“Girl, quit that crying,” Les commanded. “If he’s not out of the hospital, you’ll just bring that preacher up in here and we’ll have a big old party in one of the waiting areas.”
Tawanda laughed at that, but the look on her face became serious as she turned back to Linda. “A lot of these people think I got pregnant on purpose. Just so I could trap me a pro-baller. But I love Terrell and I would marry him today if he would stay woke long enough to say I do.”
“They have him heavily sedated right now?” Linda asked.
“Yeah. I’ve asked his mom to take that morphine pump away from Terrell and just let the nurse medicate him every few hours, but she won’t listen to me.” Tawanda shook her head as she added, “I just don’t want my man addicted to nothing but me… you feel me?”
That touched Linda because she, herself, was addicted to more than just her husband. “Yeah, I feel you.”
The ICU doors opened and Linda watched a woman practically being carried out of the ICU, tears running down her face and she leaned on the arm of the man she was with. Les ran to the woman. Tawanda jumped up and ran over to her, as well.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” Tawanda demanded.
The man waved them off. “Chile, your mother-in-law is just overwrought with worry. Terrell is doing fine, just fine.”
“Then why is she crying, Dad?” Les asked.
“She’s just upset about what the doctors had to say about Terrell’s rehab.”
“What are they saying?” Tawanda asked while holding her stomach.
Terrell’s mother spoke now. “The hospital rehabilitation program isn’t going to work for Terrell. He needs a sports rehab program and our insurance won’t cover it.” With those words, her jaw clenched and she did a backwards kick, banging her foot against the wall behind her.
“Now calm down, Melinda. God will make a way for our boy. We’ll get that rehabilitation specialist the doctor told us about.”
“How Fred? You got a quarter of a million dollars, ‘cause I sure don’t.”
“God will make a way,” Fred said again, with conviction.
“Mrs. Morrison, the mayor’s wife is here, Mama,” Les said. “Maybe she can help… get a telethon or something going for Terrell.”
Melinda’s eyes lit up as she searched the room. Linda stood. “Hello, Mrs. Anderson. I’m very sorry. I know this must be devastating for your family.”
“That no good gardener of yours hasn’t even had the decency to show his face at this hospital. The police cleared him of the accident, but I never will. He has destroyed my son’s future.” Venom was in every word that Melinda spoke.
Condemnation weighed heavily on Linda as she came face to face with this woman’s pain. “Again, I am sorry for everything your family is going through. I’d like to help if I can.”
“You want to help us, then you get my boy to that rehabilitation clinic that can save his career. And you do it now,” Melinda demanded.
***
“I’m not going to sugarcoat this for you, Mr. Mayor. Your family is going to be a problem for you in this election,” Darien Jones, Eric’s campaign manager told him flatly.
Eric leaned back in his seat. They’d had this conversation too many times. What did Darien want him to do, change families? “Look Darien, I know my family can be a bit out of control at times, but they mean well.”
“A bit out of control?” Darien guffawed at the understatement. “I would love to put Dee Dee and Shawn out there on the campaign trail for you. Come on, a movie star and a football hero are a dream come true for a campaign. But Dee Dee is on marriage number four, and Shawn just got hit with another paternity suit.”
That got Eric’s attention. He sat up. “He what? There’s no way.”
“Believe it, man. And this one is some video vixen/porn star. Honestly, if you and I didn’t go way back, I wouldn’t believe that you, Shawn and Isaiah were distant cousins let alone blood brothers.”
“Hey, now what’s Isaiah got to do with this?”
Darien lifted his arms and then let them flop back down. “Isaiah might not be involved in a bunch of messy situations like your other two wonderful siblings, but he could end up hurting your chances of being governor anyway.”
“How so?”
“Those messages he preaches. He’s all fire and brimstone… serve Jesus or go to hell. And I got to tell you, Eric, the general public just doesn’t feel that kind of stuff anymore.”
