“Thanks, Miss Christina,” Zoe yelled, running full speed into Langston’s office.
Turning the doorknob, Zoe barged into his office. “Daddy!”
Langston caught the little ball of fire as she leaped into his lap. “Hey, Love Bug, what you know good?” he asked as he kissed her forehead.
“I just invited Grandmother to my dance recital.”
Oh, Love Bug, that’s not good. Langston groaned on the inside as he fought to keep his smile from turning into a frown. Just as he was about to explain to Zoe that Grandmother probably had something to do and couldn’t make the recital, his private line rang.
Looking at the caller ID, Langston grinned. “That’s your mommy calling. You want to answer?”
Zoe bobbed her head up and down. Picking up the telephone receiver, Zoe squealed, “Hi, Mommy! Are you still coming to spend the summer with me and Daddy?”
Taken aback by the pleasant surprise, Ava laughed. “Hey, my Zoe! Yes, I’m still coming. I’ll be there first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Yaaaay! I can’t wait!”
Langston tilted his head and looked at Zoe. Whatever Ava was saying to her had her bobbing her head up and down and grinning from ear to ear one minute, then giggling the next. “OK, Mommy. I love you too.” Handing Langston the phone, she said, “Here, Mommy wants to talk to you, Daddy.”
eee
After Zoe had skipped into her father’s office, Beatrice turned to Charles. “I need to see you in private,” she hissed between clenched teeth.
Charles followed her as she led the way to a conference room. Once inside she slammed the door so hard it rattled on its hinges.
“What would possess you to tell Langston about his father’s whore?” she yelled. This was all Charles’s fault! He had no right telling Langston anything! And of all people, it had to be Ava to let her know Langston had found out his father’s dirty little secret. Then Beatrice had lost control and said some ugly things to her son and Ava, things she wished she could take back. Although she’d been angry with Langston and Ava, the looks of horror and disbelief on their faces after she finished with them now haunted her day and night. And then there was the look her son gave her when he told her that she was no longer his mother. She would never forget that look.
Since that awful morning Langston had completely shut out Beatrice from his life. He wouldn’t take any of her calls, and during the firm’s Monday morning board meetings, he barely looked at her. And when he did, his eyes were cold, as if he were looking straight through her.
It had all backfired on Beatrice. She thought if she continued to taunt Ava, the younger woman would lunge at her again, and Langston would come to his mother’s rescue like always, causing a wedge to be driven between him and Ava. But it didn’t work. Something had shifted. Instead of her son coming to her defense, he had gone to Ava’s.
His betrayal fueled Beatrice’s anger even further. How dare he defend that whore and not his own mother? She should have stopped when she told Langston she had never wanted him. But no, she had to push the envelope even further and taunt Ava about how she’d directed the doctor and nurses not to allow Ava to hold her baby. After making that comment, something in Langston’s eyes told her she had finally crossed the line.
Initially when he told her she was no longer his mother, Beatrice brushed it off as his anger talking. He’d been angry with her before. She figured she would give him a day or two to lick his wounds and cool off. But that didn’t work this time. She had never been more devastated when she called him, attempting to clear the air, and he’d told her, “I don’t have a mother. Do not call here again,” before hanging up the phone.
Charles studied the tips of his highly polished wingtips, not the least bit moved by Beatrice’s outburst. If anything, he wanted to laugh in the woman’s face. For years he sat back and witnessed how she’d used and controlled her son for her own selfish purposes. He no longer felt any loyalty toward this woman.
Lifting his head, Charles stared at Beatrice. What he was about to say to her was going to give him immense pleasure. “Your son came to me wanting to know why you despised the woman he was in love with.” Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “I simply told him the truth.”
Beatrice fumed at the smug look of arrogance on Charles’s face. “You had no right! It was none of your business!”
“Your son made it my business when he came to me for answers, answers that your husband, God rest his soul, should have been man enough to tell him!”
“Man enough to tell him about his whore! Are you insane, Charles?”
