“That’s not funny,” she had chuckled, wiping her suddenly damp hands on her slacks.
“It wasn’t meant to be. You’re like Judas drinking out of the Master’s cup.”
Merle jumped to her feet. “Now listen here. You don’t know me like that. You don’t want to mess with me, all right? I’ll put you in your place real quick, you little piece of—”
“Grandma?”
She whirled around at Karlie’s shocked tone. Karlie stood there with wide eyes.
Merle clutched the gold necklace that had been a gift from Karlie. “Oh, hey, baby, I didn’t hear you come out the bathroom.”
“Were you about to say a cuss word?”
Merle slid a glance toward Brian, who gave her a knowing look. She cut her eyes and faced her granddaughter. “Of course not, baby.” She went over to kiss Karlie on the cheek. “I was saying he’s a piece of sugar cookie.” Sugar cookie? That didn’t make any sense. Karlie’s face said she wasn’t buying it either.
Merle ignored the whispered “Judas” from Brian and led Karlie back to the dinner table. “Did you want more candied yams?”
Karlie shook her head. She looked at Brian and then at Merle. Her eyes narrowed. “What’s going on here?”
Brian opened his mouth, but Merle clutched her chest and coughed. She coughed and coughed until Brian jumped up to slap her on the back. Real hard. Merle grabbed a glass of water and swallowed before she cussed him out. Karlie’s concern overshadowed the conversation.
Since then, Merle made sure to keep her cool and at least twenty feet between her and Karlie’s fiancé.
She walked over to the bed and picked up the wedding invitation. She read it again. “October 23, 2017,” which was seven months away. She had seven months to squash that plan. She closed her eyes and smiled. A lot could happen in seven months.
She spoke her tongue then tapped her chin. She could see the revelation. Karlie and Brian were not going to make it down the aisle. It was unfortunate because Karlie would be heartbroken. Lucky for Karlie, she had a grandmother waiting to comfort her with open arms.
Merle smiled. She could hardly wait.
Ch. 5
“I can’t believe you called me,” Ryan said. “Your phone call warmed my heart.”
Megan noticed his shining eyes and forced a smile. “You knew I would. Admit it.”
Ryan chuckled. “I hoped you would.” He tilted his head. “What made you change your mind?”
He has an oversized ego, Megan thought, crossing her legs. She swallowed the regret of her impulsive decision to call Ryan Oakes. “I felt bad about how I treated you.” That wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the complete truth, either. “I should have at least listened to what you had to say.”
He eyed her with suspicion. “You did listen. You listened to me beg you to take seven million dollars. You listened to my proposal before throwing me out of your house. Why the sudden change of heart? What happened?”
Megan looked down at her shoe. She fought the urge to lie and say she had felt an instant attraction. There was no way Ryan would buy that story. He would question her motive. She would give him a part of the truth. She lifted her head. “I had a visit from Kyle Manchester. Do you know him?” She watched his every move.
Ryan nodded. “He’s your husband’s attorney and a cocky son of a bum. What did he want?”
Ryan had the nerve to call Kyle cocky? “He wanted me to pursue you.” Megan didn’t want to specify what Kyle had meant by pursue.
“Why can’t he let this go?” Ryan fumed. His nostrils flared. “He lost. Jackson’s gone and he lost. I wish he would back off.”
Megan gasped.
Ryan’s face paled.
Megan clenched her fists. “This was a mistake. Please leave.”
Ryan stood. “I didn’t mean to come across as being insensitive about your husband’s death.”
“But you were. His life means nothing to you and everything to me.” Her voice broke. “I’m sorry I called you. I don’t know what I was thinking.” She closed her eyes and an image of Jackson’s lifeless body hanging in her closet taunted her.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and flinched. “Don’t touch me.”
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. His minty breath fanned her cheek.
“Because of you, my son will grow up without a father. Cooper won’t have someone to teach him how to be a man.” Her shoulders shook as her grief overtook her.
Ryan pulled her into his arms.
