A House Divided

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

  “Wonderful. I’m so happy he’s doing well.”

  “I am, too, but I still have bad news.”

  “What?”

  Charlotte walked toward a corner and looked around, making sure no one was within earshot. She still spoke softly, though. “Neil knows what I did.”

  “What? Wait a minute. Your dad’s downstairs watching a game, but let me close my door.”

  Charlotte didn’t even want to think about what her father would do if he heard any of their conversation.

  “So what exactly did he say?” Noreen asked.

  Charlotte filled her in with all the details, and it was then that Charlotte realized how serious this was. When Neil had approached her, she’d known his discovery was critical, but now reality slammed her in the face.

  “This is awful,” Noreen said. “How do you think he found out?”

  “Curtis told me he hired a PI, so maybe somebody got scared and told everything.”

  “So Curtis knows, too?” Noreen asked.

  “No, not about me and the DCFS thing. Neil just told him he hired an investigator.”

  “Have you called Meredith?”

  “Just now, but there was no answer. I’ll call her back, though.”

  “I’m sure she’ll know what to do.”

  “Still, I’m really nervous because Matt and Curtis can never know about this, Mom.”

  “Is Matt still leaving this evening?”

  “Yeah, but that’s a whole other story. He and MJ spent the night at Racquel’s.”

  “That’s too bad, and you know what bothers me about that? What if these accusations were real? What if Racquel and Vanessa were guilty? I wonder if he’s even considered that.”

  “I doubt it. That’s why I know both of them are too young to care for a baby.”

  “Well, at least he’ll be gone in a few hours and you’ll be able to take over. And if I were you, MJ wouldn’t go near those people.”

  “He won’t. I’ve already decided that.”

  Charlotte chatted with her mother and got a bite to eat in the cafeteria. She’d also tried calling Meredith again, and this time she’d left a message. Now she walked through the long corridor and stopped at the elevator. When the doors opened, however, Charlotte looked toward the main waiting area and thought she saw a photo of Meredith on television. Then, after waiting too long to step inside, the elevator doors closed and Charlotte walked closer to the huge flat-screen on the wall. A commercial aired, so she turned to a seventy-something, silver-haired woman. “Excuse me, was that Meredith Connolly Christiansen I saw?”

  “Yes, it was a tribute photo,” the woman said.

  “Tribute?”

  “Uh-huh. She passed away this morning.”

  Charlotte gasped.

  “I know,” the woman said, seeming to share Charlotte’s disbelief. “She did so much for the community, and she was an inspiration to women everywhere.”

  Charlotte heard the woman talking, but she slowly tuned her out. She didn’t want to hear any more; not when her wonderful friend was gone—not when Merideth Connolly Christiansen was gone for good.

  Charlotte was getting tired of this. She’d just left the hospital, and though she’d called Matthew three times, he hadn’t answered. He was making a bad habit of this, and though she was trying to be patient and tread lightly because of all that he was going through, he was starting to annoy her. He was blatantly disrespecting her, and she didn’t appreciate it. She and Matthew had their issues and there was a lot they didn’t agree about, but she was still his mother.

  Charlotte turned onto the street they lived on. She wasn’t sure why he wasn’t answering, especially with his plane leaving in three hours. Charlotte tried Racquel’s cell number, something she hadn’t wanted to do, but the call went directly to voice mail. Where in the world are they?

  Charlotte drove up the driveway, into the garage, and went into the house. Naturally, Matthew and MJ weren’t there. She hoped Racquel hadn’t talked him into going out somewhere, because now he would be late for his flight.

  Charlotte sighed in anger and dialed her son again. Thank goodness, he finally answered.

  “Hello?” he said, but his disinterested tone irked Charlotte.

  “Matt, where are you? Do you know what time it is?”

  “I’m at Racquel’s.”

  “Why didn’t you answer my other calls?”

  “Sorry.”

  “Are you on your way home?”

  “I changed my flight.”

  “To when?”

  “Tomorrow evening, and the only reason I’m going then is so I can withdraw.”

