Charisse looked over at Chyna and wanted to thank her for not telling everything.
Cheyenne pulled a switchblade up. “I’m going to drag you out to the cabin and cut your ass up. Get the baby and return to Parker the distraught aunt, who tried to stop you from killing Chyna, but couldn’t and then you forced me to go to the cabin. You shot yourself in the head and I only did what I was supposed to do to save the baby. Slash your ass wide open and save the day. I’ll volunteer to be the nanny and soon Parker will find comfort in these arms, marry me and you two will be gone for good.”
“He’s not going to believe I killed myself! I haven’t tried.”
“Because you agreed to wait until after the baby was born! Chyna told me, stupid and everyone knows you’re severely depressed and I’ll just say how you couldn’t wait any longer and went crazy with Chyna being back home.”
The smell of gasoline enveloped her and she could hear Joanie giggling and liquid splashing.
“How are you going to make me kill Chyna?”
Cheyenne pulled a small gun out of her pocket. “You two fought, or at least that will be my story. You got the gun and then we struggled and the gun went off.” Pointing the gun at Charisse’s stomach, she ordered, “Get on your feet now, Charisse.”
Slowly getting on her feet, she tried to think of anything that she could do to stall, but she couldn’t think of anything. Suddenly, a severe gut wrenching cramp hit her and she doubled over in pain.
Joanie entered the room at the same time. “Damn, Cheyenne, she so scared she just peed on herself. Fat ass.”
That wasn’t pee and she wanted to scream as she realized her babies were coming.
Cheyenne obviously didn’t realize what was going on because she was cackling as well, but one look at Chyna and Charisse knew she did know.
“Get the gun,” Chyna ordered.
Charisse shook her head. “No! I won’t. Not again, Chyna.”
“Do it!” Cheyenne ordered. “Come get the gun and if you can get it out of my hand, maybe you can kill me and save her, huh? I made sure it was loaded nicely, Charisse.”
“G-Get the gun, Charisse,” Chyna commanded weakly.
Looking back over at Chyna helplessly, she couldn’t believe this was happening all over again. Taking a deep breath feeling the small contraction in her side, she waited for it to pass before she took a step forward toward her older sister.
A gun behind her went off, startling her to turn and see Joanie and shot another smaller gun at Chyna.
Charisse screamed as Chyna had risen up and the gunshot struck her in the right side of her chest. Had she been trying to defend herself or something? It didn’t seem to work as Chyna’s body slumped forward and then she didn’t move anymore.
Cheyenne grabbed Charisse around the neck cackling in amusement. Joanie whooped in excitement.
“Did you see that, bitch?!” Joanie screeched.
Charisse moaned, “Why?! Why?! Oh my gawd!” She struggled against Cheyenne seeing Chyna’s blood coat the floor.
“That was with the registered gun Chyna keeps in her purse. Now they’ll believe me. They’ll know I didn’t lie,” Cheyenne hissed before shoving her over to the bed and that’s when Charisse felt a sort of bursting sensation and screamed in pain, as something seemed to rip inside of her.
***
Blood and placenta fluid soaked the bed and she could feel the baby move easily down the passageway. The birth had happened so fast in two short pushes no one had time to react to anything, but surprisingly, Charisse had managed to push down the track pants by herself and bear down hard, pushing her son into the world on her own.
He screamed instantly as the cold hit his body and she pulled him against her chest not caring that she was soaking herself in the new birth. Just the feeling of knowing she had help create life was so overwhelming to herself and she never wanted to let him go.
Joanie screamed horrified, as Cheyenne stood stupefied.
Coming over with the blade, Cheyenne cut the cord and then snatched the baby right out of Charisse’s arms.
“No!” Charisse cried but when she tried to reach over, there was a sharp pain in her stomach from another contraction. “No! My baby!” But she couldn’t get out of the bed as her body continued to cramp viciously.
