Chapter 25

After play rehearsal the next night, Chelly drove home entertaining the thought of joining Sean, but sheer fatigue prevented it. She crawled into her bed, sighing gratefully when her head hit the pillow. Sean was right. Old houses in need of renovation were everywhere, and time was precious. Why spend it apart?

Only seconds later, or what seemed like seconds to Chelly, her eyes flew open. Sirens had awakened her, and they kept coming. Something bad had happened—a car accident or worse. Too many sirens screamed for it to be an ambulance for Kelvin, but the thought occurred to her. She glimpsed the clock radio.

2:13. Sean would call if it were Kelvin. She waited, fretful, for the phone to ring, but when it didn’t, she drifted back to sleep.

Later, Chelly wanted to ignore the draft and its accompanying goose bumps by cozying under her comforter to stay warm. Sleep, usually so elusive, was extra delicious tonight. The sensation of being stared at, however, forced her eyes open with a start for the second time that night. Maya sat on the bed next to her, flashing her snaggletooth grin bright as the moonlight that shone through the window.

A peace enveloped Chelly as she turned toward her daughter. She didn’t sit up. Heart-wrenched tears dripped sideways. This could be the last time she saw her sweet baby girl. She whispered, dredging up the strength to be positive. “Maya, sweetheart. I’m so glad you came. Kelvin told me he saw you.”

“I’m going to help him, Mommy.”

“Good. That’s great.” Her heart thudded louder than a zillion stampeding cattle and her mouth went powder dry, but it had to be said. “Maya, don’t let me hold you back. If it’s time for you and Kelvin to go…when it’s time, I’ll be okay.”

Maya smiled wide. “I knew you’d be okay, Mommy, but it’s not time yet. We’re waiting for one more person.”

Chelly replayed the words in her mind as cold fear washed over her. Maya’s smile seemed demonic for a brief second, but then Chelly realized Maya’s innocence and understood. To Maya another person in her world represented a reason to be happy. Chelly hoisted her leaden body into an upright position, then barely croaked out the word, “Who?”

“They’ve been apart, but now they’ll be together forever.”

Dear God. “What are you saying, Maya?”

“They’ll be fine together. I had Daddy with me and he had Grandma Jo with him. Parents love their children.”

Words failed. Chelly trembled. She shook her head, denial her only refuge. Her stomach did somersaults and the room spun. This can’t be right. She could not lose Sean. No God would be that cruel. She asked the question she’d posed daily for years after the plane crash. “Wh-why?”

“Don’t worry, Mommy.” Maya disappeared, leaving a distraught Chelly catatonic. She sat motionless until a nausea that made her feel weak surged toward her throat. Somehow she made it to the bathroom and regurgitated dinner. Poised on the cold tile floor, her legs, numb from the lack of circulation, reminded her long minutes had passed. Using the toilet for leverage, she struggled to her feet.

She flushed away her stomach contents, wishing to dismiss her anxiety as easily. She had to think this through. Maya was a little girl. She didn’t know everything. She couldn’t. What would be the point in falling in love with Sean to have him snatched away the same way Tony, his mother, and Maya had been? It wasn’t possible. Maya was mistaken.

So much for sleeping. She dressed and made coffee, determined not to freak out, but that was a losing battle. When her clock alarm went off at five, the sound surprised her, leaving her clutching her heart. When her doorbell rang at 5:22, near hysteria overtook her.

No one visited this early in the morning unless it was bad news. She pressed her hands to her ears to block the sound, rocking back and forth on the couch, willing this nightmare to end.

When the persistent ringing changed to pounding, Chelly inched her way to the door. Sobbing, she tentatively touched the doorknob, immediately taking two steps back, only to propel herself forward again. She looked out the peephole and tearfully released the lock.

Miss Minnie Eva entered, toting Riana and a canvas bag of toys filled past the brim.

Chelly waited, covering her mouth, unable to contain fresh bursts of sorrow.

