"Who told you that?" Neil was frowning now.
"Nobody told me," Jessica said. "I know both Clay and David, and there is no way that David is a singer or even poetic. He is as fake as..."
Neil sat back in his chair. "What a conclusion to draw?"
"But it's true, isn't it?" Jessica asked earnestly.
"Have you shared this with anyone?" Neil asked seriously. He was looking at her so intensely that Jessica stammered when she answered.
"No...no...er...well, yes. I shared it with my friend Ramon."
Neil sighed. "Clay is driving himself to do this seventh album in a short time span so that he can see you and reveal all," Neil confessed. "He has been miserable and yes, he dedicated that song to you."
"I knew it," Jessica said, a feeling of relief almost swamping her. "Can I see him?"
Neil picked up the phone. "Why not? He'd have come to see you anyway."
"Jessica is here," he said abruptly into the phone.
A few moments after that she heard running down the hallway and then Clay stood at the doorway. She was suddenly feeling nervy and unsure of herself, but Clay saw her and his face lit up. "I knew you'd come." He came further into the room and grabbed her into a bear hug. She hugged him back tightly too.
"Come, let's go talk in my office." He glanced at his uncle, who had a querying look in his eyes.
Neil fanned him on. "Yes, you can tell her. She already figured it out anyway. But young lady," Neil said, looking at Jessica, "this information cannot go out to the public until the studio wants it to. It is our information to reveal."
*****
Clay pulled her into the office that was beside his uncle's and closed the door. He kissed her hard as soon as she opened her mouth to speak. "I missed you," he said huskily. "I really did. It was like agony, and when I did the cover, I wondered if you would get the message I was sending."
Jessica looked into his dark brown eyes and saw the sincerity and the warmth there.
"I had no idea that you were really Khaled."
"Jess, I gave you so many clues in our conversations. I was bound by a stupid contract. I still am bound not to talk about our arrangement, but my uncle said I could give you one last clue, so I did with that song, and you finally figured it out."
He hugged her to him again.
Jessica nuzzled her face into his shirt. "I am so happy that I came."
Clay laughed. "Me too. My uncle and I made a deal. If you came to visit me, then I could tell you."
"But he tried to send me away," Jessica said, appalled.
"He doesn't want you to know." Clay pulled her over to his settees. His were red; his uncle's were black. "He doesn't want anybody to know. So where do I begin?" they snuggled together.
"At the beginning. Who is David Green?" Jessica asked.
"He is my uncle's son."
"What?" Jessica asked. "Are you serious?"
"Yes." Clay kissed her and held her even closer to him. "Eight years ago, my uncle discovered that he had a love child with a woman of... er... questionable reputation. The child, David Green, came to seek him out when he was twenty-two. He was broke and in desperate need of help, and his mother had just died. She had told him a list of men who possibly could be his father. My uncle was the last name on the list.
When David came by my uncle had a dilemma on his hands. He didn't want anybody knowing that David was his, but he felt an obligation to help him to do something useful. Unfortunately, David wasn't skilled in anything, and though he fancied himself a singer, he couldn't sing. He was becoming a nuisance for my uncle and his business associates, so my uncle hatched a plan to get David productive.
I could sing, but I hated the limelight, so my uncle came up with the brilliant idea of creating a composite of the perfect artiste. David would be the face of the artiste and I, the voice. David would get to do all the touring and interviews, and I would produce the songs and write the lyrics. That artiste was called ‘Khaled’. Believe you me, we had no idea that the Khaled brand would have exploded so big."
Jessica whispered. "Oh, Clay. I should have known. The lyrics and the music were all you."
Clay nodded. "We signed a seven album contract, and there is a clause that nobody could reveal the real identity of Khaled in the seven years."
"So you couldn't tell me when you were at Mount Faith," Jessica said.
"No, not even when I saw that you were crying over my retirement." Clay shook his head. "I wanted to tell you then. I wanted to tell you so many times. I came this close." He kissed her on the forehead.
"Ramon said that David and Stewart are friends."
"Yes, they are, and Stewart trying to blind me wasn't an accident. David is incredibly jealous of me and very addicted to his life as a superstar," Clay said, "so when I retired at six albums he panicked, announced his retirement too, and followed me to Mount Faith. He sent Stewart first to do something to make me vulnerable, so that I would return to Kingston. The science experiment was an opportunity."
"So all along I had the 'hots' for the right person." Jessica sighed. "I am going to laugh at this sometime far into the future, but for now I feel like an idiot for choosing a phony over you. I am so sorry, Clay."
"You are here now, and that's all that matters." Clay entangled his fingers with hers.
Epilogue
It was the most well attended anniversary party the Bancrofts had ever put on. Ryan and Celeste were celebrating thirty years together as man and wife.
This year the family had swollen in number, and so many friends wanted to attend that the president's ballroom was the chosen venue. Even the weather was smiling on them. The theme was classic 80's, and the ballroom was decorated in pale blue and gold, their wedding colors.
The Bancroft children filed in with their spouses and children and were directed to sit at a special table, in order of age.
