Just To Be Loved

by Lee, Vivian Rose

  “I knew that there was more to this so called obsession you had with her. You wanted her; all the time you wanted her!” She shrieked.

  “Heather if this is going to be an issue for you, then maybe we need to postpone the wedding,” Hunter said, rising to his feet.

  “No I don’t want to postpone the weddingy. I wish that bitch had stayed in jail,” she muttered.

  “Goodnight Heather, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Where are you going Hunter? I thought you might stay tonight,” she pouted.

  “I’m not in the mood Heather.”

  Heather growled low in her throat. “You are never in the mood anymore Hunter. If you think I will sit aside and let you play house with that bitch, you had better think again. I put a lot into this relationship and I am not about to be toss aside like yesterday’s trash.”

  Goodnight Heather,” he said before walking out the door.

  Few minutes later Hunter found himself parked outside his parent’s home. It was late and he knew that everyone was probably in bed now. Before everyone had left, the two bassinets that they purchased were set up in her bedroom, and the list of goods that his mother ordered for the nursery would be delivered tomorrow. He will have a few of his best construction workers come in and open up the wall between Mya’s room and his sons, and with his experienced staff in charge, the nursery would be completed in no time. He wanted to see his sons again and smiled, finding it funny how already he had a connection with them. He let his head fall against headrest. He still felt that magnetic pull towards Mya, and could not explain why. If they had to be parents, it was time for him to accept the attraction that he had always felt towards her. She had been through a lot and he did not want to add to her misery with his cynical attitude.

  He got out of the car, using his key to enter the house, and smiled when he heard his sons wailing upstairs. His heartbeat quickened as he went up the steps, and he tapped lightly on the door.

  “Come in Mrs. Trent,” Mya called. Hunter pushed the door open. She was nursing one of her son’s while the other lay squalling in the bassinet.

  “Can I help Mya?” He asked softly.

  Mya jumped at the sound of his voice. “I thought you were Mrs. Trent,” she answered.

  “No it just me. Can I help you with them?”

  “Yes, he needs changing. Can you change a diaper?” She asked.

  Hunter lifted his son and brought him to the bed. “No, can you talk me through it?

  Mya nodded. He put a diaper in his large hands and listening carefully as she took him through the steps of changing the baby. Mya chuckled softly when Hunter removed the diaper and the baby peed in his face, and he glanced over at her, his eyes alight with humor. She explained to him that that happens often. After the baby was changed, she handed him a bottle with expressed milk. As Hunter sat beside her and fed his son, neither he nor Mya knew that Sylvie and Henry stood in the door watching them. Sylvie looked up at her husband and smiled, and they left the couple alone.

  Mya glanced over at Hunter with his son and the love in his eyes brought tears to hers. He looked so happy. She watched as he caressed the little fist with the tip of his finger, and again when the baby held onto his finger as father and son gazed at each other. What kind of life could she have given these babies without their father? Not a good one, she knew. If it were not for the guilt of her family, she would be homeless, not like being homeless was new to her. But was it her fault that undeserved time in prison and her thoughts gradually hardened her heart?

  Hunter rose to lay his son down. He looked over at Mya who looked exhausted, and when he reached for the other baby, Mya arms instinctively tightened around him.

  “Mya, you were falling asleep,” he said gently.

  “Oh,” she said. She loosened her hold and watched as Hunter laid the baby in the other bassinet.

  Chapter 12

  Three days later, Mya took Henry and Benjamin to a doctor’s appointment, and Hunter and Sylvie went along with her. The babies were in excellent health and to celebrate Hunter took them all out to lunch. While they were at lunch, Sylvie went on and on about her beautiful grandsons to a couple of complete strangers, and Mya’s heart leapt, although she did not let it show, because Sylvie’s feelings were genuine and Mya could actually feel the love she felt. A while later Hunter’s Escalade pulled into the circular driveway, and bunches of blue balloons with blue and white streamers were blowing in the cool April wind. The twins were wrapped snugly and dressed so they could be told apart. Henry was in blue and Benjamin in yellow. Mya wondered curiously about the ornaments that fluttered in the wind, and as Sylvie helped her out of the car, Hunter grabbed the boy’s carriers and followed them into the house. Much to Mya’s surprise, the house was filled with family, and her three uncles along with their wives and adult sons stood there grinning at Hunter and Sylvia. There was an older couple sitting on the settee that she didn’t know, but they clearly resembled Hunter.

  She quietly stood aside as the family doted on her sons, and when she was certain that they had forgotten her for the time being, she went into the den. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep. With the pressures of prison and not sleeping well in there, standing on her feet all night while working the midnight shift, and taking care of the boys, she was physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted.

  Hunter stood beside his paternal grandparents and looked on proudly as they held the babies in their arms, and while everyone’s attention was drawn to the blessed sight, Ghani looked around the crowded room for Mya and realized that she was nowhere to be found. While everyone was fawning over the twins and arguing about who would be their godparents to the first grandchildren born to the Trent family neither she nor Sylvie took the time to make the new mother feel welcome. Tears filled her eyes. She was just as bad as the others. She went over to where Hunter stood with his grandparents.

