Open Door Marriage

by Kai, Naleighna

  Dallas took a seat on a camel suede sofa opposite of Paul, who had taken up residence on a matching semi-circular chair. “When did you know you had a child?”

  “Anna told me the moment she found out she was pregnant. I proposed a second time. She turned me down.”

  “Then you forgot all about me. End of story,” Dallas said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

  “Not exactly.” Paul stood, beckoned to Dallas. “Come with me.”

  Chapter 30

  New Year’s Eve

  10:01 a.m.

  “What the hell are you up to now?” Alicia demanded.

  Tori placed the textbook in her hand onto the nightstand and looked at her aunt, “What are you whining about now?”

  Alicia held up a document she printed a few minutes ago. “You created a profile for me on Junglelove.com?”

  Tori shrugged. “Just thought you could use some incentive to find a man your own age. Maybe you think there’s not enough chocolate out there.” She batted her lashes innocently. “So I signed you up for a little vanilla. Ripe vanilla. What’s wrong with that?”

  “You left that mess up on Dallas’ computer so he could see it!!”

  “I did no such thing,” she lied with a straight face. “I was just trying to give you some options, that’s all.”

  Alicia was more than incensed. Dallas would have thought that she was the one trolling. He would hit the roof.

  “Tori, I’m warning you, this foolishness has to end.”

  “What foolishness?” She slipped to the edge of the bed and walked over to her dresser. “You mean, where you finally wise up and realize that you can’t be everything to him?” Tori ran her fingertips along the curve of a diamond necklace that Dallas had bought for her. “Or do you mean the foolishness about why you’re still here.”

  Alicia raised an eyebrow and put a little distance between them, placing her back against the dresser as Tori pressed the necklace to her throat.

  “You’re just jealous,” Tori taunted, turning to face the mirror. “First, I have the balls to become the doctor while you were only a nurse. Then, I manage to get the man that every woman wants. Now you’re trying to take it away. All because you’re so miserable, and you can’t stand to see me happy.”

  Tori turned one way, then the other, admiring the piece in her reflection before she glowered at Alicia. “I was his friend long before those other bitches got their claws into him.” She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “And you notice that they’re not around anymore.” Tori looked over her shoulder at Alicia and gave her a dismissing once-over.

  “Why’re you staying, Tori?” Alicia asked. “Is it because you can’t bear the thought of not having all of Dallas’ money? Have you turned into your mother and it’s all about the almighty dollar?”

  Tori didn’t back down. “I’m here because I belong here.” She rubbed her stomach. “And I look forward to giving my husband a house full of babies. That’s why I’m still here.” She gave a wicked smile.

  Alicia turned to leave, but thought she’d get in a parting shot. “I’m driving his car, living in his house, sleeping in his bed—all sanctioned by you. Evidently you’ve forgotten that part.” Alicia looked at an imaginary watch on her wrist. “Look at the time. I’d better go check on those investments, balance the books, and get a nap in before our man comes home. He’s expecting dinner.”

  The brush crashed against the door right after Alicia closed it.

  * * *

  New year’s Eve

  10:05 a.m.

  Dallas followed Paul through the house, past a white marble and silver kitchen, then into a den and study that flowed into a more masculine wood décor—a contrast to all the clear glass and metal throughout. They kept going until they reached a heavy oak door that blended with the wall and shelving. Paul punched in a password on the keypad and the door opened to reveal a vault area the size of a conference room.

  Paul stepped in, but Dallas froze at the door. He tried to keep the shock from showing on his face. Pictures of him in every stage of life adorned the walls. Clippings of magazine articles and newspapers were encased in frames that hung from near the ceiling to a few inches before the walls met the floor.

  “I guess you have to keep all that cash somewhere,” Dallas quipped when he saw rows of drawers, some leading as far up as ten feet over his head.