Miss Minnie Eva searched Chelly’s face with a bereaved look. “You’re as upset as I am. I don’t know what to do. Nicole’s mama’s in jail. Riana’s father has never laid eyes on her, and his family doesn’t want her. Lord today. What’s going to happen to this child?”

Chelly glanced down at Riana and then back up at Miss Minnie Eva, totally confused. Somebody had their wires crossed. She gulped. “What?”

“I was babysitting Riana when it happened.”

“When what happened?”

“Nicole,” Miss Minnie Eva said, annoyance coming through. “Who do you think I’m talking about? She’s in critical condition. They’re saying Isaac did it.”

Chelly silently repeated Miss Minnie Eva’s words, still lost in brain-fogged bewilderment. “What happened to Nicole?”

She ignored the question and spoke to Riana. “Baby, come over here and let Miss Minnie Eva take your coat off.”

* * *

Chelly watched them walk into the living room. While Miss Minnie Eva unzipped Riana’s coat, Riana’s back was to Chelly. Miss Minnie Eva caught Chelly’s eye and mouthed, “Nicole was shot.”

“What!”

“I thought you knew. Why are you crying? Please don’t tell me something has happened to Kelvin, too?”

Chelly grasped at hope and Miss Minnie Eva’s arm. “Kelvin’s fine, as far as I know. Is Isaac in custody?” Please God, let him be in custody. What if he went after Sean too?

“Police can’t find him. He’s wanted for questioning. I need to call Rosemary. My God. My God.” Miss Minnie Eva shook her head in despair.

As she phoned Sean, Chelly wrestled with why Miss Minnie Eva had brought Riana here, but she didn’t have time to worry about it—she needed to talk to Sean. Bill, Kelvin’s friend, answered and said Sean was out.

“Out? At five in the morning?”

“Grocery store’s open twenty-four-hours a day now,” Bill said. “He borrowed my car and left a few minutes ago.”

Chelly called Sean’s cell phone, but couldn’t reach him. Rubbing her forehead, she knew she’d have to find him. That thought sent her scurrying for her purse, keys, and coat.

“Wait a minute,” Miss Minnie Eva said, adjusting her purple winter hat. “I need you to keep Riana until I get home from work. I know it’s an imposition, but I’ll take half a day off and be back around one.”

“What?” Normally, this was a work day for her, too. Didn’t Miss Minnie Eva know that? “Sorry, I can’t. I have to find Sean. Can’t you take her to Children’s Services or something?”

“Look at her, Chelly. I’ve been praying all night about what to do and your name came to mind, clear as a bell.”

Chelly backed into the breakfast bar, not believing her ears. Her gaze found Riana. She toddled along the couch, one second, then sat on the floor, playing with books and her blocks.

She was adorable, but Chelly had no more time to waste and definitely no room in her heart for Riana. Romantic love was a piece of cake compared to the all-consuming love a child required. Miss Minnie Eva needed to pray again, because she had the wrong person for the job. Chelly shrugged on her coat. “I have to go.”

“Please, I’ve already rearranged my work schedule to spend time with Kelvin and I cannot be out this morning. The thought of this little girl sitting in some office or some crowded, godforsaken shelter is breaking my heart. “I’ll come get her as soon as I can.”

Chelly relented, not daring to waste another second in debate. She picked up Riana and briefly wondered about the safety of taking her in the truck without a car seat, but she didn’t have a choice.

* * *

Where was he? Only a handful of cars were on the nearest D & W lot, but none of them were Sean’s Accord; then Chelly remembered he didn’t have the Accord anymore and she had no idea what kind of car Bill drove. She could call Bill or just go look for Sean. He had to be here.

Moving quickly with Riana in her arms, they darted from aisle to aisle. Chelly’s brain searched wildly for her next move in case he wasn’t there, but then she found him.

Sean spotted them, but his surprised smile quickly flat-lined. “Kelvin?”

