Chapter 46
Veronica stood on her mother’s porch feeling like a returning prodigal. Since she was pretty sure no fatted calf would be rolled out to celebrate her return, she had stopped by the bakery and picked up a cherry cheesecake. Food worked for women as well as men, or so she hoped. She rang the bell. And waited.
She was surprised when Roxanne, not her mother, opened the door. Roxanne blinked twice, as if unsure who she was. “Veronica?”
“Please, girl, you know it’s me. Let me in before this cheesecake melts.”
Roxanne propped one hand on a hip. “It had better be cherry.”
Veronica smiled. Things were going to be all right. “I wouldn’t have the nerve to bring any other kind.”
Roxanne gave her a broad, welcoming smile. “Come on in, sistergirl. That cheesecake is calling my name.”
“Where’s Momma?” Veronica asked as she followed Roxanne into the kitchen.
“Mr. Tommy took her to lunch.”
“Mr. Tommy?”
Roxanne looked back at her over her shoulder. “You didn’t know? I guess you’d left by the time she told us. Anyway, Momma and Mr. Tommy are an item. They’ve been seeing each other for a while, but they’ve only recently make it public.”
“I had no idea.”
“We didn’t either, but it’s all good. He cares about her, and she cares about him. She’s happy, so I’m happy for her.”
“I am too,” Veronica said. “Daddy’s been gone for a while. Momma needs somebody in her life.”
Roxanne pulled down two dessert plates from the cabinet and took two forks and a knife from the silverware drawer.
Veronica put the cheesecake box on the table and opened it. She took the knife Roxanne handed to her and cut two pieces, putting each one on a dessert plate.
“That looks delicious,” Roxanne said, taking one of the dessert plates. She quickly stabbed her fork into her slice and chunked a piece into her mouth. “It is delicious,” she said, after the first bite. “Good choice, sis.”
“It’s a peace offering,” Veronica said, in all seriousness.
“I know,” Roxanne said, “but it wasn’t necessary.”
“Yes, it was. I left under bad terms.”
Roxanne shrugged. “You did what you had to do. We all make choices.”
“That’s not what you said when I left.”
“Well, let’s just say I’ve grown up a lot since then. It’s been a short time, but a lot has changed.”
“I’ve had my share of growing pains too,” Veronica said.
“So life in Atlanta hasn’t been perfect?”
Veronica shook her head. “Hardly. In some ways, it’s been all we’d dreamed it would be. The first week I was there, all I wanted was for you and Alisha to be there sharing the experience with me. I thought about you all the time. I still do. I miss you both and Momma too.”
“You sound surprised that you miss us.”
“I guess I was,” Veronica said. “It’s not like I’m alone. I have Dexter, and Legends keeps me busy 24/7. But even with all of that, I’ve missed you all more than you can know. It’s true about success being sweeter when it’s shared with the ones you love and who love you. That’s the downside to Legends. There’s not a lot of love going around. Mostly just orders.”
“How does that old song go—you have to pay the price to be the boss? Are you saying the cost is too high?”
Veronica shrugged. “I really don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to find out. Like I said, I enjoy some parts of it, but other parts I could do without.”
“Isn’t that true for everything in life? You have to take the good with the bad. Nothing is ever going to be 100 percent perfect. Not in this life, anyway. You just have to figure out if you can live with the imperfection.”
“When did you get so smart?”
“I’ve had my ups and downs too.”
Veronica nodded. “Alisha told me about your job.”
“Alisha? When did you talk to her?”
“She called me a couple of days ago. She told me bits and pieces of what’s been going on in the family and let me know I needed to come home.”
“Well, well. I wonder why she called you. Neither Momma nor I have heard from her since she left.”
“Why did she leave, Roxanne? She mentioned some disagreement between her and Momma, but she wasn’t very clear. She merely said Momma would have to explain.”
Roxanne nodded. “She’s right. It’s best if Momma tells you. She should be home soon.”
Veronica fought back the anxiety brought on by the unknown before it overtook her. “I’ve waited this long. I guess a couple more hours won’t hurt. So what about you? What happened with Dreamland?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Yes, I do,” Veronica said. “I know how much that job meant to you. It’s understandable that you’d be a bit depressed about losing it, especially right on the heels of losing out on Sing for America and then losing the Magic City deal because of me. I’m sorry, Roxanne. I really am. I never meant for anybody to get hurt.”
“I was hurt,” Roxanne said, “but I was also jealous. To be honest, I probably would have made the same choice you made if I’d been offered a Legends contract. But I wasn’t, and that stung. I’m the oldest sister, and I’ve always seen myself as the leader. When Legends offered you that contract, I felt as though you were taking what was mine.”
Veronica hated that she was the cause of her sister’s pain. “I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. That’s my issue. I have good things in my life now to balance out the losses.”
Veronica grinned. “Sounds like you’re talking about a man.”
“Better than that,” Roxanne said. She stared closely at her sister, as if debating how much to tell her. “I’m pregnant.”
Veronica’s eyes widened. “Pregnant? Well, Alisha didn’t tell me that.”