  “Hunter,” she called out, looking up at him sadly.

  Hunter bent down to her. “Ghani what’s wrong?” He asked, taking her hand.

  “Where is Mya?”

  Hunter looked around the room and after seeing no Mya, he cursed softly. With all the excitement, it seems that she was forgotten again. He closed his eyes and raked his hand through his hair. When he opened them again, he saw a tear slipped from Ghani’s eyes and pulled her close.

  “Quiet everyone please,” he said aloud over the chatter.

  Ghani moved to the middle of the room with her eyes filled with tears.

  “Momma what’s wrong?” Henry asked.

  “Has anyone seen Mya?” She asked. Everyone shook his or her head no. “Exactly. Here we are so enthralled with these beautiful babies that we forgot the beautiful woman who has given birth to them. I am guilty as well. The only granddaughter, daughter, niece, cousin, and sister we have and we treat her as if she is not important to this family. Not one of us, myself included, made her feel welcome or wanted and she has had it hard all her life. She’s been searching for us her whole life long, and when she finally finds us what do we do? We turn our backs on her.”

  “But momma,” Jackson spoke up. “She put a hit on…”

  “No she didn’t and I never believed that,” she interrupted. “It was proven months ago that she was innocent of that. Someone falsely accused her, but instead of us trusting her we chose to believe the worst because of her background. I’m ashamed of this family and myself. All my granddaughter wanted is to be loved.”

  Hunter’s grandmother, a very beautiful full blood Cherokee with her husband Charles Mason, a Black Cherokee, looked down at the sleeping babies in their arms, and Ghani watched as Henry dropped his head. With the excitement of the babies, he too forgot his daughter, the young woman responsible for this joyous occasion.

  Henry rose and left the parlor in search of Mya. It was time for him to be the same father to his daughter that he was to his sons. He knew that if it had been any one of his sons accused of a crime that he didn’t commit, he wo
uld have stood by them until the end. It should have been no consequence that her mother was pure evil; he should have stood by her only because his blood flooded through her veins. His guilt was becoming unbearable. Ever since Mya was incarcerated, he hadn’t slept.

  He started up the stairs to her bedroom and knocked, but got no answer. He eased the door open and she was not there. Wondering if she had left the house altogether, he went back down the steps and saw that the door to the library was ajar. He pushed open the door and there she was lying on the sofa asleep. His beautiful mistreated daughter has been through so much, she must be exhausted. After locking the door, Henry sat in the Queen Anne chair across from her and watched as she slept. He recalled the fierce argument he had with his mother after she had learned of Mya’s situation and returned early from her travels abroad.

  Momma how can you defend her when she put a hit out on me?

  Because she didn’t do that! My granddaughter would not do that!

  Momma I went to the station. I saw the evidence. There were pictures of her talking to this man. Then I heard her make a joke about killing me, and the money she would get from me to pay for my own hit! What was I to think?

  Enough Henry! First of all, when have you ever heard my granddaughter joke about anything? She barely smiles! No one could fake the kind of heartache and hardship that that child has suffered. And when did she ever ask you for anything Henry, let alone a large sum of money? She was grateful just to go to school, and you almost had to twist her arm to get her to do that!

  Momma, I…

  Enough Henry! You need to get over yourself and be the father to her that you are to your sons!

  Yes ma’am.

  Henry shook his head to erase the thought of that day away. Thank God, the District Attorney absolved her of all charges before her case ever went to trial. He glanced at Mya and realized that Momma was right all along. Someone must have really wanted her out of the way to tamper with those pictures and tapes the way they did, but it didn’t matter. If it was the last thing he did, he would find the person or persons responsible for putting his daughter through hell, and they would pay.

  Mya gasped and sat up after having another nightmare. She pushed her hair from her face still in a temporary fog, and as soon as her mind caught up with reality, she jumped to her feet in a panic. Where were her babies? Startled, she turned around, ready to run for the door, and when she saw Henry, her eyes hardened. She hesitated for a second, and then turned away.

  “I will not let you take my babies,” she muttered.

  “Mya, please look at me,” he asked sadly.

  She turned to face him with her head raised regally.

  “We have no intention of taking our grandsons from their mother. I just want to talk to you. I have to make you understand what…”

  She raised her hand to stop his speech. “You don’t have to talk to me Mr. Trent. I understand fully how you felt, and as soon as I am able, I will go away. As I told Hunter before, I will not keep his son’s away from the family.” She turned to leave.

  “Mya please,” Henry said softly.

  “What Mr. Trent! What do you want? My forgiveness? What’s there to forgive? I’ve always been nothing to my mother, so what makes you any different? To tell the truth, it was just like old times.” She chuckled coldly. “What was so hard for me to overcome was that you said you loved me; you made me feel as though I were truly your daughter and a part of something special. I believed you and maybe you did love me and thought I was special, but you never trusted me. None of you ever trusted me, and I would have taken that over being loved and feeling special any day. Look, all I want right now is for my sons to be safe and happy… to have the advantages that I never had, but no matter how much your family wishes I would go away, I will not leave my babies.”

  She paused.