  “I keep my money where it’s supposed to be.” Paul gestured to the upper drawers. “Those are video recordings and news reels. Official NBA recordings of every game that you’ve played.” He motioned to the bottom ones. “Here are the ones from college, the Olympics and All-Star games.”

  Dallas was transfixed. He struggled to rein in his emotions. The man who should have been in his life but wasn’t, had been silently cheering him on. While the man who was in his life all those years never once applauded his accomplishments.

  This man, who was only related to him by blood, had built what could be termed a shrine, a reminder of the son he was never allowed to have.

  Paul clasped a hand to Dallas’ back and shook him a little, smiling as he said, “I might’ve gone a little overboard, but hey …”

  Dallas laughed and at once felt something stir deep within his soul. His father was just like him. The man cherished one woman, loved her enough to let her move on with a man who obviously never wanted her, then became successful in whatever he chose to do with his life. No wonder John Avery was so bitter about how his life had turned out. He was angry about the choices he’d made. And he made sure everyone else paid for it.

  “Who else has seen this?”

  “Only me,” Paul said in a solemn tone. “Well, and your mother when she comes to add something to it.”

  Dallas had the presence of mind not to question that, because it might lead to him knowing something else he wasn’t ready to explore.

  “She brought these fifteen minutes before you arrived. I haven’t decided where I want them to go yet.”

  Dallas swept a gaze across the rest of his trophies that had been in his parents’ den since forever. His most cherished were from playing on the McDonald’s All-Star basketball team in high school and the gold medal from his stint with the United States Olympic team. “Why?”

  Paul shrugged. “She said something about them needing to be in a safe place right now.”

  “A safe place?” That could only mean one thing. Reverend Braxton must have put in a call to his dad. And Pops was pretty damn mad right about now if he was threatening to toss out all signs of Dallas. But Dallas wasn’t upset by that. He’d always respected Pops. He hadn’t been a bad father, just indifferent. Now Dallas knew the man had done the best he could with what he had to work with.

  “How did you get those?” Dallas asked, gesturing toward photos of him and Alicia that was a pure visual representation of their love. He focused in on one where her head was against his chest, her eyes closed, and her sensuously curved lips were lifted in a warm smile as Dallas whispered something in her ear. He remembered that day—the day he had taken her to the Jazz Festival and she finally let him do something as forward as place a friendship ring where he believed a wedding ring should be.

  “I have my ear to the wire and put a standard feeler out in the Paparazzi pool. I bought them from a man looking to sell them to People Magazine. I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse,” Paul said, leaning down to scoop up the Olympic medal that was hanging on one of the trophies. “You don’t mind if I keep these here? Or did you want to take them?” Something in his tone said he didn’t want to part with a single one. And truthfully, even Dallas didn’t have this much of his own press and accomplishments in his possession. He would keep the Olympic Medal, but these other new items belonged here.

  “I’d like you to have them,” Dallas said, keeping his hold on the medal, but gesturing to the rest of the items his mom had brought. “As long as I can come visit them sometime.”

  “Anytime,” Paul said, bea
ming as though he had just been given the Holy Grail.

  “But may I have this?” Dallas asked, gesturing to the picture of him and Alicia.

  “Sure. Take anything you like.”

  Then, Dallas looked right next to it at an image of him and Tori sharing an ice cream cone at the Essence Music Festival the previous summer. Tori looked absolutely beautiful. He had tried to snag a bite, but she moved the cone out of the way. The chocolate ended up on the tip of her nose. In the picture, she was happy—something he hadn’t seen from her in a long while. Something she couldn’t be if she was holding onto a man with a limited amount of love for her.

  “Why do you have so many of me and Alicia?”

  “Truthfully?”

  Dallas nodded.

  “The images of you and Tori seemed staged.” He pointed to a row of several shots. “See how much space there is between you?”

  Dallas moved closer to examine them.

  “It’s like that in almost every one of them. But the ones of you and Alicia are more personal,” Paul said. “I thought they might be the most damaging for you if they were published because they show something you aren’t ready for the world to see.”