“She couldn’t tell you because she doesn’t know. Neither does Momma. You’re the first person I’ve told.”
Veronica sat back in her chair. “Why haven’t you told them?”
Roxanne sighed. “Other than the obvious reason that I am not married?”
Veronica smiled. “There is that, but you aren’t the first Christian woman to jump the gun before jumping the broom. Who is the lucky guy, by the way?”
Roxanne looked away. “You don’t know him. He’s a guy from the ship.”
Veronica hadn’t missed the pain in her sister’s eyes. “Do you love him? Are you going to get married? Is he happy about the baby?”
Roxanne laughed at the barrage of questions. “No, no, and he doesn’t know.”
“Why haven’t you told him?”
“We broke up.”
“Wow. Your decision or his?”
Roxanne met her sister’s eyes. “His wife’s.”
Veronica swallowed. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh. Momma and Alisha didn’t respond too well to the wife part, so I thought I’d best hold off on telling them the pregnancy part. It’s going to break Momma’s heart and send Alisha into even more of a tailspin than she’s in already.”
“You don’t know that,” Veronica said. “You told me, and I’m handling it well.”
Roxanne smiled. “But you came home looking for forgiveness yourself. Given your situation, I figured you’d be compassionate about mine.”
Veronica reached for her sister’s hand. “I’m glad you felt comfortable telling me, but you’re going to have to tell Momma and Alisha.”
“I know,” Roxanne said, “and I will. I just need to find the right time.”
“And the father? Are you going to tell him?”
Roxanne met her sister’s eyes. “I don’t think I have much of a choice. He deserves to know.”
“How do you think he’ll respond?”
Roxanne sighed. “I have no idea. He ended our relationship pretty easily wh
en his wife found out, and he didn’t stand up for me with the cruise line at all. Did I mention that his wife’s family owns the cruise line?”
Veronica chuckled. “When you step in it, you really step in it, don’t you?”
“It seems that way, doesn’t it?” Roxanne said, smiling. “This has been some welcome home for you, hasn’t it?”
Veronica reached for her hand again. “It’s all good. I guess it’s true what they say—every family has its drama.”
Roxanne grunted. “You don’t know the half of it.”
Chapter 47
Delilah returned home with her spirits a bit uplifted, but as she strode to her bedroom the feeling of despair she’d felt since Alisha had left the house swept over her. She wished her daughter would call or make some kind of contact. When she opened her bedroom door and flicked on the light, she took a step back at the sight of a body in her bed. “Roxanne?” she called, rushing toward the bed. “What’s wrong?”
Delilah stopped short when she realized that Veronica, not Roxanne, was in her bed.
“Veronica?”
Her daughter wiped sleep from her eyes. “It’s me, Momma,” she said.
“What are you doing here?” Delilah asked, sitting next to her.
Veronica gave a wobbly smile. “I missed you,” she said. Then she fell into her mother’s embrace. “I’m so sorry, Momma.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Delilah said, rubbing her daughter’s back. “You’re here, that’s all that matters.”
Veronica pulled back. “No, I need to apologize,” she said. “I was wrong to leave Birmingham the way I did, without saying good-bye to you, Roxanne, and Alisha. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Delilah was glad to hear those words. “It did sting a bit when we found out about your going-away party.”
Veronica looked away. “I’m sorry about that too,” she said. “It wasn’t my doing.”
Delilah lifted a brow. “Dexter?”
Veronica nodded as she turned back to her mother. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, Momma. Things have been different since the night Delilah’s Daughters lost the contest and we learned about the Legends offer. Can you believe he actually told me that he’d invited you to the celebration but you turned him down?”
Delilah could believe it, but she knew saying so would give neither her nor Veronica any satisfaction. “He was doing what he thought was right,” she said. “Unfortunately, sometimes good intentions have disastrous results.”
“It’s a disaster, all right, a disaster for our marriage. Dexter is more concerned about the career of Veronica Y than he is about his wife. I don’t like it.”
Delilah patted her hand. “I understand where you’re coming from,” she said, “but don’t be too hard on Dexter. We all make mistakes. Big ones.”
It was Veronica’s turn to lift a brow. “Is this really you, Momma, taking up for Dexter?”
Thinking about her own mistakes, Delilah said, “Maybe I’ve been too hard on him. He’s your husband, and all he’s wanted is your time and attention. If I had embraced him more, maybe he wouldn’t have felt threatened by our relationship.”
“That’s no excuse for what he’s done,” Veronica said. “Did you know he deleted voice-mail messages from you and Alisha? I never got your messages, Momma,” she said. “I would have called you back. I did call Alisha.”
Delilah’s heart raced. “When did you speak to Alisha?”
“Day before yesterday,” Veronica said. “I got her second message. That’s how I found out what Dexter was doing. After I had it out with him, I called her.”
“How is she?”
Veronica cocked her head to the side. “I’m not sure, Momma,” she said. “Something tells me you have a better idea than I do. Alisha was very mysterious on the phone. All I could really get out of her was that I needed to come home.”
