My Wife My Baby...And Him

by Shelia E. Bell

  Rena swiftly got up, grabbed her purse, and walked toward the door. She looked back in the office again, stared at the picture of Stiles on the wall dressed in his robe, and another picture of him, Detria and Baby Audrey, before she flung open the door and ran out.

  ***

  Stiles couldn’t believe it was Rena. What was she doing in Memphis? But more important than that, what was she doing at Holy Rock? When he saw her, his first instinct was to stop shaking hands, kissing babies, and hugging old folks and take off toward her, but he couldn’t, so he did the next best thing and that was to tell one of his armor bearers to ask her to meet him in his office.

  Detria hadn’t been coming to church since the big blow up they’d had. Stiles wasn’t too shocked that she wasn’t coming because he felt like she may have been somewhere following up behind her not so secret lover. At this point, he was at a crossroads. He wanted to possibly work things out with Detria. They could go to marriage counseling, and try to put the past behind them, but that was only for the sake of Audrey and the baby she was carrying. If the baby turned out not to be his, Stiles hadn’t thought about what he would do next. As a man of God, he knew he had to forgive Detria, but as a man period, he didn’t know if he could.

  Stiles shook hands one last time and darted off to his office, only to open the door and find it empty. He looked around. He could smell the sweet fragrance of her perfume. He went to his bathroom. No Rena. He looked in the small private meeting space adjoined to his office. No Rena.

  Stiles inhaled and then exhaled heavily. Where had she gone? Frank, the armor bearer who escorted Rena to his office, had assured him that she was waiting for him.

  He walked up and down the hall then rushed outside. A long line of cars was still exiting the parking lot while some other cars remained parked. He looked around hoping to see Rena appear out of nowhere. No such luck.

  Stiles turned back around, and was immediately flanked by several churchgoers who wanted to stop and talk as he made his way back inside the church. When he finally made it back to his office, he sat down in his chair and thought about Rena.

  She looked more beautiful than ever. She was stylishly dressed and from what Stiles could see of her, she seemed to have a radiance about her that probably meant she was happy with her life. But if she was so happy, then why was she at Holy Rock? And why did she agree to meet him in his office? Was she in Memphis alone or was her husband and kids with her and she had left them behind at a hotel or something? He didn’t have her phone number anymore, so it wasn’t like he could call and find out why she decided not to wait to see him.

  Rena, what are you up to?

  Chapter 26

  “A dad’s love is the gift that keeps on giving.” Jude Larbes

  “Detria, it’s time for you to own up to your mistakes. I’ve told you before, recognize that two wrongs don’t make a right. When you and Stiles got married you acted like you were the happiest bride on earth. What went wrong?”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that Stiles is not the perfect man everybody seems to think he is.”

  Brooke’s sons were playing with Audrey in the little girl’s playroom while Detria and Brooke talked. Detria rarely ventured out of the house since everything had gone down. She hadn’t been back to Holy Rock even after Skip told her that he had gotten fired. The truth of the matter was she wouldn’t have gone back to Holy Rock even if they hadn’t fired him. She couldn’t face seeing the church members smiling and grinning all up in her face while they were probably talking behind her back.

  Part of her felt bad for things getting so out of control like they had, but Stiles had brought a lot of what happened on himself. The night that they got into it Detria was terrified, that much was true. The way Stiles looked at her, the way he pushed her off him, his hand raised in the air poised to hit her, all of it was frightening. Had it not been for their little girl, Detria believed Stiles would have hurt her really bad. She felt like she had no choice but to call the police. She had told herself repeatedly that she did it to protect her and Audrey.

  “Detria, I never said Stiles was perfect. I don’t know what goes on in your marriage, and to be honest, that’s the way it should be between a married couple.”

