by Amarie Avant
When Raven didn’t mirror Annette’s poor attempt at a smile or start eating, she continued. “Okay, ReRe. Otis wouldn’t want us to be so sad with him still at the hospital. You don’t usually eat much, but let’s just finish dinner and at least have a small slice of cake.”
Raven looked down at her hands and picked up the fork. Dragging her bottom lip through her teeth, she placed the fork back next to the plate and sighed.
“Granny…” She looked into her grandmother’s eyes as tears pooled into her own baby blues. Taking a deep breath, she looked down and admitted, in a faint voice, “I’m pregnant.”
“What?” Annette stood, eyes bulging and chest heaving.
No, this wasn’t happening. Not to her. Raven was her good child, her baby. Her chance to do things right since Charlene ran away. Being a Christian, Annette never believed in depression, but she knew there were times her grandbaby would be quiet and prefer to be alone. Raven rarely hugged, but they spent quality time cooking side-by-side in the kitchen. Raven is my good child!
Scripture. There was always the token passage about her granddaughter’s wicked ways, just as she had done with Charlene in the past, but her brain turned into mush. Maybe I’m getting old? She remembered being much sharper when Charlene was growing up. Chin up, she opened her mouth. Her lips moved, ready to use a verse and go to battle. Instead, she huffed, and then her mouth clamped shut. Hands up in defeat, she shook her head in dismay and walked out.
~~~
It had been weeks since Annette had uttered a single word to her. Raven hadn’t gone outside–unless it was for a doctor’s appointment. She hadn’t even answered her cell phone, but she did check her voicemail every day. A few times Trish and Samantha called to let her know that they were moving to New York, wanting to meet up before they left. Raven didn’t make it.
On the morning of the paternity test, Raven showered and dressed. She put a hand on her small, firm belly and turned the cell phone on, like she did every day, to see if Liam had called. Her breath caught as she noticed a voicemail. Yes, Liam’s finally called, so he was waiting for the test date?
When Bill’s voice came on the line, she almost threw the phone at the dresser mirror. Sinking down to the mattress, at the foot of the bed, she listened.
“Hey, Raven… I’ve called you now, twenty–uh, twenty-seven times. I’m w-worried. Are you okay?” He paused as if expecting a response. “Well, just wanted you to know that I’m moving to Texas. Going to the university…” Another unnecessary silence. “I’m leaving at the end of the week, so if you have a chance, can we g-go for ice cream or to the diner on Main Street? It’s okay if-if you ca-can’t make it… O-kay, well, keep in touch.”
Deleting the message, she felt a mixture of sadness. The boy had finally gotten up the nerve to ask her out. Yeah, but I’m knocked up now, Bill.
A moment later, Annette peeked inside her bedroom. “It’s time.”
Raven slipped her cell phone in the top drawer and jogged down the stairs. With arms folded so as not to fidget with her fingers, she waited, wondering if Annette was still upstairs. Glancing out of the curtains, she saw Annette sitting in the truck and hurried outside into the hot summer heat.
In deafening silence, Annette drove up the windy mountain to the Lemaître’ home for the paternity test results. The maid opened the French doors on the first ring.
“Hello, this way, please.” Lucinda moved her arm in a fluid motion.
Though the heat was muggy, Raven almost preferred it as she walked across the threshold after Annette. While Annette kept pace with the maid, she meandered, looking around the living room and down the hall for any sign of Liam. Inhaling deeply, she tried to smell the cologne that he always wore, but it wasn’t there.
Wishing she were invisible, Raven wanted to go straight up to his bedroom to investigate. We’re going in the wrong direction! I want to go to Liam’s room, Raven screamed inside her brain as the maid led them down a long corridor to an office.
A large manila envelope was on the middle of the desk in a room filled with heavy furniture. The maid brought in a tray with a crystal carafe of ice water and four glass tumblers, backed out, and closed the door.
Raven and Annette took a seat on the opposite side of the desk. Jonathan and Elise settled across from them. Neither of them greeted each other. Anger clouded the air. Annette’s eyes bore through Jonathan, as did Raven’s. The Ice Queen dominated her leather chair, angular chin up, whereas Jonathan didn’t look at anyone.
