I wiped the drool that had seeped out of my mouth and sat up in my seat. “I’m sorry,” I offered the apology, but what I really wanted to say was that I wouldn’t have fallen asleep if he had scheduled his time better to not have me wait so long.
“There’s no need to apologize. I’m sorry for the delay, but we’ve had a couple of emergencies today.”
He must have been reading my mind because I had half a mind to tell him he couldn’t just let a pregnant woman sit.
“Can I go to the bathroom?”
“Sure, there is one right through that door. I’ll be here waiting for you.”
I was feeling a little self-conscious because he knew the results of my test and I didn’t.
Does he think I’m a whore because I had to get a test to find out who my baby s daddy was? I dismissed the thought as I flushed the toilet. I didn’t owe him any explanations. He was going to get paid regardless of who the father of my child was. But I still held on to the hope that Merlin was the father.
“Your husband won’t be joining you today?” I could not tell if he was being condescending, and it made me nervous all over again. Had he seen Merlin on the news?
“No, he was busy at work. Can we do this before I have to go to the bathroom again?”
He opened the file that he had on his desk and studied it for a moment. “Your husband . . . is the father.” He paused for dramatic effect.
At first I didn’t understand what he said because I was so afraid that Gavin was the child’s father, but slowly his words sank in. In the back of my mind, I knew there was still a possibility that Gavin could have fathered the child, but for the moment I was ejecting this from my memory banks.
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as we can be with identical twins.”
I jumped up and ran to the door. I couldn’t wait to go to the jail and tell Merlin the good news. “Are you done with me?
“Yes, I will see you next month. Take care of yourself and don’t overdo it.”
“I won’t, Doctor, and thanks.” I snatched open the door and practically danced all the way to the parking lot. I rummaged through my purse to find my keys and my phone, but I kept pulling out everything else.
I couldn’t wait to tell Merlin the good news. Braxton went to the cops and they were checking out his story. Hopefully, Detective Adams would be able to get Merlin out of jail so that we could celebrate in a major way. I was practically bouncing, and all the weight that I’d been carrying on my shoulders felt like it had been lifted.
“Shit.” A hand was placed rudely over my mouth, and I was dragged away from my car kicking and struggling to scream.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
MERLIN MILLS
“Braxton I think something is wrong. I had been calling Cojo for the last few hours and it kept going straight to voice mail. I’ve got to go home to be with my wife.” As we were running to Braxton’s car, I dialed my mother. I needed to know if she knew where Gavin was.
“Hey, Mom, I can’t get in touch with Cojo. Have you talked to her by any chance?” I hadn’t told her that Gavin had slept with my wife.
Gina said, “Are you okay in there?”
“It was a big misunderstanding. Thanks to Braxton, I just got released. I’ll explain that later, though. So have you talked to my wife?”
“Yeah, we had a nice conversation, and I’m looking forward to spending time with her. I have something to tell you, do you think you could drop by my house?”
I was torn. I wanted to find out what was up with Cojo. I was also curious as to why my mother wanted to see me. Since we were just rebuilding our relationship, I thought it was important that I go over there.
“Okay, I can come over there, but I can’t stay long. I want to see Cojo.”
“It won’t take long.” She sounded strange, but I quickly dismissed the thought because we hadn’t been close in years and she could have changed.
“I’m on my way.”
“If you get there before me, wait for me. If the police are there, call me.”
“Police, what are you talking about?” I paused. “It’s Gavin, isn’t it? He’s done it again.”
“I’ll explain when I get there.” She hung up the phone without giving me any more details.
I believed yet couldn’t believe that Braxton had seen my car at the home of someone who was almost killed in a fire. That motherfucker Gavin. I just hoped the cops caught up with him before he went around my wife again.
“Oh, shit.” I tried to call Cojo again to let her know I needed to stop by my mother’s house before I came home, but her phone went straight to voice mail. “Damn, where is she?”
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
GINA MEADOWS
I managed to make it to the house before Merlin and at least comb my hair and wash my face. I didn’t want anyone else commenting on how bad I looked, especially my son, who I had just formed a new relationship with.
“Hey,” he said when I opened the door.
“Hi, come on in.” I was trying to think of the best way to tell him all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. I was stuck. I wasn’t used to confiding in anyone. Since I had been excluded from Merlin’s life for so long, I didn’t know how he felt about his father and how he would react.
“I actually came over here a couple of weeks ago to see Gavin, but neither of you were home.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“I didn’t have your number in my cell.”
I could understand that I could not blame him for anything because I wasn’t the best stepmother that I could have been. In the beginning, I was gold, but Ronald changed me and it affected the way I dealt with his kids. “I understand. So why are you suddenly interested in your brother? And how did you get out of jail?” I knew I should have been talking about my situation, but I was grateful to have the focus off me for a minute.