For a brief moment, she allowed her husband’s killer to comfort her before she pulled away. “Please go.”
“I hate seeing you like this,” Ryan whispered. He wiped her face with a handkerchief. “Watching you cry is tearing me apart. I wish you’d consider my proposition.”
Megan flung his hands off her. “You expect me to marry the man responsible for my husband’s death? Are you deranged?”
“There’s no proof I caused Jackson’s death.”
“A lack of proof doesn’t mean a lack of guilt.” She walked to the door and opened it. “Inviting you here was a bad idea. I thought… I was insane to think…” Her chest heaved. “Just get out before I call the cops.”
Ryan picked up his jacket from the back of the chair and sauntered to the door. He reached out to touch her hair.
Megan turned so his hand never made contact with her skin.
“I love you,” Ryan said.
“You’re crazy,” she spat.
“I’m going to marry you.”
“Not if I can help it.” Her heart pounded at the surety in his tone. “You can’t force me to marry you.”
He laughed. “I have my ways. Trust me, Megan soon-to-be Oakes. You will be my bride.”
His voice held an edge of steel determination. Megan gritted her teeth to keep from shuddering. “I was already a bride for a man who loved me.”
“Then consider yourself fortunate that you will be a bride for another man who loves you.”
Her mouth dropped open at his audacity. Goose bumps rose on her flesh. She thought of Cooper asleep upstairs and realized she was alone with a lunatic. A fly buzzed past her ear. She made a mental note to get the screen door repaired. “Get out and take your friends, the mosquitoes and flies, with you.”
Ryan laughed and opened the screen door. “I love your sharp tongue. I’ll find better uses for it.”
Megan felt her lips curl. “You’re disgusting.”
“I believe nasty is a better word,” he said with a wink.
“Leave me alone!” she yelled. Megan didn’t consider herself a violent woman, but she wanted to punch that smirk off Ryan’s face.
Ryan went out the door and closed the screen door. “I’ll send someone over to repair this door. Make a list of anything else you need done. I want this house sold for top dollar, and it needs a total overhaul.”
Her temper flared. “You pompous jerk. Jackson poured all his heart into designing our dream home. How dare you look down your nose on his efforts!”
“By the looks of it, he didn’t have much heart. Lucky for you, mine’s bigger and better. And, I intend to put you up in style.”
Megan slammed the door. She heard Ryan whistling through the door and held back a scream. Ryan Oakes was a tornado. She could see that now. She needed to take shelter and hope that storm passed her by. She felt a chill and wrapped her arms about her. The buffoon meant to have her even if it created havoc in her prior peaceful existence. He wouldn’t stop until he got his way.
She swallowed.
But how far would he go?
And, would she survive?
Ch. 6
“So I guess you’re going to wait until I’ve been stabbed forty times and lying in my own pool of blood before you grant me a restraining order?” Megan glared.
She had risen at six a.m. after a sleepless night, dressed Cooper, and driven to the police station by 7:30 a.m. Megan had recounted her encounters with Ryan before asking to file a complaint.
The officer put his hands on his hips. “Ma’am, you need to keep calm. If he does something, then I’ll be able to help you. Until then…”
Cooper pulled on her hair, and Megan switched him to her other arm. “If he does something? If he does something?”
Officer Hanson shrugged. “My hands are tied.”
“No, my hands will be tied. I’ll be bound and gagged before you do anything.”
“Keep—”
“If you tell me to keep calm one more time…” Megan released a plume of air. She struggled to control her temper. Before Ryan Oakes crossed her path, she had been a sane, even-tempered woman. Now she was like a volcano, constantly on the verge of eruption.
“I’ll patrol the area,” Officer Hanson said. “That’s the best I can do.”
Megan rolled her eyes at his patronizing tone. Cooper fussed in her arms. She needed to put him down, but he couldn’t roam the police station. “Thanks, but no thanks.” She stormed out of the station and stomped to her car.
“Eat, Mommy,” Cooper said.
