by A. C. Arthur
He’d left the school feeling pangs of jealousy that his child would hear that voice and see her smiling face every night before going to sleep and every morning upon awakening. But he would not.
His cell phone had rung as he walked down the steps of the school. He’d answered it in an agitated voice but quickly calmed down at the news he received.
It was with that in mind that Ty called his office.
“Call Mrs. Braddock and inform her that I will not be stopping by her place this evening. However, I will see her at the attorney’s office tomorrow.”
If Marsha had an opinion, she wisely kept it to herself. Ty was supremely thankful. As much as he appreciated all the advice and urgings from the people he was closest to, he wanted to handle his situation with his wife all by himself.
Felicia took the day off from work. The appointment at her attorney’s office wasn’t until four o’clock, but she needed some time to get herself together. Sure, she’d been the one to instigate the proceedings, and this preemptive meeting was a way that she and Ty could iron out all the issues so that the divorce itself would go smoothly. She’d decided that would be the best way to handle things because the last thing she needed to go through was a messy divorce during her pregnancy.
Although she didn’t really believe that things between her and Ty would be messy. Ty was a fair man who would keep her and the baby’s best interests in mind no matter what. To that end, Felicia didn’t want anything from him except support for their child. She knew that there were women who would call her ten times a fool, but she didn’t give a damn. What she and Ty had shared could never garner a price tag. She didn’t want his money; she’d wanted his love.
And since she couldn’t have that and his active participation in their marriage, she didn’t want anything. She prayed that she and Ty could remain cordial, but she didn’t believe that would be an issue, either. Ty still called her and came to see her. He was very concerned about her and the baby, and he never hesitated to offer his services for whatever she needed.
Except he never touched her. He didn’t attempt to kiss her or to even hold her. When she’d told him she felt the baby move, he’d been ecstatic and had tentatively reached out a hand toward her stomach to feel for himself. The warmth that spread through her at his touch was overwhelming and it took everything in her not to throw her arms around him. She would probably always feel this way about Ty, but knew that the stand she was taking was one she couldn’t afford to back down from.
Ty seemed to understand. Well, she took his silence as understanding. No more did he try to convince her that he would change and that they belonged together. All his reconciliation arguments had ceased.
That was what broke her heart and what had her hiding in her apartment all day. It was one thing to know that she was leaving for all the right reasons. It was another to know that he was willing to let her go. But she hadn’t given him much choice. Had she?
No, she answered herself for the billionth time as she dressed to go to the attorney’s office.
This was the right thing for all of them. Ty needed to be free to live his life the way he wanted. He didn’t deserve to have her nagging at him to be a better husband. Work was his life. He’d told her that. He had something to prove and he was determined to prove it to whomever he thought was interested.
However, she needed something different. Something she wasn’t even going to look for in another man. Her ideas of a family now had to shift to her and her child. Her parents were being quiet on the situation all of a sudden. Her mother felt like she’d given her advice and Felicia had taken from it what she wanted to use. Her father, who loved and cherished her, could not bring himself to side with either her or Ty. He simply wanted what was best for his grandchild. And Evelyn, bless her heart, had come to see Felicia at the hospital and again when she’d come home. The woman was possibly the biggest source of strength Felicia had ever had.
Absolutely nothing got the best of her. Evelyn still believed that Ty and Felicia would work it out but told Felicia to stick to her guns. She had also told Felicia that she’d always be family.
So it was with slow but determined steps that Felicia entered the offices of Friedman, Johansen and Clark, located in one of the many skyscrapers in downtown Houston. She heard her own voice, small and just a little shaky, as she told the receptionist who she was and her reason for being there.
Ty and his attorney obviously hadn’t arrived yet, since she was the only one in the waiting room. She took a seat in the burgundy chairs, forgoing the many magazines spread out on the table before her. Instead, she placed her purse in her lap and looked around the office.
The plush carpet was hunter green. The walls separated by a cherrywood chair rail, a paisley-print wallpaper on the bottom half and the top half painted burgundy. The receptionist sat behind a marble-topped, mantel-like desk; once she was sitting, Felicia could only see the top of her head. She could hear the phones ringing and wondered if every call was another couple getting divorced.
Her heart thumped and her hands shook a little, but Felicia willed herself to calm down. This had to be done. She would feel better when it was finished, but it had to be done regardless. She was in the midst of psyching herself up when she heard the receptionist calling her name.
“Mrs. Braddock?”
Felicia jumped up out of her seat. “Yes?” she answered, wondering now if she would keep her last name after the divorce.
“They’re ready for you in conference room A. It’s just down that hall and around the corner,” the receptionist said as she stood and pointed.
Felicia smiled. “Thank you.”
She walked toward the door with her fingers gripping her purse for dear life. At the door she paused and took a deep breath. Her reaction was ridiculous. She and Ty could no longer live together as man and wife. That didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends, that they couldn’t share this child and this child’s life like two mature adults.
