In the three days he’d been at her house, she couldn’t believe how comfortable and right it felt. They were taking the relationship slow and not making any plans for the future, which was fine with her. She couldn’t deny that she was thrilled to have him back in her life. Tonight she’d planned to cook lasagna one of his favorite meals.
Getting the groceries for dinner out of the back she waved at Rogers the police officer assigned to watch her while the FBI and local police searched for a drug trafficking killer.
While she was trying to unlock the front door, her phone rang. Rushing inside before the call went to voicemail she set the bags down on the island.
“Hello.” Breathless, she’d barely caught it before the last note of the ring tone.
“Ms. Watson?” The voice of a woman questioned.
“Yes.” Sonya unloaded the bags onto the counter. “This is she.”
“I’m Cheryl, a nurse at Allegheny and we have a patient Erwin Watson who was referred here by one of our network physicians. We have you in the system as his emergency contact, is that correct?”
Sonya carefully set down the jar of tomato sauce on the counter top. “Yes. I’m his daughter.”
“Perfect. I’m not sure how far you are away, but there are some medical complications that have arose concerning your father and we will need you to speak with the doctor in person on the matter.”
“Has dad been hurt…is he dying?” With everything going on in her life, she didn’t need this on her plate too.
“I can’t go into details over the phone. He’s stable, but we do need you here. How soon can you manage it?”
Her knees felt weak. She gripped the edge of the island to keep herself up. “Late tonight or tomorrow morning depending on the flights.”
“I’ll inform the doctor.” The woman continued talking and relaying information about the floor, who the attending physician was as well as the number she could call to get updates if she needed them.
Sonya held onto as much of the information as she could. However by the time the call ended all she recalled was the name of the hospital.
Not putting the phone down, she knew there were calls she needed to make. She started with the most important one first.
~ML~
She had called him. Her voice was quivering but she let him know what she knew about the situation with her father.
“I know you just got there and probably can’t take any time, but—”
“Don’t concern yourself with that. I’m coming with you. You look for plane tickets and let me know the cost and what you find.” He instructed her to take down his credit card information.
“Parker, you don’t have to pay for my ticket. Matter fact, since I want you to come with me, I should be paying for yours.”
“Let me do this, sweetheart.” He set the last few cricket into a tarantula case then made sure he secured and locked it. He went back up the narrow hall that he and his staff used to manage the arachnid cages, tanks and enclosures. Most of the species of spiders they had were hunters. Some built webs for trapping other actual pounced on their prey. Either way, crickets were a delicacy to them.
“Okay. I have to call Charmagne then Agent Williams for permission. After that I’ll look at flight arrangements.”
“Keep me posted. I’ll message you in a few to let you know what time I’m leaving here.”
“Alright.” There was a pause. “Parker, thank you.”
“Thank you.” The call ended and he headed down toward the director’s office with a smile on his face. Even though they were headed to Pennsylvania for a serious situation, Sonya had leaned on him and that felt damn good.
A few minutes later, he was at the director’s office. “Is Mr. Kravers available?”
His secretary looked away from her computer, her expression grime. “He is, but Mr. Kravers has been in a mood all day. If it can wait I’d say come back tomorrow.”
“It can’t so I’ll have to face the dragon.” He thanked her for the concern and went in. “Mr. Kravers?”
The museum head was pacing his office ranting to himself. The older man’s words seemed random and disjointed and Parker couldn’t put any of it together to understand what the director was going on about.
“He’s an ambulance chaser. I can’t just wait around. Too much pressure. The board. Agents. Investigators creeping around me…the museum. Insurance…breathing down on me. It wasn’t supposed to—”
“Excuse me, Mr. Kravers.” Parker closed the door and moved deeper into the office as he tried to break into the man’s tirade.
The director stopped and finally looked at him. Although he didn’t appear to recognize him for a few seconds. “Um…Parker. Dr. Hayden.” He shoved his hands through his shiny hair.
Parker wasn’t sure if this was slick from product or sweat. The director was usually more meticulous about his appearance. However, Parker could understand that this man had to be under a tremendous amount of scrutiny and pressure with the investigation happening.
“What is it?”
“I have a family emergency and I need to leave for a few days. I should be back to work Monday.” It helped that Sonya was suspended at the moment. Otherwise it would seem suspect that both of them would have an unexpected situation that took them away from work. Not that Parker cared what the staff at the museum thought, but he knew Sonya was more private.
“Fine. Fine. These things happen. Is your staff capable of handling emergencies with those critters?” He straightened his tie and went behind his desk.
“Absolutely, or I wouldn’t have them working for me.”
“Good. Take your time then.” Mr. Kravers sat down.
Thanking him, Parker turned to walk out.
“Question, Dr. Hayden.”
Facing him again, Parker waited.
“Is it true you are married to Watson?”
“Was. Yes.” That was all the information he planned to share.
“Well, you two are in separate departments. The board doesn’t see that as a problem.”