“Trust and believe, I couldn’t care less about Gavin, but several things have happened that I’m sure you’re not aware of. Gavin is the reason I was in jail. He tried to set me up again.”
Gina’s eyes widened. “Please tell me he isn’t responsible for that girl getting hurt in the fire? I knew you couldn’t have anything to do with that.”
He said, “I think so, is he still staying here with you?”
“He was but he moved out and I haven’t seen him in a few weeks.” Gina paused. “He didn’t come here the night of that fire. I’m sure of that.”
There was an urgent knock on the door. It was a nigga-knock, and it scared the shit out of me and Merlin. Merlin started toward the door.
“Merlin, wait before you answer the door, there is something else that I have to tell you.”
Whoever was there knocked again, this time more violently.
“What is it?” Merlin asked.
“I stabbed your father and that’s probably the police to arrest me.”
He staggered, and I lunged to catch him.
“You did what?”
I didn’t bother to answer him. I just went to the door. If this was my time, I was ready to get it over with. I peeked through the peephole, and sure enough, it was the cops. My heart started beating really fast and sweat popped out on my brow. I didn’t expect them this soon.
“Is it the cops?” Merlin whispered.
“Yes,” I said as I unlocked the door. Part of me was relieved that I could get this behind me, but the other half was scared as shit that I was going to spend the rest of my life behind bars.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
MERLIN MILLS
My mind was melting down. I had just received too much information in too short an amount of time. First I learned that Gavin set me up again, and that my mother stabbed my dad. “What the fuck?”
I watched my mother open the door and two armed officers entered her apartment. It wasn’t until they had come into the room that I noticed all the boxes packed from floor to ceiling.
“Can I help you?” my moth
er asked.
Even if she had become a bitch over the last ten years, she still was the only one who showed me love as I was growing up, and the thought of her going to jail made my heart hurt. My real mother had left me on her doorstep, and I hadn’t seen her since I was three.
“Good afternoon. We are here looking for information about Gavin Mills.”
She exhaled deeply; it was clear to me that she thought they were there for her.
I could not wait to hear why she stabbed my father and if he was still alive.
“What type of information?” I probably would not have come off that way with the cops, but Gina was under a lot of pressure. In light of what I had just gone through with cops, my patience was wearing thin.
“Does he live here with you?” a black cop asked.
“He did, but I think he may have moved because I haven’t seen him in at least two weeks.” My mother said.
The white cop asked, “He didn’t tell you he was moving out?”
“His moving in was a temporary situation that neither of us were happy about.”
“I see. Do you have any way to contact him?”
The black officer was busy looking around my mother’s apartment, and didn’t appear to be following the conversation. He kept staring at me. Finally, he pulled out a picture. “You look very much like the person we are looking for.”
Shit, the last thing I needed was to be dragged into Gavin’s bullshit again. I reached into my back pocket to pull out my wallet and the officer immediately pulled out his gun. “Wait, hold up. I wasn’t thinking. Gavin is my twin brother and I was reaching for my wallet. Call Detectives Adams and Lyle. I know why you’re here. I was arrested for it the week before last. I was released when they found out they were looking for Gavin and not me.
He didn’t lower his gun until he had read my name off my license. He gave it back to me slowly. “Do you know where your brother is?”
“I actually came over here to ask my mother where he was.” That wasn’t the only reason that I was here, but it worked so I was sticking to it.
My mother said, “Could somebody tell me what’s really going on with Gavin?”
The black officer said, “We’re not at liberty to talk about it, but we need to speak to him as soon as possible.”
“Mom, I can explain everything.”
All eyes turned to me.
“Oh, really?” the white cop said.
“Yeah.” I retold the story that Braxton told to me and the detectives, and I didn’t feel bad.
The black cop turned to my mother. “Mind if I use your phone to call the station?”
When he hung up, he said, “You were right. We did get an eyewitness account from your friend. Detectives Adams and Lyle are investigating, and since this isn’t the first time that Gavin has been charged with violent crimes again women, the department has given the case high priority.
I said, “I need to add something to the case. And while it is not a crime, I’m concerned about it. In the first case that you are talking about, my brother claimed he was me and I got arrested then too. Recently, he fooled my wife into thinking he was me and had sex with her. Since then, he’s been hanging around my house stalking us.”
“Merlin, no! Please tell me that isn’t true, my mother cried.
“Sorry, Momma. This was one of the reasons that I came to talk to you today. I wanted to let you know in case he should up over here.”
“He’s been asking me questions about your wife.”
The officers looked confused as if we had given them more information than they came to collect.
“Where is your wife now? Will she corroborate what you told us here today?”
“I hope Gavin hasn’t done anything to her.”
“What type of car does he drive?” the white cop asked. “I just want to verify that make and model again.”
“He’s driving my old car. It’s a 2002 Malibu. Brown, with a dent on the back door. The plate number is JE619.”
“I’ll call in the APB,” the white cop said.
