A Family Reunion

by Jackson, Brenda

  He shut his eyes against the pain and heartache that suddenly racked his body. He’d been a fool to believe she had cared for him. He’d even convinced himself that she had begun falling in love with him and that eventually she would love him as much as he loved her. The media had been right. Alexia Bennett didn’t love any man. She used them until she had her fill, then tossed them aside.

  He opened his eyes when he heard the shower stop. Crossing the room, he picked up his pants and shirt and began putting them on. His heart began aching even more when his hand brushed against his pants pocket and felt the box inside. It was the box that contained the engagement ring he had planned to give her tonight. How could he have been so stupid? The tigress had definitely done a job on him. She had used her long, sharp claws and completely ripped his heart in two.

  Quinn didn’t turn around when he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening.

  “Quinn? Why are you getting dressed? I thought you’d be staying tonight,” Alexia said behind him.

  He turned around slowly to face her.

  The smile on Alexia’s face vanished when she saw the dark, cold look in Quinn’s eyes and the tight way he was holding his chin. It was obvious that he was upset about something. “Quinn, what is it? What’s wrong?”

  “You got a call while you were in the shower,” he said quietly.

  Alexia wondered what call she could have gotten that had upset him so much. “What did they want?”

  His dark eyes blazed in anger, but his voice was rather calm when he spoke. “It was your cousin Rae’jean. I didn’t pick it up. She left a message for you on your answering machine. I suggest that you replay it.”

  Alexia heard the quiet anger in his voice and was confused by it. “All right.” She walked across the room and pushed the replay button.

  And she listened.

  At the end of the recording she took a deep breath, knowing she had a lot of explaining to do. She slowly turned around to Quinn. The anger she felt radiating from him was so thick that even from across the room she could cut it with a knife. “I can explain things, Quinn,” she said softly, meeting his gaze.

  “Can you?”

  She heard the pain in his voice and her heart began to ache. “Yes.”

  He continued to stare at her before saying, “Just answer this for me. Did you set me up, Alexia? Was the only reason you invited me over that first night to get pregnant from me?”

  The room got completely quiet. The only sounds were their breathing. It seemed like an eternity before Alexia finally answered. “Yes,” she said miserably. “That was my initial plan, but—”

  “No!” Quinn said, the sound so loud that it thundered off the walls. “If that’s true, then there’s really nothing else you can say, is there? You lied to me. You deliberately used me.” He then began walking to the door.

  “Quinn! Wait! Please let me explain.”

  Quinn stopped walking. “There’s nothing to explain.” He then thought about the number of times they had made love without protection because he’d assumed she was on some sort of birth control. “Did you succeed in getting what you wanted, Alexia? Are you pregnant?”

  Alexia inhaled a deep breath. She started to lie but then changed her mind. Lying would only make things worse between them. She met his dark gaze. “Yes. I found out today that I’m pregnant.”

  Quinn’s insides twisted into knots. The woman he loved was carrying his child, but she had lied and deceived him to get it. “There’s something you should know,” he said in a voice laced with steel as his eyes held hers. “I will take you to court to gain full custody of my child. By the time I finish with you, you won’t have anything left, not even a decent name or a singing career, and you sure won’t have my child. I’ll make damn sure of that, Alexia. You’ve used a man for the very last time.”

  Tears shimmered in Alexia’s eyes. “You don’t understand, Quinn. I fell in love with you. No matter what my intentions were in the beginning, I love you now. Please believe me.”

  “I don’t believe anything you say,” he said coldly. He turned around to leave.

  “You lied to me, Quinn.”

  Quinn stopped walking and turned around slowly. “What the hell are you talking about? Don’t try shifting guilt here, Alexia. You aren’t the one who got used, so don’t pretend otherwise.”

  She swiped at her tears. “You did lie to me. You promised you wouldn’t hurt me and that I could trust you.”

  Quinn just stared at her, taken aback by her words. Before he could give her a flaming retort, she continued.

  “But you are hurting me, Quinn. You’re hurting me by not believing in me and by not trusting me. You asked me to believe in you and to trust you, but you never intended to believe in me and to trust me. And knowing that hurts.”