“No.” She filled him in, watching his face pale, although his outrage was apparent in the blistering pain in his eyes. “Oh no, Chelly!” His head shook. His shoulders slumped heavy with grief. “Should I have seen this coming? Why didn’t I see this coming?”

“He probably just snapped, Sean. Don’t blame yourself. There was no way anyone could know, but I’m nervous about what he’ll do next.”

He looked at Riana and then back at her with a questioning gaze.

“Miss Minnie Eva was babysitting Riana last night.”

“Why did she bring her to you?”

“I’m not real clear on that. Can we just get out of here?”

* * *

Bill met them at the door, obviously distressed. “Check on your dad, son. He was listening to the radio, heard about that shooting at the Candlewood Apartments. He called Minnie Eva, checking on her, and she told him what happened. He’s intent on going to see Nicole at the hospital.”

Sean and Chelly exchanged perplexed looks, hurrying to Kelvin’s bedroom.

He sat on the side of the bed unclothed from the waist up. His shoulder blades poked out of this back like tiny twin mountain peaks.

“Got to see Nicole,” Kelvin said.

Sean stepped in front of him confounded. “Pop? Why?”

“I want to see her.”

“But you’re not well enough,” Sean argued.

“I’ll make it to the car. Then get me a wheelchair.”

“I don’t…Pop, if she’s in critical condition, they’re not going to let you see her anyway.”

“They will if I’m her father.”

Sean lowered his head closer to his father’s, certain he’d misunderstood. “What?”

“You heard me. Take me to the hospital. Please.”

“Your daughter?” Sean looked over at Chelly for help. What the hell?

Holding Riana, Chelly frowned, indicating she didn’t know what Kelvin was talking about.

Sean sat on the chair, placing his elbows on his knees and folding his hands, prepared to reason with his father. “Pop, sometimes medication can have a person thinking things that aren’t true. Nicole isn’t your daughter. You don’t have a daughter.”

“Rosemary is her mother. I’m her father. I want to see her. Chelly, get me a shirt.”

She looked at Sean, seemingly unsure where her loyalties should lie. Kelvin stared at Sean.

“Forget it. I’ll call a cab and go naked,” Kelvin said, reaching for the phone.

Sean ran his fingers through his hair, then nodded at Chelly. “Okay…okay.” He threw up both hands in surrender, unable to see a way to dissuade his father. “Let’s do this. I’ll help him get dressed.”

When Sean walked by Chelly on the way to the closet, Chelly whispered, “But what if Isaac’s hanging around out there? I’m worried, Sean.”

“It’ll be all right,” Sean assured her, whispering back. “The police will find him.”

* * *

Chelly closed the door, leaving Sean and Kelvin alone.

“Want me to take her?” Bill offered, his arms outstretched to receive Riana. “My grandson likes to get into the kitchen cabinets and play with the pots. I’ll bet this little cutie will like that, too.”

“Thanks, Bill.” Chelly had become surprisingly comfortable with the feel of Riana ensconced on her hip. She set her down and watched her take Bill’s hand, noticing how empty her arms felt. When Riana turned and waved goodbye, those big, innocent eyes tugged painfully at Chelly’s heart. Who would take care of her and love her if Nicole didn’t recover?

“You all take my car to the hospital. I’ll stay with Riana,” Bill said over his shoulder.

“Okay.” Chelly flopped on the living room couch and pinched herself so hard, it bruised. She wasn’t dreaming.

She tried to assimilate the dizzying events of the morning. Nicole had been shot, probably by Isaac. Was Nicole Kelvin’s daughter, or was his claim nothing more than a drug side effect? According to Maya, she and Kelvin were taking a child of Kelvin’s with them when they left this earth. Which child? Sean or Nicole?

It took ten minutes to walk Kelvin to Bill’s Impala.

After they got him settled in the front seat, Sean took Chelly’s elbow and pulled her aside. “I think it’s best we humor him until he starts thinking straight.”

