CURTIS OPENED HIS EYES, LOOKED OVER AT THE NURSE, AND WATCHED her checking his wife’s blood pressure. It was already seven in the morning, but Curtis hadn’t slept more than what seemed like a couple of hours. Which was just the opposite of Charlotte, who had awakened only a couple of times, and even then, it had been for maybe a minute. Noreen had called to check on her around three and then again just an hour ago, but Curtis still hadn’t heard from Matthew. Curtis had known how tired he was, which was the reason he’d told him to go home with Aunt Emma.
The nurse smiled at Curtis and left the room, and Curtis thought about the fire. He thought about Aaron and wondered why he’d done the things he’d done—although it was quite obvious to Curtis now that Aaron had flipped out completely. He definitely had a mental condition and was a threat to every human being. Curtis wondered what ludicrous story Aaron had told the police, and Curtis was surprised that no one from the MPD had come to question him. But if he had to guess, they were probably waiting on a report from the fire department. If Curtis didn’t hear from them by late morning, though, he would contact them.
He sat another hour, almost dosing off, when he heard Charlotte calling him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, leaning toward the bed.
“I’m fine. I feel a little weak, but that’s about it.”
“Are you in any pain?”
“My side hurts a little bit.”
“The nurse said it’s from the fall you took when you passed out.”
“What happened? I mean, how did the house catch on fire?”
“Aaron did it. I didn’t see him do it, but I know for a fact that he did.”
Charlotte cried silently.
“There’s definitely something wrong with him,” Curtis continued. “And I’m just glad you weren’t killed. And thank God Matthew wasn’t at home with you.”
“Curtis, I am so sorry. I mean, I know it doesn’t change anything, but I don’t know what else to say.”
“It’s all unfortunate, but what we have to do now is move forward.”
“Do you know how much damage was done?”
“No, but as soon as your mom and dad get here, I’m leaving to go check on it.”
“Can you raise my bed up for me?”
Curtis pressed the remote, and Charlotte told him when she was comfortable.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Not really. Where’s Matthew?”
“He went home with Aunt Emma.”
“And Mom was okay with that?”
“I don’t think she was, but that’s where his clothes were, so she didn’t argue about it.”
“I can’t believe she and Aunt Emma still don’t have much to do with each other.”
“It’s too bad, but sometimes people hold grudges forever when they’ve been hurt.”
Charlotte looked at him and he knew why.
“Curtis, I really hate to bring this up, but I can’t think about anything else.”
“What is it?”
“I need to know if you’re still planning to divorce me.”
“I’ve thought about that all night. When you were unconscious and we were riding to the hospital, I knew for sure that I couldn’t leave you and Matthew. But then throughout last night I kept wondering if you and I would ever get back to where we used to be.”
“Curtis, I’m begging you—”
“Wait,” he interrupted. “Just let me finish.”
“Sorry.”
“I decided that we’ve both made mistakes and that I am willing to try to make this work. But I want you to know that my main reason for staying is because of Matthew. I love him too much to be without him, and I would never do anything to hurt him.”
“I know I don’t deserve you, but thank you for not leaving me. Thank you for not leaving our son,” she said, grabbing his hand. “And even if it kills me, I’ll make everything great between us again.”
Curtis didn’t know if that was possible or not, but he hoped she was right. He hoped that they could go on and that he would learn to love her the way he once had. But there were definitely no guarantees.
Dr. Rivers walked in.
“So how’s my wonderful patient this morning?”
“Tired,” Charlotte said. “But I guess I’m fine otherwise.”
“Well, I will say this, it’s a good thing your husband found you when he did. Otherwise, that smoke would have filled your lungs completely.”
“I know, and I’m very thankful.”
“Plus, we wouldn’t have wanted to lose both you and the little one all at the same time.”
Curtis squinted his eyes.
He looked at Charlotte, who wouldn’t look back at him, and then he looked at the doctor.
“Little one?” Curtis said.
“Oh, you two didn’t know? You’re pregnant.”