  Quinn inhaled deeply. His feelings and emotions were too raw to deal with this right now. What she was saying wasn’t making a whole lot of sense. As far as he was concerned, she was deliberately trying to confuse the issue and place the blame on him when all he’d ever wanted to do was love her. Totally. Completely. He inhaled another deep breath, and without saying anything, he turned and walked out of the bedroom.

  It was only when Alexia heard the sound of the front door closing behind him that she hugged her stomach and gave in to her tears.

  Chapter 41

  Montego Bay, Jamaica

  “So, you two,” Victor Junior murmured as he joined Taye and Michael on the hotel’s patio as they enjoyed tropical drinks. “When you want to stir up things, y’all go all the way. There hasn’t been this much excitement in the Bennett family since everyone found out Cuzin Louis was gay.”

  “Umm, you’re probably right,” Taye murmured, looking up at him. “I hear the family is split down the middle. What’re your feelings?”

  Victor Junior sat back in his chair. “Hey, I don’t have a problem with it. Like you said, it’s not like the two of you are blood relations, so if you get pregnant we don’t have to worry about your having a water-head baby or anything like that.”

  He then leaned in closer. “You might as well know that Daddy didn’t have a problem with it, either, until he started listening to Valerie. So watch out for her. The witch has her broom and is riding pretty high on it.”

  Michael met his cousin’s gaze. “Taye and I aren’t worried about Valerie or anyone else, for that matter.”

  Victor Junior took a sip of his drink before saying, “What about the grandfathers? You should be worried about them. Word’s out that Poppa Ethan and Cuzin Henry are calling an emergency family meeting at Poppa Ethan’s house as soon as you two return home.”

  Michael nodded as he looked down into his drink. In the past, he had always gotten his grandfather’s support on anything he’d ever done. He wondered if his Grampa Henry would support him on this. “If there’s a meeting, Taye and I will be there. We don’t like the rift it’s caused between the family and want it resolved.” He reached out and captured Taye’s hand in his and lovingly met her gaze. “But there’s no way, whether we get their blessings or not, we will sacrifice what we feel for each other.”

  Victor Junior shook his head, chuckling. “Damn, man, you two got it bad.”

  Michael returned the chuckle. “Has anyone seen Rae’jean lately?”

  Victor Junior shrugged his shoulders. “Not lately. I understand she’s around here somewhere babying Alexia. Word’s out that Alexia’s boyfriend dumped her. She hasn’t taken those shades off her eyes since she’s gotten here. Can you imagine Alexia actually crying over anything? Especially over a man? I thought she was a lot tougher than that. I heard Valerie tell Dad she hopes Alexia’s puffy eyes clear up before she has to sing at the wedding.”

  Taye shook her head. “Valerie is all heart, isn’t she?”

  “Yeah,” Victor Junior said, smiling. “If you like the frozen kind.” His smile widened. “And of course she had something to say about the white man dumping Rae’jean.”

  Taye
started to say something about Victor Junior’s comment but happened to see Brandy rush across the patio. She appeared to be upset about something. “Excuse me for a minute,” Taye said to Michael and Victor Junior. “I need to see Brandy about something.”

  Getting up from the table, Taye followed the same route Brandy had taken a few minutes earlier, which led her to a storage room. She started to knock on the door, but when she heard Brandy crying inside she opened the door and went in.

  Brandy was sitting across the room on a huge plastic can with her back to Taye, weeping miserably. Taye quietly closed the door behind her and wondered if Brandy was going through what most people referred to as bridal jitters.

  “Brandy, are you all right?”

  Brandy turned on her fuming. “What are you doing here? I came in here to be alone, Taye. May I have some privacy please?”

  Taye immediately went on the defensive. “Hey, that’s fine with me. I thought you were upset about something and decided to come check on you. Forgive me for caring.”

  Taye had turned to leave when she heard Brandy say in a heart-wrenching, sobbing voice. “I’m sorry, Taye.”

  Taye turned back around. Surprised. Shocked. She’d never heard Brandy apologize for anything, especially for having been rude.

