Jake lay smoking a cigarette, Doris was turned on her side away from him softly snoring.
His eyes narrowed peering through the lifting smoke. For weeks and weeks, if not months he'd heard all about Sylvia... Shawn's new intended. Hadn't paid it much attention, because after all... he'd said several times he was coming home. There was no reason to believe he would this time. But he had, and with him - he'd pulled up with a dazzling black mare. He couldn't get those black eyes out of his mind. To actually see her standing there in his mother's kitchen threw him for a loop. He wasn't sure what he had expected upon seeing her, but the woman he saw took him by surprise. He couldn't believe that she had been living in Camp Daniels before Shawn had arrived from California. All the times he'd visited the bar there, gone to that co-op, stopped by that post office, visited his friends there... she'd been living there. Just sitting and waiting to be plucked.
He closed his eyes and could still smell the scent of her. She smelled good. Clean. She tasted even better. The feel of her. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, thinking about Shawn's girlfriends. He'd had just about all of them. The main one that brought him the most pleasure was Cassie Gentry. The one and only girl Shawn had really liked, had been serious about. Jake smiled. "Yep... I fucked her good." He grinned. He'd slipped in right beneath his brothers nose and had his girl when he hadn't even had her himself yet. She'd been a virgin and he'd taken her virginity. They'd had quite the fight over her. Shawn in the end told him he could have her, that he didn't want her anyway. He'd laughed and said, he already had her, that he was done... that he was welcome to her. Silly little twat tried to commit suicide over it.
Jake shook his head laying there. She was weak, and had been an easy conquest. Pretty much like all the others. He turned over and put his cigarette out in the ash tray on the floor next to the bed. He wondered how long it would take him to get Sylvia Payne into bed? Sweet thing about her, she was already pregnant... no chance of him getting her that way if she already was. It wouldn't be the first time he'd have one of his brother's pregnant women. He rather liked getting it on with pregnant women, they were tight, and he got such a thrill out of slipping in and getting it on with because they were considered untouchable, but they were very touchable. The best kind... no chance of his seed growing in a field already full to capacity.
He smiled as he dozed off planning his next move.
* * *
"I can't believe you humiliated yourself that way! What's wrong with you?" Terra asked Deidre as she lay on her sofa, stretched out on her back with her cell phone in hand on her stomach, the other hand across her eyes.
"I don't think he - he ever really loved me. He couldn't have... he - he couldn't have." Deidre sobbed softly.
"Jesus Deidre... I feel so bad for you. Come on girlfriend... you gotta snap out of this."
"I'm trying... God knows I'm trying. I keep seeing him in my mind. You don't know Terra... you just don't know. He was... he was - everything to me."
"It's over Deidre... there's no way to get that back! You have to let go!"
"I KNOW!!!" Deidre sat up suddenly, turning to face her friend, still gripping the phone. "Don't you think I know that!? I can't help the way I feel! I can't help the thoughts that go through my head! I can't help but know... that my wicked and ugly family... tore from me the one thing that I should have left them for! That's what gets to me, I let them tear us apart! He told me not to go! He told me... not to do this! But - I thought... I thought... I don't know what I thought." With elbows on her knees she sat with the heel of her hand holding her forehead, sniffing and wiping at her nose.
"You shouldn't have signed that lease. That's the last place you need to be living right now." Terra spoke up from across the room.
Deidre was silent, lost in thought. Minutes went by as she sat there... saying nothing. "How about some tea?" Terra asked.
Deidre nodded a yes but was still quiet. Thinking about her father at work that day. Calling her into his office, trying to get to her sign over her interest of the family business, saying that it would be the perfect way to get back at her mother for what she'd done to her. Deidre had only stood staring at him. Now, all of a sudden, the blinders were completely down. She saw them for what they really were.
"Terra." She called to her friend.
"Yeah." She answered from the kitchen.
Deidre stood and walked into the expensively decorated room, Terra was a chef...and a damn good one.
"If anything should ever happen to me... an accident... anything... don't let my family get me."
