The Ramseys Boxed Set

by Altonya Washington

  Mel rubbed her hands over her blouse sleeves and watched Rita close the front door. “I’m not too sure of my plans yet,” she said, offering the older woman her arm as they strolled out of the foyer.

  “Please don’t be a stranger while you’re here then,” Rita urged, patting Mel’s arm in a motherly fashion.

  “I promise,” Mel whispered, pressing a kiss to the woman’s cheek.

  Rita escorted Melina across the beige and black speckled entry hall leading into the living room. Inside, Josephine Ramsey stood waiting. Her hands were clasped at her mouth and tears filled her eyes when she saw Melina.

  No words were spoken mother and daughter-in-law closed the distance and met in a lengthy hug. Rita smiled and left them alone.

  “Oh Mel, Mel thank you so much for coming back,” Josephine sobbed, twin emotions of happiness and regret filling her mood. “I’ve missed you so.”

  “I’ve missed you too,” Mel was saying, hugging Josephine more tightly.

  “And you’ve seen Yohan,” Josephine noted, pulling back to smile at Melina. “This is so wonderful. I can’t tell you how much it means.”

  Sobering then, Mel’s smile tightened a bit. “Why did you call me out here Josephine?” she asked.

  The light in Josephine’s bright gaze dimmed as the sobering feeling overcame her as well. “Marc’s out of control,” she hissed.

  Melina grimaced. “Marc’s always been out of control.”

  “This is different.”

  “How?” Mel asked, needing to hear the woman admit to her fear.

  For a while, Josephine was silent. An absent expression fell over her face as she stood, toying with a lock of Mel’s coarse, dark hair. Then, she turned away.

  “Have you met Quest’s wife yet?” Josephine asked, taking a seat on one of the loveseats filling the spacious front room.

  The question stumped Mel, but she shook her head. “No, no I heard he was married but no I haven’t met her yet.”

  Josephine nodded and smiled as a bit of the light returned to her expression. “Michaela’s a lot like you. You’d like her I think. She came here to Seattle doing research for a biography on the family. She’s very smart-very intuitive. It didn’t take her long to dig up the truth about Sera Black.”

  Melina’s heart lurched at the sound of the name. “Sera,” she breathed.

  Josephine offered a refreshing smile and smoothed her hands across the silky hose she wore beneath a lavender skirt suit. “Mick was the reason they know what they do about Houston’s involvement.”

  “Houston’s?”

  “Yes Houston,” Josephine confirmed, fixing her daughter-in-law with a knowing look. “Only Houston.”

  “And?”

  “And Marc is on the verge of sweeping another incident under his dirty rug.”

  Mel leaned back in the armchair she occupied. Her dark lovely face was a picture of deep unrest.

  Josephine sat forward. “Melina if you were to-“

  “Hold it. No,” Mel interrupted, quickly regaining control of herself. “Before you ask, no.” She reiterated.

  Josephine appeared to deflate. “But why? Why not?”

  Mel raised her hand. “Josephine-“

  “How could you keep silent about this any longer? Especially when you were so ready to tell Yohan before you left?”

  “And I’m sure you’ve always wondered why I didn’t?”

  Josephine was quiet, observing the pensive young woman. “Yohan always believed Marc had something to do with your leaving,” she said, sounding as though she were carefully choosing her words.

  “Well, he was right,” Mel confirmed while rolling her eyes. “Marc had everything to do with my leaving.”

  “That’s impossible!” Josephine hissed. “No way would you let that bastard bully you into leaving your husband.”

  “It was easy for him to do,” Mel admitted, standing and pulling something from her purse. “Once I received this. It came a few months after I left,” she said, dropping Zara’s note into Josephine’s lap.

  After scanning the brief, but explosive letter, utter shock took hold of Josephine’s face. The question in her eyes was easy to read.