“So now I don’t have to take you to the cabin!” Cheyenne said victoriously, taking off her jacket and wrapping it around the baby, who screamed for warmth.
Between quick breaths, Charisse wailed, “N-nother! T-Twins!”
“You’re lying.”
She only could shake her head as she panted through another contraction.
“Even if she ain’t, we better get out of here,” Joanie said worriedly.
Cheyenne debated for second before she said, “Get her and bring her to the car.”
The baby screamed loud and Charisse wanted to rip her own heart out at the sound just so she could comfort her son, but she was in the middle of a contraction at the same time.
After helping Charisse fix her clothes, Joanie had to practically carry her down the steps because Charisse was trying to concentrate on not having the child practically fall out on the floor. She could feel her daughter starting to come down the passageway, but this was a slower feel. The baby was taking its time.
“Dump her in the trunk,” Cheyenne ordered, gently trying to rock the baby to quietness.
“But,“ Joanie protested. “She’s still– “
Cheyenne’s free hand slapped Joanie in the face and Charisse was too weak to stop her as the trunk to the Ford Focus popped open and she was practically shoved in there.
The last thing she did remember was hearing a big explosion and her sister’s evil cackle.
***
Charisse must have hit her head fighting against getting in the trunk and passed out for an hour or so until her body had suffered in silence too long. She couldn’t hear the sound of the first baby any longer and that terrified her, but she had one more inside and she knew that was the only thing right now keeping her alive.
Briefly she mourned knowing they had done something horrible to the house and Chyna’s body would be found in the aftermath of the fire they most likely started, which also blew the gas from the pilot light they had blown out.
Cheyenne had gone absolutely crazy and dragged Joanie down with her. Somehow Charisse would have to stall, but she was in too much pain with the contractions to do much thinking.
As the second baby worked its way down, Charisse was very aware in a few moments she would be giving birth.
Yet she was praying hopefully Parker had left Jaelen at the cabin before returning or he hadn’t realize that his phone wasn’t receiving calls and stayed up there.
The car stopped and she could hear the muffle of Cheyenne’s voice ordering Joanie around, but by now Charisse had rolled on her knees and was bearing down to bring down the second child. The space was cramped, but she managed to draw the baby up between her legs and since she didn’t hear the baby crying in the darkness, she turned it to the side as she fought exhaustion and the baby coughed and then wailed even louder than her brother.
Holding the baby girl tightly against her chest, Charisse cried feeling so much joy. Joy she’d never felt in her entire life and she wanted so much to lay eyes on both her children at the same time and get them to safety, which was as far away from Cheyenne as possible.
She was saddened that Parker had not experienced this moment with her and she knew he would be torn up inside about not being there for her and the babies.
Joanie opened the trunk abruptly looking tired and pissed as she tried to snatch the baby once she caught sight of the moving bundle in Charisse’s arms, but Charisse held it protectively and swatted Joanie’s hand away.
Joanie aimed the gun at her. “Give me the baby, Charisse.”
“No!” she said defiantly. “I have to feed them or they’ll die. They need my breast milk. If you were any kind of mother you’d know that!�
�
Cheyenne had come to where they were, still holding the bloody jacket and still trying to comfort the restless boy child. Joanie looked at the oldest sister for instruction. Reluctantly, Cheyenne said, “Get her inside, Joanie. But if she starts something shoot her and the baby.’
Even though Joanie didn’t seem to have a problem shooting an adult she did have some apprehensions about shooting a baby. “The baby? You want me to kill the baby?”
“We got one. We’ll easily say she did it. They’re going to believe whatever I tell them,” Cheyenne said knowingly. “My sisters are predictable. They’ve been weak since day one and I’ve been able to easily manipulate them to whatever I want. Everyone knows Charisse doesn’t care for life and they’ll just easily assume that she didn’t care for the baby’s life either.”
All Charisse could see were the woods around her and so weak, Joanie had to almost lift her out of the trunk. Charisse’s legs wobbled, but after she took several deep breaths and Joanie turned her around in the right direction, she headed as quickly as she could inside of the medium sized cabin.