"What? What are you saying now?" Terra asked stunned.
"I don't trust them. Either of them. My father or my mother. She had my child aborted."
"What are you talking about Deidre?"
"When Shawn and I split, I was pregnant with his second child. I told my mother, the next day... I was laying in the hospital, in a private wing, no longer pregnant. I don't know all of how she pulled it off, but she made sure I didn't have another one of his children."
"Oh my God... you poor thing. I thought you miscarried."
"No... she did that. Don't you see, they are capable of anything. I get a feeling... that suddenly, I'm not safe."
"Oh Deidre..."
Deidre stood with tears in her eyes, they rolled as she looked at her friend. "Just..." She reached up and wiped her eyes, "Just... if... anything should happen... don't let them get me. If there's a breath left in my body... don't... don't let them get me."
"Oooh Deidre... come on, don't be crazy... you're talking out of depression because of Shawn and all of that."
"Maybe so... but I'm going to write out a power of attorney to you. I'm not going to go into work tomorrow, I'm going to get that documented just in case... something tells me, my life is about to change... for better or for the worse... I have to accept my lot in life. My father did not want me to move out of that mansion. As if he needed to keep tabs on me. He's a very greedy man. The two of them, the pair together... no... let's face it... he might as well be the devil and she -..."
Terra stood staring, not knowing what to say... or what to do.
"Anyway... will you do that for me? If I'm ever in a situation where I can't speak for myself... I need you to watch over me... to make sure they don't get me. Please... please don't let them - get me." She began sobbing.
"Oh my god." Terra cried and went to her friend, who sank to the floor sobbing, feeling more alone in the world than ever in her life. "Don't you worry... we'll get that done first thing in the morning... first thing."
Chapter 52
Angela stood slightly in front of her father with his left hand on her shoulder, with wide excited eyes she watched as Sylvia lay still with her lower abdomen exposed with a ultrasound technician scanning there to locate the baby in its earliest stages and discovered the small embryo nestled in place. Her dad was holding Sylvia's hand as she lay watching and waiting, trying to catch a glimpse as the technician confirmed what they all knew.
"Oh my God... there he is!" Shawn gasped with his heart pounding.
"Yep... hmmm, how far along did you say you should be?" The technician asked Sylvia as she stared at the ultrasound where the gestational sac could be clearly seen, as well some other things indicating an error in the time of pregnancy.
"About oooh, I guess 4 to 5 weeks now." Sylvia answered. "Why?" She asked immediately.
"Well... the problem with your time period is this. If you were only 4 to 5 weeks, I would only be able to see a vague gestational sac. What I'm looking at, is a very clear image of a baby and a heartbeat. You're no less that 7 weeks, at the most, 8 weeks." The tech informed them.
"WHAT?!" Sylvia blasted. "No way! I am not that far along - I couldn't be... I know I've only missed one... no way!"
"I'm sorry... the ultrasound is pretty accurate. Maybe there was a lot going on at the time and preoccupation made you flow by that one, but you most certainly would notice two missed." The tech explained as a th
ought, but she could see a heartbeat. "See, look right there, that's a baby... and right there... is a heart beat... no doubt."
Sylvia looked at it stunned.
"Wow... that is so cool! That's a baby?" Angela exclaimed.
"An early embryo, sure is... and not a 4 week old one either."
Sylvia turned and looked up at Shawn. "SHAWN!"
"WHAT? What'd I do?"
"In Chicago, at the hotel... you said you were wearing a, you know what!" She stared up at him, trying not to say it in front of Angela.
"You mean a condom?" Angela asked.
"Oh lord - have mercy!" Sylvia shook her head and looked away in disbelief, that she had totally panicked a month too late and that this young girl knew too much already was too much.
Grinning, Shawn asked, "Any sign of twins?!" He gave Sylvia's hand a squeeze, she snatched it away from him, just too outdone, racking her brain back trying to remember her last period.
"Noooo - doesn't look that way to me. All I see is a single embryo." The tech informed him. "So are you guys wanting a boy? Or a Girl?"