  Charlotte could hardly breathe. “What? Matt, you’re really messing up. Getting your degree is extremely important.”

  “Are you saying my son and his mother aren’t? Are you saying they shouldn’t matter to me?”

  “No, of course not, but you need an education.”

  “And I’ll get it.”

  “Is this because of what happened to your dad?”

  “Nope.”

  “I know this has been a tough weekend, but Matt, you’ve got to hang in there. You’ve got to keep pushing forward.”

  “I’ll go back in the fall. That way I can be here for MJ until this DCFS junk is cleared up.”

  “But Matt—”

  “Mom, please. I’ll talk to you later. Good-bye.”

  Charlotte removed the phone from her ear. What if he never went back to school? What if he was so caught up with that silly girl that he forgot about college altogether? For the first time, Charlotte sort of regretted taking MJ. Maybe she should have thought about this a little longer and figured out a better way to handle things. What she should have done first was broken up Matthew and Racquel and turned Matthew completely against her. But she’d figured she would work on that after the fact. Now, though, she thought differently. Things were backfiring very quickly, and sadly, she didn’t know what to do about it—except (1) beg Matthew to change his mind about withdrawing from school, (2) sleep with Neil, and (3) contact the caseworker to see what else could be done to keep MJ away from Racquel. Maybe it was just a matter of paying Linda Jacobs more money. Or maybe there was some other perfect resolution Charlotte hadn’t thought of. Either way, she had to sit down and evaluate the situation—then proceed very quickly.

  Chapter 44

  Charlotte had barely been able to sleep last night, but she’d made her decision. Just as soon as she left the hospital later this afternoon, she was calling Linda, MJ’s caseworker. She knew money didn’t solve everything, but she didn’t know how Linda would be able to turn down twenty-five thousand dollars in cash. That was the amount Charlotte was willing to pay her if she could keep that investigation going. Charlotte had also taken care of something else. She’d had to think about this decision a lot longer than she had about the money, though. Because as much as she wanted to do this for MJ, if Curtis ever found out she’d had another affair, he would divorce her. There wouldn’t be any talking about it; he’d simply file the papers and that would be the end of it. But she needed Neil to keep his mouth shut, and he wasn’t willing to accept anything else in exchange. She’d already left him a message and was waiting for him to get back to her.

  Charlotte walked into Curtis’s room, and though he was still badly bruised, she could tell he felt better than yesterday. Or maybe his bright spirits had nothing to do with how well he felt and everything to do with Dillon. Charlotte had adamantly advised Curtis against it, but Curtis had asked Dillon to come see him. Charlotte hadn’t even known about it until Curtis had phoned last night to speak to Curtina. Curtina had been at Aunt Emma’s all weekend, but once Charlotte had learned that Matthew wasn’t flying back to Boston, she’d gone to pick up Curtina so she could get ready for school today. But when Curtis had called to tell Curtina he loved her and to say good night, he’d also dropped this Dillon bomb on Charlotte. He’d told her yesterday that he’d wanted to speak to him, but Charlotte hadn�
�t expected it to happen so quickly. She’d also hoped that if Curtis did invite him for a visit, Dillon would decline. But Curtis’s publicist, Lisa, had called the local TV producer, the producer had called Dillon, and Dillon had called Curtis within the hour. A few minutes ago, Curtis had talked about how cold and curt Dillon had been on the phone, but Curtis hadn’t seemed bothered by that and felt obligated to meet with him. He thought it very necessary to make amends. Still, Charlotte prayed that at the last minute, Dillon would change his mind and wouldn’t show. But just then, someone knocked on the door. Sure enough, it was him, and Charlotte hoped the media hadn’t gotten wind of his being there.

  He slowly walked in with some woman at his side. He acted as though he didn’t know what to say, so, finally, Curtis spoke up:

  “Thank you for coming.”

  Now Dillon stared at him, but he seemed mortified. Shocked, even, and Charlotte knew it was because of the way Curtis looked. The woman next to him cringed also.

