“I wanted to have an opportunity to think clearly about what I want to do with the rest of my life because I also operated a school for troubled teens.”
“So, when I came to San Antonio, it was not my intentions to get involved with anyone and then you appeared and I really, really like you!”
Antonio didn’t know what to say and then Sasha said, “I’m not finished, there’s more!”
“I saw the doctors today and I was told that I am twelve weeks pregnant.”
“Well Sasha, we know it is not my baby since you have only been here about two months.”
“That’s right Antonio but I wanted you to know about it!”
“I am so sorry Antonio.”
“Don’t be sorry, Sasha!”
“I am glad you finally told me the truth but I wish you had told me sooner.”
“Would it have made that much difference to you?” Sasha asked.
“Yes, Sasha, it probably would have but that’s not important now.”
“What are you going to do?” Antonio asked not knowing what to say to her.
“I don’t know because the baby could be my husband’s or Tony, the one I saw before ending our relationship and coming to San Antonio”
Antonio appeared to have lost his appetite but made polite conversation. Then he suddenly, looked up at Sasha and asked, “Have you considered remaining in San Antonio?”
She had but she just didn’t know what she would do now.
Antonio suddenly blurted out, “Do you want to marry me?”
“Married, are you serious?” Sasha asked. “Why would you want to marry me after all I just told you?”
“I love you Sasha!”
“You make my life exciting and I have a difficult time whenever I am away from you too long.”
“Sasha, we are so good together and I’m not just talking about our lovemaking.”
“I don’t care whose baby you are carrying.”
“We can make it work.”
“You’re telling me that you don’t care about the fact that I was a Call Girl and with other men.”
“No because I have been with other women so it doesn’t matter to me.”
“What matters to me is who you are right now today, and that is, you’re the best thing that has happened to me in a long time.” Antonio said while gazing into Sasha’s beautiful eyes.
“So, what do you say?”
“Will you consider marrying me, Sasha?” “Let me think about it because I have a lot of loose ends to tie up back home.”
“Well, we can go back there together.” Antonio responded.
“We could but I want to think without the pressure of knowing that you are with me expecting an answer.”
“Oh, okay, well I can be patient just let me know what you want to do.”
“Antonio, you know I could decide to stay in Montclair and just have the baby and raise it on my own,” Sasha said.
“I know that’s why I want to come with you but you’re right, you need to make your own decisions.”
“I support whatever you want to do and I want to keep seeing you so I will be up front with you so you know that I am not planning on going anywhere.”
“Sasha couldn’t believe that even after hearing everything she had to say about her life, Antonio still wanted to be with her.”
Sasha couldn’t help but be flattered by Antonio’s offer to marry her because it was clear that he cared deeply for her yet, she didn’t want to tie him down or have him marry her and later regret it.
After all they had only known one another for a short time. But she figured she could still keep the baby and remain in San Antonio. This way she could continue to see Antonio and it would also provide her with the time to see whether or not he would change his mind about her and the baby. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Three months passed and Sasha and Antonio relationship is continuing to flourish yet, Sasha is having a lot of anxiety wondering who the father of her unborn child is.
She is also troubled by the fact that most of her life had been based upon one lie after another and she didn’t want to lie to her child.
Even though Antonio had proven himself to be a mature and caring man, she still felt a need to let Justin and Tony know about her pregnancy because either of them could possibly be the father but she also knew that there were several scenarios that could backfire on her if she were to tell either Tony or Justin about her pregnancy.
They both could exclaim that they aren’t the father; they both could be happy about the news and want to be in the child’s life, they could view Sasha’s pregnancy as an opportunity to get back with her or they could have already moved on with their life and want nothing to do with Sasha or her baby.
Sasha believed that the best outcome for the baby was to have the father remain in her baby’s life but with or without the father’s involvement, she was committed to providing her baby with a healthy and loving environment.
She cared deeply for Antonio but she wasn’t ready to marry him or anyone else because it was too soon after her divorce from Justin.
Although she was happy and excited about her pregnancy, Sasha was also feeling a little stupid for allowing herself to become pregnant.
After all of her years as a Call Girl, she knew perfectly well what she needed to do to avoid getting pregnant, yet she had gotten pregnant by Justin or Tony and she felt so stupid and that she had failed all the girls at her school.
She wondered how she could counsel girls about their life when her own life is full of imperfections”
But on the other hand, Sasha thought who better to do it than someone who knows better and yet still has faults.
Sasha enjoyed working with the girls at the school and she was good at her job. Every girl that graduated from her program were either back in school or headed off to college so she had a good batting average in helping to turn girls' lives around.
But Sasha worried about what the girls would think of her, if they were to find out about her pregnancy.
Would they still view her as a role model or would they see her as a foolish older woman who with all her life experiences couldn’t keep it together?