Megan held back tears. “I’m sorry, baby. Mama is going to feed you now. We’ll go to McDonald’s and get pancakes.”
Cooper kicked and squealed. “Pancakes… pancakes…”
She opened the door to the Lexus and fought with the car seat in the back. She missed her Lincoln but had to sell it to pay some bills. She couldn’t very well eat a luxury car with ketchup. Megan secured Cooper before entering the vehicle.
A car whizzed by. She squinted. That car seemed familiar. She thought she had seen it when she left her home. Her heart thundered. Was she being followed?
Megan shook her head. Ryan Oakes was making her paranoid. Officer Hanson was right. She needed to calm down.
“Pancakes, Mommy,” Cooper said. His face scrunched, and Megan knew a wail was coming next. She quickly started the engine and pulled off in search of the big yellow arches.
After sating Cooper’s tummy with pancakes bathed in butter and syrup, Megan stopped by her bank to speak with a loan officer.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Higgins, but…”
Denied.
She spent fifteen minutes sobbing and praying before she had the strength to drive home. Fortunately, Cooper had fallen asleep. She kept glancing at her beautiful son as fear surrounded her heart. She knew she needed to trust God and in all things be content, but she was worried about how she could provide for her child.
Even though Megan knew she would be losing the last piece of Jackson, she realized she would have to sell the house and downsize. She would have her memories and pictures to console her and share with Cooper. Cooper would grow up knowing the good things about his father.
A good man who killed himself? More like a selfish man who left me and his young son to fend for themselves.
“No,” she breathed and pushed the betraying thoughts out of her mind. She stole a glance at her cherub asleep in the back of the car. “Jackson wouldn’t commit suicide. He had plenty to live for. He had to have been murdered.”
When Megan pulled into her driveway, her mouth dropped open. At least a dozen men were working on her lawn and her door, and someone was pressure washing the house. She gathered Cooper, didn’t speak to the men, and rushed into her home, double locking the door. It was all too much.
She knew who she needed to call. She placed Cooper in the playpen to finish his nap. Ryan answered on the third ring.
“How are you, beautiful?”
“What are you doing?” she raged. “My yard is raining men, and believe me, I’m not shouting hallelujah!”
Ryan laughed. “Sweetheart, I swear, your sense of humor is giving me life.”
“I’m losing my mind!” she yelled. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“I don’t understand why you’re upset. You should be thanking me.”
“Thanking you for being the biggest nuisance this planet has seen since the likes of Donald Trump?” Her body shook.
“Hey, take it easy on The Donald,” Ryan said, good-naturedly. “I voted for him.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Megan’s chest tightened. “You would vote for the devil to get ahead.”
“Wrong,” he said, laughing.
Megan shook her head. She had a flashback of Donald Trump’s debate with Hillary Clinton when Trump countered everything she said with “wrong.” She had found it annoying then and even more now.
Megan opened her mouth to tell him off when she gasped and couldn’t breathe. She tried to catch her breath, but her body refused to cooperate. Her body swayed. “Please God, no. Don’t let me die like this…” She staggered over to a chair. “Jesus!” she called out.
“Megan? Megan?”
Megan heard the panic in his voice, but her labored breathing prevented her from responding.
“Megan, answer me. Megan?”
Megan felt the phone slip from her hand. Her chest tightened. She thought she was having a heart attack.
One minute she was standing and the next she was on the ground.
Did I do enough for God? Have I been the kind of child who would hear Him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant?”
Tears slid from her eyes as she pictured Cooper asleep in his playpen, not knowing his mother could be drawing her last breath. Who would take care of him?
Her eyes widened when she realized she had no one. No one to take care of Cooper when she was gone. She sobbed. She didn’t want her son to find her like this. It would traumatize him for life. Please, God.
Maybe one of the workers would come inside and find her. Then she remembered she had bolted the doors. Her hope deflated.
Megan gasped for air. Her chest felt so tight. Breathe. Breathe. Stay alive. Keep your eyes open.
