“Mom, what are you saying? Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Karlie asked, filled with disillusionment and disbelief. “’Cause I’m beginning to feel like I’m on a Maury episode or something. When did you find out that Thomas was my father?”
“I didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?”
“I never found out who your father was,” Tiffany quietly confessed. “I told Thomas he was the father, and that’s when we got married.”
“So, Thomas Knightly is not my father?”
“No . . . I’m not sure. He could be. Actually, I hope he is your father, which is why I met with him and asked him to take a paternity test. But he was angry, and he refused.”
“So Dad . . . I mean Thomas . . . knows I am not his child?” Karlie now felt betrayed by two people instead of one. “Mom, I went to see him. I have been spending time with him, and he never said a word. Instead, he pretended that he loved me and that he was my father.” Karlie sprang to her feet as anger rose in her. “I don’t believe this. Who am I? Am I your daughter, or am I adopted?”
“No,” Tiffany asserted. “Karlie, you are my daughter. That’s who you are. You can be sure of that. I never regretted you for an instant. I was frightened, but I never once considered aborting you. You are my best accomplishment.”
Karlie barely listened, too caught up in her own tirade. “Every year he sends me gifts, and even now he welcomed me into his house, and he didn’t say anything.”
“His house? I had no idea you were in contact with Thomas.”
“Yes. I reached out to him.”
“That’s . . . that’s wonderful.” Tiffany went to hug her daughter close.
Karlie shrugged out of her mother’s embrace. “No! Don’t you dare touch me! You are not who I thought you were. You just changed my whole life all over again. First, you tell me you’re dying, and then we have to move, though I didn’t want to come here. And now you tell me my whole life is a lie.”
Karlie cried as her heart disintegrated and shattered into tiny pieces. “I can live with growing up with an absent father because at least I knew who he was. But I can’t deal with this. Are you seriously telling me that you have no idea who my father is?” Karlie’s voice rose an entire octave. She looked at her mother with repugnance written all over her face. “No clue at all?”
“Well,” Tiffany said, hesitating, “I told you it has to be one of those four men.”
“Don’t you mean five?” Karlie pointedly asked.
“No . . . there is no way that . . . I just know in my gut that Clifford Peterson is not your father,” Tiffany assured her.
The two engaged in a stare down before Karlie continued her tirade. “Wow. A one-in-four chance. How comforting,” she viciously spat. “Will my real father please stand up? Did you even know them, or did you just pick up random guys? Like, wow. I can’t believe I’m having this conversation right now.”
Tiffany’s tongue felt parched, and her mind drew a blank. Karlie, her beloved daughter, was now looking at her as if she were an alien. She reached out her hands toward Karlie, intending to comfort her.
Ruthlessly, Karlie shoved her mother’s hands away, rejecting her.
“Well, Thomas and I were high school sweethearts. Darnell and Pierce also went to my school. Ryan, though, I met at a bar.”
“Seriously? You slept with my high school coach. Great. Just great. Is there anybody in Hempstead you haven’t slept with?”
“I have all their information in a file if you . . . need . . . to read it.”
“You had them investigated? Like, I feel as if I am in a novel right now, ’cause this is not happening. This is surreal. You’re not who I thought you were. You are a liar and a first-class hypocrite.”
Tiffany felt the old feelings that Merle had evoked within her swell to life again. They resurfaced vigorously. She began to cry as guilt and self-hatred engulfed her.
In one violent motion, Karlie jumped from around the table and ran toward the door.
“Karlie,” Tiffany yelled. “Where are you going?” She lunged and grabbed on to Karlie with all her might.
“Get off me!” Karlie screamed before going to the front door. She opened the door so hard that the crash reverberated throughout the entire house. In a fit of rage, she went outside, heedless of the snow and the cold.
“Do not do this, Karlie. I beg you.” Tiffany followed her outside and pleaded. “Please do not reject me like this. Let’s talk about it.”