“Good to know.” Parker left. Even if the board had seen fit to end his contract, which would land him with one hell of a severance pay, Parker wouldn’t blink twice about finding another job in the area. Discovery Place had already tried to temp him away. Whatever it took for him and Sonya to be together he was all in.
~ML~
Four days later, Sonya collapsed on her couch while Parker took their suitcases into the room. Her father had hemorrhaged in his small intestines for days before his neighbor found him passed out and feverish in the backcourt of their apartment complex. The hospital had stopped the bleeding and placed him on medication to help his body heal as well as put him on a boat load of antibiotics and vitamins to deal with several deficiencies and bacterial complications.
They’d needed her to sign off on forms for a mandatory admission into a substance about treatment program, too include some rehabilitation therapy. Her father, pale and sickly, had begged her for days not to put him in ‘prison’ as he referred to it. Promising and crying that he could stop. It had been Parker who had sat with her father and spoke to him man to man. Parker had convinced her father that if he planned to be around and apart of his grandchildren’s lives one day then he needed help.
Hearing Parker talk with her father about grandbabies and future holiday had caused warmth to spread in her belly. Even when they were together before, she never thought about children. Work and school had consumed her. Staring at the two important men in her life she wanted that. Wanted Parker to hold their child and her dad to bounce little ones on his knee.
That image had stayed with her the whole time they were in Philadelphia and now home. She still knew she and Parker needed time before they looked to another marriage and a family, but she was finally all right with it, whenever it came.
“Nap or food?”
“I’d like to sleep for a day, but my stomach would probably rebel.” She smiled at him as he
came around the couch and sat.
He slipped her shoes off then placed them in his lap and began rubbing her feet. “What do you have a taste for?”
“Nothing. I want to stay right here.”
He chuckled and added more pressure to the arch of her feet. “I can order take out.”
“No. I think I’ve had enough fast food as I can stand.” She sighed as his fingers hit a spot that caused a tingle to move up the inside of her thigh. “I have stuff for lasagna. I’ll make that…in a minute.”
“How about I help you?” He switched the massage to the other foot. “I follow instructions pretty well.”
Parker was smart, but he couldn’t boil water without a timer. She enjoyed spending time with him so she’d find something for him to do. “That sounds like a plan.”
Two hours later, Parker was pouring wine into their glasses. “I think we make one hell of a team.”
Staring down at the cooled slice of lasagna on her plate next to a salad she smiled. The tomatoes were all different sizes and the lettuce was both chopped and torn, not to mention the carrots were almost dipping size, but she would eat it proudly because Parker had put it together with love. “I think you’re right. This is the prettiest salad I’ve ever seen anyone make.”
“I’ll take the complement even if you are being kind.” He set her glass beside her plate then leaned down and kissed her.
“I was really, really kind.” she cajoled.
“You say that again and I may have to give you a bigger reward.” His tone dropped to that husky, seductive level she loved.
Her stomach chose that moment to growl.
“Eat.” He winked at her and went to the seat across from her.
They said grace together.
After he took his first bite, he groaned. “I forgot how much I love your lasagna.” He was already lifting a second healthy bite to his mouth. “Remind me to show my gratitude later.”
“Oh, I won’t forget,” she admitted.
They ate and talked. Parker filled her in on the museum and how that atmosphere had changed since she’d been gone.
“Simeon calls me every day, but I still miss it.”
“You’ll be back soon.” He covered her hand with his. “Even my spiders miss you,” he teased.
“Eww.” Just the thought of his exhibit made her skin crawl. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“They fascinate me. You don’t have to be afraid of them. Most spiders are not predators. They want to stay out of your way. If you keep calm around them, don’t make sudden moves that they might consider threatening they will just continue on their way.”
“I’d prefer not to need that information.” She ate a bite of salad. “If they keep to their habitat, I won’t go looking for something hard to throw at them.”
He gasped and grabbed at his chest dramatically. “Hey, as long as you use one of your Mosely piece to do it.”
“What? No way.” She knew that Parker remembered how much she loved the sculptured work of Thaddeus Mosely. Art was just as important to her as his insects were to Parker.
The doorbell ended their scrimmage.
“Are you expecting someone?” He sipped his wine.
“No.” She started to rise. It was almost three in the afternoon on a Saturday. She wasn’t expecting a delivery of any kind.
“I’ll get it.” He placed a restraining hand over hers. He was protective of her since they got the news about the attempt on her life. The FBI had called her while she was gone and told her that they had a significant lead, but until they had someone apprehended an officer would be assigned to her 24 hours.
He walked out of the kitchen. A few minutes later she could hear a woman’s voice.
“Hi. Sorry to show up unannounced but I only had an address to go by.”
“Who are you?” Parker asked.
Curious, Sonya moved toward the living room, keeping out of sight. Thankfully her front door opened in the other direction.
“I’m Karen Young, with Young and Associates at Law.”
The woman must have handed him a card because Sonya saw him reach and look down before asking, “How can I help you?”
“Yes. I’m looking for a Mrs. Hayden…no, a Mrs. Watson. I have this as her last forwarding address.”
