The Donor: When Conception Meets Deception (28 page)

Chase sits frozen.

"So my connect sent one of her investigators to your hometown. Found out your Dad was pretty stern. He kept a tight leash on you and ran the family like a bootcamp. And your Mom…I don't know if it was because of your Dad or not, but she had it rough. Drug and alcohol abuse, bipolar and mood disorders. Do you still keep in touch with her?"

Chase slathers apricot jam on his half-eaten biscuit and takes a huge bite.

“No, and I don't plan to,” he says with his mouth full.

Jenae pauses before continuing.

"Well, this investigation was a while ago. At that time she was in a facility called Willow Grove Convalescence, if you ever want to visit.”

“I won’t. She was never there for me. I wasn’t exactly
planned
and she made sure to remind me of that fact every time she got drunk or high. And you already know about my Dad. He didn’t even meet with the USC coaches when they were recruiting me. Hell, he never even visited me in prison. Someone else ended up being more of a Dad to me."

"Angelo Hickson?" she says.

Chase’s mouth drops. "You know about Bam too?” he mumbles through the mixture of gooey jam and mushy biscuit making its way down his throat.

“I wasn’t voted onto the top 50 female lawyers in New York City list two years ago for my stunning looks you know. Yes, I know all about Hickson. He has a long rap sheet. Extortion, three Ponzi schemes, illegal online gambling, mail fraud, identity theft. But he was also investigated for kidnapping, murder and aggravated assault. I figured it must have been
him
that came up with the whole phony bologna Chase Archibald."

Chase doesn't respond. Although he hasn't seen Bam since their final video chat, he remembers about keeping his mouth shut to this very day. He raises the mug to his lips for a swig.

"It's okay. A guy like Hickson? You don't flap your gums about him. But here’s why I agreed to see you today. In our research we found out that you should never have been charged with a sex crime in the first place, let alone convicted of one.”

Chase’s eyes perk up as he drops his mug to the table.

“What do you mean?” he says.

“Well, high school football in the South is like pro football in the North. They take it
very
seriously.”

“Way
too
seriously if you ask me. Our stadium could seat 25,000. And that’s high school.”

“Right, and so the night it happened, you guys beat your crosstown rivals General Lee High for the State championship. You threw for like five hundred yards or something—”

“578. It's still a record."

“I see you’re still proud of that.”

“Yeah. That night was awesome. Well up until—“

"Until the party right?"

"Yeah. That damn party. And that damn girl."

"Well it was only a few weeks after your eighteenth birthday."

“It was December 12th to be exact. I won't forget that date no matter how much I want to."

“You had a victory party at one of your teammate's homes. I forget his name it's in my notes somewhere,” she says as she rifles through several folders in her satchel.

“You brought research with you?”

“Yuppers…now let me see where it is—Ah, here it is. Chip, that’s his name. Chip Henry’s house.”

“Our running back yeah.”

“So there was a girl there. Blonde, blue-eyed girl. My friend’s investigator reported that everyone he interviewed that was at the party said she was all over you. Flirting, rubbing on you, and frankly just glued to you all night. And she wasn’t even drinking.”

Chase sighs and looks away.

“You know what? You can use a refill right? Let me get these topped off for us.” He rises with their cups and returns a few minutes later with refreshed mugs of hot tea.

“Thanks for the refill,” she says. “Look, I know this is hard for you but stick with me. So anyway, one thing leads to another with this girl, and you guys go into one of the upstairs bedrooms and you have sex."

“Consensual sex Jenae. Consensual!”

“Yes, Chase I know. But the girl was only fifteen
and
she attended the rival high school you just beat.”

“But I didn't
know
she was fifteen, Jenae. I thought she was my age. She said she was a senior, and looked like it too. She even talked about how she applied to USC also. I mean if you would have seen her, there’s no way you would say, that’s a
child
."

"I get it. Will you let me finish the story please?”

“I’m sorry keep going.”

"So teenage boys being, well…teenage boys, they start talking. Word gets out that you…let me get the exact quote from the investigator…okay, here…word gets out that you scored
another
touchdown over General Lee High School that night. By Monday, it spread across town to her high school. Your rivals.”

"Yeah. And that's when my problems started. Aside from the crosstown hate, it turns out her father was a county politician."

“Yes, he was a state assemblyman. So you had politics, power, and probably old southern attitudes about black male/white female sexual relations all at play.”

"So when the news spread to him about me and his daughter—” Chase says.

"All of a sudden it went from consensual to rape. Her father pressured her into making the allegation and she was too afraid to challenge him. Through his political connections he got you arrested and things went haywire. You should never have been charged with, and certainly not convicted of, child molestation.“

Chase shifts in his chair. He curls his lips into his mouth and rubs his hands together.

“Chase I know this is uncomfortable. Teenagers have consensual sex all of the time. But here’s the thing. There was already a law on the books that
should have been
applied to your case. It’s called the Romeo and Juliet exception."

Chase's eyes pop.

“Yeah, I got that look too. Romeo and Juliet exceptions are when you have two teenagers who engage in consensual sex, but they are close in age. In Georgia, the female in this case has to be either fourteen or fifteen and the male can be no older than eighteen. Your age difference was actually only two years and three months. The prosecutor should not have charged you as if you were an adult and she were a child. He shouldn’t have charged you at all, and probably wouldn’t have, if those other factors weren’t present. ”

"This is crazy," Chase says.

