It was a moment before he answered, his attention focused on the electronic device. “I’ve thought about it and Chyna has suggested it.”
When he didn’t say anything else after that, she looked to the curtains in his direction. “But?”
Parker put the PDA down and looked her way. “I could, but I won’t. The stigma of adoption and failure isn’t what I want.”
“Stigma? By whom? So called friends? Family? Whom?” she asked.
“Just in my own heart. I don’t want that. My dream has always been to produce a child and raise a child with my wife.”
“I think you’re living in a fairy tale.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” he asked.
“Because fairy tales don’t come true. Fairy tales are a load of crap that’s shoveled down our mouths as children because adults are afraid to tell the truth.”
“And what’s the truth?”
“That life is a bunch of shit and there’s nothing happy here once your eyes are opened.”
“Opened to what?”
She wanted to get away from being the center of attention, so she said, “Oh Parker, don’t be coy and don’t think I don’t know you’re miserable with Chyna. That brief conversation in the car clearly tells me that you’re regretting saying I do.”
He was shocked at her perception, but he hid this in his features and tone of voice. “We’ve been married for ten years. Every couple has their ups and downs. Right now, we’re in that stage where we want something and we can’t get it normally. But things are going to look brighter, soon.” There was so much hope in his voice and she almost believed him.
The subject was just too interesting to speak about and she quickly finished massaging and leaned on the side of the tub to look at him.
All the while, he had watched her, feeling she had more to say, but then he couldn’t stop watching her.
“You look healthy, Parker. What’s the medical problem if I may be so nosey?”
“You may not,” he said and forced himself to look back down at his electronic device.
“So you’re fine? It’s Chyna?”
“This isn’t your business, Charisse.”
His reluctance to tell her made her even more curious. “I’m dying of curiosity. Come on, Parker.”
He flinched at her word choice. “Dying?”
Charisse couldn’t help chuckling. “Okay, I’m not.”
Changing the subject, Parker questioned, “Why aren’t you serious about what’s wrong with you?”
“Because there’s nothing a little death can’t cure,” she said simply.
He leaned closer to her, disturbed by her callousness. “And you don’t think this is a problem, Charisse?”
“For whom? You? My sisters? Or me?”
“We’re your family.”
“I’m an unwanted scab in this world that doesn’t want to be here.”
He decided to tell her Jaelen’s words. “Maybe there’s a purpose for you in this world and God’s will is not yours.”
The timer went off again and she abruptly turned away from him.
Parker straightened in his chair feeling that his words had hit something inside of her, but unsure of what. She didn’t speak to him and he pretended that something on his device was more important than her.
The massaging gave her time to think of his worlds and just everything she had tried not to think about in a long time. For some reason Parker’s presence calmed her and the daymares didn’t come.
Sophie returned after half an hour and Parker quickly left the room as if he were in a rush to do something else.
‘Get away from my crazy ass,’ Charisse told herself.
Chapter 4
Three hours later, after Lupe delivered a nice simple black Vera Wang dress to her room and a sweater, Sophie ordered him to go to the back way entrance so they could finish her off and send her down to him.
Parker had gone to Jaelen’s office and made use of his equipment to make some calls and do some business.
Jaelen had left and not come back by the time Sophie found him.
As much work as he had done, he still couldn’t get rid of her cold words from his mind. What the hell had happened when she was little that made her think she was a scab?
Going to the back entrance, he paced until he heard footsteps coming toward him. Turning, he was flabbergasted at the vision of loveliness approaching him. Absolutely nothing about her sisters reminded him of what he was looking at. Because she had this independent look about her as if she didn’t care about her outer appearance and that brought out even more beauty.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
She blushed. “You say that to all your sisters-in-laws.”
Parker chuckled and knew she didn’t want to harp on her looks, so he opened the door for her. It was raining and he grabbed the guest umbrellas by the door and held it over her head.
Charisse let him open the door for her this time and sat down careful not to brush up against him.
When Sophie had showed her the mirror, Charisse almost screamed. She swore she was a younger version of her paternal grandmother. It was amazing how her face didn’t look like her face. She had even touched it to make sure it was and not some daymare past hunting ghost coming to make her feel guilty again.
“Thank you,” she had said to Sophie.
“You did all the work,” Sophie said.
***
The drive home was quiet. Charisse kept her head turned out the other window most of the time and then pretended to go to sleep again, when the quietness was driving her crazy. Wanting to speak, but not knowing how to speak nice was more difficult for her than anything.
Getting to the house, he turned off the car and then looked over at her. “I was serious about you not being a burden.”
“Thank you, Parker.” She wanted to add ‘for everything,’ but that would have been too much coming from her. And it would have felt phony saying something like that.
Parker got out of the car, but she jumped out before he could open the door for her.
They walked into the home together and just as they were about to say something to each other a van pulled up with the words, “Nursing Needs: Taking care of you and your loved ones.”