  Detria tried sitting patiently and listening to her sister, but she found it hard to do. She thought about the phone call she’d made to Stiles right before Brooke came over. He had sounded like he was unsure whether he should come over or not. Detria tried to assure him that contrary to what he may have thought, she was not trying to set him up. She called him because Audrey had been asking for her daddy. The little girl was old enough to miss having him around and Detria didn’t want to say it, but she sort of missed Stiles too.

  Brooke continued talking but it sounded like she was a voice in the background, and Detria was oblivious to what all her sister was saying.

  “Detria, do you understand any of this?”

  “Of course, I understand where you’re coming from. And I’m praying about what to do.” Suddenly, she said, “I didn’t tell you, but I called Stiles.”

  “You did what? Why?”

  “Audrey has been asking about him. She misses him being around every day.”

  “But I thought you two had made arrangements for him to see her on a regular basis. What happened?” asked Brooke. “I know you are not like these baby mamas who keeps the child away from the father because she’s mad at him.” Brooke frowned.

  “You should know me better than that. He visits her over at Mother Brown’s house. He doesn’t come over here because of the protective order. And before you have something to say about that, I did have the order lifted, only I didn’t tell him that I did, at least not until today.” Detria flipped her hand. “Anyway, I take her over to Mother Brown’s as much as possible. When she gets over there, Mother Brown calls Stiles and he goes over to her house to see her, which is fine with me. But it’s not the same. You know what I mean?”

  Brooke’s tone expressed her surprise. “You actually called him?”

  “Yep.”

  “When? What did you say?”

  “I called him right before you got here. I didn’t say much. Just told him that Audrey was asking for her daddy. He asked about the protective order. That’s when I told him I had it removed.”

  “What did he say?”

  “At first he sounded like he didn’t trust me. He was full of questions. I started to tell him to just forget I even called, but then I thought about our daughter and realized that it wasn’t fair to keep her away from him. I know we’re skating on thin ice, but I know he loves that spoiled little brat.”

  Brooke looked at her sister’s protruding belly. “Speaking of Audrey, how do you feel? You’ve been under a lot of pressure and stress. It certainly can’t be good for the baby you’re carrying.”

  Unlike with Audrey, where she gained a small amount of weight, Detria was gaining weight rather rapidly. She was 24 weeks pregnant and huge. The doctor warned her to watch her sodium intake, and told her to keep her stress levels down as much as possible.

  Keep her stress levels down? When her doctor told her this, Detria almost laughed out loud. Not because it was funny, but because it was easier said than done.

  The doorbell rang, and Detria’s head popped up before she looked over at Brooke.

  “You want me to get it?”

  Detria shook her head. “No, I’ll get it. It’s probably him.”

  “Okay. You answer the door and I’m going to go check on the kids. Do you want me to get some things together for Audrey in case he wants to take her out for a while?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “Of course, I don’t mind. I’ll be back.” Brooke got up and left the room.

  Detria got up, held her belly, and started walking from the family room toward the front of the house. This was her dream home, but she felt like she was living anything but a dream. She had the material trappings that any woman would be more than th
rilled to have, yet she wasn’t happy. How had things turned out the way they had? Where was the love, the real love that a wife should have for her husband, and when had her feelings changed? Even she didn’t know the answer to that million-dollar question.

  As she got closer to the door, Detria gave pause and thought, sometimes it’s not the letting go, it’s making the decision to stay and try to start over that’s the hardest. Did she want to start over, especially if it turned out that this was Skip’s baby in her belly.

  She opened the door. “Hi,” she said, standing in front of the man she thought she once loved with all her heart. He looked good as heck, so why wasn’t her heart racing and beating for him like it used to? And why was she looking at Stiles but almost without fail, thinking about Mr. Wrong?

  Chapter 27

  “All married women are not wives.” Japanese Proverb

  “Come in,” Detria said. No smile. No real expression, and far from sounding like she was happy to see him.

  Stiles felt her indifference toward him. Why was he here and why did Detria even call him in the first place if she was going to act all brand new. He reminded himself of the real reason he made the decision to come to his house; it was for his daughter, not Detria.

