And they wouldn’t. Her mother’s hair had grayed considerably, but her hair stylist had lightened some of the remaining dark brown strands, so the overall effect was that of a frosted look. Her flawless skin was smooth and completely wrinkle-free, and five years ago she had begun an intense exercise regimen that kept her slender body well-toned.
Parris closed her eyes behind her oversize sunglasses. “I’m not talking about how I look. It’s how I feel. I’ve never hidden anything from you, so you know what I had to go through just to bring you into the world. Then I lost you for six days, and when I got you back I swore to myself that I would never let you go. But I had to let you go, or I would’ve spent the rest of my life hating myself if you did not fulfill your dream. It’s not easy for a mother to let her firstborn go—especially since you were so young.”
Squeezing her mother’s fingers, Regina smiled at her. “But everything worked out, didn’t it?”
Opening her eyes, Parris smiled and nodded. “Yes, it did. You made me very proud of you.”
A shadow blocked out the strong rays of the early fall sun, and Regina glanced up to find her brother standing over her. She sat up quickly, offering him her hand. He pulled her up in one strong, swift motion.
“Tyler!”
Curving his arms around her waist, he picked her up, holding her aloft effortlessly, then released her. “Welcome home, Sis.” He kissed her soundly on her mouth.
Staring at her brother, Regina’s eyes were filled with pride as she visually examined Tyler Cole. At seventeen, he was as tall as his father, but claimed a lankiness that made him appear more delicate than he actually was. He flashed a rare smile, his dark eyes too serious for someone so young. He, too, had changed since she last saw him. She ran a hand over his head, feeling the stubble against her palm.
“What did you do, shave your head?”
He nodded. “I joined the swim team at school.”
Regina wagged her head in amazement. “I don’t believe it. The Coles have two swimmers in the family.”
Tyler ducked his head, staring at his shoes. “Arianna swims to compete. I’ve starting swimming to build up muscle. I feel uncomfortable working out in a gym, so I felt swimming was the next best thing.”
His head came up, and he stared down at his older sister. Taking her arm, he led her down to the beach and out of range of their mother’s hearing.
“How long are you going to hang around this time?”
“Tyler!” she whispered.
“Answer my question, Regina.”
“I can’t, because I don’t know.”
“You can’t imagine what Arianna and I have had to go through the past ten years.”
Her body stiffened in shock. “What are you talking about?”
“Mom and Dad have us on lockdown. They’ve tightened the reins so much that we feel like we’re under house arrest. They lost you and—”
“They didn’t lose me,” she countered angrily. “I graduated and I moved away. You still have another year before you complete high school, and Ari has four.”
“But you were only sixteen,” he argued.
“They could’ve stopped me if they’d wanted to.”
“But they didn’t.”
“So, what’s your beef?”
“My beef is that I’m not allowed to apply to colleges out of the state. I want to be a doctor, Regina, and for that I want to go to a college where I can get the best medical training available. And in case you aren’t aware of it, Meharry, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale don’t have campuses in Florida.”
Resting her hands on her hips, she shifted her eyebrows. “So, you really want a career in medicine?” Tyler nodded. “Have you taken your SATs?”
“I took the PSATs last semester.”
“What were your scores?”
“I managed a combined score of over fifteen hundred.”
She smiled. “My brother, the genius.”
“Uncle Josh is the genius in the family. I just study my butt off, that’s all.”
She sobered quickly. “I had no idea what you and Ari were going through. When you came to Mexico to visit me, why didn’t you say something?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“I’ll talk to Daddy about this. I won’t let him know that I spoke to you. I’ll bring it up casually, and feel him out.”
Tyler gave her a wide smile for the first time. “Will you?”
“Of course. And what does Ari want?”
“She wants to be an Olympic swimmer. She’s fast,” he added quickly. “Very, very fast. Her coach had her try out for a possible spot on the team, and she beat everyone in the one- and two- hundred-meter freestyle competition. You should see her in the four-hundred-meter relay. She’s awesome!”
Curving an arm around her brother’s waist, she rested her head against his shoulder. “Narrow down the college of your choice, then give me a couple of weeks to see what I can do.”
Regina had been in Florida exactly two weeks when she was finally reunited with the entire Cole clan, who had increased appreciably in her absence. Four generations gathered at the family estate in West Palm Beach early one Saturday afternoon.
Her uncle Joshua Kirkland and his wife Vanessa had flown in from Santa Fe, New Mexico, with their son and daughter. Emily had turned twelve, and Michael was now eight. Both children had inherited their father’s electric green eyes.
Music producer David Cole and his nurse-wife Serena had doubled their family with a set of twins. Ana and Jason, who had celebrated their first birthday on September twenty-third, joined their older brother and sister, eight-year-old Gabriel and six-year-old Alexandra, adding to the never-ending activity going on at their Boca Raton beachfront home.
