“Thank you, Angie,” Gabrielle said, rubbing the side of her temple as she tried hard to hide her true feelings.
“Okay then. I’m gonna go now. But don’t forget what I said about that wedding dress. And those purple satin gowns y’all bridesmaids are wearing with the rhinestones on the top edge of that one shoulder drop with pleats going diagonally and pleats around the waist are banging, too. Although I like those two better”—Angie pointed at Tiffany and Tameka’s dresses—“they fit better across the stomach. No offense but you”—she pointed at Fatima—“look like you’re pregnant in yours.”
“Well, since I am pregnant, then no offense taken,” Fatima said.
Angie smiled and left with Fatima gleefully closing the door behind her.
After being sure she was out of earshot, Fatima turned to Gabrielle and said, “Is she for real?”
“Yep,” Gabrielle said.
“And you grew up with her?” Fatima said.
“For a little over fourteen years,” Gabrielle said. “I most certainly did.”
“Well, God bless you, child,” Fatima said. “Because I think I’d have to hurt that one if she was any kin to me.”
Queen knocked on the door and rushed in.
“Why did you knock?” Fatima said.
“Guess who’s here?!” Queen said with so much joy everybody knew the answer.
“Zachary,” Miss Crowe said to her niece while clasping her hands together.
“Yes! And Tiffany, he’s asking to see you,” Queen said.
“Me?”
“Yes. And please hurry,” Queen said.
“My children?” Tiffany said with complete fear on her face.
“Please don’t tell me—”
“Just go. He’s down the hall a little ways waiting on you. You’ll see him,” Queen said. “Go.” Queen touched Tiffany’s hand to calm her some. “Go.”
Chapter 44
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
—John 3:29
Tiffany closed the door and quickly looked down the hall. Her hands instantly went up to her mouth as she ran down the hall, high heels and all. She grabbed up her children, wanting to be able to hold each one individually and collectively all at the same time.
“You’re okay! You’re all right!” she said as she kissed them.
“Yeah, but it was scary,” Dana said. “Daddy went in there. It’s bad, Mama. There were ambulances and bodies being put on stretchers.” She shook her head, unable to say more.
“Scary?” She looked at Dana, then Jade, and finally up at Zachary, who was standing there looking a little worn out.
“It wasn’t scary, scary, Mama,” Junior said. “There was an explosion, BOOM! And sirens and policemen and policewomen and about three fire trucks with firemen running around everywhere.”
Tiffany stood up straight and directed her complete attention to Zachary. “What?!”
“Dad’s girlfriend,” Jade said. “Apparently she was running or involved in some sort of a meth lab operation or something.”
“What? What are they talking about?” Tiffany asked Zachary as she swiped at her tears, her beautifully made-up face demolished now.
“Darius took the children over to a place where apparently they were cooking up meth—”
“He did what?!”
“Daddy got a call,” Jade said. “Well, actually, Miss Divine got a call on her phone, but she was out at the time. Daddy was on his way out the door to bring us home so we could come to the wedding, the wedding I suppose we’ve missed now.”
“I don’t think you missed it. They wouldn’t dare start without you,” Zachary said to Jade with a quick wink. “And possibly me.” He grinned. Jade grinned back.
“Oh, yeah,” Jade said, still grinning. “That’s right.”
“Back to your father,” Tiffany said to Jade. “I don’t believe that man. What was he thinking?”
“Daddy doesn’t think,” Junior said. “At least, that’s what Miss Divine said when he showed up at that house with the three of us. She asked him what on earth was he thinking bringing us with him to a place like that. She then told him he doesn’t think.”
“Junior, I’m sure Mama doesn’t care about that,” Jade said to her brother.
“Okay, so your daddy answered Miss Divine’s phone on his way to bringing you home like he promised,” Tiffany said. “So why didn’t he just drop you off at the house first, and then go do whatever stupid thing he was going to do next?”