“I have absolutely nothing to say to you, and I think you’ve said enough,” Karlie shouted back at her mother. The snow fell hard again in heavy flakes. It was settling quickly, but Karlie ignored it and waited until her mother stood before her. Then she contemptuously declared, “I want nothing to do with you. You are nothing but a . . . a . . . slut.”
Tiffany’s mouth hung open, and she stepped back with hurt and alarm. “I can’t believe you would call me something like that.” In one quick move, she lifted her hand and slapped her daughter hard across the face. “Don’t you ever in your life think of speaking to me that way again. Do you hear me?” Tiffany clenched her teeth in anger.
Karlie was past the point of caring, as her emotions spiraled out of control. “I spoke to you that way because I no longer have any respect for you. You are not who I thought you were. I don’t know my grandmother, but she was right. You are a whore.”
Tiffany wailed as Karlie’s words crushed her very core.
Karlie watched her mother slowly crumple onto the snow on the ground but did nothing to stop her. She sped out of the yard and ran off, not caring if her mother lived or died.
“Karlie, Karlie, come back,” Tiffany called out until her voice croaked.
She knew Karlie had heard her but blatantly chose to ignore her. Emotionally drained, Tiffany sat in the snow and cried. She did not know how long she sat there before Neil came by and saw her.
“Tiffany!” Alarmed, Neil effortlessly lifted her into his arms and took her inside. She was so cold that Neil worried about hypothermia. He quickly removed her cold, wet clothes and put pajamas on her. Tenderly, he placed her under the covers in her bedroom to warm her up.
“Tiffany, what happened? Where’s Karlie?” he asked repeatedly, but Tiffany was too zoned out to answer him.
Moving quickly, he made Tiffany some soup and forced its contents down her throat, but she still felt deathly cold to the touch. He fretted, unsure of what to do. Looking at the fireplace in the living room, Neil decided to throw some logs in and get a cozy fire started. He bolted up the stairs and hoisted Tiffany, along with her blanket, to take her back downstairs.
“That should warm you up,” he said as he laid her on the couch.
Tiffany shivered, and to Neil that was a good sign. He rubbed his hands along her body to give her some much-needed body heat. At the same time, Neil prayed and prayed for God’s help.
It took almost an hour before Tiffany opened up enough to let Neil know what had transpired. “I’ve lost her, Neil. She ran off and left me, and I don’t know if she’s okay.”
Neil was worried about Karlie too, but he was also angry with her for deserting Tiffany when she knew her mother’s delicate condition.
Darnell called on the telephone, and Neil quickly filled him in. Darnell briskly said, “I’m on my way.”
As soon as Darnell arrived, Neil said, “I’m going to go look for Karlie to see if I can talk some sense into her, and if that doesn’t work, I am going to throttle her.”
Chapter Thirty
Karlie walked several blocks before calling Jamaal on her cell phone. “Jamaal, I—I’m so upset.”
“Karlie, what’s wrong?”
“I—I can’t even . . .” Karlie was at a loss for words.
“Where are you?” Jamaal said, responding to the urgency in her tone.
“I don’t know. My mom just upset me, and I left the house.”
“Karlie, you’re scaring me. Where are you?”
/> “I am near the pizza shop not too far from my house,” Karlie offered. She crossed the street to enter the pizza parlor and ordered a soda before sitting at a booth.
“Okay, I know where that is. Hang tight. I’m on my way.”
Jamaal got there in just under ten minutes. He raced into the pizza shop and frantically searched for Karlie. He didn’t know what was up, but it had to be serious, because Karlie had had a meltdown over the telephone.
“Karlie,” Jamaal called out as soon as he spotted her.
Karlie turned toward him with bloodred, puffy eyes.
“Is it your mother? Is she . . . has she . . .” Jamaal stopped, unable to get the question out.
“Died?” Karlie said, finishing for him. She shook her head wildly. “No, she is not dead. But I might as well be.”
Jamaal heaved a sigh of relief, sat down right next to her in the booth, and gently asked, “Karlie, what’s wrong?” In all the time he had known her, this was the first time he’d seen her so completely undone.