Steeling herself for what was to come, she turned the knob and entered the conference room.
Felicia’s first reaction was that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her second reaction, when she searched the many faces staring at her in the room and found Ty’s, was that she was going to wring his neck!
Instead, she tried to remain as calm as she could when she asked, “What have you done?”
Instead of answering, Ty simply walked over to her, reaching for her hand. When she only stared down at his, he whispered, “Please. Just go with the flow for a minute.”
It wasn’t because his voice sounded so sincere, so husky and so damn sexy that she almost melted into a puddle right then and there. And it wasn’t because sitting around the long conference room table were both her parents, Ty’s mother, Malcolm and Shondra. Well, okay, yeah, it was precisely for that reason that she went ahead and took his hand. But she did not look at any of their relatives as he led her to the empty chair at the far end of the table.
When she was seated, Ty went down on one knee.
He took her left hand in his, rubbing along the ring finger where her wedding ring should have been. Uncomfortable by the way he was gazing down at her bare hand, Felicia tried to pull away.
Ty held firm, lifting his gaze up to meet hers.
“When we first met, I told you that you were different and that’s why I was so attracted to you,” he said. Her entire body stilled.
He was more than handsome in his black dsigner suit, crisp white shirt with platinum cuff links and sharp turquoise silk tie. His caramel complexion was perfectly enhanced by the dark goatee he’d let grow in. His dark eyes bore into hers as if searching for something she wasn’t sure she had to give.
“I knew at that exact moment that once I got you, I would never let you go.”
“Tyson,” she whispered, not willing to listen to anymore. Her resolve to end this marriage was shaky enough with him buttering her up.
“No.” He shook his head ada
mantly. “Please, let me finish and then you can do or say whatever you want.” He waited a beat for her response.
She found herself nodding her head positively, although she didn’t have a clue why.
“I always thought I needed to prove myself, to my parents and the rest of my family. And then when I met you, I felt compelled to do everything right by you. I foolishly thought that working my butt off to make more money was the right thing. On some level I even thought that the more successful I became, the more you and my family would love me.
“My father used to say that sometimes the smartest man could be the dumbest ass. I’ll be claiming that title today. Because where you and our marriage were concerned I royally screwed up.”
Somebody sniffled. Felicia thought it was probably her mother but she did not turn to make sure. Her gaze was riveted on Ty.
“I should have been smarter. I should have listened.” He was rubbing her hand and looking at her so intensely he probably knew the tears were going to fall before they actually did.
Yes, she was crying. Her heart was so full with emotion already, his words simply pushed them overboard.
“But none of that matters now, Felicia. If I could turn back time I’d erase it all and do the right thing. But we both know that won’t work. So, instead, all I can do is start over.”
The tears were flowing in earnest now, from her eyes and from a couple other people in the room. She could hear more sniffling and ruffling around like somebody was looking for tissues.
She tuned out everyone and everything but Ty. Obviously he was doing the same thing because he only looked away from her to reach one of his hands into his jacket pocket. When he pulled out a small black box, Felicia’s breath caught and she sobbed. Shaking her head, she tried to will the tears to stop. Her vision was blurred and she knew she wanted to see what he had in that box with twenty-twenty clarity.
His hand shook a little as he opened the box. The women in the room gasped but Felicia remained quiet. She couldn’t speak, could barely breathe. The diamond was huge and sparkly, and in the princess cut she favored. The surrounding bands were platinum with smaller diamonds for added enjoyment. It was gorgeous, but she couldn’t open her mouth to tell him that.
“Wait, there’s more,” he said then set the ring box on her lap and reached into his inner pocket to pull out an envelope.
“When I did this the first time, I told you how much I loved you and how I wanted you to share my life with me. I put a ring on your finger and asked you to marry me and you said yes.
“I guess you could say we’ve been there and done that. So this time, not only am I presenting you with another ring but I’m giving you the deed to a house. I asked you once what you wanted and your answer was your family and a home.
“I’m not simply asking you to be mine this time, Felicia. I’m asking you to trust me with your happiness and your heart. To trust that I can be the husband you want and the father our child deserves. I’m asking you, Felicia Turner Braddock, to marry me, again.”
Her heart was pounding a mighty beat. Felicia wondered for a moment if everyone in the room could hear it.
“You’re supposed to answer him, baby,” Felicia heard her father whisper when she was still trying to find her words.
Somebody laughed. It sounded like Shondra.
Felicia cleared her throat. “I…um…I don’t know what to say to all that,” she finally managed.
“Say what you feel, sweetheart. What you feel in here.” Ty tapped a hand over her heart then let it fall down to her stomach. “And here.”
That was it. She knew it and so did he. “How do I know for sure it will be different this time?”
“Nothing in life is certain. My dad used to tell me that, too.” Ty glanced momentarily heavenward. “Man, I miss him. And I hope what I’m doing now is pleasing him more than any business deal I’ve ever closed.