Curtis cracked up laughing. Not because it was funny but because he didn’t want to believe that Charlotte was pregnant and that this child might not be his either. He wondered if God was playing some sort of joke on him. And if He was, why was He trying Curtis’s faith to such an extreme? It was almost as if He was trying to force him out of the ministry and back to his old ways again. Maybe God just didn’t realize how little Curtis could take. If He did, He wouldn’t be allowing any of this.
“How far along is she?” Curtis finally asked.
“Give or take a few days, maybe about eight weeks.”
“But the baby is okay?” Charlotte wanted to know.
“I’m sure it is, but you should make an appointment to see an ob-gyn as soon as possible.”
“I will.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure your family doctor will be coming in before the morning is over, so I’m going to get out of here.”
“When do I get to go home?”
“Well, with the way you’re going, I would say sometime tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Dr. Rivers.”
“No problem. Both of you take care.”
Curtis got up and closed the door and then stood at the foot of the bed. “Did you know?”
Charlotte swallowed hard. “I was afraid to tell you.”
“You knew about this, and you still decided to keep it from me? Why?”
“Because we were already having all these problems, and I knew this was going to make things worse.”
“You are really something else. And to think I was prepared to stay with you. You are such a liar.”
“But, Curtis, this baby might bring us closer together.”
“How?” he yelled.
“Curtis, please. We’re in a hospital.”
“I don’t care where the hell we are. How in the world did you think a baby that probably isn’t mine would bring us closer together?”
“But what if it is yours? What if this baby belongs to you, Curtis?”
“No, the question is, what if it belongs to crazy-ass Aaron? Then what?”
“I’ll do what I was planning to do before you found out.”
“Which is what?”
“I’ll have an abortion.”
“You are really going to make me hate you, you know that?”
“We can find out if you’re the father before the baby is even born.”
“Whatever, Charlotte,” Curtis said, slipping on his shoes.
“No, really. When we were at the DNA clinic, I read that a paternity test can be done before a child is even born.”
“I don’t care what you read,” Curtis said, grabbing his keys.
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“I really don’t care, but what I do know is that no more babies are coming into my household—especially babies that don’t belong to me.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” he shouted and stormed past his in-laws who were standing outside the doorway. He wondered how long they’d been standing there, but it really didn’t matter.
As for Charlotte, she was lucky he hadn’t snatched her out of that bed, beating her down to the ground. She was lucky that he just might consider allowing her to have that prenatal test. He might consider it because every man deserved to have a son—a biological son, no less.
Of course, he would never love Matthew any differently, but this new child might actually be his own flesh and blood. It was a possibility that he couldn’t ignore even if he wanted to. He had to find out what the truth was.
“What was that all about?” Joe asked Charlotte and closed the door behind them.
“Daddy, Mom, please sit down.”
“Are you okay?” Noreen asked.
“I’m fine. But I need to tell you a few things.”
“Like what?” Joe asked. “And what was Curtis talking about when he said that no more babies were coming into his household if they didn’t belong to him?”
At that very moment, Charlotte knew she had to tell her parents everything. Curtis had insisted that she not tell anyone about Matthew, but they’d already heard too much of his conversation. There was no way she could lie to her father and mother, and she didn’t want to. If nothing else, they deserved to know the truth about their grandson. Not to mention, she was tired of all the lying.
“Matthew is not Curtis’s son.”
“What do you mean he’s not Curtis’s son?” Joe raised his voice.
“He’s not. Curtis wasn’t the only man I was with when Matthew was conceived.”
“Lord Jesus,” Noreen said.
“Then who is his father?” Joe asked.
“David is.”
“David who?”
“Anise’s husband.”
“This just can’t be,” he said.
“Well, it is, Daddy. I slept with David more than once, and we had a DNA test done on Matthew this past week.”
“Does he know?” Noreen asked.
“No, and Curtis doesn’t want us to ever tell him.”
“Do you think that’s the right thing to do?” Noreen asked.
“Hell, yeah, it’s the right thing to do,” Joe said. “Do you want Matthew’s life to be ruined? You know how much that boy loves his father, so this needs to stay between all of us and us only.”
