Coveted (26 page)

A soft knock came at the door as it was slowly pushed open; I moved the phone away from my ear as Naima poked her head in. “Is everything ok in here? I can hear you shouting all the way at the other end of the hall.”

I didn’t know what to say to her. What I did know however, is that I was done keeping secrets from her. That shit had never worked out in the past. I waved her into the room, to which she promptly entered and shut the door behind her.

Putting the phone back up to my ear, having calmed down, somewhat I felt I was ready to address Haven again, “ I want you to know that I will be taking you to court and suing you for back pay of all the money I paid you over the last seven years. I want every cent of my money back.”

“Kaden, I understand that you are angry and I figured you would want your money back, so I am more than prepared to see you in court.”

“Good.” I told her and ended the call. In one aspect, I was happy about the news she had given. I was finally free from her.

Seeing Naima waiting patiently by the door, I remembered that I had to tell her what was going on. Hating to bring up Haven’s name because I knew it would infuriate Naima, I had no choice, I wanted her to know the truth.

“That was Haven calling to inform me that Kaven is not my son. The whole thing was a lie that she fabricated back in college.”

Naima looked at me with an unreadable expression in her eyes, before turning and leaving the room as silently as she had come.

Damir 26

April is always such a rainy mouth. I swear it had rained everyday and there seemed to be no end in sight. I was heading down the beltway trying in vain to make it on time to Amber’s doctor appointment, which was proving more and more to be nearly impossible. I wanted to give up and turn around but at long last we were finding out the sex of the baby and I couldn’t help but be a little excited. Even though the circumstances were not the best, I always said I couldn’t wait to have children.

After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally pulling into the parking lot of the doctor’s office. I was about fifteen minutes late, and if I knew Amber, which I did, she was going to be pissed off. I declare, if I could make money predicting the future, I would because sure enough as soon as I walked through the room door Amber was jumping down my throat.

“You are late. Where have you been?” she hissed at me through barely parted lips.

I sat down in a chair placed in the corner of the room not dignifying her question with a response. So what I was a couple minutes late. I was here wasn’t I? That was more than some guys would do considering the way she had gotten pregnant.

“Do you hear me talking to you?”

Damn, I felt sorry for my kid, if this was the way Amber acted toward me I can only imagine what she was going to do when she had a kid around full time doing things she didn’t approve of.

I sighed before responding to her, “Amber what do you want from me? I am here as I said I would be. I’m trying my best to make the most of a jacked up situation, a situation that was decided for me and then dropped into my lap.”

She proceeded to cross her arms and huff some more. I could care less. Women were starting to wear me out. Once upon a time, I would have gone out of my way to make sure that women were happy. But where did that shit get me? Nowhere but on edge. I had become paranoid. I always have a suspicion that Emeri is going to be lurking in shadows waiting for a fatal moment to strike. Sometimes I would swear on my sister’s grave that I was being followed but whenever I investigated, it turned out to be nothing. These women were making me lose my mind. And all the while, I was missing Naima. I hadn’t spoken to her in over three weeks. I couldn’t count the number of times I had picked up the phone to give her a call and hung up just as the first ring was going through.

My life was in turmoil. I didn’t know what direction I was supposed to be going in at this point. Everything was a mess.

The doctor entered just as I was about to go off the deep end in my mind. Thank goodness for divine intervention.

“How are you two doing today?” “We’re fine” Amber answered in a brash tone. He had come in with such an upbeat attitude, something that we definitely needed in this room because all Amber was doing was depressing me. I looked at the doctor. He seemed pleasant enough. He was Native American and stood about 5’7. His name was Dr. Gupta and I liked him immediately. Maybe he could help me get through this pregnancy a little better with Amber.

“Well young people, let’s get started shall we. Can you lay back for me ma’am?” Amber laid back and shifted her hospital gown so the doctor could put the gel onto her belly. “I take it you are anxious to know the sex of the baby,” he said eye balling the two of us. “Yes Sir, we are.” I took the liberty of saying before Amber could open her mouth.

He continued to move the funny little contraption over Amber’s belly and I was all into the screen. I had no idea what I was looking at however. I looked over at him for some direction. Seeing my confusion he began to point things out, “See right there we have the baby’s head, and a little further down we have the arms.” The more he pointed things out, the more I could actually see the baby taking form for myself. It was amazing. I had never been in a room looking at a monitor with a baby,
my
baby on it before. I was more than a little in awe of the entire situation.

“This is a little strange” My heart immediately did a somersault in my chest. I felt like my ribs were caving in. I couldn’t imagine something being wrong with the baby.

“
It would seem as if congratulations are in order.” Dr. Gupta looked up from the monitor at us. “You are going to be the proud parents of twins. One baby was hiding behind the other one.” I felt rather than heard Amber gasp. I could understand her reaction completely.

“
Doctor, do you mean to tell me that there are two babies in there?”

“
That is what I am telling you,” he looked down at the chart, for my name, “Mr. Collins.”

“
Would you two like to know what they are now?” There was too much going on for me to comprehend.

I was still reeling from the news that I would be welcoming two babies into the world instead of one. Amber spoke up that time.

“Yes Doctor. We would like to know the sexes of the babies.”

“Well”, the doctor said as he went back to moving the little mouse looking thing over Amber’s belly. “From the looks of what we have here, I can identify what seems to be a boy and a girl. Congratulations.”

After that, he turned the machine off, gave Amber something to wipe off her belly and left the room.