A black woman about forty casually dressed with her hair pulled back in a pony, came upon them. She reminded Charisse of Lena Horne when she smiled, but there was a mole on her cheek and several moles on her neck.
“I’m Rochelle. The nurse you hired, Mr. Mills?”
He held out his hand warily. “I thought I was using Nursing Assistance.”
“You were, but when they’re short on staff, I’m a private outsource service that they usually use. You spoke with Catherine, right?”
“Yes.”
She handed him a fax and then looked over at Charisse. “Shaw-reese?” she said slowly, but didn’t extend her hand. “Please tell me I have your name right. I spoke with your doctor– “
Charisse turned away and walked up the stairs.
Parker signed the fax where it was supposed to be signed and handed it back to Rochelle. “So I take it you know the drill with her?”
“Yes, Mr. Mills. Her doctor and I spoke in length of her condition.”
“And you’ve handled suicide patients before?”
“Many times. I haven’t had a failure on my watch and as long as the family let me do my job, I won’t have a failure in this case either.”
“Why would we get in the way?”
Rochelle narrowed her eyes. “A lot of families say that to me in the beginning, Mr. Mills, yet I find it the main reason as to why any other nurse or medical staff has failed in the past. Charisse and I will become fast friends and she’ll learn to trust me.”
He was positive if there were a door to slam in Charisse’s room she would have slammed it. She didn’t look at all happy. He also wondered what had she been about to say to him.
“You have my assurance
my wife and I won’t even be around to get in the way, ma’am.” He tipped his head and walked back out of the house.
***
Charisse rushed over to the window just in time to watch the Benz drive away. ‘Why are you being so nice to me?’ That’s what she had wanted to ask him once they were inside.
The possible answer to that question nagged her.
“Your brother-in-law and sister cares about you,” Rochelle said behind her.
Looking over her shoulder at the woman that was to be her watchdog for the next couple of months, she sighed with boredom and looked back at the window, just to stare out.
She really wished everyone would leave her alone and just let her die.
***
“I know my husband’s cheating on me,” Chyna said miserably into the phone.
Unfortunate for her, she didn’t know Parker had let himself into the masseuse’s room. He had seen her car there earlier when he had left with Charisse, but his wife had not known that her sister and husband was here, nor did he want the staff to know.
Her childhood best friend, Joanie Bell, was on speaker. “You say that every time you feel like this, Chyna. I think you’re trying to find a way to leave him.”
“Leave him? I can’t leave, Parker. Where will I go? What the hell will I do? Plus, he needs me.” Her voice was filled with arrogance.
“I think you’re just feeling guilty about Pascal.”
Parker gripped the door at the mention of that bastard. Pascal Faust was a backstabbing accountant who had not only stolen a very large amount of money from Parker, but also slept with Chyna five years ago.
“Shouldn’t I? Parker’s done everything he’s promised, which I never thought he would and what I have done? What have I given him?”
Joanie tried to comfort Chyna. “Love. You’ve given him ten years of your life. Don’t think you’re not important in this marriage, Chyna.”
“I know I’m important, but I know my husband isn’t happy.”
Parker exited out the room only feeling a little guilty for listening. Sophie walked by.
“You didn’t find your wife yet, Mr. Mills?” she questioned. “She’s in here with the beauty mask on her face and cucumbers on her eyelids.”
He followed Sophie in the room, pretending he had heard nothing. By this time, Chyna had taken everything off her eyes and hung up the phone.
“Why are you here, Parker?” Chyna asked defensively.
“The nurse came early for her and I had some free time before another meeting, so I decided to come see you.” That was a lie. Midway of driving no where and thinking about his afternoon, his manhood had become hard and he wanted some attention, so he came to the only place he knew he should get it from.
“You’re never a good liar, Parker.”
Sophie gave him a wink and left out of the room, giving them privacy.
“I just wanted to see your loveliness, Chyna,” he cajoled.
“You’re still a liar. I’ll be right out if you’ll let me call down assistance. You shouldn’t be seeing me like this.”
“We’ve been married for ten years, I’ve seen you before these weekly salon treatments you enjoy spending my money on, when we had no money and you had to put perm treatments on in our one bedroom mirror.”
“What do you want?”
“I have a couple of free hours before my meeting. I want to spend a few hours with my wife.”
“There’s not enough time to go home and do anything. Plus, my sister is there.”
“I know, and there’s a hotel around the corner.”
She gasped as if he had slapped her. “How could you even suggest something like that?”
“We’ve been doing this baby making sex for the past couple of years, Chyna. If I’m not using a cup, then I’m only getting to you when you’re hot and ready. You’re not a pizza, you’re my wife!”
“The keyword here is wife, Parker. And you don’t drag your wife in the middle of the day to a hotel room.”
“Why can’t I fuck my wife in the middle of the day?!” he boomed angrily.
“Get out!” she ordered. “Go take your sick fantasies out of here, Parker Sean Mills!”
Parker slammed out of the room and stormed into Jaelen’s office.