  “I’m just feeling so confused about everything right now,” Brandy continued.

  Taye lifted a brow. “Are you starting to have doubts about whether or not you really love Lorenzo?”

  Brandy shook her head. “No, I love him, but…”

  “But what?”

  Brandy lifted her head to meet Taye’s gaze. Her eyes were filled with tears. She hesitated a few moments before saying, “He—he’s having an affair.”

  “What!”

  Brandy nodded as fresh tears flooded her eyes. “Yes. I just found out.”

  This news was a little bit much. Taye leaned against the closed door. “What do you mean you just found out?”

  Brandy swiped at her eyes a few times before answering. “You know that at the wedding reception we planned to show videotapes taken during our courtship of places we visited together?”

  Taye nodded. “Yes, I heard something about it.”

  “Well, before leaving the States to come here I went by Lorenzo’s apartment and collected them all. Most of them were easy to find, but some I had to really look hard for, since his apartment is so cluttered. Well, I found one that didn’t have a label on it on the top shelf in his closet. I assumed it was one he forgot to mark, so I put it in the bag with the rest and brought it along.”

  Taye shook her head. “Go on.”

  “Well, a few minutes ago, while alone in my hotel room, I took the time to watch them, thinking the unmarked one was the tape he made when we went hiking in the North Carolina mountains earlier this year.”

  Brandy swiped at her eyes again when more tears appeared. “But that wasn’t it. It was a videotape of Lorenzo and another woman making love.”

  Taye’s eyes widened. “You actually saw Lorenzo having sex with another woman on a video?”

  “Yes. And the tape was dated last month.”

  Taye shook her head. What a blow for a woman the day before her wedding. “Did you recognize the woman with him in the video, Brandy?” she asked quietly, curiously.

  Brandy nodded again. The tears in her eyes got fuller. “Yes. That’s what hurts so bad, Taye. The other woman was Jolene.”

  “Jolene! Your best friend, Jolene?”

  “Yes!” she wailed. “Can you believe that!”

  That news angered Taye beyond logical thinking, and she went off on a tangent. “Oh, that’s real deep. That’s really cheap. The low-life sneak.” Taye couldn’t help but remember all the attention the woman had given Michael at the family reunion. “Jolene is supposed to be your best friend and she is caught on video making out with your fiancé? I can’t believe it!”

  “Neither can I,” Brandy said, as she started to sob all over again. “How could she do this to me? How could he have done this to me? There’s no way I can marry him now. All of you came here for nothing.”

  Taye quickly walked over to Brandy when she began sobbing and wailing unmercifully, letting it all out. To say Brandy was in complete agony was putting it mildly. Taye leaned down and placed her arms around Brandy’s shoulders. “It’s OK, Brandy. At least you found out what a dog he is before the wedding,” she said, handing her some paper towels from out of a case stored nearby.

  Brandy nodded as she continued sobbing. “Momma’s gonna have a cow. If I call off the wedding she’ll be totally embarrassed. She invited a lot of her friends to come here.”

  Taye nodded. Knowing Valerie, she definitely would be embarrassed. She’d been walking around with her chest poked out gloating that her daughter was marrying into money. “Don’t worry about your momma having a cow. She’ll be in good company. My momma has had two cows already, and just a few days ago she gave birth to a third.”

  Brandy chuckled through her tears. “Oh, Taye, what am I going to do?”

  Taye took a deep breath. She wasn’t good at handing out advice, but there was one thing she knew for certain that she could tell Brandy. “The first thing you’re going to do is stop crying. Lorenzo isn’t worth your tears. Then we’ll decide what’s the best way to go about calling off the wedding. But for right now you should come to my room until you can pull yourself together.”

  Brandy nodded and swiped at her eyes some more. “OK. I don’t want anyone to see me like this.”

  “Come on then. We’ll take the back elevator up to my floor.”

  “Shhh, Rae’jean, please try and keep your voice down. Brandy is in the other room trying to rest. Poor thing cried herself to sleep.”