"I am usually not at a loss for words," Ryan Bancroft said when it was his time to make a toast, "but thirty years is a lot of years to be with the same bossy woman. I find myself not knowing where to start." There were chuckles from the more than two hundred people there. "I may be the president at work, but when I am home, I know that I have a co-president, and her name is Celeste.
Tonight, Celeste and I are happy for the blessing of our children, all of them, and we are happy for their spouses. Adrian and Kylie have made us grandparents, and we are happy for the other generation, and we know that there will be more to come." He raised his glass. "Tonight we have with us Clay Reid. He will sing, for our first dance, the song ‘Stand By Me’. I must tell you that this song was playing the night I nervously approached Celeste and asked her for a date in the school cafeteria, no less.
Before she answered and said yes, she asked me if I knew that this song was based on Psalm 46. I stammered and said ‘yes’. Then she had the audacity to ask me to repeat the first three verses of Psalm 46." The audience chuckled. "Luckily, the Lord brought the text to my mind, and I repeated it. For those of you not too familiar with it, it says: 'God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.'"
Celeste and I have been through many troubling situations over the years, but we have always borne in mind who is our present help. That was our wedding song, by the way, and today it is still a favorite of ours."
I thank God for her, and I thank God for the children, and our niece, and nephew and all their partners: Taj and Natasha, Micah and Charlene, Adrian and Cathy, Marcus and Deidra, Kylie and Gareth, Vanley and Davia, Arnella and Alric, and Jessica and Clay. May he bless your unions also. Remember that when you are in trouble you should seek ‘Him who is able to keep you from falling’."
He turned to the children and raised his glass. Jessica was sitting at the piano on the stage to accompany Clay. He was singing as himself in front of an audience for
the first time. They all raised their glasses to cheer Celeste and Ryan Bancroft.
Then Jessica started playing the song “Stand By Me” while Celeste and Ryan danced the first dance and their children joined them on the dance floor.
THE END
Author's Notes
Dear Reader,
THANK YOU for reading Just To See Her! I really enjoyed spending time with the Bancroft family and as with all my series books, when they end I have a real sense of nostalgia. Usually my only cure for this feeling is to write something else. I hope you feel like reading another series of mine.
The next series is the New Song Series, named from a group of friends in a band and set in the picturesque Montego Bay, Jamaica. An excerpt from Going Solo is just a scroll down.
Before you go, if you liked Just To See Her, please leave a review wherever you bought this book.
If you have comments or suggestions, I welcome them. You can reach me and receive a reply at [email protected].
You can be among the first to hear when I have special prices and new book releases by signing up for my mailing list. It will take you less than 50 seconds to signup. Click here to signup.
Thanks again. All the best,
Brenda
Going Solo
"She's back!" Carson's office door flew open and his daughter rushed in, her eyes wide and looked overly excited. "I passed her when I was heading into the mini mart and she didn't even know that it was me."
Carson was busy signing off on invoices, a task he took great pleasure in, as he had left the more greasy hard work to his employees and was enjoying the business side of things just as Xavier had said he would.
"Who is back?" he asked his daughter absentmindedly. It was the beginning of summer and he was already wondering what to do with his hyperactive twelve-year-old daughter. She had already run through the five books that he bought her last week, and summer school was not about to start until a month's time.
"The female who had me," Mia answered primly.
Carson stopped writing and looked at his daughter properly for the first time. The little spattering of freckles she had on her nose seemed to merge into one as he struggled to get her face in focus. The pen he was using clattered onto the table, and he frowned.
"Stop joking around. That is not funny."
Mia walked toward his desk, her floral summer dress swishing around her legs. She stopped and jutted one foot forward, looking at him defiantly.
"I know it's her." She folded her arms in a defensive pose. "She doesn't look much different from her pictures, except that her hair is shorter. She came out of the car she was driving and asked Emril if CarBell Mechanics was run by one Carson Bell, and Emril said yes. And then the lady who had me, took in a long breath and then got back into her car. I could see her hand trembling from where I stood, and she looked shaken up. She looked human, unlike the half-alien I was imagining."
Carson drummed his fingers on the table and then said softly, "She is human, Mia, and you can say her name, you know. Her name is Alice."
"Alice." Mia sneered and then slumped, all her bravado leaving her lifeless. "What are we going to do about her?"
"We are going to do nothing," Carson said simply. His heart was beating heavily though, and he had a breathless feeling. If it was really Alice and not some doppelganger, that would make it exactly ten years since she left, ten years since she walked out on him leaving him holding their toddler, Mia.
Today was June 10. The first three years he had been glad to see the back of her, but for the last couple of years or so he had been yearning for answers and some closure. He didn't know if he would understand her reasons, but he certainly wanted a few questions cleared up.
"I think we should ignore her," Mia said. "If she comes here, then we slam the door in her face."
"Mia," Carson looked at her sternly, "I don't want you talking like that about your mom." He looked at Mia's spirited piquant face and at the sparks that were flying behind her eyes, and he saw a little bit of Alice in her face, especially now that she was angry.
