Before the Storm (The Cochran/Deveraux Series Book 9)

by Melanie Schuster

  In a short time he was laying down on the narrow emergency room cot while she administered a local anesthetic under the guidance of the resident doctor. While they waited for it to take effect, the resident left to answer a page and Julian surprised her by grabbing her wrist.

  “You want to know what really happened, Maya? My brothers were giving me a hard time because you won’t go out with me. So I let them have it. Fists were swinging, names were called, clothes were shredded and now I’m bleeding to death in your arms,” he said with a pitiful sigh.

  Maya had to laugh, he looked so forlorn. “You’re not bleeding to death, Julian, that’s kind of an overstatement,” she said, giving him the first real smile he could remember.

  “That’s because you can’t see my heart,” he said softly. “It bleeds a little more every day because you don’t like me.”

  Maya was momentarily taken aback by his words, but she recovered quickly. “I like you just fine, Julian, don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Then why won’t you go out with me? I just want to take you somewhere nice and get to know you better. Is that some kind of crime in Connecticut?”

  This time she giggled, a tinkling sound that set Julian’s heart dancing. “Of course it’s not a crime. People are allowed to date in my home state, Julian.”

  “Every time you say my name I feel it,” he whispered. “I feel it all over my body like a soft wind. Will you please go out with me?”

  In an equally soft voice, Maya answered him. “Yes, I will. Now hold still so I can make this pretty,” she crooned as she began making the tiny stitches to close the cut over his eye.

  Chapter 16

  Kasey was sound asleep on Ruth’s lap, but Ruth was riveted by Paris’s tale. “So she really wouldn’t go out with him?”

  “Nope. Maya wouldn’t give him the time of day, honey. To an extent that might have made her more attractive to him because women used to fall all over him. From the time he was about ten years old the phone would be ringing off the hook with all these little fast-tailed girls hunting him down like crazy,” she said, rolling her eyes, “lf I got to the phone first I’d tell ‘em to quit chasing my brother and get a life. I wasn’t very popular with him for a while,” she laughed. “But chicks used to jump through hoops of fire for that boy. It was ridiculous. It was disgusting! When he was a freshman in high school he went to the prom with a senior, can you imagine? Maya was the first woman who ever told him no.”

  Ruth’s laughter woke Kasey, who opened one eye, yawned and went back to sleep. “So that was what got next to him, hmm? She played hard to get?”

  “Oh, no, that’s not what did it. He really did fall hard for her. It was like she was the one he’d been looking for all his life. He loved everything about her from the inside out. He liked her looks, that’s for sure. He used to call her Chocolat, with the French pronunciation, because he said she was the only thing on earth that was sweeter than the finest chocolate ever made. But he also loved her brains, her ambition and drive. He was incredibly proud to be with her and he bragged on her constantly. He was crazy about her, Ruth.”

  “Then whatever happened to break them up must have been catastrophic. It had to be really dreadful to separate them, unless Maya didn’t feel the same way about him,” she said gently.

  “Maya adored him. She was very quiet by nature, but with Julian she was livelier, more outgoing. They used to do things to please each other all the time. They were always surprising each other with little things like breakfast in bed, back rubs, crazy gifts, stuff like that. She talked about Julian constantly when they weren’t together. He would stay up with her when she studied and pick her up every night she had to work, and make her lunch or take her out to lunch every day. She really thought Julian was the most wonderful man on earth. As soon as they saw each other their eyes would start sparkling like Christmas lights and that’s no joke. There was nobody in the world for Maya but Julian, nobody,” Paris said sadly.

  “And you have no idea what destroyed their marriage? Julian never talked about it?”

  “Absolutely not. Julian wouldn’t say a word about it, but he was crushed. Frankly, he was a mess after she left. He did a lot of drinking, a lot of cursing and a lot of other antisocial things. He would hardly say a word to anyone in the family, as a matter of fact. If it hadn’t been for his friend Monica he might have ended up in the psych ward and that’s no joke,” Paris told her.