Her aunts, Nancy Cole-Thomas and Josephine Cole-Wilson, were grandparents, claiming a half-dozen grandchildren between them. Her grandmother, Marguerite Josephine Diaz-Cole, the family matriarch, had managed to maintain her regal beauty at seventy-eight, while M.J.’s husband of nearly sixty years exhibited signs of aging poorly with his declining health. Samuel Claridge Cole was now eighty-five, and most times now was confined to his bed. A debilitating stroke had left him with limited use of his right arm and leg.
Cradling the twins on either hip, Regina walked across the expansive lawn where everyone lounged under a large tent to escape the harmful rays of the intense Florida sunshine.
Emily Kirkland approached her, holding out her arms. “I’ll take one.”
Regina handed her Jason, then cradled Ana to her chest, but the child squirmed uncomfortably in her arms. She smiled at the tiny girl, and much to her surprise Ana returned her smile. She was the image of her father, with the exception of her eyes. Ana, along with all of Serena and David’s children, claimed their mother’s clear brown eyes and their father’s dimpled smile.
“I’ll take her if she’s too heavy for you.”
Turning around, Regina smiled at Serena. “I don’t mind holding her. It’s time this little princess and I became better acquainted with each other.”
“Why don’t you come back to Boca with us tonight, and hang out for a couple of days? David and I would love to have you,” she added when Regina hesitated.
“You, Uncle David, or Alex?”
Petite Serena Morris-Cole ran a hand through the profusion of short reddish-brown curls sticking to her moist forehead, flashing a knowing smile. She had recently celebrated her thirty-ninth birthday and had given birth to four children, yet could easily pass for someone in her late twenties.
“It’s Alexandra. Ever since she realized her cousin was, as she says, ‘a moo-vee star’ she’s been bugging me to ask you if you would come and tell her about your acting career.”
“Doesn’t the child know I only have two films to my credit?”
“Tell that to a six-year-old.”
“I can’t go back with you tonight. Arianna and I have plans to do some shopping in the morning. What I’ll do is come up to
Boca during the week and stay for a few days.”
Regina handed Ana to her mother, then spent the next four hours relaxing, eating, laughing, and interacting with her many cousins. Everyone waited for their food to settle before they retreated to the pool house to change into swimwear.
Arianna and Tyler stood at the edge of the Olympic-size pool, their arms hanging limply at their sides as an eerie hush settled over the assembly. Regina glanced at her parents, who stood together, arms around each other. She smiled behind the lenses of her sunglasses, but at the same time an emotion she identified as jealousy welled up in her chest.
Her parents were still in love, and the man she had fallen in love with was thousands of miles away. She had seen Martin and Parris’s furtive glances when they did not think she noticed, and on more than one occasion she saw her father caress her mother’s body in a way that made her feel she was spying on them. Parris Simmons had been twenty-two when she met Martin Cole for the first time, but had to wait ten years before she could claim him as her husband and a father for her daughter.
Closing her eyes briefly, she tried imagining it was Aaron she had been married to, and not his father. Instead of becoming Oscar Spencer’s widow she would be Aaron Spencer’s wife, and probably the mother of his child or children. She opened her eyes, frowning. She did not want to think about Aaron, any more than she wanted to love him.
All thoughts of him vanished as she watched her brother and sister dive into the pool. Moving closer, she was transfixed by the form and speed of Arianna as she sliced through the water like a silent torpedo. There was complete silence, everyone watching her swim to the opposite end of the pool, turn, then push off to return. Arianna was halfway across the pool before her brother made his turn.
David Cole extended a hand to his niece, helping her from the water, and handing her a towel. He shook his head in amazement. “Martin, are you certain your daughter doesn’t have webbed feet?” he teased with an attractive, lopsided smile.
Arianna blotted water from her short hair, grinning broadly. “Anyone want to race?” Despite the exertion, she was breathing normally. She pointed to her uncle with the silver-blond hair. “How about it, Uncle Josh?”
Joshua Kirkland waved a delicate hand. “Too full.”
She snapped the towel in his direction. “Too full, or too frightened?”
Joshua gave her a warm smile. “Too old,” he confirmed. “Why don’t you challenge some of the younger guys?”
Arianna stalked her young male cousins. “Come on, guys. Don’t tell me you’re scared of a girl?” She encountered silence.
Nancy Cole-Thomas leaned over and whispered in her youngest son’s ear and he stepped forward, pulling his T-shirt over his head.
The setting sun glinted off his brown back. “Let’s go, Ari,” he challenged. He didn’t fare any better than Tyler. She beat him by an even larger margin.
Regina saw the exhibition of Arianna’s prowess as the perfect opportunity to approach her parents. Moving next to her father, she wound her arm through his free one.
“Ari has the makings of a world-class champion,” she said softly.
Martin arched his eyebrows, his impassive expression never changing. “You think so?”
“I know so, Daddy.”
“What are you suggesting, Cupcake?”
“You should let her compete.”
“She does compete.”
“She competes locally. That’s not enough.”
Turning his head, he stared down her, meeting her direct stare. “Say what’s on your mind.”
“She needs to follow her dream, Daddy. And that dream is to make the next Olympic team.”
“You think she could make it?”
“I know she could. Think of the publicity she would get, too, being an African-American swimmer instead of a runner, gymnast, or a basketball player in the upcoming summer games.”