"We just want it to be healthy." Sylvia spoke up still reeling from her major miscalculation.
Shawn smiled, he couldn't help himself. "Well, I wouldn't mind a boy, I mean... I have my little girl." He gave Angela's shoulder a squeeze. She looked up at her dad and smiled. "Actually I would rather a little sister first daddy." She admitted. Sylvia was peering up at Shawn with narrowed suspicious eyes, and he was trying to avoid her gaze by saying to his daughter, "Naaaw, you want a little brother first don't you?"
"You've been the only child for a long time, you sure you wanna share that?" The technician inserted smiling.
Shawn and Sylvia looked at her, waiting... they hadn't had the talk with Angela yet and wondered how she honestly felt, they soon found out.
"I want lots of brother's and sisters, I hate being alone." She looked at Sylvia and then up at her dad. "Sasha's always complaining about her brothers, but I can tell that she likes them. They're always teasing her, and playing with her, but it's always funny...and she laughs a lot too."
Shawn smiled and stroked her hair, "Yeah... I know, but in this case, you'll be the oldest."
"No I'm not daddy! Crystal and Mundo are the oldest! I'm gonna be a middle child." She announced.
"Oh I thought you were the only one." The tech admitted.
"Nope, I have an older sister and a brother. They don't live with us because they have their own home. My sister has two boys, Isaac and Darren. They're coming to visit this week!"
Sylvia was stunned that she'd taken them on as her family so quickly, the way she spoke, it was as if they'd always been a family. It also told her just how lonely this little girl had been. So lonely that she was anxious to be a part of a family setting, even a step one. Angela was looking at Sylvia now, watching her eyes as she lay there, hoping that she didn't mind her claiming her children as her brother and sister. Angela wanted this so badly, in her mind... it was already so. Sylvia smiled and reached out to her, "That's right, and we'll have a good time when they get here...maybe a little party." She added to let her know that it was okay.
Shawn felt his heart lift and yet to hear his daughter voicing a need to belong to a real and whole family tugged at his heart. He hadn't a clue of how starved she was for attention, affection and a need to belong to adults in form of mother and father that loved her, as well to have brothers and sisters. Hearing it made him even more determined that she would be staying with them.
"Well, would you all like a picture of your little one? Or would you like to wait until later for an ultrasound when it's bigger?"
"We want one now!" All three of them said at the same time. They all laughed at each other.
"I take that as a yes." The tech grinned, secretly deriving an excited pleasure out of seeing this kind of happy family. At this stage in her life, she'd seen quite a few interracial families from a distance, but it was a pleasure to be in the midst of one, talking to them up-close and seeing the validity of what they shared. They were no different from any other couple, yet... very different, and strangely exciting. Why - she hadn't a clue. They just seem to be interesting, she was dying to ask them questions, but dare not, fearful of offending them.
"Okay... I'll have it ready for you to pick up after you're done with the rest of your appointment. Have they taken blood and a urine from you yet?"
"Yes... that was the first thing they had me do." Sylvia stated as the tech wiped her lower belly clear of the gel and then pulled her clinic gown down and the sheet up. "Good, well you guys can wait back next door in his office. He'll be with you soon."
"Okay."
The tech stopped at the door, "Angela, would you like to wait in the waiting room for the rest of her examination?" She asked. Angela looked at Sylvia and up at her father.
"Would you mind Angela? your father and I need to talk." Sylvia asked looking pointedly at him.
Smiling and happy she left with the technician.
Sylvia sat up and stared daggers at Shawn.
"Did you have a condom on at that hotel in Chicago or not?!"
"What difference does it make now? The rabbits died, let it rest in peace."
"Did you have on a condom or not - Shawn?!"
"Yes! I did!"
"Both times?!"
"Both - times!"
"Both days, both times?"
"Both days, both times!"
"The basement! In my mother's basement when she went to the store!" Sylvia remembered accusing him.
"Noooo, it was okay that time - wore one then too." Shawn quickly defended.
"Then what the heck happened?!" She asked so out done she could only shake her head.