  Ruth raised an eyebrow. “Who is Monica?”

  “Monica Montclair is an old friend of the family. After we moved to New Orleans, she and her family lived nearby and we got to be friends. Her mother is a real good friend of Daddy’s. You met her, Charmaine Montclair, remember?”

  Ruth had to struggle hard not to grimace. “Oh, yes, I remember her. So her daughter was a good friend of Julian’s? And she helped him through his crisis, did she?”

  Paris smiled at the suspicious tone of Ruth’s voice. “Really, she did. They were always really tight and he wouldn’t have made it without her. She was able to be there for him in a way no one else was, she was the only person he would talk to. He gradually came out of his funk and went back to being the Julian we all know and love, but in the past five years I haven’t seen that look of love in his eyes, not once. I really believe a heart can break, Aunt Ruth, because she destroyed his. I didn’t know what that felt like until Titus and I had that misunderstanding, but then you know what that was all about, you were there.”

  Ruth leaned on the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling for a long moment. “And she kept his child away from him for four years. I’m going to have to stop dogging Sylvia about watching soap operas because this has all the earmarks of some high drama.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. This is going to put The Young and the Restless to shame, honey. Somehow we have to get him up here to meet his child and hope that Chicago is still standing when he finds out the truth. And the only way we’re going to do that is if we get Daddy to help,” she said with a bright and hopeful look in Ruth’s direction.

  “And my role in this production would be what?” Ruth asked politely. “Am I supposed to get involved in this in some way?”

  Paris’s face split in a big grin and she started singing the old R&B classic “We Are Family,” which made Ruth start laughing again. This time Kasey woke up with a little bark and glared at both women.

  “Oh, you’re gonna play me, huh? Do you actually think I’m going to use my feminine wiles to coerce your father into some kind of scheme? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  Paris jumped up from the sofa and ran over to the big chair, where she squeezed in next to Ruth and hugged her hard. “Yes, I am, Mama! You know I get to call you that after you and Daddy are married.”

  “Stop it! You’re not going to be twisting me around your little finger, missy!” Ruth hugged her back with fervor and almost broke down in tears because it was true, in a very short time this would be her daughter-by-marriage and she couldn’t be happier. “Just hand me my cell phone and let’s get this runaway train rolling,” she said, trying to blink away the moisture in her eyes. “Ewww, thank you Kasey, but that’s not necessary,” she squealed as Kasey helped her out by licking her face all over.

  There was never a time when Mac wasn’t glad to hear his beloved’s voice, and this was no exception. The conversation started out especially well when Ruth purred into his ear, “What are you wearing?”

  He stretched out on the bed and leaned back on the pillows with a big smile. “A towel, honey. I just got out of the shower.”

  “I wish I was there with you,” she sighed. “You wouldn’t be wearing that much.”

  His laughed boomed out and Bojangles came running. He seemed to have a sixth sense where Ruth was concerned and always knew when she was on the phone. “Your cat is standing on my chest now. He seems to want to have a word with you.”

  “Well, darlin’,that’s a coincidence because I need to have a word with you. Our daughter has so
mething to tell you and I’m supposed to be setting the mood or something. You may want to get a little bit of that Napoleon brandy to sip while we chat.”

  Mac raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh when Bojangles cocked his head to one side. She’d done it again, referred to Paris as “their” daughter. Whatever else was going on was secondary to the loving feeling those words gave him. “This sounds real serious, darlin’. Do I need to come up there?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact you do. And you need to bring Julian. And you need to come soon, angel.”

  He rose up on one elbow and his voice got deep and serious. “Honey, what’s going on up there?”

  “Go get the brandy and we’ll tell you all about it,” Ruth assured him. “It’s a doozy, I’ll grant you that, but nothing we can’t get through together.”