  “Thank you for coming, too, Melissa,” Curtis said, and now Charlotte realized this was the so-called fiancée Curtis had told her about. She’d been the woman who’d come to the counseling sessions with Dillon, pretending they were a real couple who was about to get married and needed Curtis’s help.

  “I first want to say,” Curtis said. “I’m sorry for everything. I know my apology must mean very little to you, but I’m being sincere. I honestly couldn’t be sorrier about anything, and I hope one day you can forgive me.”

  Dillon leaned against the wall, listening.

  “I know I’ll never be able to rid you of the horrible pain you’ve felt all these years, but I’m going to do whatever I can to make things up to you. I’ll spend the rest of my life doing it if I have to.”

  Melissa pushed her bag farther up on her shoulder and leaned against the wall next to Dillon.

  Dillon folded his arms. “I almost didn’t come here.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Curtis said.

  “For years, I’ve been sad and angry about never knowing my mother, but when I found out you were the reason she died, I hated you. I wanted to kill you.”

  Curtis nodded, almost as if he understood and agreed, and Charlotte wondered if he was losing his mind. There was no denying that Curtis had done a terrible thing, but there was no way Charlotte would let anyone tell her they’d wanted to kill her and get away with it. This whole meeting was ludicrous, and Charlotte wished Dillon would leave. She wanted him to slither back to Georgia or wherever it was he’d said he’d come from and never contact them again. Until now, Matthew had always been Curtis’s only son, and as far as Charlotte was concerned he still was. Curtis was doing all he could to accept this so-called child of his, but Charlotte wasn’t interested. If he’d come to them privately and explained who he was, Charlotte might feel better about things, but because he’d chosen to go on television, snitching all their business to the world, she didn’t like him. She had no respect for him, and she didn’t want him talking to her. He hadn’t spoken to her, anyhow, him or his sneaky-looking fiancée, and Charlotte wanted them to keep it that way.

  “I’m also going to contact my attorney,” Curtis said, and Charlotte thought she would choke. Maybe Curtis’s nurse had given him the wrong medication, because he was clearly out of his head. “I’m going to provide for you in my will and have one of my banks cut you a check. I realize no amount of money will bring your mom back, but I’m hoping five hundred thousand dollars will help in some way.”

  Charlotte tossed Curtis a wicked look. “Curtis?” she yelled.

  “Baby, I’m sorry I didn’t discuss this with you, but God has led me to do this. I owe this young man, and until I do right by him, I won’t rest.”

  “And you can’t think of any other way besides giving him a half a million dollars?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said again.

  Charlotte was outraged. Who did Curtis think he was giving away this kind of money to a stranger? What was wrong with him?

  Dillon stared at Curtis like he’d just won the lottery. “Don’t you even want a DNA test?”

  “Just for our own peace of mind, but I know Sonya wasn’t sleeping with anyone else. At least not when she was with me. She was a stripper, but your mom was a good person with a big heart. She just wasn’t the kind of woman who would lie about paternity.”

  “Can I be honest?” Dillon said. “I don’t know why, but seeing you in person isn’t what I expected.”

  “How so?”

  Dillon turned to Melissa and then back to Curtis. “I only came here to tell you that I was filing a lawsuit against you. My plan was to sue you for everything you have.”

  “I don’t blame you for feeling that way, but I’m hoping you’ll give me a chance to get to know you…and to maybe be the kind of father you deserve.”

  Charlotte wanted to punch Curtis, but then she looked over at Dillon. Was he crying? He was! This whole father-son charade wasn’t turning out nearly the way Charlotte had wanted it to. She had prayed that Dillon wouldn’t show up, but now that he had she’d spent the last few moments hoping he would go ballistic, hoping he’d demand an astronomical amount of money from Curtis—much more than five hundred thousand—and then go storming out of Curtis’s hospital room. Then, Curtis would call his attorney so they could prepare to fight Dillon in court.