"Hey... you asked me for a piece - if my memory serves me correctly, you started it, at the hotel, inviting me up to the room." He reminded her grinning.
"Stupid condoms! They're good for shit!"
"Hey... I was wearing it, blame the magnum people."
"Did they break or something?" She asked standing from the table, holding her gown around herself.
"Not the first ones." He admitted trying to control his mirth.
Sylvia stood with her bottom jaw dropped open.
"Not - the first ones!" She repeated. "What do you mean?"
"Well, both days, both times, I wore them, however - one time, that second day, that second time, ummm, see - I didn't want to tell you, because I thought... hey, you know - what are the odds that - well that you would be when I'd already spent up a good supply of swimmers - but ummm, obviously... that second day, the second load... was ummm, just as potent... as - ever because lil'man's heart is just beating away."
"Shawn Everett McPherson - are you telling me - that on the second day at the hotel, your condom broke?"
"Yep."
"And you didn't tell me?!" She slapped his arm.
"Ow!" He faked injury. "Aaah baby, does it matter? I didn't wanna worry you. The deeds done, so what - you're a bit further along than you thought... does it really matter?" He asked wrapping his arms around her, pulling her up to him as he bent his legs on either side of her hips, looking down into her face. Those dark eyes were shooting daggers at him. "Aaah, come on... smile, give me a little smile. Aren't you happy... lil'man's heart is beating like a champ... doesn't that make you feel good, hmm?" He asked, then gave her a gentle peck on the nose, next her lips, turning his head one way kissing her lips, and next the other to deliver another kiss to them.
Sylvia wilted against him, realizing that it made no sense to get angry because she had thought herself pregnant, but - just four weeks... when in fact she was eight weeks. All she could think of is that, just as the technician had stated, she must have let a whole month fly by, distracted.
"Put your arms around me." He commanded.
Sylvia reluctantly obeyed, looking up into his face.
"Now tell me you love me." He ordered gently.
"I love you." She gave in with a sigh.
"Good... now lets get over to the doctors office.
There they waited, talking about what Shawn would do once they left. He'd come to town in his Ford truck, Sylvia had driven her car. After her appointment, she and Angela would be going shopping for more things for Angela and Shawn was going to apply for planning and building permission. They needed to get permission to expand their home, and to put in an application for a bed and breakfast. Then he would be heading over to the DIY for building materials so he could start working on her house, modernizing it up to current standard. Sylvia was stunned once again, he had so many talents - the extent of which was materializing with each week of them together. From her moms home she was aware that he was good, but now she was about to see just how good.
"Baby... I'm a jack of all trades, my dad has had me and my brothers working our asses off from the very start. When we arrived home from school, we always had something to do and I do mean hard work. Helping him build and get things done on the farm. You know, that house they live in was only a single structure with two bedrooms. All the rest he added with our help when we were really young. All three of us know how to build a home structure, lay bricks, plumbing, wiring, you name it. It was the norm as far as he was concerned. That's what a man had sons for, to work them and get things done and there was no messing around when he told you to get something done. I remember one time I came home from school, they had to take Shanna into town to see the doctor, he had me putting up a brick wall down the side of the center structure. Plus, I had to make sure Kathy Ann was cooking, that Jake was cleaning up the barn stalls and pig pens and that Derrick cleared all the large rocks from the area we had to lay the next foundation. Man... Kathy Ann and Jake always gave me hell. They knew that if something wasn't done, I'd get yelled at or the hell knocked out of me for not seeing it done."
Sylvia gasped, "That wasn't fair!" She objected shocked.
Shawn shook his head chuckling, "I was the oldest, left in charge... dad wouldn't take any excuses from me and they knew it. Kathy Ann hated having to cook, and deliberately made a mess of it, so I had to either fix the food right or knock the hell out of her. I'd already beat the shit out of Jake because messing around he left the pig pen open and the pig got out, and while Derrick and I was trying to get her back in, his ass knocked some of my bricks I'd already laid in a straight line - off. Man did he use to piss me off."
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