Loving Her

by Tracy Reed

  I picked up my keys and headed towards the front door. I grabbed the knob, opened the front door and standing there was the voice of reason…the glue to our little family, Mom Connie. I tried to keep it together, but looking at her was like looking at an older version of Alex. I fell into her arms. “Hey, Mom.”

  The anxiousness of not knowing what was going on with Alex, came rushing to the front and I was crying like a baby.

  “Hey Son, calm down.” I didn’t want to let her go. “Son…son…”

  I let go of my grip on her and quickly turned my head so she couldn’t see the distraught look on my face. I wiped my face and walked into the kitchen. I heard the door close, and Mom Connie’s footsteps following behind me.

  “What did Bas say?”

  I inhaled. “He uhm…he, said there was an emergency, and he was bringing her home.” I paced back and forth. “I should have gone and…”

  She grabbed my hand. “Stop it..” She guided me to the stool and I sat down. “Listen, I know you’re concerned, but Bas did the right thing. Look at you. You’re in no shape to drive and you don’t have any details.”

  She kissed me on the forehead. I knew she was right. “But…”

  “I need you to get it together.”

  I nodded. “I know, but I would have felt better had he given us more information.”

  “We know she’s not hurt. Otherwise, he would have told us to meet him at the hospital.”

  I let out a deep sigh. “You’re right.”

  She placed a cup of coffee in front of me. I looked at my watch and then took a sip from the white cup. I dropped my head in my hands and prayed softly for my wife.

  Suddenly the phone rang and I jumped up.

  “I got it.” Mom Connie picked up the phone. “Hi Malcolm…okay…thank you.” She hung up the receiver. “He said Alex and Bas are on their way.”

  I hurried to the front door and stood watching for the black Porsche. When the car turned the corner, I ran over and stood next to the driveway. Bas pulled into the driveway and as soon as he turned the car off, I opened the passenger door. Alex jumped out of the car into my arms, sobbing.

  She was trying to speak but the tears and her gasping for air made it difficult. “Calm down. I can’t understand you.” She put her head on my chest and continued crying. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

  I walked her upstairs and held her until she calmed down and fell asleep. Then I went back downstairs.

  “How is she?” Mom Connie asked.

  “She’s asleep.” I looked at Bas. “What happened?”

  “She was doing an interview and…”

  “She mentioned that this morning.”

  “From what I managed to get out of her, the reporter doing the interview said she’s his mother?”

  “What!” Mom Connie shouted.

  “Shhh, Mom. What!”

  “She said it started out like any other interview and then he started asking personal questions, and finally he said he had proof she’s his mother. She freaked out and told me to bring her home or she was calling a car.”

  “This doesn’t make any sense.” The words were too shocking to process. “Mom, is this even possible?”

  “No. I was there...I watched my grandson take his last breath. There’s no way this is possible.”

  “Did you see the reporter?” I asked Bas.

  “Yeah. She had me and Travis take his picture and send it to all the employees and post it in all the stores. Everyone has been told to call the police if he shows up. I also left copies at the guard shack with the same instructions.”

  “Where’s the picture?” He handed it to Mom Connie.

  “Oh, my God, it’s Alex,” Mom Connie gasped.

  “Let me see.” She handed me the picture. “What did he say?”

  “She said he told her he was born the same day as Terrence at Cedars and there was a mix up, and the babies were switched.” He looked at Mom.“Is it possible he could be telling the truth?”

  “If I hadn’t seen this picture, I’d say no way. But after seeing this I’d have to say maybe.” Mom Connie stood shaking her head.

  “What do we do?” I asked. “My wife is up there hurting, and all we have is a maybe.” I took a deep breath. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Mom, call Uncle Wallis and have him and Ed check out this kid’s story. I don’t care how much it costs. I need you and Bas to handle everything at the stores. I’m taking her away. I don’t want this guy trying to contact her.”

  “Do you really think he’ll try to contact her again?” Bas asked.

  “If he thinks Alex is his mother, yes. Call Quentin, get everything he has on him and send it over to Uncle Wallis, and copy me as well.”

  “We’ll get on it now,” Mom said. “I’ll handle her girlfriends.”

  “Thanks. Bas, I want you to step up security. I’ll pay for it. We’ll touch base in the morning.”

  “You got it.” Bas gathered his things. “Miss Connie, do you want me to take you home?”

  “No, I’m gonna stay here tonight.”

  “Mom, we’ll be okay. You go home. Besides, you need to call Uncle Wallis, and I don’t want to upset Alex anymore than she is.”

  “Okay, but first I’m going up to check on her.” I waited for her to go upstairs before saying anything to Bas.

  “Do you think Thomas Pierce could be behind this?” Bas asked.

  “I know he wasn’t too happy with the way things were settled with the company. But this…this kind of vindictiveness is the work of a sick mind.” I heard Mom walking down the stairs.

  “She’s sleeping. Bas, let’s go.” She kissed me on the cheek and left. “I’ll talk to you later, son.”

  “Bye Mom. Thanks, Bas.” I showed them out and went into my office.