  The conversation took a couple of hours, but the end result was the desired one. After several “Well, I’ll be damneds” Mac was totally on board with the plan. “It’s not going to be pretty, but it has to be done. If we only had some clear idea of why she did it, it might make it easier. But that’s a piece of vital information we’re not going to have when we enter this mess, which could work in our favor or blow the whole thing to pieces,” he said slowly.

  “What do you mean, baby?”

  “One of the first things you learn in law is to never ask a question in the courtroom that you don’t know the answer to and we’re getting ready to go it one step further than that. We’re getting ready to drop a bomb on him with no idea of what led up to this point. But he’s been denied long enough, honey. It’s time for my son to get to know his daughter and we’ll all just have to deal with the fallout the best way we can.” He was silent for a moment, and then asked the inevitable question.

  “What’s she like, honey? Tell me about my grandbaby.”

  “Julian, she’s absolutely adorable. She looks just like Paris and she has a huge vocabulary and lovely manners. Maya has done a wonderful job of raising that young lady. You’re going to love her. I love her already.”

  “And you don’t mind marrying a grandpa, huh? You know this is going to make you a grandmother,” he teased.

  “That was the plan, baby. I may have gotten cheated out of birth children, but I’m going to have a houseful of grandbabies,” she gloated. “She already calls me her grandma,” she added proudly.

  Mac smiled broadly as he drained the last drop of brandy from the snifter. He’d taken her advice and fortified himself for the complicated conversation. “This is going to work, honey. We’re going to pray on it and somehow God is going to get us through this. I’ll do my best to keep a lid on him, but I don’t envy Maya, not one little bit. I loved her dearly and I’m sure whatever reasons she had for this action were good ones, at least in her head they were. But this isn’t going to be easy for Julian to deal with, not by any stretch of the imagination.”

  “No, baby, it’s not. And it’s not going to be any easier for Maya. I’m just going with my feminine intuition, but I’d swear on my subscription to Essence that she still cares for him. In fact, I know she does. She named their baby Juliana Corinna Deveraux, for God’s sake. Women don’t name their children after ex-husbands unless there’s a lot of love there. Something horrible happened to tear those two apart and maybe, just maybe, we’ll find out what it was.”

  “I hope you’re right, honey. Okay, we’ll be there next Friday. I hope your walls are soundproof because there’s bound to be a major explosion up in there when Julian finds out what she’s been hiding from him,” he said quietly. “I hate the idea of ambushing my son like this, but if I just tell him the news he might have a heart attack on the spot. May as well get it all over at once,” he said with a deep breath. After a brief silence, his mood lightened. “By the way, darlin’, what are you wearing?”

  * * *

  Maya was a wreck. The thing she’d been dreading for five years was about to happen and there was no way she could even pretend like she was ready for it. She knew the day of reckoning was inevitable, but that didn’t mean she was looking forward to it. What she had done was wrong, it was stupid and selfish, but it was the only thing she could’ve done under the circumstances. She had to keep reminding herself of that as she brushed Corey’s abundant hair. Corey was excited enough for all of them, Maya thought. She hadn’t stopped talking about her daddy since the day she’d met Paris and Ruth. She’d been asking questions about her father off and on since she was old enough to realize that most of her friends had two parents and Maya had always tried to answer her questions honestly.

  She had told her that her father was Julian Deveraux, that he was an attorney in New Orleans, that he was very tall and very nice and that one day he would come and get her for a visit She’d even shown her pictures of Julian so the child would have some sense of the man who’d fathered her, and for the most part, Corey seemed satisfied. But the questions were becoming more frequent and more pointed and Maya had been running out of answers. It was only a matter of time before the father-and-daughter reunion had to take place and running into Paris was the catalyst she needed to right the terrible wrong she’d done. So what if he wronged me ? Two wrongs have never made a right, not in the history of the world, she thought bitterly. The minute I knew I was carrying his baby I should have gotten on a plane and gone back to Louisiana to confront him. It wouldn’t have gotten my husband back, but it was the right thing to do.

  “I’m really going to see my daddy today?” Corey asked for the tenth or fiftieth time. Maya had lost track of how many times she’d heard the question that day.

