curious eyes. She turned back to her mother. “Daddy and I went to see Ian. He’s going to be fine.”
Margo searched Ivy’s face before speaking. “That’s good news. The poor little thing suffered a little bit.” Then Margo’s eyes traveled to Jefferson. “Thanks for coming, Jefferson. I knew I could count on you.”
“I’m always here for you, Margo. You know that. You’re going to be all right; the girls and I are going to take care of the twins.”
“I’d like that,” Margo replied. “Come sit next to me, Ivy.” Margo patted the bed lightly with her hand.
Ivy could feel the whole room watching her like she was some kind of spectacle. She wished she could be swallowed up by a giant whale, but if it wasn’t now, it would be another time. She needed to face her mother.
“I need to talk to Ivy in private,” Margo said to the others.
“No,” Ivy said almost too hastily. While she might have been a spectacle, her siblings’ presence gave her a sense of security from whatever Margo was about to say. True, she had her own questions to ask of her mother, but this was neither the time nor the place to entertain them. She would wait for the opportune moment to sit down with her mother one-on-one and unburden her heart. She sat on the bed next to her mother. “Yes, Momma?”
“There are so many things I’d like to say to you, but above all, I want you to know that I love you. You were the one person that kept me sane when I sometimes wasn’t thinking straight. I know that you have questions about . . .” Margo looked up at Jefferson, who looked away, then walked out of the room. “Questions about me and Malik . . . and Ian. I wish this wasn’t my reality, but it is. I want you to know that I made a terrible mistake, and now I have Ian, but I also have Evan who is a product of your father and me. You getting married to Malik was a shock to my system, but it’s something I have to deal with. I want you to know and hear it from me that we all make mistakes and I’m sorry for anything I might have done to make you withdraw from me.”
“Stop, Momma. It’s not you; you know how selfish I can be. I hated to see our family fall apart and I blamed you more than Daddy for not trying to keep it together. I love you and always will. I have to deal with me.”
“Umm hmm,” Winter said from the peanut gallery.
“You don’t have to explain,” Margo said, intertwining her fingers with Ivy’s. “When I’m up and able, we’ll have brunch—just you and me—and we’ll sit down and have one of our mother-daughter, heart-to-heart pow-wows.”
“I’d like that, Momma. You get some rest now. Winter and I are going to take care of the boys.” Ivy got up and leaned over the bed and kissed her mother on the forehead. “We’ll talk later.” Ivy mouthed the words I love you. And Margo did the same.
“Mom, Evan is getting restless,” Winter said. “We’re going to your house and take care of him. Where is his car seat?”
“My car is still in the garage downtown. Maybe Winston or J.R. can pick it up for me tomorrow. Maybe the hospital can provide you with one for tonight. If not, you’ll have to take extra precautions with my baby in the car.”
“Okay, we’ll check with the hospital,” Winter said. “We’re going to go. Love you.”
Margo’s eyes fluttered. “Love you both. I’m tired.”
“J.R. and I are going to stay with you, Mom,” Winston interjected. “We’re going to park in these chairs.”
“You can go home if you like.”
“Naw, we’ve got this watch,” J.R. said. “Now take your beauty nap.”
• • •
Margo had pricked a nerve when she tried to talk to Ivy about her relationship with Malik. Maybe it was Jefferson’s pride that was at stake. He paced up and down the hall, trying to quiet the animosity that had risen up in him. Malik’s child was ill, but where in the hell was he? In his own selfish way, Jefferson was glad that he wasn’t still at the hospital. Malik’s presence would’ve only provoked his bitterness toward him that much more.
He pulled out his BlackBerry and placed a call to Toni. Jefferson wasn’t in the mood to be romanced, and he didn’t want to leave Margo’s side. He’d been through a lot with that woman, and this was only another family crisis that the Myles’ would get through. He heard the excitement in Toni’s voice when she answered the phone.
“I’m not going to be able to make it tonight. We’ve got one twin in the pediatric ward, Margo on the major surgical ward, and the other twin waiting to be taken home and fed.”
“I see,” Toni said, disappointment dripping like a leaky faucet.
“I’ll make it up to you; I promise. I’ll try and slip by tomorrow.”
Forty-Three
The longer Malik sat in the room, the more irritated he became. Knowing that he and Margo shared a son put a new perspective on things. He couldn’t get Margo off the brain, and his desire to be with her increased two-fold. Unfortunately, there was a dilemma with his desire to be with her—he was married to Margo’s daughter, who was also carrying his child.
He paced back and forth, trying to come up with a solution for the complicated mess he found himself in, but there was no immediate remedy. Then he heard Perry’s voice echoing in his ear, admonishing him to get his head back into the campaign or call it a day. While in his hotel room, he called his campaign headquarters, and they confirmed the news that Perry had given him about Sterling’s slight lead over him.
Maybe it would be best to put the Margo thing on the back burner. Maybe if he could talk to her alone, he’d feel better about things. He’d call Ivy later and get an assessment of what was going on. Right now, he needed to get the hell out of the prison of a room and get a drink.
Malik picked up his room key and stuffed it in his wallet. He jammed the wallet in his pants pocket and headed downstairs to the bar. As he approached, he could hear light jazz coming from the bar area. There were more people in residence than he had anticipated.
Finding a seat at the bar, Malik ordered a Bloody Mary. Then he looked back over his left shoulder as the scent of Pleasures Delight invaded his nostrils and shuddered when the lovely lady traced his neck with her finger that boasted a large, diamond-encrusted ring.
“Hey, baby, is this seat vacant?” the honey-colored lady, who looked to be in her late-thirties, sporting a black, full-body weave that hung just below her shoulders, asked.
Malik gave her a full-body scan, noticing that she was about five feet, eight inches in her heels, wearing a tight-fitted, black knit dress that framed her breasts right above the nipples. She had a pleasing smile and lovely teeth that were accentuated by a plum-colored lipstick on her full Nubian lips and reminded him a little of Toni Braxton about the eyes. He smiled. “Yes, the seat is vacant. Sit down. What are you drinking?”
“Long Island Iced Tea.
”
“Bartender, a Long Island Iced Tea for the lady,” Malik said, giving the lady a half-smile.
“So, where’s your wife?” the lady inquired. There was a blank look on Malik’s face. “Your wedding ring is a dead giveaway.”
“My wife is at the hospital with her mother. She was in a terrible car accident today.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope she gets better soon.”
“So do I. And what is your name?”
“Anissa.” She grinned, took her drink the bartender extended to her, and took a sip. “This is good.”
Malik looked around. “So, Anissa, what brings you here tonight . . . alone?”
“Some friends of mine and I went to see a play downtown. We stopped at the hotel for dinner afterwards, and I thought before going home I’d stop in here to see what was happening. I love jazz, and it was speaking to me when I walked up. Do you like jazz?”
“Love it.”
“So, may I ask why are you here and not with your wife?”
“You may ask, but it’s no big deal. My wife is staying with her mother at the hospital and I got a hotel to be close. Simple as that.”
“You’re cute, but I am sure you hear that all the time.”
“No, not really. I don’t hang out and don’t subject myself to the leers of women who might find me attractive.”
“Oh, excuse me. So, I guess tonight was different. You seem to be wearing the blues.”
“Truthfully, Anissa, I’ve definitely got the blues.”
“Why don’t you tell me about it? By the way, you never told me your name.”
“Malik.”
“Does Malik have a last name?”
“Does Anissa have a last name?”
In My Rearview Mirror Page 17