  He looked at her round belly and fought against the anger brewing within. The anger management classes were designed to help him curb his anger. Right now he felt like he could explode at the thought that not only had his wife been sleeping with another man, but the child in her belly could belong to that punk. Think before you speak. Don’t say something you might end up regretting.

  “Hi, where’s my baby girl?” Stiles asked, but didn’t take one step further into his own castle.

  “Daddy,” Audrey appeared from out of nowhere and rushed into his outstretched arms.

  “I said you could come in, Stiles.”

  Stiles scooped up Audrey and held his baby girl in his arms as he walked inside the house. He noticed Brooke standing several feet away with a slight smile on her face.

  “Hey, Brooke.”

  “Hi, brother-in-law. It’s good to see you.”

  “Yeah, good seeing you too.” He focused his attention back on Audrey. “How is daddy’s princess?” he asked the little girl, kissing her on her forehead. “Daddy missed you. You know that?”

  Audrey bobbed her cute little head up and down, while holding Stiles tightly around his neck. Then, out of the blue, she kissed him on the side of his face.

  Tears immediately formed in Stiles’ eyes but he willed them to stay back. He squeezed his little girl even tighter.

  Detria forced herself to ignore the heart-wrenching scene of father and daughter playing before her eyes. “Are you going to stay here and visit or do you want to take her out for a while?” She glanced quickly over her shoulder at her sister.

  Brooke looked like she was about to cry too, so she hurriedly turned around and walked away, forgetting to give Audrey’s backpack to Detria.

  “Since it’s such a beautiful day, I think we’ll go to the park. Would you like that, Audrey? You want daddy to take you to the park and then we can go get some pizza and ice cream,” he said, lightly tickling her tummy until Audrey started giggling.

  “Yaaay, I want to go to the park. I want pizza, Daddy.” She hugged him tight around his neck.

  “Okay, let’s go then.” Stiles put her down.

  “Let me go get her backpack,” Detria told him with her arms folded across her chest and resting on top of her belly. “Are you going to just stand there?” she asked him before turning and walking off.

  “I’m cool. Thanks.”

  “Come on, Audrey. Let’s go get your backpack so you can go with Daddy.” Detria reached out for her little girl’s hand and Audrey quickly obliged by running up to her mother and taking hold of her hand.

  Stiles stood in the middle of the foyer surveying his surroundings. He had worked hard to buy this house for Detria. He wanted her to be happy, wanted to give her some of the desires of her heart. He longed to fill it with the pitter-patter of little feet. Never in a million years did he think the pitter-patter could possibly belong to another man.

  Chapter 28

  “Everyone can be a father, but it takes a lot to be a daddy.” A Geddes

  Stiles sat Audrey down on the playground horse. She giggled which made him smile, but his smile turned into a dismal look as he thought about the direction he was headed. How had he gotten to this place in his life? Was God trying to show him something? If so, what was it? Stiles pondered one question after another in his mind until he heard Audrey’s screams, yanking him back to what he was supposed to be doing: having fun with his little girl. When had he released his hold on her? She had fallen off the horse, landing face first on the mound of hard, dry earth.

  Stiles immediately saw a big lump appear on her forehead. It was already red and blood oozed from the open wound. He grabbed her up swiftly, as kids and a couple of parents gathered around to see what all the commotion was about.

  “Is she all right?” he heard a lady standing nearby ask.

  “Baby, it’s going to be all right.” Stiles tried to calm her down, but she was crying loudly, and totally out of control.

  She fell off of that.” A little boy pointed at the horse like he was the only one privy to what had happened. Stiles disregarded the child, dashed from the park and ran to his car. The knot was growing bigger, and the blood spilled out faster, flowing down her face and some even in her eyes, Stiles tried to keep himself from panicking. He jumped in the car with Audrey still in his arms and frantically searched for something to wipe the blood off her face.