Mommy loves you, Cooper. Did he know that?
She had to stay alive to tell him that. She saw spots before her eyes. Why was this happening to her? She wanted to call out for help, but all she could breathe out was, “Cooper…”
Ch. 7
“What if Mr. Manchester wants you to work on a case against Ryan?” Karlie asked. “Would you still do the internship?”
The two had met up for brunch so Brian could fill her in on his visit with Professor Grayson. They both had been busy with schoolwork and Karlie with wedding planning.
Brian drank his orange juice. “I don’t know.”
Karlie’s eyes were troubled. She hadn’t touched her bagel since he told her about his visit with Professor Grayson. “You can’t do it, Brian. You can’t be the one to go against my father and expose him if what he’s been accused of is true.”
“Ryan was about to lose millions. Jackson Higgins’ death was a little too convenient.”
“He killed himself.”
Brian shook his head. “I don’t believe that for one minute. The man had a wife and a young child. He had every reason to live.” He lathered his waffle with a huge dollop of butter.
“Just because you have a reason to live, doesn’t mean you want to,” Karlie shot back.
Her pointed words struck Brian’s heart. He ate his waffle while he remembered. He had been that person once. It seemed like a lifetime ago. If it weren’t for Tiffany Knightly, he didn’t know where he would have ended up. Brian had been self-destructive before the now-deceased singer welcomed him into her home and her heart. But he was long past his chain-smoking, bike-speeding days.
Brian briefly touched Karlie’s face. “I was one of those people so I can relate. But look at me now. I’m blessed to have you in my life and because of you, I accepted Christ as my Savior.”
She smiled. “I think my mother would’ve been proud.” She finally took a bite of her bagel.
He tilted his head. “Do you think she would’ve approved of our relationship?” Brian reached over, swiped the cream cheese off her chin, and ate it.
“I know so.” Her eyes filled with sadness. “I wish she were here.”
His heart constricted. Brian wiped his mouth on a napkin. “I
can’t imagine what it must be like not having your mother around. As messed up as mine is, I’m glad she’s here.” His cell buzzed, a text from Patricia. “Speaking of the devil…” his voice trailed off when he read the contents.
“What’s she saying? Will she make it tonight?”
Brian shook his head.
Karlie’s shoulders slumped.
Karlie had arranged for Myra, Patricia, and Merle to go with her to select her gown. Brian was supposed to go with Neil and Ryan to choose their tuxedos.
“She’s going to Europe with Tim. Some special case.” Brian’s tone held a slight trace of bitterness. He clenched his jaw to squelch the old resentment threatening to surface. His parents were always too busy to make his affairs a priority.
“I’m sure it’s important,” Karlie said, taking a drink of ice-cold water. “Or she would be here.”
“Stop making excuses. She’s not the only neurosurgeon in the world.”
“She’s the best.”
Brian gritted his teeth. “To everyone but me.”
Karlie patted his hand. “I know you’re her world.” She sighed. “I need some more girlfriends. I wish you and Jamaal weren’t my only best friends. Now Jamaal is out of the picture.”
Jamaal Weathers had been Karlie’s boyfriend up until a few months ago when she learned he had failed to keep their vow of celibacy. Brian cringed when he thought of the other man. Jamaal felt Brian had stolen Karlie from him. Their friendship ended with a fight that went viral on YouTube. Brian didn’t feel guilty or as if he had stolen Karlie. Jamaal hadn’t treasured the gift of Karlie, but Brian would for the rest of his life.
“He’s transferred to Columbia University. The last I heard, he was enjoying Harlem,” Brian said. And Harlem girls, too.
She pushed her empty plate to the side. “I guess I’ll wait until Tanya comes next month to go dress-hunting.”
“How is she?” he asked. Brian had dated Karlie’s best friend, Tanya in high school. They had shared an intense relationship before Tanya moved to Florida. Both agreed they didn’t want a long distance romance and had moved on.
A Reason to Sing Page 4