Charles’s large hands curled into fists as he gritted out, “You seem to be forgetting that technically you were the other woman. Langston Jr. was in love with Lydia and wanted to marry her, not you.”
Charles didn’t bother to go into the fact that Langston and Beatrice’s marriage was a business arrangement between their fathers. At the time Warrington and Warrington had fallen on hard times and was in desperate need of a loan. The white banks wouldn’t give Langston Jr.’s father a loan, so he had to turn to Beatrice’s father, a wealthy merchant, to obtain the money. The one catch was that Beatrice’s father demanded Langston Jr. marry his daughter.
“And you never gave that poor girl a chance, because she reminded you of Lydia,” Charles continued. “It didn’t matter to you that she loved your son or that he loved her. And when you ran her away, you turned your anger on an innocent child. Your own flesh and blood!” Charles was disgusted, but then his voice mellowed and almost took on a tone of pity for the woman. “Instead of being a grandmother to her, you became a monster.”
Stunned, Beatrice’s chest heaved up and down. All the things he was saying to her brought old memories rushing in like a whirlwind.
As a young woman, Beatrice was neither strikingly beautiful nor plain. She was what most would refer to as a very cute girl with a medium brown complexion. The youngest of three daughters, at twenty-two, she was the last her father would marry off. Growing up, her father had giving her the best of everything, so Beatrice was accustomed to a certain lifestyle. She knew whoever her father selected for her to marry would be able to maintain her standard of living.
She had been so thrilled when her father brought Langston Jr. home to meet her, even though he wasn’t exactly what she wanted in a man. Sure, he was handsome enough, just not her type. He was too dark. However, that didn’t matter as long as he would take good care of her. Within three months of courting, Beatrice and Langston Jr. were married.
Langston Jr. made it no secret that his affections didn’t lie with Beatrice. He did, however, promise he would provide for her, and from time to time share his bed with her. It wasn’t long before she found out he was in love with another woman and had planned on marrying her before their fathers decided their fates. Beatrice’s tantrums and threats only made her husband despise her more. Pretty soon he wasn’t even coming home at night. And then one evening she overheard him on the phone telling his mistress that he was trying desperately to get out of his marriage. He said something about paying back a loan with interest.
Beatrice was desperate. Although her husband was cold and uncaring, he kept his promise to take good care of her. He’d even allowed her to take on the job as office manager at the firm, putting her business degree from Spelman to good use. There was no way she was going to give up her marriage and position at Warrington and Warrington.
Beatrice formulated a plan. She decided to seduce her husband. On the night Beatrice threw a dinner party to celebrate the firm winning a big case, she acted as the perfect hostess and wife. All evening she made sure Langston Jr.’s cocktail glass was full. And then that night, when her husband was clearly tipsy, she got him into her bed with the purpose of getting pregnant. Previously when Langston Jr. did have intercourse with his Beatrice, he was always careful to withdraw before spilling his seed in his wife’s womb.
But this night was different. For the first time Beatrice felt specia
l. She finally felt like her husband wasn’t just sleeping with her because he needed a release. The way he held her and caressed her sent sensual tingles from her head to her toes. But her brief moment of bliss came crashing down like a house of cards when Langston Jr. squeezed her tightly, his body shuttering from an explosive orgasm as he passionately whispered, “I love you, Lydia.”
Later it gave Beatrice great pleasure to tell her husband she was pregnant with his child. With a child involved, there was no way her father-in-law would hear of his son divorcing her. After all, she was about to give birth to the next Warrington generation.
Each month her belly swelled with their child, Langston Jr.’s resentment grew. And Beatrice’s hatred of her husband and his high yellow mistress festered. She had hoped and prayed that his affections toward her would change, but they never did. And neither did his nightly visits to his mistress.
God help her. When her child was born, she took one look at him and wondered if she could love him because he looked so much like his father.