  Rae’jean glared. “I’m too mad to keep my voice down,” she said, lowering it anyway. “I can’t believe the nerve of some men.”

  “Or of some women,” Alexia added as she leisurely took a sip of coffee. “Let’s not forget Jolene’s part in all of this.” Alexia had finally taken off her shades, but her eyes were still slightly swollen. She’d told herself not to cry any longer. She had gotten herself in this mess with Quinn and she was determined to get herself out of it somehow by doing whatever it took to convince him that she really did love him. She had sent something to him earlier that day and wondered if he had gotten it yet.

  “The two-bit hussy,” Rae’jean said, her tone sharp. “I can’t believe Jolene would do this to someone who is supposed to be her best friend.”

  Alexia stood and walked over to the coffee maker to refill her cup. “Well, if you ask me, Brandy got just what she deserved.”

  Taye and Rae’jean glared at Alexia. “That’s a cruel thing to say, Alexia. No woman deserves finding out her man is cheating on her,” Rae’jean said.

  Alexia glared back. “If the two of you want sympathy from me for Brandy, forget it. And why are you trippin’ over this for her benefit? She’s never been nice to us.”

  Rae’jean was fuming. “No matter how nasty Brandy has acted in the past, Alexia, you’ve forgotten one very important thing.”

  “What?” Alexia snapped.

  “She’s family.”

  Taye nodded. “I agree, and the first thing we need to do is help Brandy come up with a way to call off the wedding.”

  Alexia came and sat back down. As much as she hated admitting it, Taye and Rae’jean were right. No matter what, Brandy was family. “Why call off the wedding?” she asked smartly.

  Rae’jean raised her eyes to the ceiling. “Lex, be for real. What woman in her right mind would go ahead and marry a man whom she caught on videotape screwing her best friend?”

  A mischievous smile tilted Alexia’s lips. “A pretty smart one if she plays her cards right.”

  Taye lifted a brow. “What are you talking about?”

  Alexia leaned back in her chair. “Look around you. Lorenzo and his family are loaded. If I were Brandy, I’d get him right where it would hurt—in his bank accou
nt. I’d go ahead with the wedding, and before the ink dried on the marriage license I’d be filing for a divorce and demanding that I got half of everything he owns.”

  Rae’jean laughed. “Hey, that’s rich, no pun intended.”

  Taye shook her head. “It won’t work in this case.”

  Alexia’s smile vanished. “Why not?”

  “Because Brandy mentioned that she signed a prenuptial agreement yesterday.”

  Alexia’s smile returned. “It still might work. I remember Quinn sharing something with me regarding the legality of a prenuptial agreement. He said that in certain situations they could be overturned. I would think that this would be one of those situations.” She sat up straighter in her chair, smiling. “But to cover our bases, I have another great idea.”

  “Oh, no,” Taye said miserably. “The last time you got that look on your face, we were fourteen and got into big trouble for sneaking onto the Parkers’ place and stealing one of his prized watermelons because you’d developed a craving for fresh fruit.”

  Alexia frowned. “It wasn’t stealing, Taye. It was feeding the hungry. Now hush; let me think this through.” After a few minutes she said, “I assume Brandy signed the prenuptial agreement with the Ballentines’ family attorney, Mr. Gleason.”

  Taye nodded. “Yes. He’s the same man who tried talking you up to his hotel room last night. Can you believe he’s married? I understand his wife won’t be flying in until the day of the wedding.”

  Alexia nodded. “If he hasn’t left the hotel since those papers were signed, chances are he still has them somewhere in his room.”

  “Probably,” Rae’jean said. She raised a brow at her cousin. “I hope you’re not suggesting we break into the man’s hotel room and steal those papers.”

  “No. I plan to let you into his room.”

  Taye crossed her arms over her chest. “And how will you manage to do that?”

  “Tonight I’ll let Mr. Gleason think he’s talked me into going up to his room for a drink.” Alexia’s smile curved her lips. “Well, actually, I’m going to let him think I’m going up to his room for something else. I’ll leave his hotel room unlocked, and at a specified time, while I have him somewhat occupied, the two of you will sneak into his room and find the papers.”