  “He was responsible for that,” Mel confirmed. “All that time we cried, wondered, mourned her and he knew.” She turned and pointed down at Josephine. “So you see putting Marc behind bars isn’t tops on my list until I find out where that son of a bitch is keeping my cousin.” Mel slammed her fist to her palm. “I let all that time pass, afraid for Zara when I should’ve done anything I had to find her. Especially when Marc threatened Johari the very night I left,” she confided, referring to her other cousin and Zara’s sister.

  Josephine was almost motionless with shock. “If you’re not here to tell what you know about Marc… then why? Why have you come?”

  Swallowing noticeably, Mel propped both hands on her hips. “I came on business for my boss…Crane Cannon.”

  If Josephine hadn’t been seated, she would have surely fallen to the floor. “How?” was the only question she could form.

  “He didn’t know who I was when we met,” Mel assured her.

  Josephine’s hands shook as she settled them to her lap. “How long have you known? You know, don’t you?”

  “That Yohan is Crane’s son? Yes.”

  “He sent you here?”

  “He did.”

  “What will you do?”

  Mel pressed her fingers to the silver band holding back her hair. “It’s what I need you to do,” she clarified slowly.

  Josephine began to shake her head. “No, no Mel I-“She looked everywhere but ay Mel. “What you must think of me…”

  “Wait, shh…” Mel urged, stooping before Josephine and taking her hands in her own. “I feel the same way about you that I always have. But why, Josephine?” she pleaded, giving the woman’s hands a tiny shake. “Why would you jeopardize your family-your reputation by doing this?”

  “Reputation? Ha!” Josephine snapped, jerking her hands from Melina’s. “You must mean a reputation for being a fool. Trust me, love, with a reputation like that I didn’t care much for maintaining it!” she cried, self-loathing spewing from her voice and eyes. “Besides,” she muttered, settling back on the loveseat. “I was so angry. I was so angry Mel. Marc had lied and cheated and…humiliated me in every way a man-a husband could humiliate a wife.”

  Mel leaned close to kiss the woman’s cheek and dried her tears when they rolled down her face.

  “I always knew he’d had affairs,” Josephine continued to confide, “even had children outside the marriage. I lived knowing that for years and I didn’t do a damn thing. I never confronted him-never left him.” A smile began to tug at her mouth then. “So one night I decided to follow him. I don’t know why-I guess I just wanted to feel like I was doing something. Finally. I had to know who at least one of the bitches was. I only caught a glimpse of her once when she opened the door. She was married, but her husband was rarely there judging from the amount of times Marc visited her.” Her smile widened. “But then, one day I met him. I’d driven by the house and he was backing out the driveway.”

  Mel perched on the edge of the coffee table and focused more clearly on Josephine as she spoke.

  “I followed him-followed Crane to a warehouse. Inside it-it looked like some sort of gallery.”

  Mel smiled and shook her head.

  “Anyway,” Josephine sighed, looking off as though she were seeing into her past. “I pretended my car had broken down…Crane was so sweet and he seemed so lonely. As we talked, I forgot all about Marc and Crane’s…wife. We never spoke of either of them. And for the longest time it never went farther than talking,” she said, looking directly at Mel as though needing her to understand that what she’d shared with the man hadn’t been something spontaneous and meaningless. “And then…one day, I saw her in the park with a baby. I went over and pretended to want to fawn over the child. It didn’t look like she or Crane, but anyway…I
knew Marc’s visits to her had started to dwindle. The bastard stopped seeing her because she’d gotten pregnant.” Josephine took a deep breath and shivered when she let it out.

  “That was the day I told Crane about my husband’s infidelities. I didn’t implicate his wife,” she said with a grimace. “It wasn’t about that for me. I needed closeness and we acted on that closeness in a way that was far more satisfying than talking.” She smoothed her hands across her skirt. “And then I found out I was pregnant with Yohan. Crane was so wonderful. He wanted to raise Yohan, Fernando and Moses,” she laughed. “I knew it was impossible-beyond impossible. So did he I think. We were just hurting so much…At any rate, it could never be. He was white. I was a part of Savannah, Georgia’s…society. Yohan was black as a panther. Marc was so proud,” she reminisced, her face tightening with hate. “It was so easy to pretend. It felt like heaven to pretend. I watched Marc strut like a fool-doting over another man’s seed. It made everything he’d put me through just a little more bearable.”