“That’s also what Miss Divine said to Daddy,” Junior said. “Wow, Mom, you and Miss Divine must be twins or something. Y’all say the same things.”
Tiffany placed her hand on top of Junior’s head, then looked over at Jade. “So he didn’t bring you home. Why didn’t somebody call me and tell me what was going on? I’ve been worried sick about y’all for the past six hours. Why didn’t you call me, Jade? Or even you, Dana?”
“I would have called if you would have bought me a cell phone like I asked,” Jade said. “Otherwise, what was I supposed to call you with?”
Tiffany nodded. “I know, I know. I’m not blaming you, any of you.”
“Anyway, it appears Darius answered Divine’s phone she accidentally left at the house. It had some kind of a distress message with an address. He went over there and it turns out it was actually a place where they were cooking meth,” Zachary said.
“So my husband . . . their father took them to a place where they were cooking meth? Meth?” Tiffany said through clenched teeth.
“In truth, I don’t know for sure that Daddy knew that’s what they were doing,” Jade said. “He told us to stay in the car. Miss Divine must have looked out and seen him when he drove up. She came out to the car and started blasting him for bringing us and saying all those things Junior just told you she said.”
“Then Daddy and Miss Divine went toward the house and were about to go inside,” Dana said. “And—”
“BOOM!” Junior said. “There was a loud booming noise! It was so loud! And the car shook with us in it. So we all jumped out of the car and Jade made us lay flat on the ground.”
“The house exploded? Is Darius . . .” Tiffany looked at Zachary, who was using his eyes to point out that the children were there and there were likely some details they didn’t need to discuss in front of them. Tiffany nodded that she understood his coded message. “Hey, they’re waiting on you so we can have a wedding,” Tiffany said to the children. “Do you still feel like doing this or would you rather I take us home?”
“Are you kidding me?” Jade said. “I want to stay and be in the wedding.”
“Me too,” Dana said.
“Me three,” Junior said, causing Tiffany and Zachary to laugh.
“Well, okay then. Let’s get you three dressed in a hurry, or should I say four since I think they’re also waiting on the groom.” Tiffany looked at Zachary and smiled.
“Yeah, I think he might be a little bit important,” Dana said. “Dr. Z?”
“Yes?” Zachary said.
“Thank you,” Dana said, hugging him. “Thank you for everything. I hope and pray that Daddy’s going to be all right.” She looked up at Zachary, who smiled.
“Yeah, Dr. Z. Thanks for everything,” Jade said. She then looked at her little brother. “Junior.”
“What?”
“Don’t you have something you need to say to Dr. Z?”
Junior walked over to Zachary. “Dr. Z, can I please go with you to put on my outfit? I don’t want Mama to dress me. The mood she’s in right now, she’ll be kissing me all over my face and treating me like a little baby. I’ve been in this place before. Please, Dr. Z. May I go and get dressed with you?”
Zachary smiled and placed his hand on Junior’s head as Junior looked up at him with his classic puppy dog eyes routine. “Sure. That’s if it’s
okay with your mother.” Zachary looked at Tiffany, who tearfully nodded.
“I need to go get his suit and bring it out,” Tiffany said. “But we do need to hurry. Everybody has been waiting for a while now.” Tiffany put her arms around her daughters’ shoulders and walked them to the dressing room. She hurried back out and held Junior’s tux out to Zachary.
“Mama, I can take it,” Junior said. “I’m a big boy. I promise I won’t drop it or anything.”
“Yes, you are a big boy,” Tiffany said, handing the tux to Junior instead. “You most certainly are.”
Zachary and Junior left, going toward their own dressing area. Tiffany hurried back inside where the women were still gathered.
Tiffany’s children were okay. Tiffany now knew there had been an awful explosion. Darius was hurt but alive. But there was still going to be a wedding.
God had heard and answered everybody’s prayers.
Chapter 45
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
—Ephesians 4:13
At five o’clock in the afternoon, on June 11, in the year of our Lord 2011, Gabrielle Mercedes stood in the hallway as the wedding party began their processional march.