Karlie wiped her tears with a napkin before spilling her guts. She told Jamaal everything that had transpired, holding nothing back. When she finished, Karlie flung herself into Jamaal’s arms and cried uncontrollably.
Jamaal held on to Karlie for several minutes before letting her go. “Karlie, I feel it for you, but you were wrong to leave your mother like that.”
“What? What?” Karlie wrinkled her eyebrows, slightly confused, before becoming angry and jumped up out of her chair. “Well, excuse me for looking to my boyfriend to give me sympathy. But do I get that? No. Instead, you take her side.”
Karlie stormed out the door of the pizza shop and was halfway up the block before Jamaal caught up with her.
Jamaal grabbed her arms, exerting enough pressure until Karlie stood still. “Karlie, you have got to calm down, because right now you are not listening to anybody.” He made a quick decision. “C’mon,” Jamaal commanded. He held Karlie’s hands and practically dragged her the five blocks to his house.
Karlie went along with Jamaal mostly because she didn’t have a backup plan. She couldn’t go to Thomas’s house now that she knew the truth. Tanya was out with Brian or something, so that had left only Jamaal. Karlie noticed beer bottles had been thrown all over the lawn and were peering out from underneath all that snow. She saw some apartments with cardboard for windows and could not help but let out a sigh of alarm. There was graffiti all over the walls, and it smelled like urine.
Jamaal tightened his lips at the sound of her intake of breath but did not say a word. He had been trying to avoid bringing Karlie to his place for this very reason. Then he stiffened his spine. This was where he lived, and it was time he stopped being ashamed. Karlie had to learn to toughen up and realize she lived in a real world with real people. She had to know places existed that were not covered with sunflowers and daffodils.
Jamaal pulled her up a flight of stairs and walked down the hall. Karlie shivered from the cold emanating from the hallways and snuggled closer to Jamaal. She wrinkled her nose from an odd stench.
Outside his apartment, Jamaal took out his key and opened the two locks that would guarantee their entry, and they quickly went inside.
Karlie rubbed her hands together, trying to get warm and curiously looked around. It was nice and clean inside Jamaal’s place. Karlie’s face reflected her surprise.
“What were you expecting my house to look like? A dump?” Jamaal asked somewhat defensively. “Do not judge a book by its cover.”
He took off his jacket and held out his hands for Karlie’s. Then he hung them inside the hall closet.
“My grandmother’s at work,” Jamaal said.
Karlie nodded. Jamaal was in a crazy mood, and she didn’t want him going off on her again. “Where’s the bathroom?”
He pointed in the general direction, and Karlie found her way.
While she was relieving herself, Jamaal used that opportunity to call Tiffany. He told her that Karlie was with him and that he would bring her home shortly. Jamaal heard Tiffany’s cry of relief and anger, and it touched his heart. Karlie had no idea how lucky she was, and Jamaal decided that it was time that she knew that.
As soon as Karlie reentered the room, Jamaal beckoned for her to sit next to him. “You are lucky. You know that?”
“I do not feel that lucky right now.”
“Well, you should because you have a mother that is worried sick about you. That is more than a lot of people have.”
“Yeah, right,” Karlie said, sulking.
“It’s more than what I have,” Jamaal informed her quietly.
Karlie became thoughtful at that comment. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, some of us wish we had a mother to love us the way you have.”
“I—”
“Do not open your mouth to say another word,” Jamaal demanded, holding his hands up to stem her comments. “It’s time you listened to what I have to say.”
Karlie looked at Jamaal expectantly.
“I do not even know where to begin.” Jamaal paused. “Karlie, what I am about to tell you, I have never told another living soul.”
“You can trust me, Jamaal,” Karlie told him.
“Well, I am going to tell you what I have been told by my grandmother.” Jamaal wiped his hands on his pants and licked his lips. Then he took a deep breath before continuing. “My mother was fifteen years old when she became pregnant with me. She tried to hide it from my grandmother, but eventually, Nana found out. My mother, Stephanie, decided to try to get an abortion when she was about five months pregnant. Fortunately for me, that was illegal in this state. So my mother had no choice but to keep me.” Jamaal took a sip of soda before continuing with his story.
