Quiet As It's Kept

by Monique Miller

  Isaiah giggled hard, then waited for his aunt to say his favorite phrase again. Nicole repeated her baby talk to the baby, making him laugh a few more times.

  Looking at the clock on the computer, Will spoke up, interrupting the bonding session Isaiah was having with his aunt. “Hey, Nicole. I am going to have to talk with you a little later. I was in the middle of something—”

  “Yeah, you were. You were about to tell me why you are looking like you lost your best friend.”

  “That’s because in a way I feel like I did.” Will knew that he wasn’t going to easily get rid of his sister. He was going to have to tell her something, and he was going to have to tell her at least part of the truth—the truth about his leaving the house. “I was in the process of packing some things. I am leaving Morgan.”

  Nicole’s jaw dropped in disbelief. She was quiet for a moment, and then said, “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, as a heart attack.”

  Will sat Isaiah on the floor next to him.

  “Why? What’s wrong? Is it that bad?”

  “It is that bad, and I can’t tell you about it right now. I was just trying to pack a few things when you called. And she’ll be home from work pretty soon. I don’t want to be here when she gets here. There’s no telling what she might try to do to me.”

  “Oh, dear Lord. I’m sorry that whatever is going on with you and Morgan is that bad.” Nicole shook her head. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, we’ll be fine. With the grace of God, we will be fine.” Will looked at the time again. “I gotta go.”

  “Okay, okay.” Nicole shook her head again. “Call me as soon as you get a chance.”

  “I will. Isaiah and I are going over to Phillip’s house. I’ll give you a call later on tonight. I just want to get out of here.”

  “Hang in there, big brother.”

  “I will, sis. Love you.”

  “Love you too,” Nicole said.

  Will looked down to see where Isaiah was. The baby was starting to crawl up the steps. Will jumped up and pulled him off the second step. “No, no, little guy. You’re not ready to navigate the steps yet.”

  As Will talked to Isaiah, the baby seemed to be looking beyond him, as if focused on something else. Then Isaiah said, “Mama, Mama.” Lately, the only time the baby said those words was when Morgan was in his presence. And Will prayed that Morgan wasn’t standing behind him. If she was, he was glad the baby had at least given him the warning signal.

  Slowly, Will turned around and saw his living nightmare standing right behind him. Somehow, for the very first time, he didn’t see the beautiful woman he had married. What he saw was a devil in disguise.

  Morgan squinted at him. “Will, what is going on?”

  “Morgan.” Will paused. Should he even keep up false pretenses? “I’m leaving.” Will stepped past her and put Isaiah on the floor next to the playpen.

  “Leaving? What do you mean, you are leaving?”

  “Just what I said, Morgan.”

  “But why? I told you we could go to counseling.” Morgan’s eyes shot wildly around the den. “What is all this?”

  Will hadn’t realized how much he had disrupted the house by going through each of the rooms, arbitrarily throwing things into a suitcase. It looked like a small hurricane had gone through there, with things knocked down and out of place.

  “As I said, I’m leaving,” Will repeated. “And I’m taking Isaiah with me.”

  “What?” Morgan screamed. Her face snarled with rage. “You are not taking my son anywhere.”

  Matching her pitch and volume, Will said, “Oh, yes, I am. And don’t you even try to stop me.”

  “There is no way I am going to let you take my baby. This is totally uncalled for, and if you think you are taking Isaiah out of here, then you are sadly mistaken.” Morgan picked the cordless phone up off of its base. “I’ll call the police.” She started punching numbers on the phone.

  “Call them, Ci Ci,” Will said.

  Morgan abruptly stopped dialing. “What?”

  “You heard me, Ci Ci.”

  “Why are you calling me that?”

  “That is your name, isn’t it? Or is Ci Ci short for something else? I didn’t find that much out.”

  Morgan placed the phone back down. “What on earth are you talking about?” Her eyes darted around the room, looking at almost everything but him.