She couldn’t see the ones lined up in the hallway with her after they turned the corner. But she knew that Pastor Landris was standing up front with Zachary next to him, and Zachary’s father as his best man next to him, along with Zachary’s brother Yancey, his cousin, and a colleague in that order. Zachary would be wearing a white tux with a purple cummerbund—purple being the color of royalty and totally Miss Crowe’s choice, although it was the color Gabrielle had been planning on . . . either purple or a pretty cobalt blue. The best man and groomsmen were wearing black tuxes with purple cummerbunds.
Junior looked so cute in his little all white tux and purple cummerbund. After Tiffany checked on him to be sure he was properly dressed, she came back and said, “That son of mine is as sharp as a tack!”
All the junior bridesmaids, the bridesmaids, and the matron of honor wore purple with the adults’ dresses having one side slanted off the shoulder. The children wore more Cinderella-like ballroom gowns, Gabrielle certain that was more of Jasmine’s doing than probably Miss Crowe. They were all so beautiful. And Dana, the flower girl, was dressed in all white, a miniature version of a bride, only a ballroom-style dress. As an added touch, Miss Crowe had ensured that every female member of the wedding party was sporting a beautiful tiara, though none matched the one Miss Crowe had for the bride. They were like a queen and a court of princesses.
Every person in the wedding on this day had to feel special.
Wanting to have had a hand in something with her wedding dress-up, Gabrielle had found a pair of pretty open-toe, white satin shoes with tiny roses on the straps. They were cute. Even Jasmine had said so, although she’d said it with a small giggle.
But Miss Crowe had one more unexpected surprise for Gabrielle, and she’d apparently enlisted Zachary’s cooperation in pulling it off. Gabrielle would learn what that was after she made her way to the altar.
The large mahogany double wooden doors opened and Gabrielle and her father strolled in arm in arm down the long aisle. Bennie glanced over at her and, on more than one occasion, was caught wiping away a tear. Then Zachary almost messed up by trying to take possession of Gabrielle before the appropriate time. Everybody laughed and Zachary wiped his forehead, shaking his head as he smiled adoringly at Gabrielle.
“Take My Breath Away” by Berlin played after the traditional wedding march and what most call the “giving away of the bride.” Only they’d opted to call it the “presenting of the bride” by the father to the groom. “All My Life” by K-Ci & JoJo was played immediately after the prayer and prior to the lighting of the unity candle, which was followed immediately by a unity sand ceremony that was beyond both touching and beautiful.
The unity sand ceremony included a large heart-shaped monogrammed vase with the letter M, and not just two separate smaller vases with different-colored quartz sand, but four.
“The unity sand ceremony symbolizes what are individuals now coming together as one,” Pastor Landris said. “Beginning with the white sand I shall pour first to represent the foundation on which this blessed union is being built: the Word of God and a confession of faith in Jesus Christ.” Pastor Landris poured the white sand from his small vase into the larger heart-shaped vase.
“Now I’ll ask Gabrielle and Zachary, the bride and groom, to pour their sand along with Gabrielle’s sweet little daughter, Miss Jasmine, as an indication of what was separate, now becoming one—never to be separated as, once mixed, grains of sand can not effectively be separated out.”
The three of them poured their individual vases of sand at the same time: Zachary’s indigo blue, Gabrielle’s dark pink, and Jasmine’s light pink all flowing and mixing, creating a beautiful work of art in the process. Jasmine had the biggest grin on her face as she watched the sands flow and come together.
After that, the wedding ceremony went pretty much as most weddings do with the exchanging of vows and declarations to love, honor, and cherish. But then came the one surprise Gabrielle hadn’t known about and wasn’t expecting. The one she was certain Miss Crowe, and most assuredly Jasmine, had teamed up with Zachary to do.