For a moment, Raven’s hatred subsided when Annette took her hand. Somewhere deep inside a smile harbored, knowing at least they had an alliance. Family. In a few minutes, that smile might reach forth and blossom across her lips. Once Jonathan declared he was not her father, and Liam would come back.
CHAPTER 27
Jonathan opened the envelope slowly. Sliding the facts across the desk, his heart sank as he confirmed that Raven Shaw was indeed his daughter. After all of his extramarital affairs, it had come to this. He was the father of the girl who held his son’s heart.
He watched Raven snatch up the paper. The girl’s façade was just as disappointed as he had been when he opened the results. Annette rubbed her back and whispered in her ear. From his angle, his daughter didn’t look to be listening. Raven had a faraway look–a lost, longing, faraway look.
“Now we must talk child support.” Jonathan glared through the visitors sitting across from him. As if they were on the set of a garish soap opera, Jonathan uttered the script which was provided to him by Pierre. Don’t show emotions. Pierre would alienate me from all of my clients. Moreover, he’ll take Elise! I’ll be broke! Thinking about Pierre’s visit sent a chill through his spine. He addressed them as if they were potentially new clients. “I have written a compensation package for you–actually, two compensation packages.” Jonathan pushed both papers across the table. One of which he was able to afford to provide, using the state’s child support rate calculated for eighteen years of care. The other had a multimillion-dollar price, courtesy of Pierre Delacroix.
“As you can see, there are two prices here,” he explained as they stared at the papers. “The higher price, of course, comprises a clause, which must be signed. It requires that no additional parties be notified regarding Raven’s true paternal parentage. That means no family, no friends, no nada.”
“Did I ask you for your stupid money?” Raven scrunched up both pieces of paper.
“All right.” Jonathan held his hands up, glad she spoke instead of Annette. It wouldn’t do for the hefty woman to blow a gasket at his home. “The second contract can be revised to include the best oncologist in the entire nation, Raven. Save Otis. You and your grandparents can vacation for the rest of your lives. You can vacation so long that work is optional, for even your great grandchildren.”
Rivers of tears flooded her cheeks as she threw the balled papers at her father’s head. “You’re that embarrassed by me? I’m embarrassed by you. Take your money and shove it up your ass!”
Jonathan didn’t flinch as the papers bounced off his forehead; he just kept looking right through her. Pierre will take everything…keep staring at the grandfather clock behind her head…
“You’re a sick, pathetic man!” Annette snarled.
“Look at me, bastard!” Raven stood, leaning across the table, but he kept gazing over her head. “You people think that everyone wants a piece of what you have, but it’s not true.”
Folding his hands behind his head, he let insults fly over his shoulders. For the first time, he noticed the intricate design around the edges of the grandfather clock. It was one of Pierre’s antiques.
“Good riddance,” he mumbled when they finally walked out. I’m so sorry, Raven. There was once a day I’d have made a good father to you, and a good husband to Charlene. That day will never return. I’d die without money. He let that security comfort him. Though he hated when Elise displayed such a deep craving for money, he too needed it to survive. Lo
ts of it.
Jonathan almost got up. Almost let the pain consume him from knowing that he, too, had let their child down. Instead, he sensed Elise staring at him and turned to her. She had a shocked look on her face.
“What?” He placed a hand to his temple to massage a phantom headache.
“You didn’t have to sit there like a statue while your own daughter cried.” Elise ran her hand through her short blonde bob. “Maybe you can’t take her out or do father-daughter things, but you could’ve let her down a little bit better than that.”
Jonathan rubbed his chin. She’s trying to trick me. Surely Pierre had briefed her on every facet of what was currently transpiring. Raven Shaw never wanted anyone’s money. Never coveted it. Throwing it at her, he had no doubt, made her feel even lower than she did upon arrival.