“She carried me to full term and went into labor. Nana was at work. So Stephanie went into labor and gave birth to me right here inside this apartment. Then she ran around the corner and dumped me in the garbage can. It was early March, so you know it was cold outside. Then she disappeared.”
Karlie let out a sharp breath of surprise. She wanted to say something, but Jamaal waved his hands dismissively.
“Lucky for me, again, somebody heard me crying and scooped me out of the trash. The cops and the news were all over here, and my grandmother heard about it. She came home and saw all the blood and accurately put two and two together. Nana called the cops and told them what had happened.”
“Your grandmother spilled the beans on her own daughter?” Karlie barged in to ask.
“Yes,” Jamaal said matter-of-factly. “Just because we live here, it does not mean we aren’t honest.”
Understanding his gentle reprimand, Karlie nodded her head and did not say another word.
“So, Nana got custody of me, and I have lived with her since then. I was into all kinds of things until I met you. Now I know for sure what I want to do.”
“What’s that?” Karlie asked.
“I want to be a journalist,” Jamaal said. “It’s because of the news system that my grandmother found me, so . . .” He trailed off, embarrassed.
“But what about your dad?” Karlie wanted to know.
“Never knew him. Nana told me that my mother never confessed who the real daddy was,” Jamaal answered.
“Wow.”
“Yeah, so, you should consider yourself lucky that your mother kept you. She obviously loves you and dotes on you. My mother threw me in the garbage.”
Karlie started to cry again. Her eyes were so puffy that they hurt. She did not even know where the tears came from, because she had already cried tons in the last couple of hours.
Jamaal moved over and gave Karlie a hug. They hugged each other closely, not wanting to let go.
“All I am saying is that you should give your mother a second chance. You did that for your dad,” Jamaal urged with a whisper.
“Yeah, but that’s different.”
“How? How is it different?”
“I am only just now getting t
o know Thomas. Mom has been there with me all my life. I depend on her, and she betrayed me. I just never imagined she would lie to me so easily. I do feel bad about calling her those nasty names. I’ve never spoken to her that way before.”
“Your mother was young,” Jamaal said, defending Tiffany. “She made mistakes, but I am sure that she loves you, and I know that you love her too.”
Jamaal leaned over and gave Karlie a gentle kiss. Karlie returned the kiss passionately. Jamaal took that as a sign of encouragement and moved his hands under her shirt. Tentatively, his hands crept higher.
Karlie jumped back. She did not intend to have sex until she was good and ready and old enough to handle it. She definitely did not want anything happening without using protection.
“What?” Jamaal asked in a daze.
“Jamaal, I am not doing this,” Karlie stated firmly. She got up and went to retrieve her jacket out of the closet.
Jamaal went over to Karlie. “I am sorry, Karlie. I just got carried away with the moment, you know. You do not have to worry about doing anything that you are not ready to do.”
“Okay.” Karlie smiled.
Jamaal kept his eyes planted on Karlie’s face. He rapidly blinked his eyes for they itched to look down at the tempting display, clearly outlined against her sweater. Taking a chance, Jamaal looked down. He could not resist the urge.
Karlie saw him and criss-crossed her hands to protectively cover her chest area. “Jamaal, please I want to go home, and I do not feel comfortable.”
Jamaal chastised himself for his actions, and he quickly apologized. “Sorry, Karlie, I just think you are so beautiful. You are the best thing to happen to me, and I am not about to mess things up with you.”
“Thank you,” Karlie said with a blush.
Jamaal reached over to give her another kiss. To prove himself to her, he kept his hands to himself.
Darnell cuddled underneath the blanket with Tiffany and waited for Karlie and Jamaal. Jamaal had called again to say that they were on their way. He placed a call to Neil and let him know that Karlie had been found and was on her way home.
Sing A New Song Page 18