However, for Sasha, having a baby and getting pregnant at her age was not a bad thing. After all, she is in her late 30s’ and the time is right for her because she is financially in good shape to provide a good life for her child.
More importantly, she is already in love with the baby she pregnancy as blessing.
is carrying so she viewed her
nothing short of a miracle and Sasha believes that God has a way of stepping into our lives at just the right time to save us from ourselves or he provides us with little miracles that require nothing more than a loving home and environment.
Sasha could provide this and more so she didn’t know why was she so intent on letting Justin and Tony know about her pregnancy.
She believed it was to ensure her child’s father knew about the baby's existence before it is born but there was much more to her desire to be forthcoming and determined to find out about the true identity of her baby’s father.
For the time being however, Sasha decided to wait until after the baby is born to seek the true identity of her child’s father.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Six months later, Sasha gives birth to a baby girl who she names Jasmine. Throughout all of this Antonio has been right by Sasha’s side and he was even in the delivery room for the birth of Sasha’s baby.
He has provided her the love, comfort and understanding she needed to have a successful pregnancy and he has been less concerned about the true identity of the father of Sasha’s baby and more concerned about her welfare. Antonio had assumed the role of the father in every way.
Nevertheless, for health and medical reasons relative to problems the baby could have in the future, Sasha feels that she needs to know the identity of the baby’s father.
Therefore, three months later, Sasha phoned both Justin an
d Tony to give them the news about her baby Jasmine and she asked them if they would be willing to take a paternity test because she believes one of them is the father of her baby.
They both agreed to do the testing because they also wanted to know the answer.
It turns out that neither one of them were the father and Sasha was baffled with this finding and she thought if Justin nor Tony weren’t the fathers’ then who is the father of Baby Jasmine?
Then Sasha remembered the night Steve brought Justin and the other man whose name she could no longer remember for a threesome.
She was horrified by the thought of it being someone she had no real relationship with but she knew she had to find out the truth and it was more important now than ever.
Steve had been in touch with her often but Sasha was not interested in Steve as a lover so he had stopped calling her.
However, now she needed to approach Steve and requests that he take a paternity test. He too, agreed to take the test and the results were 99.99% that Steve is the father of Baby Jasmine.
Sasha didn’t know how to feel about this news because there had been no real relationship with Steve except for the sexual encounters she had with him at the Manteca Inn.
She worried if Steve would try to impose himself more in her life and now she was sorry that she even bothered to have the test performed.
In the end, she knows that it was important to find out the truth and Steve has promised that he will not give Sasha any problems.
But he told Sasha that he would be there to give any love and support he could give to the baby.
However, Sasha wanted Steve to relinquish any rights to the baby because she wants to marry Antonio and have Antonio adopt the baby and carry his name.
Steve agreed with the exception that he wanted Sasha to periodically let him know about how the baby is doing.
Sasha reluctantly agrees to this request and then tells Antonio that she is now free to marry him.
However, when she gives Antonio the news, he is lukewarm about it and says he thinks they need to cool it for a while.
Sasha said, “after all we have been through and I have done to make things right to marry you and you are now saying let’s cool it!”
“What’s going on?”
Antonio hung his head and said, I’ve received some bad news today and I wasn’t going to tell you about it tonight because I need time to have it sink in but I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer and I only have a few months to live. Sasha broke down crying uncontrollably. Then she jumped up from her chair and began hugging and kissing Antonio because of all the men she has loved in her life, Antonio has been the most deserving of her love and she was devastated by this horrible news.
She wanted to know if he was going to get a second opinion but the doctors were adamant that there is nothing anyone can do for him.
He had been having terrible headaches for a long time but he did nothing about it until now because he wanted to make sure that he could be in the best health for Sasha. He thought he would be given a few pills and everything would be okay.
Nevertheless, Sasha believed it more important than ever to move forward with the wedding as they had discussed.
Antonio agreed to it but told Sasha that he didn’t want to be a burden to her because he knew that she had to take care of Baby Jasmine.
Even with his diagnosis, Antonio was still sensitive enough to worry and care about someone other than himself.
Antonio looked like he was fine so Sasha told him that they would deal with his sickness as it progresses and for now she just wanted to concentrate on the good in their life.
Sasha was very busy with her baby but she desperately wanted to marry Antonio before it was too late.
She asked Kelly Lismont, a sitter in her complex to care for Baby Jasmine while she made her wedding preparation.
Sasha went shopping for her wedding dress and found a beautiful white dress that hugs her voluptuous body. This is the gift she received from giving birth to Baby Jasmine.
Antonio often told her how much he loved the way she looked when she was pregnant and hoped that some of the weight that she had gained would remain after she had given birth.
Sasha hurried home with her dress excited to show it to Antonio who had agreed to come over for a special We’re Getting Married Dinner with Sasha.