“That would mean that she would travel with the swim team and—”
“She would be away for a while, but she would always come back home,” Regina interrupted. “I did,” she added quietly.
Curving his arm around his daughter’s waist, Martin pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. “You’re right, Cupcake. You did come back home.”
Closing her eyes, Regina prayed for strength. She knew her stay in Florida was to become a short one—she doubted whether she would stay until the end of the year. She had tried filling her days and nights with activity when she redesigned her mother’s flower garden and spent hours in her grandparents’ formal gardens, but when she least expected it remnants of what she had shared with Aaron filled her thoughts. She felt his invisible pull, binding them together across thousands of miles.
Martin nodded, smiling. “I’ll let her compete. Now, before you dance a jig, tell me what Tyler wants.”
She stared at her father, complete shock freezing her features. “You knew?”
“Of course we knew,” Parris replied, peering around her husband. Her deep, sultry voice was filled with repressed laughter. “We know our children a lot better than they think we do.”
Regina hugged her parents, then kissed their cheeks. “You guys are so cool.”
Parris affected a frown. “Your father and I aren’t that cool. What we’ve come to realize is that Tyler and Arianna are growing up, and we have to do whatever it takes to help them fulfill their destinies. I’d love to have my children with me forever, but that’s not realistic. You’ll be faced with the same dilemma once you have your own children,” she predicted sagely.
I hope I won’t, she prayed silently. If or when she ever became a mother, she hoped she would remain objective enough to know when to let go.
Chapter 15
Bahia, Brazil
Aaron Spencer lounged on a chair in his study, staring at the images on the television screen. He could not remember how often he had viewed Silent Witness since he had ordered a copy of the movie two weeks ago, but after the first half-dozen times he activated the mute button on the remote and only watched the flickering images. There was no need for him to hear the dialogue, because he had memorized every line.
When the camera first captured the image of a seventeen-year-old Regina Cole walking through the AeroMexico terminal, he’d caught and held his breath until a lack of oxygen forced him to release it. It was as if her face and body made love to the camera. He’d been transfixed by the sultry sound of her voice, the way she moved, and her unabashed innocence. He did not know why, but he felt betrayed whenever he watched her love scenes with her costar, and had begun fast-forwarding those segments.
He had returned to Bahia and fully immersed himself in his work at the hospital, the research institute, and his coffee plantation. His foreman had predicted an excellent yield for an April or May harvest. What he could not do was erase the memory of Regina Spencer from his mind. She haunted his days, as well as his nights, and there were times when he sat up all night, only to fall asleep with the sunrise.
This night was to become one of those.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Regina left her bed for the first time in twenty-four hours, showered, shampooed her hair, and changed into a pair of sweatpants with an oversize T-shirt. She was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea sweetened with honey and flavored with a slice of lemon when her mother walked in.
Parris gave her a warm smile. “Are you feeling better this morning?”
She nodded, grimacing as a wave of dizziness swept over her, bringing with it chills while leaving a layer of moisture on her brow. “A little.”
Parris sat down at the table, peering closely at her daughter and noticing the hollows under her high cheekbones. She had lost weight. Placing the back of her hand against her forehead, she frowned.
“You feel a little warm. I’m going to call the doctor for an appointment.”
Regina felt too weak to protest. Whenever her stomach churned and rejected its contents, she was left feeling
lethargic and listless during the aftermath of several violent retchings.
“I’m going back to bed,” she murmured, pushing to her feet. She met her father as he walked into the kitchen, tightening a silk tie under the collar of a pristine white shirt.
He stopped and kissed her damp hair. “Still under the weather, Cupcake?”
“Yeah,” she moaned, moving slowly in the direction of her bedroom.
She flopped down across the bed, willing the tea to stay down. Her stomach settled itself, and she let out her breath slowly. She had been back for six weeks, and during that time she hadn’t had a menstrual flow. She hadn’t told her mother, but she did not need a doctor or anyone else to tell her that she was carrying Aaron Spencer’s child. And she also knew exactly when it had occurred—the night she had offered him her virginity.
Regina waited until she was seated in the car with her mother, then disclosed the doctor’s findings. “Congratulations. You’re going to be a grandmother.”
Parris’s hand froze as she attempted to put the key in the car’s ignition. “How? Who? Where?” The three words came out in a staccato cadence. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she turned toward her daughter.
“Which question do you want me to answer first?” Regina replied flippantly, then sobered when she saw a warning cloud settle on her mother’s usually pleasant features.
“I’m sorry,” she continued in a softer tone. “The who is Aaron Spencer. And the where was in Mexico.” Parris’s astonishment was apparent when her delicate jaw dropped slightly. “We hadn’t planned for it to happen, but circumstances being what they were we became emotionally as well as physically involved with each other.”
“Do you love him?”
Closing her eyes, she nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Not long at all,” Regina admitted. “We spent a total of five weeks together.”
Letting out her breath in an audible sigh, Parris managed a knowing smile. She had been more than familiar with young love. “You’re good. It took me about two weeks to fall in love with your father.”
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