“But I can start by telling you that I took your advice. I passed Brentwood on to Brandon Donovan. And next week, Marsha and I are going to go through all the accounts and divide them between the appropriate junior brokers. It’s really going to be different this time. I’m going to be different because there is nothing more important to me than you and our child.”
“Say yes. Say yes,” Shondra cheered.
Malcolm shushed her and Felicia smiled.
Everything he’d just said, everything he’d done, was all that she’d wanted from the beginning. She’d told Ty he needed to win her back and he’d done it, in spades. She should have known Tyson Braddock would never lose a challenge. “Yes. I will marry you, again.”
Chapter 15
They hadn’t all been together since Evelyn’s birthday in August. But this Sunday all the Braddocks were joined by the Turners and their close friends, including Drey St. John, Senator Ray Cayman and Judge Bruce Hanlon at the Holy Trinity Church.
When the morning service was over, Reverend Vereen called for the organist to play the wedding march while Ty and Felicia joined hands and walked once again down the aisle.
Felicia felt as nervous, and as sure, as she had the last time they’d taken this walk. Butterflies flitted about in her stomach. No, that was her baby. The baby she and Ty would soon welcome into this world.
Shondra, Evelyn and her mother had taken her shopping for a suit that would fit when Ty suggested they renew their vows. The cream-colored Donna Karan dress and matching jacket looked sleek and classy on her ever-changing frame.
Ty wore Versace, his favorite. The chocolate-brown suit enhanced his light complexion and his muscular build. Felicia had spent half the service simply looking at him, he looked so good. If truth were told, it wasn’t just that Ty looked good. It was that this felt good, it felt right.
They’d come a long way, she and Ty. Felicia believed that it was all for a reason, it was all leading to this deeper commitment they were about to make to each other.
Now they stood at the altar, Reverend Vereen looking at them with a crinkly yet knowing smile. He’d married them ten years ago, and he would probably christen their baby.
“What God has brought together, let no man put asunder,” he whispered to them.
Their arms were locked and Ty reached up his free hand to touch hers, pulling them closer together.
Reverend Vereen read the scripture in his regular, solemn tone and the small ceremony began.
When the time came for the vows, Ty began with, “Felicia, you are and will forever be the love of my life.”
Her heart quite simply melted in her chest at his sincerity. So caught up was she in Ty and his words that when it was her turn, she had to blink away tears and concentrate on what she had planned to say.
Her words began slowly, succinctly, as she wrapped up her new vows to her husband. “And I will love you and cherish you and honor you and your accomplishments all the days of our lives.”
Neither of them heard the music as it played behind them. In their world only they existed. The kiss they shared was more than enticing, more than alluring. It was renewing and rejuvenating. It was their second chance.
The congregation clapped, smiles were broad and laughter loud. It was a joyous celebration for the Braddock family, a stark change from the ominous grief that had ushered them through these doors months before.
However, one member of the congregation still felt a heaviness on his shoulders, and immediately after congratulating the lucky couple, he made his excuses and drove off.
Drey sat in his car, a file marked “Harmon Braddock” in his hands. In that file was everything he’d found out since he’d been working on this case. Mr. Braddock’s children seemed to think there was something strange about the so-called accident that had killed their father. Drey was inclined to believe them. In fact, he’d thought that ever since he heard of the accident.
He’d gone to the scenes himself to investigate, of course. And got a friend at the local police office to let him look at their file. The reports in the PD file indicat
ed that the skid marks on the road were consistent with a car losing control and the median strip was to the left, approximately thirty to fifty feet from where the car was found. Braddock must have been traveling in the far right lane, preparing to take the exit.
Drey tapped the folder on the steering wheel. The exit he would have taken led to the airport. Gloria hadn’t known about any travel plans Mr. Braddock had prior to the accident, and Gloria usually knew the man’s every step. “So what was in D.C. and why were you going there?” Drey asked aloud.
He imagined Harmon Braddock dressed in one of his dark suits, riding along in his silver Mercedes. That car was usually driven by Joe Dennis, the driver whose body had been found recently in his apartment. As far as the police report went, it didn’t appear to be a robbery. There was no forced entry and nothing looked out of place. So how did Joe Dennis die? Drey couldn’t wait for the autopsy report to come back.
PI work was like underwater treasure hunting. There was a pool of questions and he needed to jump in, move things around, shake them up, until he found the answers.
Today there was one answer he had a feeling he didn’t want to know. But Drey took his job very seriously. He always did whatever was necessary to get his clients results. That these clients were the children of his mentor meant that he would go above and beyond his normal protocol.
Even if it meant uncovering things about the woman he loved most in this world—things he was sure she would like left alone.
Mildly disgusted with himself for procrastinating, Drey tucked the file under his seat and climbed out of his car. He moved up the familiar walkway, noting that the chill of winter was on its way. His mother’s garden had begun to look a little sickly. She’d be out here working on it soon, pulling up the weeds and prepping the ground for the winter chill. She did it every year without fail. And in the spring she’d come out and do it all over again.