Wow. I had come in today to find out the sex of one baby and here I was having two. What were the odds of that happening? Leaning down to help Amber up as she tried to rise off the bed, I wondered how she was feeling about the whole situation.

“That was some news huh?” I felt like I should say something. Amber had all but shut down from me.

“Yeah, definitely news I didn’t want to hear.” I don’t know why I bothered with this woman. I knew she didn’t want children at all. That had been one of our issues. So I can imagine she was probably more than a little peeved.

“Amber, don’t you think that you should try to be excited. Look at all the people in the world that are unable to have kids and we have been bestowed the blessing of having two. This is a great thing. Even if you can’t be happy for you, be happy on my account. I am thrilled.” I couldn’t hold my grin back any longer. I may not have planned for Amber to be the mother of my children, but for whatever reason the cards had dealt me this hand and I was going to play the hand that I was dealt to the best of my ability.

“How can you stand over there grinning? What about me? What am I supposed to do with two babies? I was hard pressed trying to figure out what to do with one.” She shook her head in disbelief, “This is the nightmare that just will not end.” I wasn’t totally emotionless, part of me wanted to go to her. But part of me thought she was being selfish. Everything had always been about her. She was the one that had schemed to get pregnant. Now that things weren’t working out to her benefit, she was the one trying to pull a guilt trip. I was not going to allow it. She needed to own up to what she had done.

“Amber, if I’m not mistaken, you are the one that felt the need to get pregnant. This was your doing.” I turned her so that she would have to look at me, instead of rummaging through her purse as if she was in search for something, “I’m sorry that things didn’t work out the way you hoped they would between us. But please don’t take it out on our babies. They are something we both share. Not just you and I’m doing the best I can to be here for you despite the circumstance that brought us here. Because no matter which way you twist this situation, we still made them together, and I’m sure we had fun doing it, from what I recall of all our encounters.”

There is was a little gleam in her eye. I had stoked her ego enough to make her cheer up a little bit. I wasn’t asking for much, just a little bit of some cheer. She sat back on the hospital bed as gracefully as she could at six months pregnant.

“Damir, I know you’re happy and want me to rejoice with you. But I want you to try and understand where I am coming from.” I could see the moisture in her eyes; I had never taken Amber for the overly emotional type. The pregnancy hormones must have had her all out of whack.

“I am pregnant by the man I am in love with. A man who is no longer interested in me, it was never part of my plan to be a single parent.” She started crying full out then. What was I supposed to do? I wasn’t the one that had forged this situation. But obviously, her being so upset could not be a good thing for the babies. I needed some time to think. “I’ll be right back,” I told her as I headed out into the hall.

Maybe it was time for me to start acting like the man my parents raised me to be. I was the one that decided to lay down with Amber. Even though she schemed, no protection is one hundred percent accurate so she still might have gotten pregnant either way and truth be told it’s not like she hadn’t been a good woman to me. Because she had, and she was sexy beyond belief. Many men wanted Amber but she made her own decisions and she had chosen me.

Putting responsibility before my own needs and wants, I decided right there in the middle of the hallway at the doctor’s office that it was in my children and my best interest to commit myself to Amber. They deserved to be raised in a two parent home environment like I was. I had already let Naima go and though that hurt like hell, at this point in my life it wasn’t fair to try and be committed to her when Amber and I were having children together and I was more worried about her and the babies well-being than pursuing Naima at the moment. The one thing I was concerned about however was Emeri’s crazed, psychotic ass. Unfortunately that was a problem that I was going to have to be put on hold. As I saw Amber waddling her way out the room door. Even though I knew she hated being pregnant, she had never looked more beautiful to me.

I ran up to her grabbing hold of her arm to help her down the hall. She rejected my touch almost immediately as she pulled her arm out of my grasp.

“Damir, what in the world?” She frowned her face up looking at me.

“I was just trying to help you.”

“I’m not crippled you know, just pregnant, which I guess is sort of crippled. But I can handle it. I got here by myself, I can leave that way.”

“Ok, you’re going to regret being so abrasive with me once I let you in on some decisions I have been making.” I smirked, as she stopped walking in the middle of the hall. I knew I had her attention now.

Eyeing me intently, “What kind of decisions have you been making?” she asked.

“Well I really don’t want to spoil the surprise. Why don’t you come over my house and join me for lunch?”

“I don’t know about that. The last time I came to your home you treated me like shit.”

“Amber, you pulled a damn pop-up in the middle of the afternoon and ran up on something you really didn’t want to see. What did you think was going to happen in that situation?”

“I thought you would be more concerned with my feelings instead of running behind your little whore.”

“First of all Naima is not a whore, and if you are going to be the woman I have chosen to spend my life with, you will have to get a better attitude when addressing people that I deal with.”

Nothing but silence followed, looking back at her expectedly, “What?”

“You just said the woman you have chosen to spend your life with. Am I hearing things? Or are you saying to me that I am that woman?”

“That is what I wanted to go over with you at my place while we were having lunch. But you already have me rethinking the situation. You will have to carry yourself in a manner that is a positive reflection of me. Hopefully that won’t be too much for you to handle.”

“Don’t talk to me like that. I know how to carry myself. Put yourself in my shoes, I’m sure your feelings would have been hurt as well.”

“Be it what it may. You cannot walk around calling people whores. I will not have that type of behavior around me. And I would rather not discuss this conversation at the doctor’s office. Why don’t you come over,” looking down at my watch, “say about seven this evening and we’ll lay everything out on the table and go from there?”