“Sean, what if he’s right and Nicole is his daughter?”

He looked at her like she was nuts. “No way. He’s seen Nicole a couple of times, that’s all. The medication has his mind screwed up.”

Sharing Maya’s message with Sean would only cloud the issue, Chelly decided. She averted her gaze and got behind the steering wheel.

Kelvin’s coughing began before they pulled from the curb. They were four blocks away from the house when he’d recouped enough air to talk. “Two children, two grandchildren…restaurant named after me. I’m leaving…my mark on the world.” He smiled, but it looked more like a grimace.

Even if he were right about Nicole, he only had one grandchild. Chelly opened her mouth to correct him, but let it snap shut. He wasn’t lucid, so it didn’t matter.

“Ugh!” Between coughs, Kelvin grunted like he’d fallen on a wooden stake.

“Pop?” Sean asked, alarmed.

Kelvin waved his hand signaling he’d be okay.

Sean leaned forward, grabbing onto the black leather front seat. “It’s the pain, isn’t it? Why didn’t I think to make sure you took another pill? All this moving around isn’t helping anything.”

“Umm,” Kelvin groaned.

“This is crazy. Do you want to go back home?” Sean asked.

“Drive on. I’ll be all right.”

After a few minutes, he seemed better and asked, “What’s going to happen to Riana if…?”

“Nicole has to have some relatives. Children’s Services will place Riana with her next of kin,” Chelly said, stealing appraising glances at Kelvin. His thinking seemed clear to her.

“I’m her next of kin. Her father doesn’t want her and her grandmother can’t have her.”

Chelly directed her gaze to Sean via the rearview mirror, wondering if he would agree Kelvin sounded rational.

“Pop, why are you convinced Nicole is your daughter? This makes no sense. You never mentioned a daughter before. What the hell is going on?”

“Bill found Rosemary’s letter. The rest is my gut telling me what’s true. You’ll see.”

* * *

Chelly dropped Sean and Kelvin off at the hospital entrance after Sean had secured a wheelchair. She found a parking space and then joined them. They were directed to the fourth floor.

In the ICU waiting room a woman who said she was Nicole’s cousin, an obese woman with several skin tags the size of peas on her neck, insisted that Kelvin had lost his mind—there was no way he was Nicole’s father. Where had he been Nicole’s whole life, she belligerently demanded.

Sean reminded her to keep a respectful tone when she spoke to his father. Kelvin’s simple response had been, “Ask Rosemary.”

“Don’t think I won’t,” the woman replied in a huff.

It took finagling, but a sympathetic nurse who could probably see that as ill as Kelvin was, he wouldn’t have come unless he was sincere, allowed him five minutes with Nicole. She hadn’t regained consciousness, the nurse said. There was significant blood loss with the chest wound. It didn’t look good.

Sean held Chelly’s hand under the recessed lights in the waiting room. The designers must have figured dealing with the death of a loved one was easier in a room painted pink and decorated with mountain landscapes.

What if it was his half sister lying in there, fighting for her life? He summoned all the images of Nicole from the first day he’d seen her peeking in the window. He skimmed over the uncomfortable moments when she had made goo-goo eyes at him, but zeroed in on her enthusiasm for life that made her fun to be around, and their shared interest in music. If she were his half sister, it meant he’d have family left when Kelvin died. He’d have her and Riana. Or, depending on how things went, he’d have Riana.

“Are you all right?” Chelly asked.

“No, I’m not doing too well at the moment.” Sean folded his arms across his chest and studied a spot on the shiny gray floor. “I don’t know what to think. She’s a good kid. Talented, beautiful, motivated. If she dies because of some stupid piano lessons, I don’t know how I’m going to live with myself.”

Chelly placed her arm around his shoulders. “You got caught up in circumstances, Sean. Nothing you did caused this. You have to believe that.”

Still studying his feet he said, “Yeah, I know you’re right, but damn.”