“Oh God, Charlotte,” Noreen said. “Honey, why?”
“Just stop it, Noreen,” Joe demanded. “And stop questioning Charlotte about something she probably got from you in the first place.”
“Joe!” she said.
“Daddy, please don’t do this.”
“Well, it’s true. If your mother hadn’t slept with your aunt Emma’s fiancé, maybe you wouldn’t have thought it was okay to sleep with your own cousin’s husband. I begged your mother not to tell you about that, but no, she wanted her only child to know the truth about her. And this is what the result is.”
“Daddy, it’s not Mom’s fault. This was something I did on my own.”
“Maybe, but it’s not like you had a good example to follow when it comes to women sleeping around with more than one man.”
“Joe, why are you talking like this?” Noreen asked.
“Because I’ve been wanting to talk about this for years. You always told Charlotte way too much of your business when she was a child. You were so busy trying to be her friend that you forgot to be her mother.”
Charlotte screamed out in tears. “Daddy, stop it.”
“Joe, this isn’t the time or the place for this.”
“It is if I say it is. And don’t stop me again. I’ll talk until I’m finished. And don’t get me started on the time you were messing around with that asshole, Raymond, and you had the audacity to take Charlotte around him. She was only six, Noreen, and that child came home asking me who that strange man was. I remember feeling like such a fool and that’s why I went off on you. But even after that, you wouldn’t stop seeing him. You slept with him whenever you wanted to until finally, he just up and died. And that took five years.”
Noreen sniffled and sat down in the chair.
“Daddy, I said stop it,” Charlotte ordered. “I did what I did, and this has nothing to do with Mom.”
Joe folded his arms and glared at his wife.
Charlotte couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d heard them argue about this very thing before, but it had been years since her father had brought any of it up. Charlotte had been sure that her parents had gotten past those terrible times and that they were a very happy couple. They always seemed happy in front of her and everyone else, so she was stunned by what she’d just witnessed. It was so unlike him, but her father seemed angry enough to hurt her mother. He looked at her the way Curtis had looked at Charlotte only minutes before.
“The news about Matthew isn’t the whole story,” she said. “I’m pregnant again, and I don’t know if this child is Curtis’s either.”
“Oh God, no,” Noreen said. “Charlotte, baby.”
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Joe said.
“I made some mistakes, Daddy. I’m not perfect.”
“You know some of this is my fault, too. I spoiled you rotten, and I should have never done that.”
“Baby, what are you going to do?” Noreen asked.
“There’s a DNA test that I can have before the baby is born, so all I can do is pray for the best. And if it’s not Curtis’s, then I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Charlotte, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for any influence I may have had on you when you were growing up. Your father is right, I shouldn’t have exposed you to some of the things I did.”
“Mom, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.”
Charlotte didn’t argue with her any further.
Her father sat down in the other chair and didn’t say anything.
Charlotte wondered where Curtis was and what he was thinking. If only she could guarantee that the baby she was carrying was actually his. There just had to be a way. She didn’t want to lie and scheme again, but she would do anything to stay married to him. She needed him to be there for Matthew, and God help her, she needed the lifestyle that Curtis was now in a position to give her. She wasn’t sure what she had to do to keep her family together, but she had to think quickly.
She thought long and hard, trying to figure out her next move. Her family physician had come in, and shortly after, her aunt Emma and Matthew had arrived. But now they’d left with her parents to get lunch. Well, actually, Matthew had gone with her parents, but Aunt Emma had made up some excuse about having to run a few errands.
Charlotte’s mind raced back and forth until, finally, she realized just who could help her. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of her before, especially since she’d told Charlotte to call her anytime.
The law firm was strict on its policy about not disturbing their clients on a Saturday, but then, this particular call had absolutely nothing to do with business. It was as personal as personal could be, so the fact that this wasn’t a weekday was irrelevant.
Charlotte lifted the phone and dialed Meredith Connolly Christiansen, the richest woman in town.