“Just because people don’t want to hear it, doesn’t change the truth of the gospel… at least that’s what Isaiah and my dad have always told me.” Eric still wasn’t too sure what he believed. But he wasn’t about to call his father or brother a liar.
“Yeah, but Eric, the problem is that you’ve attended his church.”
“On occasion.” Eric shrugged his shoulders. “I still don’t see the problem.”
“Let me just say, ‘Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright’.”
“My brother isn’t preaching black power, he’s preaching about the love of God and the need for salvation.”
“It’s still a controversial message. All I’m asking you to do is stay away from his church until after the election.”
“Isaiah is getting married tomorrow. Is it all right if I attend my brother’s wedding? I am the best man, you know.”
“Of course you can attend the wedding. It’s going to be at your father’s ranch, so you’ll be far away from Isaiah’s church.”
Eric clasped his hands together. “Anything else, Mr. Campaign Manager?”
Darien sat down in the seat next to Eric’s desk. They’d been best friends since college, so Darien knew what Eric’s kryptonite was and he was about to lay it on the line. He put his elbows on the desk and looked straight into his friend’s eyes. “You’ve got to do something about Linda’s drinking.”
Eric was the first to break eye contact. His and Linda’s problems were private and he didn’t discuss them with family or friends. He’d tried to hide her drinking from everyone, mostly because he felt as if he’d made a huge mistake by marrying her. Eric had planned his life out from start to finish. He knew he wanted to be in politics from the time he could tie his shoes. He’d also known that he would need a strong woman by his side. His family, as messed up as they were, couldn’t hurt him as much as Linda could. She was the weak link and as he turned back to his friend, he admitted something that he’d been thinking about for quite some time. “I’ve been wondering what my chances of getting elected would be if I divorced Linda?”
Chapter 5
The wedding was spectacular. Ramona had done everything right, from the multi-colored flowers that were strewn all over the house and the garden area where the wedding took place, to the harp and the pianist.
Everything was beautiful, but Linda couldn’t enjoy any of it. The night before she, Eric and Kivonna left for Joel’s ranch, Linda tried to talk to Eric. After putting Kivonna to bed, Eric came into their bedroom and Linda told him that she had been to the hospital to see about Terrell Anderson.
Eric exploded. “How dare you go behind my back and do something that destructive!”
“How is visiting a sick person destructive, Eric? You used to beg me to do hospital visits.”
“This is different,” he said as he sat down on the bed and began taking his shoes off.
“How is it different, Eric? Are you afraid that Terrell will realize that I am the person who ran into his car and that Michael had nothing to do with it?”
The shoe fell from his hand as Eric turned to face his wife. “I thought you had no memory of that night.”
“I still don’t remember the actual accident. But I have visions of being pulled out of my car. I think Michael’s son must have pulled me out of the car, because I remember seeing that scorpion tattoo that he has on his hand.”
When Eric didn’t say anything, she continued on. “The only thing I can come up with is that Michael noticed I, uh, wasn’t myself , and h
e and his son must have followed me when I left the house. When he saw the accident, he had his son bring me back home and he decided to take the blame for what I did. Am I right?”
His shoulders slumped as he nodded.
“Why did you lie to me, Eric?”
He jumped up from the bed and glared at her in a manner that shook her to the core of her being. Then he screamed at her, “Because I was scared, all right? What you did could very well ruin me. But do you care?”
“Of course I care. How can you even doubt it?”
He gave her a look that said he doubted everything about her.
“Okay, I don’t want to argue with you. I just want us to help Terrell Anderson.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I want to pay for his rehabilitation.”
“Are you crazy?” Eric shouted.
Kivonna burst into the bedroom. “Daddy, Mommy… what’s wrong?”
Linda’s muscles were sore from the activities of the day, so she couldn’t get up, but she held out her arms to Kivonna.
Kivonna ignored her and ran to Eric. “What happened, Daddy? Why are you so angry?”