  I sat quietly waiting on direction from God. I didn’t know how to approach my wife. My first response was to run upstairs, wrap her in my arms and tell her it was a bad dream. After thirty minutes of thinking and praying, I went upstairs. I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. I walked inside, climbed into bed and stroked her hair. I pulled the throw up on her and she woke up.

  “Hey Beautiful.” I kissed her forehead.

  “Hey.”

  “How was your nap?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Hungry?”

  “Not really.”

  I stroked her cheek. “Put your pajamas on and I’ll fix us something to eat.” I helped her out of bed and met her downstairs in the kitchen. “What do you have a taste for?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “You name it. We have sandwich fixings, omelets, left over pasta, steak, fish, you name it.”

  “Grilled cheese.”

  “If that’s what my baby wants, that’s what she’ll get.” I opened the refrigerator and got the cheese and butter and walked into the pantry and got the bread. “Sweetheart, you cut the tomatoes and I’ll make the sandwiches.”

  We sat at the counter eating.

  “This is good. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” I wiped my mouth and sipped my wine. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

  She wiped her mouth and took a deep breath. “He said the babies were switched.” She rubbed her forehead. “Did you see him?”

  “Bas showed us a picture.”

  “What do you think?”

  I rubbed her back. “I think we should wait until Uncle Wallis has a chance to investigate.” She bobbed her head. “But I don’t want you to worry about this because…”

  “I’m not worried. I just can’t help but think--”

  “Listen to me,” she turned to face me. “I promise to check him out from top to bottom, and if he’s your son---”

  “What about his father?”

  “We’ll deal with him, if and when the time comes.”

  She gave me a half smile followed by a sweet and unbelievable, “Okay.”

  “I think we should go to the townhouse.”

  “I don’t th
ink that’s a good idea.”

  “I think it is and while we’re gone, Uncle Wallis can investigate this for us.”

  “I don’t know. What if he turns out to be Terrence, I…”

  “Come here.” She got up and sat on my lap. “We need to put a little distance between us and this situation right now.” I brushed her hair behind her ear. “What do you say?”

  She took a deep breath. “Can we go to the cottage?”

  “We’ll leave as soon as I make the arrangements.”

  “Thank you.”

  My phone rang and I tried to catch it before it rang again. I looked at the caller ID and immediately recognized the number. “Hi Uncle Wallis, what did you find out?”

  “I saw the boy.”

  “What do you think?”

  “Connie’s right, he looks like Alex.”

  More confirmation this could possibly be Alex’s son. I’m trying to stay calm. I can’t let my mind absorb the thought that I may have to share my wife with her ex-husband. I can handle sharing her with her son, but…, “And his story?”

  “I put Ed on it.”

  “He’s your best?” What am I saying? Ed is a like truffle sniffing hog. He can sniff out the name of Alex’s doctor’s nurse’s mother’s first grade teacher. He’s the one that uncovered the truth about Royce Pierce’s will and Alex’s surprise inheritance. “I’m sorry. I know he is.”

  “Son, I understand. He said he should have something for me in a couple of days.”

  “Give him whatever he needs. I don’t…”

  “Son, calm down. I need you to keep a clear head and look after my niece. How’s she doing?”

  “She’s asleep.”

  “Give her my love, and I’ll call you in a couple of days. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  Second to making the decision to take Allegra off of life support, this had been the hardest thing I’d had to do…waiting to find out if my wife’s son is alive.

  Every time my phone rang, my heart leapt into my throat. It had been two days since I last spoke with Uncle Wallis. This waiting was nerve wrecking.

  I walked out to the patio and my phone rang with a much too familiar ringtone. I quickly picked up the phone and pressed the Answer Call button. “Hey, Uncle Wallis. Please tell me you have something definite today. I don’t know if I can take another day of…”

  “There was a mix up.”

  My heart dropped to my toes. “So, it’s him.”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I thought you said there was a mix up?”

  “There was a lot of confusion that day at the hospital, but we’re not sure if Terrence was part of it.”

  “This sounds like more double-talk.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. Ed is busting his butt. He said if Alex would agree to a DNA test, he could get me an answer within forty-eight hours, if not sooner.”

  “Fine, have Mom Connie go to the house and…”

  “Son…Son…,”

  “Here’s the problem. Baby Terrence’s hospital file was misplaced.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I know. It sounds like one of your books.”

  “Uncle…what do you need?”

  “I can use some of Alex’s hair to compare with this boy. But if it doesn’t match, that clears him.”

  “That’s a good thing.”

  “But knowing what we know about the mix up, what if…”

  “The baby she buried, isn’t…”

  “We need to make sure the baby she buried was Terrence. So we might need to exhume the body to determine paternity of the body she buried.”

  “You know she won’t agree to that.”

  “I know, son. But it’s the easiest way to resolve this.”

  I knew he was right. “Alex would never consent, and I can’t.”

  “If it comes down to that. It would mean calling in quite a few favors, or I could call one person.”

  “NO!”

  “I don’t want to call him either, but if it will help get…”

  “No. If exhumation is the only recourse, I think Collier has a connection we could use.” I sighed. “How did this kid find her? I thought medical records were supposed to be sealed?”