"She's not my mom. She's a mother," Mia said slowly and deliberately. "She's just a biological mother. She's the equivalent of a sperm donor father who just..."
"Enough," Carson said to his daughter, watching as she bristled with indignation.
"Obviously, Mia, I can't tell you how to feel about Alice, but she is still your mother." He paused. He didn't even know how he felt about Alice. If you looked too closely at his emotions, they wouldn't pass muster either.
"Aunt Ruby said that she was a heartless person who doesn't deserve us and that..."
"Ruby shouldn't be telling you anything about Alice. She barely knew her." Carson cut in before Mia could continue. He knew that behind all the bravado and sneering was a little girl who longed to have a female figure in her life. He would have to have a talk with Ruby, Ian's wife, or ask Ian to talk to Ruby later at band practice that night. She shouldn't be spreading poison to an impressionable girl about her own mother, even if that mother deserved it.
He looked over the invoices on his desk and rested back in his chair. The briskness with which he had been tackling the papers on his desk was now gone. He felt a sense of doom and helplessness that he had not started the day with, and only because Alice was back.
He looked at Mia, who was chewing her fingernails, devouring them as if they were food. It was a habit he had spent the last six months trying to get her to quit.
"I am going to band practice," he said to her. "Want to come?"
"No," Mia said, "I want to talk."
"Okay," he said, packing up the papers that were strewn across his desk. "What do you want to talk about?"
He glanced at the clock. Every Wednesday at five, they had band practice upstairs his building. He had a huge warehouse up there, and one of the first things he and the guys had done was create a space for the band in the vast expanse. They had put up some dry walls to partition the space where they practiced and painted it into a bright yellow. They added a bathroom, a kitchenette, and a small room with two single beds, just in case anybody needed to crash there. As time went by, someone had carried a television so that they didn't miss the news or sports, and more and more odds and ends had found themselves up there. Last year they added a pool table. They even had a small office, a notice board, and a sound proof room for recording.
His mechanic shop and auto parts store was at a convenient location near down town Montego Bay for all the band members to stop by on their way from work. Sometimes they stopped by just to hang out. The space had its own entrance, and everybody had keys.
"I want to talk about her," Mia said softly, after a long pause that almost made him forget that he had asked the question.
Carson sighed, "Mia can we talk about her when we go home? I'll tuck you up in bed, and I will answer all the questions I possibly can."
"Promise," Mia said, twirling her ponytail.
"Promise." He came around the desk and hugged her to him. She burrowed her face in the front of his shirt.
"I love you, Daddy."
"I love you too, Muffin. Come upstairs and get me if you need anything." He watched her as she slowly walked out of the office. Her slim frame was hovering between that of a child and a teenager. He would soon have to go bra shopping with her and discuss changes in her body, and boys, and all of the things that he didn't think he would have to tackle alone at this stage of her life, especially since she had a mother who was alive.
He shook his head and watched as she arched her neck toward him, her heart shaped face looked sad. "Have a good practice, Daddy." Sorrow and loneliness dripped off every word. Guilt, raw and unadulterated, gripped him. He felt as if he was abandoning her just by going upstairs. He tampered down that feeling. Mia knew she would always have him around, and though his natural inclination was to cocoon and shield her, he wanted her to grow up to be an independent woman, not clingy and needy. It was a tough balance to strike because somet
imes he found himself wanting to be overprotective.
"I am just going to be upstairs," he said softly. "I am not going anywhere. After that we will go home. Don't eat any junk food at the Mart, okay. I am going to fix us dinner when we get home."
She walked through the door and closed it softly. His confident Muffin was now acting like an abandoned child.
Alice, oh, Alice. Why did you leave, and why are you back? How long would she stay this time? And why was she even here? His mind churned up question after question.
He got up from the desk and closed the drawers, pocketed the key, and headed toward the stairs in the middle of the building, up to brand practice, the only thing that kept him sane through the years...
OTHER BOOKS BY BRENDA BARRETT
The Scarlett Family Series
Scarlett Baby (Book 1)- When the head of the Scarlett family died, Yuri had to return home to Treasure Beach for the funeral. What he didn't count on was seeing Marla, his childhood sweetheart and his best friend's wife. And when emotions overwhelm them and a few months later Marla is pregnant, Yuri wants the impossible: his best friend's wife and the baby they made together...
Scarlett Sinner (Book 2)- Pastor Troy Scarlett realizes the hard way that some sins are bound to be revealed, like the child that he had out of wedlock with his wife's mortal enemy from college. His wife Chelsea was not happy with the status quo. She was not taking care of the son of the woman she had so despised from college. And she could not get over the deep betrayal that she felt from her husband's indiscretion.
Scarlett Secret (Book 3)- Terri Scarlett had a soft spot for her friend, Lola. She was funny and sweet and they looked remarkably alike. But when Lola's Arab prince demands his bride, Terri foolishly exchange places with her friend and they meet up on a world of trouble.
Just To See Her (The Bancrofts: Book 8) Page 14