Now Beatrice knew she had been a fool. All her son’s life she had pushed him away because of her husband’s indiscretions. She only demonstrated love and care for Langston when it suited her needs. Ever since he was a child he’d tried to please her. And she’d used his desire to seek her approval as a means to control him and make him pay for his father’s sins. Now it seemed that she was the loser in the games she had played. If she didn’t fix things, she’d have no one.
“I’m going to see my son now,” Beatrice whispered, praying it wasn’t too late for her son to forgive her.
eee
As Beatrice approached Langston’s office, she could hear him laughing and Zoe giggling. Knocking on the door, she prayed he would talk to her.
“Come in,” Langston called out, sure it was Christina with some documents for him to review. Upon seeing Beatrice, the bright smile dropped from his mouth like a ton of bricks.
“Ava, I’ll talk to you later. Tell your mother goodbye, Zoe.”
“What’s wrong, Langston?” Ava asked as she heard the instant change in his demeanor.
“I’ll tell you later, baby. I have to go.”
“OK, call me tonight. Bye, my Zoe. I love you,” Ava sang through the speaker phone.
“Bye, Mommy! I love you too!”
Ava and Langston both laughed. “Did you get that?” Langston asked.
“I sure did. See you later, Lang.”
“Bye, baby.”
Disconnecting the call, Langston lifted Zoe off his lap. “Love Bug, go ask Miss Christina to give you a snack.”
“OK, Daddy.” Obediently the child left the office in search of Christina.
Once the child was out of the room, Langston’s glare was hard as he looked at his mother. “What do you want?”
Beatrice’s hand went to the strand of pearls around her neck. In the past no matter how angry she had made her son, he always forgave her. He’d always showed her that he still loved and cared for her. Nervously her hand worried the pearls as she struggled to say something, anything to her son. But where did she begin? She had caused him so much pain.
Just the sight of the woman who birthed him infuriated him. For so many years he’d tried to please her, to make her love him. And for what? She had admitted she’d never wanted him, that he was too black for her. Sure, hearing all those things had hurt him, but what she had done to Ava was unforgivable. From the moment he had brought Ava home, Beatrice had set out to destroy her. And after she had accomplished that twisted goal, she had set out to do the same to his beautiful, innocent child. She would have done so too, if Langston hadn’t been so protective of Zoe. A thousand times he cursed himself for not being as protective of Ava.
When Beatrice continued to gaze at her son, not saying anything, Langston said, “Leave and close the door behind you.” He wanted to tell her to never step foot in the office again. However, since her deceased husband had left her 25 percent of the firm, she was free to come to the office whenever she felt like it. And unfortunately, for that same reason, he had to interact with her, at least from a business perspective.
Tears welled up in the older woman’s eyes from the rough tone Langston had taken with her. Swallowing the lump in her throat, her voice trembled as she spoke. “Langston, I never meant to hurt you.
“You never meant to hurt me!” Langston roared, his large fist pounding the desk. “You tell me to my face that you never wanted me with my black self!” Standing, he rounded the desk and leaned against the front of it, crossing his arms over his wide chest. “That I was an insurance policy to you! And then you and your conniving ways caused me to turn my back on Ava when she needed me the most!”
“Son, I—” Beatrice attempted to interject. She wanted to tell him her words had been said in anger.
“No! You let me finish! Don’t interrupt me!” Langston barked, causing his mother to take a step back, her hand going to her chest.
“You never gave Ava a chance! You never took the time to find out that she loved me for me! It didn’t matter to her that I came from a family with money. She didn’t need my money. Her parents took very good care of her while she was in college. And it sure as hell didn’t matter to her that I was black like it did to Christina and all those other girls you threw at me!”
Beatrice gasped as her hand continued to worry the strand of pearls around her neck.
Langston let out a disgusted sigh. “Don’t act so surprised, Mother dearest. I overheard Christina telling her mother when we were kids that she didn’t want to marry me because I was too black and we would have ugly babies.”