One of the ushers from the back walked up the aisle with a glass slipper on a beautifully decorated satin pillow. He held the pillow before Zachary and bowed his head as Zachary took the glass slipper off the pillow and kneeled down before Gabrielle. Gabrielle thought she was absolutely going to lose it at that point.
Pastor Landris was in on it as well. He said, “The prince is promising his kingdom to the one whose foot fits this glass slipper. Others have tried and failed. Gabrielle, Zachary is asking you to place your foot in the slipper.” Pastor Landris looked at Gabrielle, who was blushing at this point, but also praying that the shoe would fit, since she hadn’t tried it on prior to this, considering she hadn’t known any of this would be taking place. What an embarrassment it would be if the shoe didn’t fit.
Zachary pulled off the shoe she was wearing on her right foot, then carefully and lovingly slipped the glass slipper, which had an oval-shaped Swarovski crystal the size of two thumbs on the top of it, on to her foot. It went on as though it had been custom made for her. She smiled at Zachary, who stood up and took hold of her hand. Then before she knew anything, Miss Crowe stepped forward, holding out the matching glass slipper inside of a see-through plastic box. Zachary took that shoe, kneeled down again, pulled off Gabrielle’s other shoe, and slipped on the matching glass slipper. He took her other shoes and placed them in the plastic box Miss Crowe held. Miss Crowe winked at them and went back to her mother-of-the-bride seat.
“In as much as these two have pledged their love and devotion to each other,” Pastor Landris said. “And in as much as the shoe fits”—everybody laughed, interrupting him, although he had to pause because he was laughing as well—“it is with great joy and divine pleasure that I, Pastor George Edward Landris, now pronounce you . . . man and wife.” He looked at Zachary and smiled. “I know you’ve been waiting a long time for me to say this. Dr. Zachary Wayne Morgan, you may kiss your bride!”
Zachary looked at Gabrielle with so much love in his eyes. He didn’t make a joke out of it or anything. And as she looked at him, she saw one single tear making its way down his face. He lovingly leaned in and sealed their love with a kiss.
Chapter 46
And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
—Zechariah 3:2
Tiffany left quickly, as soon as the wedding ceremony and wedding pictures had been taken. She asked Fatima to watch her children for her since they really wanted to go to the reception.
Zachary had told Tif
fany privately, right before the wedding ceremony began, what he hadn’t wanted to say in front of the children. Darius had been burned in the fire, plucked from it just in time. He was stable for now, and it appeared he would live. He’d told Tiffany that Darius had been placed in a purposely induced state like a coma for now to keep him from experiencing the intensity of the pain. She could go to the hospital, but Darius wouldn’t even know she was there. They would be bringing him out of the coma in the morning to begin the real work that was ahead of him. Zachary assured her there was an excellent team in place working on Darius.
Tiffany didn’t know exactly how she felt at this point. Darius had filed for divorce over thirty days ago. In fact, she hadn’t contested it, even though she’d considered doing so. Her lawyer had advised her that there was nothing she could really do to stop the divorce, short of the two of them reconciling and dropping the case entirely.
But Darius had made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want to be married to her anymore and that there was nothing she could say or do that would ever, not in a million years, change his mind. He’d reiterated that anything she did to delay things would be stupid on her part. And it would only be taking money from their children to give to the lawyers and the court, which, in the end, wasn’t going to change their inevitable outcome. The final approved paperwork was set to be delivered to her on Monday. But on this day, she believed she still had a legal right to see Darius, as his wife. Come Monday, she wouldn’t.
She was allowed in to see him without any problems. He was bandaged up in some places, exposed in most. Darius’s doctor said he would have to have skin grafting done. The gory details of what would happen caused her to cringe. She was told recovery would be a long and painful ordeal. But Darius had been one of the fortunate ones, he and the woman he’d protected. In fact, had they walked in that house one minute earlier, a mere sixty seconds, which would have put them closer to the brunt of the explosion, neither of them would be here right now. Two people had already died and two were so badly burned they really weren’t expected to make it.
The Other Side of Divine Page 26