  “You know exactly what I am talking about. I took a little road trip today. And do you know where I went?”

  “No, I don’t know where you went.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. “I just know you are acting strange right now.” Morgan stepped over to the bookshelf and picked up a picture frame that had fallen over, placing it back neatly.

  “I went to Warsaw.”

  Morgan froze in mid-movement.

  “You know where that is, right? It’s the little town that it hurts you to talk about because of all your sad memories.”

  Morgan continued standing in front of the bookshelf with her back to him, as if frozen.

  “You’ve got memories all right, I’m sure. Memories of all your old friends,” Will said.

  She turned back toward him, shaking her head. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” The fury in her voice had deflated, turning it into one of innocence.

  Will wasn’t buying her act for a second. “So, what, do you have amnesia now? Well, let me give you some smelling salts; maybe they will help wake you, so you will remember your dear little hometown and all of your friends and family.”

  Morgan picked up one of Isaiah’s toys and placed it in his playpen. “Friends and family? You are just talking crazy now.”

  “Yeah, your friends, Morgan. I mean, Ci Ci. Your friends like Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Mike.”

  “What?”

  “Okay, I forgot to get the names of all the guys I met who said they knew you. They said they knew all about your birthmark and everything. And from the way they were talking, I am sure you probably slept with a Mike or Bobby sometime in your life.”

  “Just stop, Will. That’s ridiculous.” Morgan fluffed a pillow on the couch.

  “Ridiculous? Are you for real? What about your mother, Morgan? Ms. Geraldine?”

  Again, Morgan stopped dead in her tracks.

  “Is your living and breathing mother a figment of my imagination? And what about your son?”

  Morgan looked over at Isaiah.

  “Not Isaiah. I said your son, not our son.”

  She picked one of the baby’s teething toys up off of the coffee table and looked from Isaiah to Will. “You had no right to do that. To go to Warsaw and see . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  Will finished the statement for her. “Your supposedly dead mother and the son you never told me you had?” He didn’t say anything about the other two children she’d supposedly lost to the state. He wondered if she would come clean about that part.

  He wondered if she would be forthcoming about anything else she was hiding. Everything he had told her so far was information he’d gotten from the guys at the restaurant. Will and Phillip had driven over to the purple house on Gum Street. They’d sat outside for almost a half hour just looking at the house.

  Phillip and Isaiah had been troopers as they waited patiently for Will to figure out if he was going to knock on the door of the house. In the end, Will couldn’t knock on the door. He wondered what he would say and how he would say it. He had no idea what the situation was or wasn’t between Morgan and her mother.

  The weight of information that he’d already found out was too much for him, and he didn’t know how much more he could take. And, in his mind, he now knew where to find Morgan’s living mother. So he’d ended up telling Phillip to leave so they could go ahead back to his house.

  “Look, Will, I can explain,” Morgan said, finally giving him her full attention.

  “I don’t want to hear it right now. It’s been a long day and I just want to get some rest.”
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  Will picked up his cell phone from the computer desk. “We can talk later about how we are going to handle this. And I’ll come back tomorrow to get some more of my things.”

  “Will, you can’t leave. I am not going to let you take Isaiah anywhere.” Morgan stepped to him and grabbed his shirt. “Don’t do this Will. We can work all of this out.”

  “No, we can’t. This entire relationship has been built on lies. I don’t know what to believe from you. I can’t trust you at all.”

  He pulled her hands off of him and looked around for Isaiah. Again, the baby had made his way over to the steps. Will moved over to get the baby, who had this time made it up to the third step. He picked him up and held him on his hip.

  Morgan stood directly in front of Will, trying to block his path. “No, Will, don’t do this. Don’t leave or you’ll regret it.” Her tone was threatening.

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “No, I am promising you. Don’t leave or I’ll make sure you regret it.”