Delilah squeezed her daughter’s hand. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“And I’m glad to be here, but I need to know what’s going on with you and Alisha.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t tell you herself,” Delilah said.
“Believe me, I tried to pry it out of her, but she wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t get Roxanne to tell me either.”
“You’ve seen Roxanne?”
Veronica nodded. “She was here when I got here. I think I won her over with cherry cheesecake.”
Delilah smiled. “You came home in full surrender mode, didn’t you?”
Veronica pulled her mom into a second embrace. “I’m lost without you all, Momma. I have no idea what I was thinking. Maybe you were right all along. Maybe the Legends deal wasn’t right for me, for us.”
It was Delilah’s turn to shake her head. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “A lot has happened since that decision was made that has me reconsidering my position.”
“I can’t believe us, Momma. Are we ever going to get on the same page about this Legends deal?”
Delilah chuckled. “You have a point,” she said. “Recently, I’ve been forced to take a hard look at what motivates me, and I haven’t liked everything I’ve discovered.”
“Are you talking about me and Legends, or you and Alisha?”
“Both,” she said.
“You’re stalling, Momma,” Veronica said. “You still haven’t told me what happened with you and Alisha.”
Delilah looked down at her hands. “It’s a difficult story to tell,” she said.
“Now you’re scaring me,” Veronica said. “Tell me before I have a heart attack or something.”
Delilah took a deep breath. “I had to give Alisha some news that your father and I had hoped she’d never have to know.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I had to tell her that Rocky was not her biological father.”
Veronica’s eyes widened. “What? What do you mean Dad wasn’t her biological father? Are you saying Alisha was adopted? That can’t be.”
Delilah began shaking her head. She held tighter to Veronica’s hands. “Alisha’s not adopted,” she said. “I’m her biological mother, but Rocky wasn’t her biological father.”
Veronica’s mouth dropped open. Then she closed it. Then she opened it again. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“That another man is Alisha’s father. That I had an affair and Alisha was the result.”
Veronica pulled her hands out of her mother’s. “This can’t be true,” she said. “You and Daddy had the perfect marriage.”
“There’s no such thing as a perfect marriage, Veronica.”
“I still can’t believe it. How could you do this to Daddy, to us? How could you?”
“I was young and foolish,” Delilah said. “And that’s not an excuse.”
“Daddy is not Alisha’s father,” Veronica repeated. “No wonder she left.”
“You’re wrong about one thing, Veronica,” Delilah said. “Rocky was and is Alisha’s father, in all the ways that matter.”
Veronica shook her head. “It’s not that simple, Momma,” she said. “I’ll bet Alisha was devastated. Why did you even tell her? It was so long ago. She never needed to know. None of us did. This is one time when lying might have been the best option.”
Delilah hated that her past actions had led her daughter to this type of warped thinking. “Her biological father is dying, and he wanted to meet her before he dies.”
“Whew,” Veronica said.
“That’s about how I felt.”
“What about Alisha? Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Delilah said. “You’re the only one she’s spoken to. Roxanne and I haven’t heard from her.”
“She must be feeling all alone, if I’m the one she turned to.”
“Have you tried calling her since you’ve been back?”
Veronica nodded. “She’s not answering her phone.”
“Maybe she needs some time to get her thoughts together.”
Veronica shook her head. “I migh
t have agreed with you at one time, Momma, but not now. Alisha needs her family, now more than ever. Pulling away from the ones you love, and the ones who love you, is never the right thing to do, no matter the situation.”
Delilah didn’t want to make Veronica’s declaration all about her, but she had to ask: “So you’re not angry with me?”
Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know how I feel. I’m torn up inside. There’s me and Legends. There’s Roxanne and her married lover. And now you, Alisha, and her biological father. It’s too much to process.”
“So Roxanne told you?”
“She did,” Veronica said. “She told me everything.”
“Like mother, like daughter,” Delilah said glumly.
“More than you know, Momma,” Veronica said.
Delilah lifted her eyes to meet those of her middle daughter. “What do you mean?”
Holding her gaze, Veronica said, “Roxanne’s pregnant.”
Chapter 48
Alisha awoke the next morning in Jeff’s bed, wearing his T-shirt. She’d made the right choice in coming to him. He was just what she needed. As if hearing her thoughts, he rapped on the bedroom door and said, “Time for breakfast.”
She glanced at his nightstand for the clock, which read seven o’clock. “It’s too early,” she called out. “Go back to bed.”
“No way,” he said. “You’d better cover yourself because I’m coming in.”
She giggled. “I’m covered,” she said. “Come on in.”
She sat up in bed when he entered the room with a tray table in his hands.
“What’s this?” she said as he walked toward her. “Breakfast in bed. Is this for me?”
He placed the tray table across her legs. “Not just for you, greedy. For me too.”
She reached for a piece of toast. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” she said, taking in the omelet, bacon, waffles, and juice that rounded out the breakfast fare.
“Easy for you to say,” he said, taking a strip of bacon from the tray. “Manly men like me need our sustenance.”
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