Pushing himself off the desk, Langston stood to his full height. A cold smirk curved his full lips. “I don’t make ugly babies. Just look at how beautiful Zoe is. But I guess you can’t see how beautiful she is because she looks so much like her mother.”
Beatrice hung her head in shame. The truth hurt like hell. Ever since her granddaughter had come into the world, she’d treated her as if she were nothing. Lifting her head, she looked into her son’s eyes, her lips attempting to form into a smile. “Yes, Langston, Zoe is a very beautiful child.”
Shaking his head, he stared at his mother in disbelief. After all the turmoil she had caused, did she really think telling him his child was beautiful would make everything OK?
Taking a seat behind his desk, he picked up a file and opened it. Without looking up at his mother, Langston dismissed her. “I have work to do, Mother. Show yourself out.”
Beatrice opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it. Feeling defeated, she walked out, quietly closing the door behind her.
Chapter 30
On the far side of the filled-to-capacity auditorium, Beatrice watched as the front two rows of spectators stood cheering for Zoe as she and the other children completed their last dance routine. With the exception of Langston and Ava, she didn’t recognize any of the people.
The young couple was oblivious to her presence as they clapped the loudest. Wrapping his arm around Ava’s shoulder, Langston crushed Ava to his chest, kissing her forehead. “You have awesome family and friends.”
Ava looked up, smiling at Langston. “I know.”
Langston nodded. Ever since Zoe was born, he and Charles had been the only ones encouraging and cheering on his little girl. But today Zoe had her mother and a host of family showing their support. And it felt real good to Langston.
He was aware that Dominic and Janet would be attending the recital; however, he had no idea that Ava’s friends, their husbands, and their children would travel so far for Zoe’s recital. He was even more surprised when Ava’s brother, Summer’s parents, and Nick’s father and stepmother came shuffling in to their seats five minutes before the recital started.
At the end of the recital the small group filed out into the lobby with the other family members waiting for their children to change out of their costumes. This was the first time Ava’s parents had seen Langston since the inciden
t with his mother. Immediately Janet went to him, enveloping him in a motherly embrace, which he gladly accepted. When she stepped back, breaking the embrace, Dominic stepped in, giving him a firm handshake. “How are you holding up, son?” he asked.
“I’m maintaining, sir.”
Nodding, the older man gave Langston a firm pat on the back. Turning his attention to the small group, he said, “That grandbaby of mine sure can dance! It’s that Italian blood!” Dominic boldly boasted, grinning, his eyes dark eyes twinkling with pride.
Janet sucked her teeth. “Love, I hate to disappoint you, but it’s the African rhythm.” Everyone laughed as the proud grandparents tried to upstage each other.
As they continued to wait for Zoe, the men migrated together and began to talk about whatever it was men talked about. The women gathered together as well, all eyeing Ava.
“What?” she asked as they all gazed at her with smirks on their faces.
It was Joan Stiles who finally said, “Sweetie, you just look so happy.”
“Mmm-hmm, looks like love to me,” Nita Jackson concurred as she smiled down at Sydney, who was trying to chew on her necklace.
Ava rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Ain’t nobody in love.”
“Who said we were talking about you?” Janet asked her daughter, lifting a brow.
Starr nearly dropped Shayla as she, Karen, and Summer laughed at the stunned expression on Ava’s face.
Ava put her hands on her hips and said, “I know you better not drop my godchild over there, cackling like a hen.” Turning to the older women, she said, “What are y’all talking about?”
Janet stepped closer to her daughter and gently cupped her cheek with her hand. “Langston, sweetheart. The man is in love with you.” It did not go unnoticed by anyone how affectionate Langston was toward Ava. Throughout the entire recital he possessively had his arm across the back of Ava’s chair. And whenever Zoe came on stage, he would lean in real close to Ava, his lips nearly brushing her soft skin as he whispered in her ear. Whatever he said to her had her giggling like a school girl.
Key To My Heart (Love Conquers All) Page 16