All the while, in the back of her head, she was telling herself to stall. She needed to more time so she could think of an escape. ‘For once in your life you want to live! Not just for yourself, but for justice, your children and most of all Parker!’
She didn’t know if she had the strength to run, but she knew she didn’t want to run without her babies – both of them and she knew Joanie would probably have a better conscience and shoot Charisse in the back easy because she didn’t have to look at the baby she would be hurting.
This made her wonder what had happened to Joanie to make her sink so far under Cheyenne’s thumb.
With it being close to the winter and a snowstorm expected outside of Metro Detroit, it felt twice as cold out here in the woods.
Cheyenne shoved her on the couch and cut the umbilical cord that was still attached to the baby girl and Charisse. Charisse sobbed regretfully as she remembered Parker wanting to do the honors. He’d even bought a pair of golden scissors that he was going to have bronzed with their first pair of shoes.
It made a mess on the couch and Cheyenne had to take off her jacket so Charisse had a dry space to sit after pushing and feeling the placenta come out. It was a horrible sight, but she was aware this was part of the birthing process and she wished she knew if she had injured or torn something between her legs. Her babies health concerns overshadowed her own. Keeping them alive by any way possible was high in her mind.
Stalling for time to think was point one because Parker could have been headed to the cabin and hadn’t made it yet or whomever he had paid to watch the house may have lost their trail somehow, but was now catching up.
Either way, she still had some hope that she could save herself until help arrived.
Yet the fire could have been a deterrent to make them all think that she was dead.
She pulled up her shirt and let the baby girl latch on her breast. She sucked greedily and Charisse marveled at how the baby had her burnt orange eyes, but Parker’s facial features. Cheyenne placed the boy child in Charisse’s arms and instantly he quieted although he was agitated from not being fed right away. He replicated his sister’s actions to Charisse’s other breast, but he was so over eager that he needed a little more help with getting attached.
The heady joy she instantly felt knowing she could be there for her children gripped Charisse’s heart with happiness. Seeing Parker and herself in these bundles was like a comet ripping through her body and she cried knowing what she would have to do. If she fought Cheyenne and Joanie, Charisse could end up hurting the babies. But if she allowed them to kill her, at least the babies would be saved and she knew Cheyenne would stick to her plan and take them to Parker who would protect them against anything.
‘At least now you died for a purpose. Your death will be for your children and hopefully it will not be in vain.’
“He’ll hate you once he finds out the truth,” Charisse seethed, showing the full fury she was feeling for her sister.
Triumphantly, Cheyenne said, “He will never know once I have you out of the way.”
“How could you do this to us? How could you do this to your blood?”
“You aren’t my blood, Charisse. And Chyna was only a scab that hung on to anything that would benefit her. She had no conscience or no soul – that is until she started to deal with you without me being around. Then she wanted to develop a heart? Ha!”
“She did your bidding, but I don’t see you shooting Joanie either,” Charisse sneered.
“Joanie is more of a sister than either of you. Chyna only lasted this long because I thought she was serving my purpose, but she was only a thief and a user. When we were children she made me suffer with that monster.”
“I never saw you suffering with our mother.”
Viciously, Cheyenne said, “That’s because your selfish ass only saw your world. You could have cared less about what others did. And the only reason you even cared about Daddy is because he doted upon you.”
“That’s not true!” Charisse cried. “I loved my father until you and Joanie took him away from me! You listened to her! You did what she wanted!”
“That was because if I didn’t, she would have tortured us more!”
Charisse couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but looking over at Joanie who only nodding in desolation, she looked back at her sister to hear what she had to say.
“You don’t know what we went through in the middle of the nights when she’d come and drag us out of our beds while everyone was asleep. You never heard our muffled screams at what she did.” A hurtful sob escaped her and she even shook her head as if she were fighting what she was seeing inside her head.