  Will rolled his eyes and, with his hand, brushed her to the side. She fell down on the floor as if he had pushed her. He had barely touched her.

  “You pushed me.”

  “I barely touched you,” Will said over his shoulder. He grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter.

  Morgan got up and ran after him. “Stop, don’t leave.”

  “Don’t leave so, what, you can try to kill me again?” Will asked.

  “I told you I am not trying to kill you.”

  “Yeah, well, tell it to my lawyer.”

  “Will, you don’t have to do this. Come on, let’s talk about this. Come back and sit down,” Morgan began to plead.

  “No, Morgan. I’ll be over at Phillip’s. So if you are wondering if Isaiah will be safe, he will be. I’ll take care of him.”

  In the garage, Will buckled the baby in his car seat. Then he got into the driver’s seat. Morgan stood to the side of the car with her arms folded. Will was done talking. She must have gotten the message, because she had finally stopped talking also.

  Will pulled out of the garage. In the rearview mirror he saw Morgan watching them as they drove off. She had a scowl on her face that made Will shiver even though it was well above eighty degrees outside. He hadn’t realized it, but it was as though he had been holding his breath all day. As he increased the distance between himself and Morgan, Will was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

  Chapter 24

  Will pulled up to Phillip and Shelby’s home and shut the engine off. Isaiah had fallen asleep in the back seat. He took a moment to sit and gather his breath. With his hands on the steering wheel, he closed his eyes and said a prayer to God.

  Dear Lord, I know the next few days, weeks, and months will not be easy, but I am trusting in you that you will watch over Isaiah and me as we continue to weather this storm. I also have faith, Lord, that you will carry me when any of the burden seems too heavy to bear.

  Lord, I trust you because I don’t know what else to do. I have absolutely no idea why I am going through what I am going through right now, but I want to thank you, Lord, for revealing the secrets my wife had been keeping from me. Lord, I need you now, more than I have ever needed you before in my life.

  Cover Isaiah and me in your blood. Protect us, Lord. Bless us, Lord, in our time of need. I thank you for all of your awesome works, because I know you will open a window where this door is closing. And I wait in expectancy for your hand to move.

  I thank you so very much, Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

  Will sucked in a deep breath, and with heavy feet he got out of the car. He took Isaiah out of the car seat, walked up to Phillip’s front door, and rang the doorbell. Within seconds, the door opened and his best friend welcomed him into his home.

  After he laid the baby down on the couch, Phillip helped Will retrieve the duffle bags from the car. He left everything but the things he needed right then. He hated that he and his baby would be living out of a car for an indefinite amount of time. He shook his head, because he shouldn’t have been the one to move out. If anything, Morgan should have moved out.

  Once they were back inside, Shelby offered Phillip and Will some coffee. She fixed it for them as they took seats at the bar in the kitchen.

  “You okay, man?” Phillip asked.

  Will shook his head. “No, but I know I am going to be okay. I’ve got the Father in heaven looking out for me.”

  “Man, I’ve been on my knees praying almost all evening.”

  “Thanks, my brother,” Will said.

  “Here you guys go.” Shelby handed them both mugs of coffee. She also set cream and sugar on the bar in front of them. “I am going to let you guys have some privacy.”

  “Thanks, baby,” Phillip said.

  Shelby walked over to her husband and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Will, I am going to take Isaiah upstairs to the guest room. We put P.J.’s playpen in there and I’ve got it all ready for Isaiah to sleep in.”

  “Thank you, Shelby,” Will said.

  “You know you are welcome. And I am sorry you are going through all of this. Phil and I are here for you.”

  “I know, and I can’t thank you enough.”

  “Will, you know you are like a brother to me.” Shelby gave Will a hug and then left the kitchen.

  “If you don’t feel like talking right now, I’ll understand,” Phillip said.

  “Nah, I can talk. Shoot, I need to talk, because having all this stuff swirl around in my head isn’t doing me any good. Maybe if I talk it will all start to make sense.”