  “That’s true.”

  “Then how did he find Alex?”

  “I’m still not quite sure. Ed’s found a lot of pieces, but no glue. The one thing we can confirm is this boy’s birth mother gave him up. Beyond that, I don’t know what happened.”

  “I don’t believe this.”

  “I know. It’s like we’re in a bad dream.”

  “Tell me about it. Does he know about…,” I couldn’t bring myself to say his name. “Terrence?”

  “No. I took care of that a long time ago.”

  “Good.”

  “Where’s my niece?”

  “Asleep.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow. Bye.”

  “Bye.” I pressed the button and ended the call.

  I was starting to cringe every time my phone rang with Uncle Wallis’ ringtone. I picked up my phone, looked at the screen, took a deep breath and pressed the Answer Call button.

  “Hello, Uncle Wallis.”

  “How are you two doing?”

  “We’re hanging in there.” I sighed. “Do you have anything new for us?”

  “So far we haven’t been able to find Baby Terrence’s file.”

  “So we’re back to square one.”

  “I’m sorry. I told Ed he’s got twenty four hours to find the file, and then we’ll do the DNA test for this boy and hope for the best. At least we can solve part of this puzzle.”

  “Have Mom Connie go to the house and…”

  “I thought about that.”

  “I sense a but.”

  “I would feel better if we had both parents.”

  I sighed. “Do whatever you think is best.”

  “Including calling Terrence?”

  “If you have to, yes.”

  “Son, I hope you know what you’re saying.”

  “Not really, but I need to get my wife some peace.”

  “I understand.”

  I hung up, turned around and saw Alex standing behind me. “Hey beautiful, how was your nap?”

  “Who was that?”

  “Uncle Wallis.”

  “And?” I put my arms around her.

  “He said if they can’t find what they need in the next couple of days, they are going to do a DNA test on this kid.”

  “Okay, it’s the easiest way to get an answer. Have mama go to the house and…”

  “She’s doing that as we speak.” I kissed her forehead. I hadn’t told her the details of the mix up. “I need to talk to you about something.” I pulled her closer. “There was a mix up that day.”

  “I know.”

  “Uncle Wallis is concerned that the baby you buried…”

  “No!” She started backing out of my hold.

  “Alex, calm down.” She was breathing hard. “There’s a chance he wasn’t your son.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “We may need to exhume the body to verify the baby you buried was your son.”

  “No. No. No!” She was getting hysterical. I pressed her against my chest.

  “Shhh…shhh…Calm down.”

  “I know those are just bones, and that Terrence isn’t in that grave, but I can’t go through that again.”

  Her tears soaked through my shirt. “Look at me. Uncle Wallis and Ed are going to get to the bottom of this.” I kissed her on the forehead.

  “Baby, promise me you won’t let them dig him up. Promise me.”

  “I promise.” That is a lie I will take to my grave.

  * * *

  Bas

  * * *

  WHEN I CAME TO WORK for Alex, it was understood I couldn’t date her girlfriends. But I broke that rule and had my heart broken in the process. But for some reason, Alex and her friends look at me like I’m the sixth
girlfriend. This comfortability has, me privy to way too much information about them, and the men in their lives.

  I’m a grown man with a list of ex-girlfriends twelve miles long. Yet the only women that have been constant in my life are my boss and her best friends.

  Chloe walked into the store twenty minutes ago and hasn’t stopped talking. With Alex out of town, I’m her designated bestie.

  I was shuffling through the rack of clothes pre-selected for her. “I see the stylist made some good choices for you.” I turned around and she was naked from the waist up. “WHAT THE CRAP!”

  “What?”

  “Why are you naked, and what’s that thing on the sofa?”

  She smiled. “My breasts are killing me and I have to pump.”

  “And you’re going to do that now?”

  “Yes. Do you have a problem with this?” She continued hooking up her breast pump.

  “To be honest, yes I do. Tell you what, I’ll come back when you’re finished.”

  “What is your problem?”

  “My problem is I’m still trying to get over the image of you giving birth.”

  “Fine, you big baby,” she smirked. “I’ll cover up. But I’m on a tight schedule, and I really need to get some clothes and can kill two birds with one stone…”

  “I’ll stay as long as you keep those things covered up.”

  “You know someday when your wife---”

  I held up my hand. “I don’t even want to think about that right now.”

  “Have it your way. When is Alex getting back?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Where did they go?”

  “Moses didn’t say.” I took a deep breath and tried not to look at her. “So what are we doing?” I sorted through the rack.

  “I want to try on the two Oscars, the Zac, the Cavalli, the vintage Valentino, the vintage Chanel, the Michael Kors red shift, and that white Alaia on the mannequin downstairs. Oh, you know what, do you have that Carolina in the window in my size?”

  “Let me call downstairs.” I called the stylist’s desk. “I need the Carolina in the window in a size ten. And bring up the cream Lanvin, size eight. Thank you. Okay what else?”

  “I like the black Dior pumps, the grey Mui Mui ballet flats are a must. I want the brown Manolo booties, the green Alaia booties, the red Vivier flats, and the brown Weitzman sandals.”