  “Hold on, sweetheart. Daddy’s got you.” After finding some tissue in the glove compartment, he placed several pieces on Audrey’s head. Blood soaked through it. At that moment, Stiles realized Audrey was probably going to need stitches. Against her will, he placed her in her car seat while she continued to bawl.

  After getting her securely strapped in, he jumped in the car, and took off in the direction of the hospital.

  Fighting through the mounting traffic while listening to his daughter scream, Stiles prayed openly while using one hand to reach in the back seat and soothe his child and the other hand to maneuver the steering wheel. He found a side street he was familiar with that would lead him to the hospital. Thank God, it wasn’t too far away.

  Within fifteen minutes of leaving the park, he arrived at the hospital. Favor was with him because he spotted a parking space directly in front of the ER Department. Jumping out of his car, he opened the back door, unbuckled Audrey, and quickly lifted her into his arms while kissing her hair and her bloody face. Holding her tightly, he ran up to the double doors that opened as he approached them. He dashed to the front desk. A nurse, seeing the little girl’s bloody face, came from behind the desk, opened the door leading to triage, and ushered him inside.

  The nurse cleaned her wound, taking a closer look at the knot on her head.

  “Come with me.” She took them to one of the ER beds.

  Audrey held on to her daddy’s neck. She refused to let Stiles put her down on the bed.

  The doctor will be in here shortly,” the nurse explained. “Please, just keep calm so she’ll be calm,” she advised Stiles.

  The ER doctor, along with another nurse, came to the room. He studied Audrey’s injury, talking to the small child in a calm voice, gently stroking her hair back from her face.

  Audrey began to quiet down some but her body jerked occasionally from having cried so hard. “You say she fell off a gym horse in the park?” the doctor asked.

  “Yes. It happened so fast.”

  “Believe me, I understand. I have three-year-old triplets. I know how quickly they get into stuff. Don’t beat yourself up. She’s going to be fine. She is going to need a stitch or two, and I want to do a CAT scan just to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion. That’s just to be on the safe side; nothing to worry about.”

  Nervous and feelin
g awful that he’d allowed his problems to make him neglect his daughter, Stiles nodded and said, “Thanks, Doc.”

  Audrey had stopped crying, but it didn’t take long for her to start up again, this time screaming for her mommy as they wheeled her off for the CAT scan.

  Stiles’ cell phone started ringing. He looked at the display screen. It was Detria. He hadn’t been gone that long, or had he, for her to be calling already. “Hello.”

  “Hey. Where are you? I didn’t know you were going to be gone this long. It’s been almost three hours.”

  Stiles didn’t want to tell her what happened but he really didn’t have much of a choice. She was going to find out either way. It would be after he took Audrey home with a bandaged head and then he would really have to listen to her go off, or he could tell her now. Telling her over the phone was something he didn’t want to do because more than likely Detria would panic. Nevertheless, he sucked in his breath and told her where he was.

  “You’re where? Oh, my God. What happened?”

  He told her how Audrey fell off the gym horse. “She’s fine though, Detria. She had to get a couple of stiches.”

  “Stitches, oh, Lord,” she screamed into the phone. “I’m on my way.”

  Stiles heard the phone click. Detria had ended the call. He rubbed his head and paced the floor. “God, what is happening?” he mumbled.

  Audrey returned from her CAT scan with a clean bill of health. The doctor told Stiles to follow up with Audrey’s pediatrician in the next couple of days to check on the stiches and clean the wound.

  Stiles, holding a sleeping Audrey in his arms, was met by his wife as soon as he opened the exit doors.

  Detria walked up on him and tried to take Audrey out of his arms. “How is she?”

  Stiles stepped back. “She’s good. She’s too heavy for you to be carrying.” He looked down at her swollen belly.

  Detria walked around him and looked at Audrey’s face as she lay sleeping soundly with her head on her daddy’s shoulder. Detria smoothed back the little girl’s hair, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed Audrey on top of her head.