  Will hadn’t said much during their almost two-hour ride home from Morgan’s hometown. He didn’t know what to think or say. Deep down, he wanted it all to be one huge mistake. But when he confronted Morgan and she looked like a deer caught in headlights, he knew that it was all true.

  “Morgan got home before I could finish packing,” Will said.

  Phillip dropped his head in disbelief. “What happened?”

  “You know, the whole time we were riding back here this afternoon, somewhere in the back of my mind I still held hope that there was an explanation for what was going on. So I confronted her with what I’d found out.”

  “What did she say?” Phillip asked.

  “At first she acted as if she didn’t know what I was talking about. Then she accused me of talking crazy, then she tried to tell me there was an explanation for her not telling me her mother was alive. When I didn’t listen to her and told her I was leaving and taking the baby, she threatened me.”

  “She straight out threatened you?” Phillip asked.

  “Yep.” Will took a sip of his coffee without adding any cream or sugar.

  Phillip took a long sip of his coffee also.

  “And before I told her I knew about her mother, she had the nerve to pick up the phone saying she was going to call the police.”

  “Did she?”

  “No. As soon as I called her Ci Ci, she stopped cold in her tracks. She put the phone down like it was on fire. I told her to go ahead and call the police. But, of course, she lost all interest once I called her by that name. And I am willing to bet that it is probably a nickname anyway.” Will shook his head. “Man, I don’t even know who I am married to.

  “Do you know that the other day I looked up and down in my house to find out information about Morgan? And I couldn’t find anything from her past, at least nothing beyond a few months before I met her. It was like she was a ghost who appeared out of thin air.”

  “You couldn’t find anything?”

  “Not a thing.”

  “That is strange. And you never wondered about her past more before now?”

  “No. Like I told you on the ride down to Warsaw, she always got misty-eyed when she talked about her deceased parents. And she said talking about her little town made her sad, so she didn’t want to talk about the place. So I didn’t make her.”

  “I wondered just how deep the secrets she’s held from
you go. Like you said, is Ci Ci her real name, or is it something else?”

  “Oh, yeah, and get this. I subtly gave her a chance to tell me about her kids, but she didn’t even acknowledge that she had children.”

  “We don’t know if that house was, in fact, her mother’s home, and we don’t know if she had any other children before she met you.”

  “No, I don’t know any of that for a fact. But those men at the restaurant had no reason to lie to us. And when I confronted Morgan about her mother and son she pleaded for me to listen to her, telling me she could explain it all.”

  “Man, this is some stuff straight out of a movie,” Phillip said.

  “I’d say so, because when I didn’t listen, she got mad and threatened me. I went ahead and got out of there with the baby. She looked at me as if she could kill me with her eyes alone. And just let me tell you, it wasn’t a pretty picture when I finally got out of there.”

  “All jokes aside, this is all some pretty heavy stuff,” Phillip said.

  “Tell me about it. With everything that has gone on, I can’t imagine how any of this could get any worse. I think I’ve hit rock bottom,” Will said.

  The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” they heard Shelby say. A few seconds later, they heard Shelby call out, “Phillip and Will, can you come to the door please?”

  Both men looked at each other questioningly, wondering what was going on. They got up from their stools.

  Standing just outside of the door were two police officers.

  Shelby said, “They want to see Will.”

  Will’s eyebrows rose in question. “You want to see me?” Will asked the officers.

  “Are you Mr. Will Tracy?” one of the officers asked.

  “Yes, I am, but what is this all about? Why do you need to see me?”

  “Mr. Tracy, your wife has filed charges against you for assault. We’d like you to come with us to answer some questions.”

  “She filed charges against me?” Will laughed. “Now that’s funny. I should be the one filing charges against her.” Will rolled his neck. “I can’t believe this is going on.”

  “Mr. Tracy, can you come with us, please?” the other officer said.