  “Yes, baby, you’re really going to see your daddy today. And your granddaddy, too. That’s why you have to sit still so I can make you look pretty, okay?”

  “Does he love me?” Corey’s innocent voice ripped the tear in Maya’s heart even bigger.

  “Yes, baby, he does. When he sees you he’s going to be very happy and excited and he’s going to love you more than anything.” At least she knew that was the truth. Once Julian saw his little girl he was going to fall in love with her. What her ex-husband was going to do when he saw her, well, that was the problem. She was fairly sure he wouldn’t say anything or do anything cruel in front of his father and Ruth and certainly not his daughter, but when they were alone... She abruptly stopped brushing Corey’s hair, announcing that she was finished. She was fighting a sudden wave of nausea and feared another trip to the bathroom was coming, but she shook it off.

  “You’re all done, honey,” she said, stroking her daughter’s precious face.

  “Do I look pretty?” Corey asked as she twirled around.

  “Yes, you do. Go look in the mirror and see what you think.”

  They were in Ruth’s master bedroom, where there was a big antique mirror leaning against the wall. Corey admired her reflection, smiling at the big pale green bow that held the ponytail at the top of her head back off her face. The rest of her hair hung in thick waves, a real novelty for the child. Her hair was usually worn in ponytails or braids, but this was a special occasion. She was wearing a pretty little dress in a matching shade of pale green. It was sleeveless with a high waist and a full skirt, and a pair of little sandals completed her ensemble. Maya’s stomach turned over again as she heard the doorbell ring. Corey was chattering away about something and didn’t hear it, but Maya knew her moment of reckoning was at hand. She just hoped she didn’t pass out from the pressure. But what else could I have done?

  Julian had a feeling something weird was afoot, primarily because Paris had tipped him off. Oh, not directly, she was too canny for that. If Paris had a secret, she’d never tell because she had a strong sense of honor. But she’d met Mac and Julian at O’Hare, which was a surprise to him. “What are you doing here, Coco? I thought you’d be in Atlanta getting ready for the wedding or something,” he commented as he gave her a brief hug and kiss on the cheek.

  “Well, I am getting ready for the wedding,” she said. “Ruth and I found some fa
bulous fabric for the gown and Perry is here to take my measurements and we have to see about gowns for the attendants and stationery—” She stopped talking when Julian put his hand over her mouth.

  “I’m so sorry I asked,” he laughed. “You know, you could take all the money you spend on a big wedding and buy a house or something. I don’t understand this need for pomp and circumstance,” he joked.

  She ignored him while she gave her father a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. She whispered something in his ear and Julian saw him nod slightly. Mac announced that he was going to check on their bags and went over to the carousel that corresponded with their flight. It was then that Paris made her move. She turned to him at once, taking his hand and holding it tightly, the way she’d done when she was a little girl.

  “Julian, I need you to do me a favor, okay?” she asked sweetly.

  “Of course, baby sister, you know I’ll do anything for you. What is it?”

  “I need you to make me a promise about something. You’ve never broken a promise to me in my whole life, and I know you won’t break it now, right?” Her eyes were huge and serious as she spoke.

  “I would never break my word to you. Now what is it? Obviously, it’s something really important. Talk to me, Coco, what’s going on?”

  Paris tightened her grip on his hand. “I want you to promise me that you’re going to try to understand something that has no understanding. I need you to be the most open-minded you’ve ever been in your life, Julian. And I want you to promise that you won’t lose your temper, no matter what happens today. Please promise me, okay?”

  Julian’s face had already begun to turn mottled red with rage. “Are you trying to tell me that Titus got you pregnant? Is this why the wedding was moved up from December to August?”

  Paris rolled her eyes and jerked her hand away. “Julian, honestly. We moved the wedding up because since he found out his birth father is a pastor he insists that we can’t... well, never mind, it’s not your business,” she said grumpily. “This has absolutely nothing to do with me. Just promise me, right now.”