  But not only had Curtis offered Dillon six figures, Dillon acted as though he wasn’t all that angry anymore. He seemed as though he was relieved and was thankful to be in Curtis’s presence. She could look in his eyes and tell he no longer wanted to be enemies the way he’d planned. He wanted a father, and that unnerved Charlotte—made her sick to her stomach, because it was like she’d been thinking before—she would never accept him. She’d once felt the same way about Curtina, but that was for good reason and the scenario had been different. Dillon, on the other hand, was an outsider who was only trying to latch onto a wealthy family, and Charlotte would never make him feel welcome. MJ was the new addition and priority in this family, and nothing was going to change that.

  “I’m really glad I came,” Dillon said. “And while I never thought I’d be saying this, I’m sorry, too. If I had it to do over again, I would’ve just called you. Actually, that was my first thought. But then your brother told me that you deserved a lot worse. I was so angry and hurt, it wasn’t hard for me to listen to him.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Curtis said.

  “Then as time went on, he seemed more upset than I was. He kept saying I deserved millions.”

  Curtis shook his head in disappointment. “And I’m sure he’s expecting some sort of payoff.”

  “He talked about it a couple of times, but I haven’t heard from him in three weeks.”

  “He’s probably out on a drug binge, but you’ll hear from him. You can count on it.”

  Charlotte almost wanted to laugh. Even after going to jail, Larry was still trying to swindle money from Curtis. He hadn’t been successful the first time, but he’d done a pretty good job with this Dillon fiasco. He had exposed old secrets that had been buried for nearly three decades, and now Curtis was left picking up the pieces. There was no doubt Curtis and Charlotte would have to answer to the media and their congregation, and she wasn’t looking forward to that. They’d had to answer to their members last year after that Sharon woman had snapped, but this Dillon story wasn’t going to be as easy for folks to swallow; not so much because Curtis had fathered a child with a stripper but because of the backstory. People would have a problem with the reason Sonya had died and the fact that Curtis had never tried to be a father to his son.

  Charlotte heard her phone ringing and pulled it from her purse. It was Neil, and though she didn’t want to miss anything Curtis might say to Dillon, she also wanted to talk to Neil before the day was out.

  “Baby, I’ll be back,” she said to Curtis.

  “I’ll be right here,” he said, smiling.

  Charlotte walked out of the room and down
to the end of the hallway. No staff members were in the last two rooms, so she knew it was safe to talk there. She hadn’t answered her phone in time, though, so she called Neil back.

  “Charlotte, I’m glad I reached you,” he said frantically. “Something terrible has happened.”

  “Oh God, no. Is MJ okay?”

  “He’s fine, but Vanessa went through my briefcase, and she saw the letter.”

  Charlotte wondered what he was talking about. “What letter?”

  “The letter that talked about your connection to DCFS. The one that said you should give MJ back.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “I’m really sorry. I should’ve hidden that letter somewhere else.”

  “What letter, Neil? You’re scaring me.”

  “From Meredith Connolly Christiansen. She was my patient.”

  Charlotte hyperventilated and struggled to control it.

  “Four months ago,” he said, “she found out she had an aggressive brain tumor, and her doctor referred her to me. I eventually determined it was inoperable, but she was admitted on Friday and died on Sunday. But before she passed, she gave me a letter that was addressed to you, and then she apologized. Because of all the pain medicine, she was sort of out of it. But she begged me to forgive her for taking my grandson. Said she didn’t want to hurt you, but that she’d tried calling you multiple times on Saturday and you wouldn’t answer. She was very weak, but she said she couldn’t die in peace without confessing and repenting to someone.”

  Charlotte’s breathing revved up. Dear God, why didn’t I answer her calls? Why didn’t I call her back?

  “I’m really sorry,” Neil said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she spat. “How could you let this happen?”

  “I messed up. Even though Meredith had told me part of the details, I had no right opening your letter. But my curiosity got the best of me.”

  “I can’t believe you let this happen! How stupid of you to leave something like that in your briefcase!” Charlotte was livid, and she couldn’t have cared less about those nosy nurses huddled together a few doors down, staring at her.