  Mel sat there clutching Josephine’s hands. Her own head spun from the depth of the story. Crane’s somewhat cursory explanation of the events leading up to Yohan’s birth barely scratched the surface of the whole situation.

  “And now Josephine?” Melina asked, finding her voice at last. “With the way things are? Yohan hates Marc and maybe…maybe if he knew Marc wasn’t…maybe some of that anger I see taking over his soul might-“

  “Might what?” Josephine snapped, bolting from the loveseat. “Might have him hating me too?”

  Mel turned, raising her hands. “No, no Josephine-“

  “Yes! Because that’s all that would come of me telling him.”

  “Josephine-“

  “How do you tell your child he’s the product of revenge?!”

  Mel looked down. “You have to.”

  “I can’t! It’d destroy Yohan and he’d destroy Marc. I don’t want my son’s life any more ruined because of that monster.”

  “I don’t want that either,” Mel swore, pressing a hand to her chest as she stood, “but it may not be up to us.”

  The anger on Josephine’s face cleared a bit. “What are you saying?”

  “Crane’s running for office. A senate seat in Tennessee. He’s being threatened with this,” Mel said, seeing her mother-in-law’s light complexion grow flushed. “Someone else does know Josephine. It may come out whether we want it to or not. Better he hear it from us-from you.”

  Josephine rolled her eyes and turned away. “Perhaps when you have a child Melina, you’ll understand that you’d do anything to protect it.”

  Mel reached out and made Josephine face her. “This isn’t protecting! If he hears this from someone else it could make things that much worse.”

  “Then you tell him!”

  A knock rose from somewhere in the room and brought the argument to a definite halt. Melina and Josephine turned and shock took hold of their faces when they saw Yohan leaning against the living room doorway.

  “Now why do I get the feeling you two are talkin’ about me?” he asked.

  ***

  Tykira brushed both hands across her form-fitting calf length eggshell skirt. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before stepping off the elevator and into the penthouse office at Ramsey Group.

  “Quay?” she called out softly, while moving deeper into the dim overtly masculine office. She made a quick survey of the outer rooms before glancing inside her husband’s abandoned office. “Damn,” she sighed, then reached for a pad lying next to the phone and began to scribble a message. Only a second or two passed, when a smile tugged at her mouth when she sensed his presence in the room. “I thought I’d missed you,” she called, tossing her lengthy tresses across her shoulder and glancing back at him.

  Quay snapped his fingers. “How’d you do that? How’d you know I was here?”

  Ty drew a pen mark through the note and turned to lean against the desk. “Your cologne,” she said.

  Quay’s right dimpled grin flashed. “Sexy, huh?” he guessed.

  Ty’s arched brows rose a notch. “Mmm…I was thinking more along the lines of strong,” she teased, her laughter mounting when she found herself tugged into her husband’s embrace.

  “Joke’s, huh?” he taunted, dropping soft kisses to the sensitive area below her earlobe.

  “Quay,” Ty gasped, feeling him tugging at the zipper lining the front of her white blouse.

  “Shh,” he urged, capturing her lips in a gentle kiss. His tongue eased inside her mouth as slowly as he pulled down the zipper.

  Tykira arched into his solid frame, her arms encircling his neck as she deepened the kiss. Soft moans filled the office, growing louder when his hands were cupping her breasts only concealed by the lacy fabric of her bra.

  “Wait,” she murmured, even as she rubbed her nipples across the center of his palm.

  “Uh-uh,” Quay refused, stepping closer to force her back onto his desk.

  “Wait please, I have something to tell you,” she gasped, but allowed him to make her sit on the desk.

  “Save it,” he ordered gruffly, trailing his lips across her jaw, the line of her neck and the valley between her breasts.

  “No, I mean it,” she argued, pressing against the lapels of his black suit coat. “Please, it-it’s important,” she groaned, arching forward when his tongue stroked her nipple through the bra.