“Daddy’s not angry, hon. Now go on back to bed and let me talk to your mom.” He patted her on her back, calming her down.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Kivonna asked her dad.
“Yes, pumpkin.” He kissed her forehead and then turned her around. “Go on back to bed.”
Kivonna walked out of the room, but not before she gave Linda a you-always-doing-something-wrong glare. That simple act brought a tear to Linda’s eyes. She wiped it away and turned back to her husband. She didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself; Terrell Anderson needed her to do the right thing, so that he could provide for his family. “I think that paying for Terrell’s rehabilitation is the least we can do. After all, if I hadn’t hit him, he would be cashing in on a fifteen million dollar contract, rather than worrying that he won’t see a dime of that money.”
Keeping his voice low, Eric tried to reason with his wife. “Don’t you see… if we do anything for Terrell, some reporter or some other nosey body might start to figure out that Michael wasn’t the one who hit Terrell. Then, they’ll figure out that the reason Michael covered for you is because you’re a drunk.”
His words were like a slap to her face, but again, Linda didn’t have time for the feel-sorry-blues she normally succumbed to. “I can’t just stand by and watch his dreams go down in flames.”
“Why not? Every day you choose that bottle over your family you destroy my dreams, so why can’t you destroy Terrell Anderson’s as well?”
The verbal blows just kept coming, but Linda was going to bob and weave until she got her point across. “It’s the right thing to do, Eric. If Terrell doesn’t receive the right kind of rehabilitation he may never be able to play football again. I can’t live with that… can you?”
He walked toward her, his lip curled in disgust, as if he’d eaten some bad liver and then chased it down with sour milk. As he stood in front of her he said, “What I can’t live with anymore is you.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I mean it, Linda.” His index finger and thumb were less than an inch apart as he told her, “I’m this close to calling a divorce attorney and putting an end to my misery.” He grabbed his pillows off the bed as he said, “I’m sleeping in the guest room from now on.”
And now they were at a beautiful wedding, with Eric standing next to his brother looking just as handsome as he had on their wedding day. But the light had gone out of his eyes… as if he didn’t believe in love, joy or happiness anymore. Am I to blame for this? Did I suck all the joy and happiness out of him?
“Hey, this is a wedding, you’re supposed to at least pretend like you believe the bride and groom are headed for their happily ever after,” Dee Dee whispered to Linda.
Linda turned to her sister-in-law, a woman who had never shown her a minute’s worth of kindness. She wanted to tell Dee Dee to mind her own business, but when she opened her mouth, her words got tripped up on her tears.
“I know that look, honey. I’ve been there three times before.” She grabbed Linda’s hand and pulled her from her seat. “Come with me.”
Linda pulled back. “B-but we can’t get up in the middle of the wedding.”
“All that’s left is for them to say, ‘I do.’ They’ll never miss us.”
Linda and Dee Dee went back into the house and found a secluded spot to talk. Dee Dee hugged Linda as she said, “I hate to see you in pain like this. Is there anything I can do to help?”
It appeared to Linda that Dee Dee actually cared about the things that concerned her. This was the first time in the ten years she and Eric had been married, that Linda ever felt as if Dee Dee cared about anybody but herself. Touched by her sister-in-law’s concern, Linda opened up and told her everything that was going on.
“Wow,” was all Dee Dee could say when Linda finished.
“Tell me about it. And all I asked was that we pay for Terrell’s rehabilitation, and your brother threatened to divorce me.”
“He doesn’t mean it, Linda. Eric is one of the straightest arrows I know; so he’s probably feeling bad about lying in the first place.”
“I was surprised that Eric lied to me about the accident, also. As long as I’ve known him, I’ve never had a reason to doubt anything he told me.” She closed her eyes for a moment and then said, “I think it’s the lying that has caused him to hate me.”