Yes, Elise feigned innocence. He hadn’t been a lawyer for long when he learned that trap. “Aww, my beautiful wife has caught a case of feelings, eh? Makes you think of what life would be like if your father didn’t want you, huh?” His eyes were wide in mock concern. Then he leaned back, nice-and-comfy like. A few moments later, he still felt her observing him, still keeping up the sympathy appearance. He needed to sulk alone, yet Elise stayed. “Oh, please! You did this!” Jonathan spat.
“No. What was so wrong with treading lightly? She just lost any chance with being with my—our son. And of course, my father loves me with all of his heart. I can’t fathom not holding his affection. I wouldn’t have stopped you from building a relationship with Raven… There are an infinite number of places you’d be permitted to take Raven and bonded–”
“Humph. I appreciate you, my gracious wife, for allowing me to find some big boulder, in a far off distant land in order to cultivate a relationship with my daughter. The use of your capital and transportation has always been a welcomed luxury. I get it, I had the option to shower Raven with love, so long as I kept her out of eyesight of your father? And kept her out of the newspapers, so people didn’t find out about her and make a connection to your father? Fuck your father!” Jonathan leaned forward. “This is bull! I just broke my child’s spirit, and you want to play mind games! Trust me, I got the message from Pierre.”
Jonathan felt like his wife was looking at him as though he were a new species. As if they weren’t cut from the same cloth, as if she didn’t like money just as much—if not more—than he did. He had to give her credit. When she wanted to play the sympathy card, she was damn good at it.
“Elise, I got rid of her, didn’t I? That’s all that matters. She won’t be in the tabloids for dating Liam or for being my child!” Jonathan spoke through gritted teeth. Rising from his seat, he picked up the crumpled proposals and tossed them into the wastebasket. “They should be grateful. My proposal was enough money for them to live a job-free lifestyle for the rest of their lives. And the one Pierre graciously offered had super lotto digits.” Now you can stop playing your little game.
~~~
Elise stormed out of the office. She didn’t give a shit about the little girl. When they’d cornered the two lovebirds in Los Angeles, she almost caved for her son’s sake. Everything was done for the betterment of her child. The sooner Jonathan understood, the safer his cherished lifestyle would be. And he probably would understand the need to keep Raven and Liam apart, if she was able to tell him Liam wasn’t his son.
There’d be a village of gorgeous little Jonathans running around if her husband wasn’t sterile. Dumb as he was, Jonathan didn’t know. Elise had him checked during one of his annual physicals a year after she had Liam. Though she enjoyed their open relationship, she’d be damned if the asshole brought her an STD, and she’d be further damned if he had any bastards running around. Jonathan, on the other hand, probably counted on luck each time his dick fell into another big breasted secretary.
Somewhere along the line, in Elise’s ruse to keep her son’s parentage a secret, she’d fallen for Jonathan. Not the man himself. All men were dispensable. Yet the sex, the magnificent sex he provided kept him under a gilded lock and key. Where he’d stay until he was unable to perform the deed, or she found another with his skill set in the cock department.
Being pretentious came with the territory. Her plan worked. Pierre had told her to test Jonathan. Oh, she’d wanted to vomit when he gave her that assignment. “See if Jonathan will give in and want a relationship with Raven. Gauge his reaction.” That’s what Papa said. In her entire life, Elise never assumed her father might play her as a pawn in her own little game. He willingly came up with a course of action, and unbeknownst to him, saved her from the heartache of Zane Anderson.
At Pierre’s request, Elise played the dirty little game. Then she did it. Let the words come out of her mouth. Said things she’d heard people say, tried to look like those pathetic women in dramatic movies. Watching Jonathan was actually entertaining, while making sure Pierre’s threats penetrated. Pursing her lips, she thought about how pathetic her husband was. He cared for Raven, but not more than he cared for money. And that’s what she’d banked on. She would’ve bet a billion, maybe two, of her Papa’s hard-earned money that Jonathan would sit in that room and sulk for thirty minutes, tops. Then he’d find a whore to bang out his frustrations. And because Elise knew Jonathan’s fat cock shot only blanks from the beginning, she never had a worry in her mind about her husband’s infidelity coming back to bite her in the rear.