The friend had just returned and was just settling down to his computer when Parker burst into the office.
“What’s wrong with having sex in the middle of the day?!”
Jaelen shrugged. “As long as it’s with your wife, there’s nothing wrong with it.”
“So why won’t she give me sex?”
Stopping everything that he was doing, Jaelen gave him a very serious look. “I’m going to say something that you don’t want to hear or don’t want to face, Parker. The only reason you’re still with that woman is because of obligation and some unwise debt you feel you owe to her.”
“Debt? What debt? I love my wife. We’ve spent ten years together.”
“You married her because you were shocked some beautiful woman wanted to spend the rest of her life with you. But you aren’t going to convince me she was planning on leaving you after five years of living from paycheck to paycheck. You aren’t going to convince me that she gave you an ultimatum. Get rich or get out of her life.”
“She was tired of living with a loser, which I will say I was. Now I can afford to do whatever I want and give her what I want. Just like I’ve always dreamed of.”
“Like I said, she and you are obligated to stay with each other. Because some reason you think she stayed with you for the bad times, you have to stay with her through the good times whether you’re happy or not. And she feels that since she paid most of the bills during the bad times, she’s obligated to enjoy your money during the good times.”
“That’s just foolish Jaelen. I did have a job.”
“And a gambling problem, a smoking problem and you couldn’t keep a dime in your pocket to save your life. Plus, you were ugly as hell and just recently grew into your face as my wife kindly puts it.”
Parker didn’t want to listen to him anymore and stood up to leave.
“Running is not going to shut me up. You asked.”
“No, I asked why can’t I have sex with my wife in the middle of the day.”
“Because you don’t love her anymore. You knew this five years ago when you were bopping anything and everything that had cookies between her legs including your wife’s sister.”
“That was just a spell. I was weak.”
“You were waking up to the truth.”
“You’re an ass full of shit. How does Kimberly put up with you?”
Jaelen smirked wickedly. “That’s why you are unhappy in your marriage. You don’t put up with your spouse and all their shit. You love them. Kimber loves me. She doesn’t care that I’m an ass; she doesn’t care that I speak my mind and be an ass all day long. She’s going to love me until the meat falls off my bones because I’m going to love her no matter what. You don’t love Chyna and she doesn’t love you. You stay married on a hope, wink and a smile. Not love.”
“And you know all about love, Jaelen?”
“I don’t know shit, but I know I have a woman who knows all about it and I learn from her every day. I love going to class.”
Jealously, Parker left wishing that he could really knock out Jaelen’s argument and actually say he was head over heels in love with Chyna, but for the life of him he couldn’t say that out loud and actually mean it.
Chapter 5
They didn’t come to the house at all until eleven at night. Rochelle stopped trying to have conversations after an hour’s attempt to get her to speak. Charisse would nod and she would do as Rochelle said, but other than that she would just sit on her bed and stare into nothing. This was a usual thing for her when she did not want to be where she was.
In her stares, she would pretend that her father was there and repeatedly singing his songs he loved to hymn as he cleaned his pipe.
&n
bsp; She would never hymn the songs he used to hymn. No, that would be too much. They would find out the secret. She didn’t want anyone to know that.
Rochelle had placed a schedule on the wall for her. From the time she awoke to the time she went to bed, her life was planned out. There was no question as to what she was going to do. There were days for field trips and even free time, which Rochelle said that she could do whatever she wanted but she would have to be chaperoned or the environment would have to be made safe.
Unlike any other nurse that had taken care of Charisse, Rochelle took her job doubly serious.
Why?
This question along with why Parker was being so damn nice to her was in her head the whole night.
After dinner and a shower, because she was not allowed to take a bath, Rochelle ordered her to bed. A television was rolled in from Rochelle’s room with a DVD attached to it and Charisse was handed a childlike remote with big buttons, but unable to be opened or broken.
Rochelle went into her room to give Charisse privacy, but there were cameras. Lots of cameras.
Pretending sleep, she listened to the noises of the house.
They were arguing. She could tell by the raised voices and then a door slammed. Another hour passed and Charisse knew their bedroom was right under hers. For three minutes, she could hear their bed against the wall and then another door slamming right afterwards and a shower running.
Charisse looked at the closed bedroom door and then took a deep breath as she planned her escape.
***
Parker was still unsatisfied. Even after that sorry sex Chyna had allowed him to have. It was the intimacy he missed. The closeness, the touching…he needed more.
Soon as it was over, she jumped out of bed and went to take a shower. “I don’t like your sweat all over me,’ had always been her excuse and it had been one he had accepted all these years.
But it wasn’t acceptable anymore. His mind and heart had awakened and maybe Jaelen was right.
Getting out of bed, he put on a robe and went downstairs. He needed to walk off his frustration and anger. The house was big enough for that and when that didn’t work he’d go down to the weight room in the basement. That always seemed to work when she didn’t give him the satisfaction his body craved more and more.
His Substitute Wife... My Sister Book One Page 4