Dee Dee waved that suggestion away. “He doesn’t hate you. I still remember how much Eric loved you when you two first married . The boy was so giddy, running around here like he had a high school crush or something. I knew he had fallen in love even before I saw the two of you together. But the day he brought you home confirmed everything. It was in his eyes, as he followed you from room to room. That kind of love doesn’t just go away.”
“I hope you’re right, because even after all we’ve been through, I still love that man. But that doesn’t change the fact that I need to help Terrell.”
***
During the reception, Dee Dee grabbed Linda’s arm and whispered in her ear, “I figured out a way to get Terrell Anderson the rehab he needs without involving Eric.”
“Really, how?”
“We’re going to ask Daddy for the money.”
Linda held back. She had done so much damage to her reputation that she couldn’t bear to see disappointment in the eyes of one more member of the Morrison family. “I can’t tell him what I did. He’ll hate me for destroying his son’s dreams.” Wasn’t that what Eric had told her… she’d destroyed his dreams.
“If my father could love me after all the things I put him through, there is no way he’ll turn his back on you in your time of need.”
“I don’t know.”
“You want to help Terrell Anderson, don’t you?”
Linda nodded. She had thought of nothing but her own heartache for far too long. Time out for selfishness. The Anderson family needed her to be strong. “Okay, let’s go talk to him.”
Dee Dee tapped her father on the shoulder. When he turned to face her, she said, “Linda and I need a minute of your time.”
“Sure sweetie, what’s up?”
They were in the ballroom of Joel’s spacious mansion, surrounded by the wedding attendees. People were eating, dancing and having a good time. “Not here, Dad. We need to go some place private.”
“All right,” Joel said, as he walked out of the ballroom with his two daughters. They walked down the hall and Joel opened the door to his prayer room. “Come in here,” he told them.
They walked in and Joel directed them to the bench he normally sat on while he prayed to his God. He pulled up a chair and sat across from them, saying nothing, just waiting.
“The thing is,” Linda began…
And on and on the conversation went until Linda, with Dee Dee’s help had confessed all her sins. Shame filled he
r heart with each exposed transgression; tears filled her eyes and rolled down her face. But Linda noticed that Joel held no condemnation for her in his eyes, she relaxed a bit and laid it all on the line. “I need your help,” she finally said.
He put his hand over hers and said, “How can I help you, daughter?”
With those words, Linda cried some more. That Joel could still think of her as his daughter after all she had done to his son was like music to her ears. “Eric is worried that if we pay for Terrell’s rehabilitation, somehow people will know that I am the one that hit his car. So, I need you to make an anonymous donation to the rehab facility that Terrell needs to go to. If you can do that for me, I’ll get a job and pay you back every penny, I swear.”
Joel waved a hand in the air, dismissing the thought. “I’ll take care of the rehab. You don’t need to worry about paying back a thing. But I do want you to do something for me.”
“Anything, just name it,” Linda said.
“Let me pray for you.”
With a dumbfounded look on her face, Linda said, “I’m asking for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and all you want from me is that I allow you to pray for me?”
Dee Dee put her hand on Linda’s arm and said, “It’s a pretty good offer. Dad prayed for me the last time Drake and I visited and I have not been the same.”
Linda turned back to Joel and said, “Yes, please pray for me.”
The three of them held hands and Joel began, “Heavenly Father, I come boldly to Your throne of grace tonight, lifting You up and giving You all the glory… for You and You only are worthy of all my praise. But tonight, Father, I need to let You know that my daughter’s heart is heavy with guilt and shame for the things she has done. But, You heavenly Father, have the power to lift her head and give her a reason to smile. Release her from the hold alcohol has over her and restore her family. Save every member of her household and allow them to serve You as never before…”
Joel prayed like that for another thirty minutes. When he was done and Linda and Dee Dee had a chance to wipe their weeping eyes, Linda told her father-in-law, “I do want to stop drinking. I just don’t know how. Every time I go a day without a drink I get the shakes.”
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