Seeing someone else experience a daymare was fascinating to Charisse. Whatever torment their mother had done to her, had been very real and even though Charisse didn’t know the details, she could almost feel the sickened fear.
Pointing an accusing finger at her, while standing in front of her, Cheyenne sneered, “She hated you very much, but even after he died, she never released her full sickened fury on you. You weren’t tormented like us. And you’ll never know the real monster she was!”
“She hit me! She beat me so bad I couldn’t move for days,” Charisse declared.
“I would have rather suffered the beating than to endure what she did to us. Did you really think my promiscuous behavior caused me to be sterile for life? I was promiscuous to just feel. Feel something down there, because she took whatever I had down there with her godforsaken sick torture and after he died when she didn’t want to use the money he’d left to care for you, she used us.” Cheyenne viciously pounded on her own chest in rage. “She sold me to men for whatever they could give. Do you know how it feels to lay under a man knowing your mother sold you for thirty dollars and groceries? And then watching your ugly face eat what I worked on my back for?”
Charisse had not known this and she looked away ashamed that she was even related to the woman they had to call mother.
“No!” Cheyenne screamed. “Daddy protected you from her sickness that he didn’t know about until it was too late. He didn’t see the scars or the abuse. Or at least he turned a blind eye because he was so in love.” She was gritting her words through her clenched teeth. “I thought when he was gone, she’d stop hurting us like that and start on you, but even in death, he protected you. EVEN IN DEATH SHE NEVER HURT YOU ENOUGH! And I hated you. I hated everything about you and I wanted to hurt you myself, but I was scared of her. I was scared that if I tortured you like she did us, she would hurt me more. So driving you crazy was my revenge. Making you kill yourself was justice for not experiencing what I had to go through, but you couldn’t even get that right! Even Chyna didn’t get the full brunt of her sickness. I was the oldest. I was the one who thought I had to do this because it was my cross to bear for being the oldest. But it should have been you all along! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN
YOU!!!”
To know that their mother was sicker than what she had thought, was disheartening and horrible on her soul. There had been no one to heal the pain during those times because all of them were scared of her.
Now Cheyenne was going to carry out her vengeance until the end.
Looking over at Joanie, Charrise saw the pity in her eyes and now understood why Joanie pledged allegiance to Cheyenne. She felt sorry for Cheyenne. All this time, she knew what was happening and she stayed around because of the empathy for Cheyenne.
Gazing lovingly down at her babies, Charisse now understood there was a silver lining to everything in life. She realized that Parker was right in the beginning when he said that she had a greater purpose in life than to kill herself. Her purpose had been to give these babies life. Charisse had lived more in the past nine months than she had ever lived in her whole life.
There was no more room in her heart to continue to hate where she had come from. Now there was only love in her heart for the most precious gifts in the world that Parker had honored her with sharing. And now she knew her love for Parker was real. Just as real as her heartbeat racing and just as real as the air she breathed.
With every fiber of her being she wished he were there, praising her accomplishments, kissing her brow and thanking her for giving him the chance to be a father.
‘And you were so stupid to never tell him that you wanted to be with him.’
Kissing both of the babies’ foreheads, her tears fell down her cheeks freely as she realized even her children would never know her real feelings for them.
Cheyenne pried both children out of her arms, while Joanie held her back. Charisse moaned in torment as Cheyenne took the children over to a nursery that had been preset up for them.
Angrily, she shouted, “That was all in the past, Cheyenne. I know it may sound like I’m unsympathetic to it all, but I suffered in my own way – mentally and physically. He could only protect me physically, but no one suffered as much as I did mentally. But I learned.” She could almost feel Parker’s strong arms around her body, holding her in comfort and giving her strength. “I learned that true love in one’s self is what keeps us from going over the edge. We both hurt. We both endured abuse from a woman who was not fit to raise animals let alone children. Yet, we both have to push the past away and live for each day.”
His Substitute Wife... My Sister Book Two Page 21