  Quay chuckled, going to unhook the front clasp of the wispy undergarment. Suddenly, Ty slapped at his hands and cleared her throat.

  “No Quay, this is too important and we need to talk about it. Now.”

  “What’s the rush?” he complained, moving to prevent her from leaving the desk.

  “I got a call from Lena Robinson today,” she said, pushing past him to fix her bra when she saw the stunned look on his face.

  “Why would she call you?” he asked slowly, turning to settle against a desk corner.

  “Due to the nature of what she wanted to discuss. I guess I was the logical choice,” Ty said, while zipping her top.

  Quay’s dark gaze narrowed with unease. “And what was that?”

  Ty folded her arms across her chest. “She’s sick Quay. Terminal.”

  “What?”

  “Her doctors can’t say how long she has and with Wake being gone,” she shrugged, “she didn’t tell him about her illness. Lena’s all the boys have.”

  “Jesus,” Quay breathed, closing his eyes as he bowed his head.

  Ty pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and stepped closer. “Baby, Lena wants us to consider taking the boys. She wants to keep them with her until…well, anyway, she wants us to visit as much as we can in order to bond with the twins,” she explained, her expressive gaze focused and unwavering as she studied Quay’s reaction. He was quiet-too quiet for Tykira’s liking. She wasn’t sure what to expect with regards to his reaction and decided that she wasn’t in any mood to find out.

  “You don’t have to give an answer yet,” she told him, stepping closer to pretend at straightening his navy blue tie. “Just think on it,” she urged in a bright tone.

  “I don’t need to think on it.”

  Ty’s hands fell away from the tie and she backed off. “Well, before you…decide

  Quay just please keep in mind that anything could happen to those babies and none of it good,” she warned, a ball of emotion swelling in her throat. “They could be sent to foster homes with people that might do all sorts of terrible things to them. They could be split up and raised without ever knowing the other existed. They’d be strangers who know nothing about their family…”

  Quay watched his wife, falling more in love with her every second she spoke. Finally he smiled and walked over to take her hands.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, closing her eyes and forcing a few tears to trickle down her cheeks. “I shouldn’t try to force your hand with this. It’s a decision we should both be clear and in agreement on.”

  “That’s
true,” he agreed with a solemn nod. “But you forgot to mention one very important thing during your speech.”

  Ty was stumped. “What?” she blurted.

  Shaking his head, Quay stepped close and cupped her face in his hands. “That it’s the right thing to do.”

  “Quay…Oh Quay are you sure?” Ty whispered, her brown eyes widening. “Are you really sure because you don’t have to decide now.”

  His hands moved from her face to massage her shoulders. “Now or later, my answer will be the same,” he stepped back and looked at her. “Are you sure?” he asked.

  Ty nodded, her lips trembling when she smiled. “I couldn’t stand not knowing if those babies were being properly cared for or if they’re even together.”

  Quay laughed completely in awe of her nurturing tone, her concern and the happy tears in her eyes. “I couldn’t stand it either,” he said, giving her a tiny shake.

  Ty threw herself against his chest. Her arms locked around his neck as she pressed dozens of quick kisses to his face. “Thank you, thank you,” she sighed, laughing when they hugged.

  ***

  “So?” Yohan inquired, casting his charcoal gaze from his mother to Melina.

  Both women remained quiet. Aside from Yohan’s lone inquiry, the silence in the room was heavy as a morning fog.

  Suddenly, Josephine cleared her throat and moved towards the front of the room. “I’ll just leave you two alone. Baby this is really something you should discuss with your wife,” she said, kissing Yohan’s cheek before she all but ran from the room.

  Stunned, Melina could barely swallow or blink. From the corner of her eye, she could see Yohan watching her. He was waiting for her to turn and face him. She stood there praying that he’d go after Josephine. It didn’t take long though for her to accept the inevitable. This was her burden to bear-alone. In truth, things were really no different now that they had been for the last eight years. Besides, he’d waited all this time for her to talk to him, hadn’t he?

  Yohan rolled his eyes, tiring of waiting for his wife to speak. He closed the distance between them and came around to face her.