  Paul was right. Everything he felt for Alicia was evident in the fact that in each photo, he kept her within his arms or he lay at her breasts.

  Dallas shifted to a small corner where Paul kept photos of Dallas’ mother when she was much younger. In one, her arms were wrapped around Paul’s middle, and she was looking up at him as though he was all that mattered in the world. His gaze flickered to the photo of Tori once again, and he realized that by trying to spare Tori, by giving her time to end things, he had hurt her most of all.

  “Paul,” Dallas began. He halted his movements and locked gazes with his father. “You’re not angry that I don’t call you Dad, right?”

  “Wishful thinking, but I’m a realist,” he answered on a mild shrug. “What’s on your mind?”

  “If you knew mom was unhappy, would you have …”

  “No.”

  Dallas cocked his head. “No?”

  “She made her choice, Dallas,” Paul answered patiently. “She knew she could always come to me. Any time she decided to leave him, she had a home with me.”

  Dallas frowned, giving that some thought. “Are you sure she knew that?”

  “How do you think I got all of these?” Paul gestured to the childhood photos from newborn to high school. “Every time she came, I reminded her of how much I still loved her. Every. Single. Time!”

  Each report card and progress report was given as much reverence as all of his sports achievements. That was an awful lot of time shared between two people.

  Then, Dallas honed in on a particular photo, which showed him receiving the Oatha Alexander scholarship, which gave him the opportunity to attend any college he wanted. “This scholarship … was it from you?”

  “Named for my father,” Paul beamed, then pointed to a picture of a balding man with dark brown skin, a wide smile, pearly white teeth and chiseled features that mirrored both son and grandson. “He never went to college. He had ten children to take care of. All of us have done him proud.”

  Dallas tore his gaze from the document. “Do I have any brothers or sisters?”

  “No.”

  Dallas stared at his father. The man had lived his life unfulfilled—no marriage, no other children. “Do you realize how different your life would’ve been if you’d had the balls to go after what you wanted?”

  “Even if I had, there was no guarantee that things would have turned out the way you’re picturing it.”

  Dallas took several moments to absorb that kernel of truth.

  Paul cocked a brow. “At one point, I did think of sending for you to come live with me.”

  “Why?”

  “Your mother said that you and John were at each other’s throats. She thought it was going to come to blows and you might end up in jail.”

  Well, that was about right. When Dallas hit his teens and became more successful at basketball, Pops did everything he could to sabotage Dallas’ efforts to play, including tossing out letters from interested schools and not relaying information to Anna or Dallas when schools and scouts called. Pops strived to drum into his head that his focus should only be on church and education.

  But it was the way John treated his mother, like she was a servant at times and invisible at others, that angered Dallas so much and caused him and his father to really bump heads. Only in recent years had his relationship with Pops mellowed to a grudging respect for the fact that Pops had provided a roof over his head, food and clothing.

  His mother, for some strange reason, was sticking it out, so he thought there was something to be said for keeping to those vows. But at this stage, why didn’t they both throw in the towel and find something better to do with their lives?

  Dallas scanned the black and white images of his parents, trying to figure out where they were taken. “Mom’s from Marshall, Texas. Where were you born?”

  Paul grinned. “I’ll give you one good guess.”

  The answer slammed into Dallas. His name was an obvious reminder to John that Anna’s firstborn child was not his own but from the seed of a man from Dallas. It dawned on Dallas that even back when the new church was built, when Pops refused to let Dallas put his name on the building, Anna had begged him to name the church’s sports building The Paul Alexander Sports Multiplex, saying that he was someone special to her. Then she asked the same for the foundation he started. Evidently, when Mom wanted to make a point, she drove the knife in pretty damn deep.

  “So you never tried to see anyone else?”

  Paul gave him a low, throaty chuckle. “Now, I didn’t say that. Women are plentiful. Good women? Now that’s another story.”