“Wait, there may be a better way to find him. OnStar. It comes standard on some models, but my car was the type that people loved to steal so I added it to my car. All we need to do is call them and they will tell us where the car is. As long as he is near the car, we will find him.”
“Officer, I’m so afraid that he may have my wife. She always answers her phone and—”
“Calm down, Mr. Mills. If he has her, we’ll find him.”
Gina said, “I just don’t understand that boy. He’s been a handful since the first day he was brought to my house. I’m so sorry I didn’t do better, Merlin, to protect you from him, but I honestly didn’t know he was capable of this.”
“It’s not your fault, Mother. Perhaps if our dad had been around more, things would have been different.”
It appeared as if my mother went into a trance or something because her eyes got this blank stare. She swayed before me, and I moved closer to support her.
“We found the car,” the black officer said after getting off the phone with OnStar.
“Can we come with you? My wife is expecting a baby.”
He nodded. “That is totally against regulations, but if you just happened to follow us, well, there’s no law against that.” He smiled.
I quickly grabbed my mother’s hand and followed the officers out the door.
As we were buckling up our seatbelts, I said a prayer. “Lord, if he has her, please make sure she is all right.”
“Amen,” my mother replied, and looked at me. “Why am I feeling like I did when I was pregnant?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m feeling—she rolled her window down—“morning sickness. I feel like I’m about to throw up.”
I shrugged. “Probably because you’ve been doing the nasty. Imagine you being pregnant at your age.”
“Yeah, imagine that. I’m fucking forty years old and now this!” She held her stomach. “And I have not been doing the nasty with anyone in a long time.”
“Then, you’re not having morning sickness. It’s probably just stress.”
She threw up in my lap.
CHAPTER SIXTY
GAVIN MILLS
Cojo came out of the doctor’s office practically dancing. That could only mean one thing: I wasn’t the father. I watched her in disbelief because I was so sure that I had planted a seed in her. Something in me snapped, and she was acting weird earlier. I leaped from my car and snuck up behind her.
I looked around to see if there were any witnesses. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew that I needed to speak with her and plead my case. I slipped my hand around her mouth and dragged her away from her car and into mine. Roughly, I pushed her into the back seat and climbed in after her.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” she yelled. “You’d better let me the fuck go.”
I locked the doors. “Not until I’ve had a chance to talk to you.”
She came at me like a caged animal scratching and kicking. I wasn’t prepared for her attack. She was punching me like a man. Before I knew it, I punched her back and knocked her out. Luckily there was no one around or I would have been in jail.
“Damn, baby, I didn’t mean to hit you,” I whispered to her unconscious body. I quickly got into the front seat and drove to the Alamo, a seedy motel. I planned to use the room to plead my case. I checked in, and carried her into the room. While she was asleep, I got some duct tape from my trunk and taped her wrists to the headboard. For good measure, I placed a piece across her mouth to keep her quiet.
Her eye was swelling up, which reminded me of the last time that I saw her that way, but this time I caused it. The last time it was her jaw, but seeing her face all swollen affected me just the same. I went into the bathroom and looked at my reflection. I had railroad track–type scratches down both sides of my face. It immediately made me mad. Part of me wanted to go into the bedroom and strip her clot
hes off and fuck her into submission, but my intent wasn’t to make her madder. I just wanted to have the opportunity to speak to her and tell her how much I loved her.
I wanted to tell her how well I was doing at the strip club and explain what I would do for her if she would agree to be my wife. I wanted her to know that the last three days were the best of my life. We bonded in a way that I didn’t know existed and the sex was incredible. My eyes wandered again to my face, and I snapped again.
“How dare she do this to me?” I ran back into the bedroom and began to hit her repeatedly. I felt like a child again receiving a whupping. For the first time, I was able to defend myself.
She woke up and started to fight back as best she could with her hands bound. I was out of control, but could do nothing to rein myself back in.
“Settle down, bitch,” I snarled. I was still mad at her, but I needed to find out if the baby was mine.
She was crying profusely and so was I. Her eyes widened as if she had just realized who I was. She started bucking against the bed even more. “Are you trying to hurt our baby?” I demanded.
A calm came over me. I was ready to convince her that I was a better husband than my brother. She stopped bucking immediately.
I reached over and rubbed the slight bulge that she was developing. “Pregnant women are so sexy in the early months.” I was trying to let her know that I would be supportive of her gaining weight. I unbuttoned the first two buttons of her blouse. She started to cry even more and this made me upset.
With an open hand, I smacked her across the face. “What the hell you crying for?” This was so unlike earlier when I held her. Even though I hadn’t penetrated her again, we had developed a closeness, and that was rare. She didn’t pull away when I touched her. She continued to cry. I did not understand why she was acting so strangely.
“Hell, I should be crying too. Look what you did to my face. How am I going to explain this shit?”
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