Elise’s manicured hand touched the cold knob of the front door as her lips curled into a smile. Tucking away that smile, her face was met by warm sunlight. She’d have to go on pretending–not really. It was easy to go back to being cold as ice, but she rather liked toying with her victim. All those maids she’d been nice to as a child hadn’t just gotten her wrath. They’d had to watch Elise “sympathize” with them, right before she finished them off. Right now she was going to finish off Raven…
Elise called to Raven as the teen was about to get into that tired old truck. Looking at the ground, Elise held out a small white envelope. The girl looked at it like it was a foreign object. “It’s from Liam.”
“Thank you.”
Elise watched as Raven got into the truck, and it turned down the driveway. A grin brightened her face, once again.
It had been easy to get rid of Charlene. Even when the kid had pulled the “I’m pregnant” card, all Elise had to do was flash an extravagant engagement ring–a ring that her father had to buy, because neither Jonathan nor his family had enough money. Raven had been more difficult to get rid of. No doubt Liam loved Raven more than Jonathan had ever loved Charlene. Elise knew he was better without Raven, no matter how much his heart was broken. He’d get over it, too. Nowhere nearly as quick as Jonathan. But, the letter had to be the finishing factor.
She sighed, thinking about her son. In her years of life, not a single apology crossed her lips, nor had she thought to. I’m sorry, my beautiful Liam, for breaking your heart.
CHAPTER 28
Raven stared at the envelope on her dresser. Two weeks ago, Elise had handed it to her. The words were on the tip of her tongue to ask the Ice Queen about Liam, but she was too embarrassed to say a single word.
Hesitancy took over, a desperate need to speak with him before opening the envelope. Liam’s voicemail was full from many variations of call me back. Even a trip to his dorm room gave no answers. The rooms were being readied for new students. She’d gone to his home, too. A few nights, she’d climbed his bedroom balcony and peeped inside—nothing. A walk through the meadow they shared, a hike to their special place, nothing. He was nowhere.
Then Raven searched for him at his graduation. He had to go to that, right? The uppity attendants wouldn’t let her into Brinton Stadium without a graduation ticket. With a frown plastered across her face, tapping her foot, she waited in the parking lot. A swarm came out of the front gate. Trying to sift through thousands of celebratory guests had been useless.
Every day it was becoming harder and harder to pass the letter on the dre
sser. The letter made the hairs on her arms stand to attention as she snatched it up. Working her index finger under the seal, she tore it open. Closing her eyes, Raven said a quick prayer–for Liam and for their child–and pulled out a piece of paper. Unfolding it, a smaller strip floated to the floor, settled next to her toe.
Dear Raven,
I will always love you, but what we were considering doing is wrong.
I have included a check which should be more than enough for you to terminate this sick problem.
With love,
Liam
Crumpling to her knees, she touched the check. Tears blurred her eyes, but she read a check made out for fifty thousand dollars with Jonathan Lemaître Junior’s signature. Lying on the wood floor, knees to her chest, she hugged herself and wept.
Death could take her right now. If only her heart would stop beating. Suicide–unfortunately–was an unforgivable sin. Sleep was her only escape.
Life was perfect. They were at the beach; it would be their last trip of tranquility before seeking out Charlene. The stars twinkled, sending splashes of glitter over the ocean. Tides pulled back and came almost to their feet, but dared not touch.
“Thanks, babe, you can stop singing like a wet cat,” Raven joked as Liam finished the Happy Birthday song.
“That’s how you’re gonna treat me?”
Grinning in answer, she broke a piece off the edge of the cupcake and popped it into her mouth. The spongy vanilla taste was moist, delicious.
“Hey, what’s with the chocolate icing?” Raven’s eyes narrowed in fake anger. If there was one thing she knew he remembered, it was that chocolate was his favorite. Tangy sweets were hers. She giggled, taking a piece off the top and putting it into his mouth. “Underneath all those muscles you’re still a lil’ fat ass.”
“Well, then I guess I’ll just eat it all by myself. We were supposed to share it, but…” Liam took the cupcake, opened his mouth wide, and then he stopped. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. There was something special on the inside that you’re going to miss…”