  Dallas looked down at the image of Alicia. “What do you think?”

  Paul followed his gaze and said, “My honest opinion?”

  Dallas nodded.

  He held up the picture of Alicia, stroking a thumb across the image. “It’s obvious that your heart is with Alicia.” Then he pointed to the image of Tori walking out of the medical school, her brow furrowed with worry. “You’re stringing Tori along, when you should end things. I think you like the idea of having both women, no matter that it’s hurting both of them.”

  Dallas grimaced at the reproach he heard in his father’s voice, but he was already beginning to respect the man on so many levels. “I thought by now Tori would’ve kicked up her heels and hit the pavement, but …” he shook his head, “she’s hanging on better than Spider Man.”

  Paul nodded, keeping his focus on the woman he still loved. “Women do that when they feel that they’ve invested a lot of time in a man. They’ll stay in abusive relationships. They’ll stay in marriages that fizzle long before the fire even started …” He tore his gaze away from Anna’s picture and leaned against the only open space on the wall. “Tori feels you already belong to her, and Alicia’s just a nuisance. Evidently she doesn’t understand what passion is all about.”

  “She’s a virgin,” Dallas said.

  “Makes sense, but even before sex, there has to be something there.” Paul examined the photographs on his right. “On the outside looking in, Tori doesn’t feel anywhere near what she should for a man she’s going to be hitched to for the rest of her life.” Paul looked at Dallas. “And if I can see it, then that’s something you really need to think about.” He put Tori’s photo back in place and retrieved another. “With this one,” he added, a spark of admiration in his eyes, “this Alicia feels something, but she’s afraid. Probably because of the age thing. But from my opinion, what she feels is genuine. And that’s something you need to think about, too.”

  Dallas nodded, extracting the picture from his father’s hand.

  “I could thank John for raising my only son,” Paul said slowly. “But if I was ever close enough, I’d put my fist in his face. He married Anna out of spite, and that’s never a
reason to do something that important.” Paul clasped a hand to Dallas’ back and ushered him toward the door. “Enough about the past. Come on, let’s put something in your stomach. Don’t think I don’t hear it growling.”

  Dallas snorted, and that caused Paul to chuckle.

  “Your mother told me that you have one hell of an appetite.”

  “Mom exaggerates,” Dallas said, following his father from the vault and into the dimly lit study.

  “Anna says she had to have a cow in the backyard just to keep a few gallons of milk in the house.”

  “See, she ain’t right for telling you that,” Dallas grumbled. Then he admitted, “It was the neighbor’s cow.”

  Paul roared with laughter, and Dallas couldn’t help but join him.

  Chapter 31

  New Year’s Eve

  5:02 p.m.

  Alicia walked back into the kitchen, angered to find that all of her dinner preparations were missing. Dallas had specifically asked her to make him a simple dinner of his favorites. Tori was putting together a meal of her own, seemingly unaware that Dallas was not a fan of shrimp or half the ingredients she had spread out on the counter.

  Tori glared at Alicia, practically daring her to say something. The Rap music blasting from the Bose system was a high indicator of Tori’s current mood. Alicia could feel the storm brewing. She turned to walk out.

  “Have you thought about what I said?” Tori asked in a deceptively sweet voice that held Alicia in place. She lowered the music so she could be heard. “One of the men I’m talking about setting you up on a date with is totally interested in you, and he’s your age. Why can’t you at least go out with him?”

  “Because I don’t need to,” Alicia replied, giving her a fake smile. “I already have someone in my life.”

  Tori paused mid-slice, her tense posture looking like she was ready to pounce. “Let’s be real, you have my man in your life,” she snapped. “I did all the hard work, and you came along and reaped the benefits.” She dropped the knife, snatched a paper towel from the holder and dried her hands. “Didn’t you tell Dallas that you need a break from all this last week? Well, show him you’re serious. See some other people!”