Since Kelly had agreed to keep Sasha’s baby all night, she and Antonio would have the whole night to themselves without interruptions.
When Antonio showed up for dinner, he brought apple pie and ice cream.
It was the way they had begun their relationship so long ago. He grabbed Sasha and kissed her passionately.
The effects of his disease had not yet robbed him of his good looks and Antonio looked vibrant and handsome to Sasha.
But unlike before, Antonio lacked the stamina that he is so noted for but that was unimportant to her.
She loved Antonio with or without the lovemaking that they so enjoyed with one another but he was much more to her than a lovemaking machine.
He is the most decent man that Sasha has ever known. Sasha put on music and they danced the night away forgetting about the steak and potatoes that she had gone to the trouble to prepare as a special celebration dinner.
The dinner was meant to be a celebration of their love for one another. For now they simply wanted to savor every moment and not think about the little time they had left together.
The next morning, Sasha got up early to prepare breakfast while Antonio slept soundly. She returned to the bedroom with fresh fruits, eggs, sausage and toast and then called Antonio name. He was in a deep sleep, she touched him lightly to awaken him but there was no response.
Antonio was gone! Gone just like that with no goodbyes. Maybe that’s why he had brought the ice cream and apple pie, Sasha wondered as she sobbed uncontrollably.
She didn’t know what to do so she called 911 and they arranged for a policeman and coroner to come to Sasha’s home.
When the coroner arrived to pick up Antonio’s body, Sasha was hanging on to his covered body not wanting to let go of the best man she had ever had in her life.
She didn’t know what she would do or how she would move on. She tried to pull herself together enough to bring Baby Jasmine home but Kelly persuaded Sasha to let Baby Jasmine remain with her for a few more days.
When Sasha hung up the telephone, she noticed Antonio sports coat dangling from the back of her sofa chair. She pulled the coat from the chair and began holding onto it, caressing and sniffing it and trying desperately to get a sniff of Antonio’s good body scent.
She would always tell him how fresh and clean he smelled and the coat had his scent on it.
She knew she would never clean it because she wanted to have a part of him for as long as possible.
As she squeezed the coat more, she felt something bulging in the inside pocket of the coat. It was a notarized letter that Antonio had prepared indicating that in the advent of his death, he wanted Sasha to assume responsibility and ownership of his business.
He also had a $150,000 life insurance policy which would cover any outstanding bills he had and the remainder would go to Sasha and left $50,000 to his son from a prior relationship.
Sasha was numbed with sorrow and her heart ached so much it felt as though a hole had been made in the center of it.
She would much rather have Antonio alive than any business or money. She already had all the money she needed and right now she was thinking about how fulfilled her life was with Antonio, a simple man with an apple pie and ice cream.
Yet, in many ways, Antonio was much more. He was the sunset in her evenings, when they got together to just talk and catch up on the happenings of the day.
But mostly, he was her lover who never turned her down for lovemaking even when he had a hard day on the job.
He was willing to meet Sasha’s every need and now he was gone and Sasha didn’t know what she would do without him.
<
br /> Sasha phoned the only other person she knew who would understand what she was going through and that was Tula.
Tula has a nurturing way about her and Sasha really needed this now. She phoned Tula and told her about everything that had happened between her and Antonio and about his death.
She also told Tula about the birth of Baby Jasmine and the unexpected father. Tula didn’t ask questions, she just simply listened and provided the support Sasha needed right now.
Tula offered to come to Texas to be with Sasha and although Sasha knew that Tula was getting up in age and shouldn’t be travelling, she accepted Tula’s offer.
Tula wasn’t worried about leaving her business for a while because she had a strong management team in place that was ready, willing and very capable of running the business until Tula returns.
Besides, there was no way Tula wouldn’t be there for Sasha because Sasha was greatly responsible for the success of the Manteca Inn.
In fact, she put the Manteca on the map and she was the real reason why Tula attracted so many high caliber clients.
Sasha was known all over the world not merely for her great beauty and her intimate escapades but she was classy and took time to understand each of her clients and they greatly appreciated that about her.
It was not all about the bedroom. She was compassionate and she made all of her clients feel special.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Antonio’s funeral arrangements were made by his parents and Sasha understood because after all, she and Antonio hadn’t been officially married and she didn’t want to cause a problem with his parents so she was alone with her sorrow but so thankful that she had Tula in her life.
Tula had always been like a mother to Sasha in so many ways despite their business relationship.
At the funeral, none of Antonio’s family acknowledged Sasha and that didn’t matter because she knew that Antonio loved her deeply and that was her comfort now.
Tula stayed over a few more days to comfort Sasha and then headed back home to Montclair. Sasha needed to move on but didn’t quite know what she would do but she had Baby Jasmine and she loved her more than life itself.
A Burning Secret Page 7