On the way down in the elevator, Kelvin’s pallor looked as gray as Sean had ever seen it.

“I told her to hold on. Told her Riana needs her, but I don’t know. I don’t have a good feeling.” Kelvin paused, wiping a palm over his entire face. “If need be, use some of the land money…to bury her, Sean.”

Sean gazed Chelly’s way and released a sigh. “Sure. If that’s what you want, Pop.” He squeezed his father’s bony shoulder.

In front of the hospital in the patient loading zone, Sean turned from helping Kelvin into the car and encountered Isaac head on. It wasn’t the desperate look in Isaac’s eyes, it was the gun in his hand that had Sean distressed. Sean’s sweat seemed to pour from every gland at once. Fear roiled in the pit of his stomach coupled with the panic of complete helplessness. Here he was, defenseless, with Chelly and his father to protect.

“Did you see what she made me do?” Isaac inquired, fury audible in his disturbingly quiet tone. “She provoked me. I was being generous letting her take college classes, but I ain’t no punk, okay? Do I look like a punk?” Isaac took a menacing step forward as if daring Sean to answer. “Some kind of chump? Huh? I’m working day and night for her and her kid, and she can’t even spend time with me? I’m not gonna be played. I told her. I warned her. And I warned you.”

Sean moved to shield Chelly, who stood frozen beside him. “I know you did, man. You and me, we talked about this and I heard you. I listened to every word you said.” Shit, shit, shit!

Chelly held a grip so tight on the wheelchair handles, her knuckles turned white. “I—uh…they need the wheelchair back.”

“Leave it,” Isaac said, not taking his eyes off Sean. “They’ll come get it. Nicole’s got to learn. She needs to be accountable to me. I’m not about to be disrespected by her or anybody else.”

How do you signal for help without yelling at the top of your lungs, Sean wondered while he listened to Isaac rant. The hospital security guard was twenty feet away, sipping coffee and grinning at a nurse. Was he armed? Sean couldn’t see a firearm, but even if he wasn’t, he could radio for help. To the guard it must look like three friends having a leisurely chat at seven o’clock in the morning, the barrel of the gun invisible to anyone not standing in front of it.

Sean glanced right to the sound of Kelvin’s tapping on the window. He, no doubt, wanted to know why the delay.

Chelly edged a shoulder in front of Sean. “Do you want to see Nicole? You’re not still mad at her, are you?”

Isaac’s eyes darted toward Chelly. “How is she? She’s okay then?”

“We just saw her,” Sean lied. “She’s awake. She doesn’t remember what happened, so she can’t press charges. You can put the gun down, Isaac.”

“She doesn’t remember?” Isaac seemed confused by this and Sean hesitated, not sure how to press this small advantage. “I don’t know…the police are looking for me.”

“That happens sometimes with trauma. Memories just vanish. You want me to go with you? I can take you straight to her room,” Chelly said.

Apparently thinking she wasn’t a threat to Isaac, Chelly tried to protect him and Kelvin. In that moment, Sean loved her more than he thought possible, making his gut wind into more knots. With three lives at stake, he couldn’t afford the tiniest misstep.

“Is she going to be all right?” Isaac asked.

“We hope so. Let’s go check on her,” Chelly said.

“No, I can’t. My clothes…” The three of them looked down at his blood-splattered pants and shoes.

Sean racked his brain for what to do, but came up empty.

“I need a ride,” Isaac said.

Jesus, why didn’t I think of that, Sean berated himself. “The car is yours. Take it, man. Just let me get my father out.”

“No,” Isaac said, with a wag of his gun, “I’ll roll with you. Get in.”

Sean pretended he didn’t understand. He opened Kelvin’s door. “I’ll go with you, but my dad’s sick and he’s only going to slow us down—”

“Don’t make me say it again.” Isaac’s voiced dripped with controlled rage. “I am so sick and goddamn tired of people not listening to me.”