Hearing her name and the woman being a lawyer, Sonya came forth. She stood next to Parker. “I’m Ms. Watson.”
The black woman, dressed in a semiprofessional outfit of slacks and blouse held her hand out to Sonya. “Nice to meet you. Is there somewhere we can speak privately? I won’t take much of your time.”
“You may come in.” She stepped back, moving Parker from his bodyguard position.
Once the woman was in and settled in a chair in her living room and Sonya and Parker occupying the couch, she said, “I’m curious why a lawyer is here to see me.”
“Can I speak freely?” Ms. Young indicated Parker with a nod in his direction.
Sonya smiled. “Yes. This is Parker, I don’t have anything to hide from. At least not that I know of.”
“Parker Hayden?”
Parker looked at Sonya with a frown at the woman’s tone. “Do I know you?”
“No. No.” She waved her hand away as she reached in her briefcase and removed some papers. “Your being here just makes my job easier.”
“I’m not understanding?” Sonya was completely confused. There wasn’t any situation that would concern her and Parker together.
“Mr. Hayden and Mrs. Watson, you all are probably more familiar with my father. Daniel Young.”
“Nope.” Parker shook his head. “Not that I recall.”
However, Sonya was familiar with the name. “He was the lawyer that I used some years ago. He had an office downtown D.C. not too far from the Mall.” She glanced at Parker. “He handled our divorce.”
“Oh.” His tone was subdued. “I don’t even remember what firm’s name was on it.”
“Yes. He was a one man show.” Ms. Young’s eyes held a prideful glow.
“I didn’t have any further deals with him in over five years now,” Sonya explained.
“I’m sure of that since my father has been deceased in about that same amount of time.”
“I’m sorry.” Sonya remembered the older man being nice. A fatherly-type when she needed one at the time she sought to dissolve her marriage to Parker. “He was kind.”
“He was. It was sudden. A brain aneurism.” The woman exhaled as if she still struggled with his lost.
Sonya thought about her own father and how close she’d come to losing him this week. She hurt for the woman.
“I recently decide to finally go through the stuff from my father’s downtown office. My mother wants to move to a smaller place. Since I’m a family lawyer like he was, I’m going through the papers and handling them accordingly.”
Waiting, Sonya still wasn’t sure why the woman was here.
Ms. Young handed her and Parker a stack of all too familiar papers, now slightly yellowed at the edges. “Since you and Mr. Hayden reconciled I guess you all can shred these papers.”
Parker flipped towards the end pages and saw both their signatures there with the dates. “Why would we destroy our divorce papers? That doesn’t make since.”
“But, their just papers. They were never filed at the court. As you will see on the last page there’s no judges signature.”
Almost simultaneously, she and Parker turned to the last page. It was blank.
“How could this happen?” Sonya’s heart was beating so fast she felt dizzy.
“Why didn’t your father submit them to a judge?” Parker questioned.
“As I said, he passed away. Unfortunately, it happened the day after he received the certified papers from you Mr. Hayden. I originally tried a forwarding address for your California residence but there wasn’t one.”
Sonya knew it was true because Hayden was in the Rainforest for a few years.
“You didn’t realize
you never got a divorce decree?” Parker asked Sonya.
“So much happened around that time.” Sonya really felt sick now. She placed a hand on her stomach. The lasagna was threatening to make a return trip. “My internship was ending. I was traveling around doing interviews at different museums. Soon I was packing up and moving to Charlotte to manage the department.” She shook her head. She felt like a fool. How could I have allowed something so important to slip by unnoticed?
“Since it was just him the office closed down,” Ms. Young continued. “His paralegal packed up all the papers and my mom had them delivered and stored in the attic. I came here today to right the oversight and let you know I could redraft them and have them submitted to a judge. Is that still necessary?”
“I can see and understand you’re shocked by the news. You all have my card. Just let me know in a few weeks what you decide.” The lawyer rose to her feet. “I have a long drive back to Alexandria so I will be heading out.”
Parker stood with the woman and escorted her to the door.
Sonya was paralyzed, she couldn’t move.
Once the front door was closed and locked, she expected him to say something to her. Rail or question her about her stupidity. He was more than justified. She buried her head in her hands and waited.
A few minutes later, she heard him in the kitchen. The sound of dishes being scraped and stuff being moved around.
Not knowing what to say to him besides ‘I’m sorry’, which didn’t seem like enough, she got up. She walked to her room and lay down on her bed. Sleep, she wanted to sleep. It was the coward’s way out, but she was going to take it.
~ML~
After cleaning the kitchen and putting the food away, Parker returned to the living room. Sonya was no longer sitting on the couch looking as if she’d just watched a train wreck. It had caused his heart to bleed for her when he saw how disillusioned she was. Was it because all these years she’d believed herself free of him? That their divorce had meant some kind of new life for her. When he moved here she had been in a relationship with the Councilman. What if she’d married Daryl believing she was divorced from him?
Evidence of Desire: Hero Series 3 Page 22