  “Prison has taught me a lot Mr. Trent. It taught me to trust only in myself, to depend only on myself, and to survive for myself, and just like in prison, I will fight for my life and my sons.”

  She chuckled cynically.

  “You know what Mr. Trent? I didn’t even know I could fight, but I did to maintain control of myself and not have somebody else controlling me. I did more time in solitary confinement than I could count, and it was the best sleep I ever had. In there I didn’t have to worry whether some butch woman was gonna try to rape me or attack me in the middle of the night, and it wasn’t until my pregnancy started to show that they stopped bothering me.” She paused for a moment as the pain of that memory still cut her deep. When she spoke again, there was a clear change in her demeanor.

  “Look Mr. Trent,” she said, suddenly sounding mentally drained. “Right now all I want to do is forget the past and move on.” Mya took a step towards the door.

  “You’re my daughter; I want to be a father to you, support…”

  Mya spun around and glared at him.

  “Father? I gave you a chance to be my father and I tried to be the best daughter I could be, and for a while there I thought I was loved, but I guess I was wrong.”

  She did that cynical chuckle again.

  “You know, Hunter thought I was a liar and actress, and even though he was wrong, it was what he believed. But you made me believe that you cared about me, and when they arrested me, my first thought was that my Daddy was gonna come in riding on his white horse and rescue me. Crazy right?”

  “Mya can’t we try again? I thought we…”

  “I did too,” she interrupted sadly.

  “What about school?”

  “No thank you,” she replied politely.

  Henry was becoming frustrated and angry with her stubborn attitude.

  “Mya Trent, you will listen to me! Now sit down!”

  Mya’s eyes widened, but she stubbornly stood right where she was.

  Henry stomped over to her, grabbed her arms, and forcibly, but gently sat her down.

  “I’m your father, and I made the worst mistake of my life by not believing in you,” he yelled.

  There was someone pounding on the door.

  “Go away!” Henry bellowed.

  “Dad, what’s going on?” Hunter yelled through the locked door.

  “Go away Son!” Henry turned his attention back to Mya who could hear voices gathering outside the door.

  “Even believing you were guilty, I still loved you Mya. I loved you from the moment that it was proven that you were my daughter!”

  Mya stared at the man yelling at her and came to her feet. “Don’t say that! Don’t say that!” She screamed, as tears welled up in her eyes. “If you loved me you would not have left me there to rot!”

  “I do love you Mya,” Henry said softly, closing the space between them.

  “No,” Mya shook her head vigorously. “I will never open myself up like that again!”

  “I love you daughter.”

  “Stop saying that!” She screamed.

  “I love you Baby girl,” Henry said as he stood in front of her.

  Mya had not cried since the night those prison bars closed on her. Now the tears in her eyes felt like burning acid and she tried to blink them away.

  “I love you baby,” Henry whispered as tears rolled down his face.

  Mya tried to push him away from her, but he didn’t budge.

  “I love you,” he repeated.

  Mya gave up and the tears flooded her face. She covered her face with her hand and sobbed as Henry’s arms closed around her trembling body, wanting to absorb the turmoil within her.

  Mya stiffened. “Oh God,” she moaned before her arms went around his waist. She pressed her face in to his chest and cried deep soul cleansing tears.

  Henry heard the door open and waved his hand for whoever it was to go away as Hunter, along with his mother and grandmother, stood by quietly and watched father and daughter reconcile. Feeling the tears stinging at his eyes, Hunter turned away while Ghani and Sylvie smiled and closed the door.

  Hunter didn’t immedi
ately go into the parlor to be with his sons, but went instead into the formal living room to pour himself a drink. Would Mya forgive him as she had so obviously forgiven his father? He swallowed the drink in one gulp, and then turned to go back into the parlor with his family. This time it was his paternal grandparents doting on his boys. He smiled and shook his head, knowing that before it was all said and done, he would be having a ceremony at the reservation.

  While everyone talked at once and didn’t know that they had a new arrival, Ghani was the first to see Heather saunter into the room. She went directly to Hunter and slipped her hand around his arm, as he looked down surprised to see her.

  “What are you doing here?” He asked unintentionally harsh.

  Heather eyes widened and then narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me the family was gathering together? I could have come and help arrange things,” she hissed.

  “Heather this is just family welcoming my two sons home,” he commented.

  She sucked her teeth.

  “Already Mya is coming between us,” she hissed.

  “Heather, now is not the time. Either come in and greet the family or leave,” he growled.

  “Fine, I’m staying,” she muttered.

  Hunter led her over to greet his Cherokee grandparents. He remembered that her first meeting with them was not good. When they spoke to Heather about having a second Native American ceremony, she refused and laughed in their faces, stating that she was not wearing some silly costume. To say his grandparents were highly insulted was an understatement.

  She will never be welcome into this family, Cochise, his grandmother said.

  “Elisi, you remember my fiancée,” Hunter greeted.

  “Get her out of my face,” his grandmother spoke in Cherokee.

  “Hello,” Heather greeted with a fake smile. “When can we get together so we could shop for your dress to my wedding?”

  “Get her out of my face Cochise!” His grandmother repeated.

  Hunter pulled Heather away.

  “What did she say?” Heather asked.