"And to top it off, you had the kickback judge that sentenced you to five years."

"Kickback judge?”

“Judge Howard Steingard. He was the presiding judge at your trial. Check this out. He just got convicted last week on corruption charges. I said to myself, where have I heard that name before? That jogged my memory about the particulars of your case. Remember, I did this research almost three years ago so I had forgotten about him. He was getting kickbacks for sentencing mostly young black boys to a private prison. He and his cronies called it
boys for bucks
.”

"What? Why am I just finding out about this? This the nightmare all over again," Chase says.

"I know, I know. In your case you went to a state facility so you weren't a part of the official corruption and misconduct scandal. But all of Steingard's cases have now come under scrutiny. The judge’s name sounded familiar and then I remembered where I had heard it before. So whether I really wanted to see you again or not, I felt I had to. I had new information about your case so I decided to finally reply to your email.”

Chase leans back to process the waterfall of new information. Jenae ladles a dollop of dark amber honey into her cup. A hush in the conversation reveals the twangy strings and organ riffs of Al Green’s
Love and Happiness
streaming above them. Chase takes hold of his spoon and stares into the light green lagoon in his mug. He stirs and stirs.

"Chase?" Jenae says.

"I'm here. I’m just…just processing all of this,” he looks up with a forced smile.

“Look, the good news is you may be able to get your conviction overturned and clear your name. A clean record. Heck, maybe even a civil suit against the State. That’s why I brought all of this information with me in my bag. It’s for you. Give it to whoever is going to represent you.”

“Wow. Jenae…you’re something else…you’re amazing. After everything I put you through you still went and did all of this for me?”

She slurps her tea.

“So, what’s the title of your memoir?” she says.

“Ah, my memoir. Yes. It’s called,
Chasing Tevarus: Finding my Truth in a Lie.
”

Jenae lifts one eyebrow and curls her top lip.

“That sure is an intriguing title. Nice play on words. Chase, Ing, Tevarus. Cute.”

"Why thank you Ms. Dixon. It still is Ms. Dixon right? I don’t see a ring,” Chase says with a nervous chuckle.

“Well aren’t you Mr. Subtle. No, I am not married. I had a bad experience with that once. Wonk wonk," she says with a wink.

Chase's face turns sour.

"Relax, it's just a joke,” she says. “Humor helped me get through it all."

"I'm really sorry."

"You don't have to keep apologizing.”

“Can I tell you something crazy? Would you believe that when you threw your engagement ring out of Shauntelle’s car window, it landed in a pile of dog shit?”

Jenae spits her tea and chokes with laughter.

“Oh my God…”
COUGH COUGH “
…that’s hilarious. Kind of poetic when you think about it though,” she says.

“Yeah. Someone else said the same thing,” Chase says. “But listen, I have a question. Why didn’t you respond to me after you discovered the truth? It sounds like you understood."

"I did understand. It was quite a relief to be honest. It confirmed that you
weren't
the monster I was led to believe you were. I was considering taking you back."

Chase pins his shoulders to his ears and leans over the table.

“You were? Okay, so, so what stopped you?"

Jenae pauses. She sips her tea, leans back in her chair, and smiles. She doesn't respond. She lets the silence speak a little longer. She circles her manicured fingernail around the brim of the mug. Chase’s eyes stay fixed on her like a dog waiting for a treat. Jenae squints her left eye, rests her knuckles against her cheek and presses her finger to her temple like a famous Malcolm X photo.

“Let me ask you something Chase,” she says. “Is there anything you plan to leave
out
of your memoir?"

"What do you mean leave out? Oh, oh, oh. Jenae, listen if you're worried about me writing anything that would embarrass you, or hurt your career—“

"No. Nothing like that. I mean your memoir is about finding your truth in a lie right? That’s what you said right?”

Chase nods.

“Okay, so are there any other important truths and lies you failed to mention to me?”

Chase plops back in his chair. He knows Jenae well enough to know that she
must
be asking for a particular reason. So he combs through the drawers in the file cabinet of his mind. He searches through hidden folders and scattered thoughts. He can see a locked file labeled Eugene. His mind reaches for it. But he refuses to open it. He won’t share it. His lips part and close but the words won’t come out. Finally, he musters the courage to speak and says to her…

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean."

Jenae's face turns from anticipation to disappointment. Like when you’re rooting for your favorite player to make the game winning shot and he just clanks it off the backboard.

“Okay, Chase," she sighs. “Okay,” she says with a soft frown.

She lifts the cup and takes a generous swallow. Her thumbs stroke the contoured edge as she ponders before speaking.

“Well, that’s why I asked you if there was anything else. After I got a fuller picture of your past, and the circumstances of your case, you were pretty much exonerated in my eyes. But I needed some advice on my feelings. Should I take you back or not? So I thought about the people in your life who knew you best. I thought about calling Tanaka and—“

"Who you never liked," Chase interjects.

"It's not that I didn't
like
him I just found him to be annoying. But I didn't contact him because that’s your boy. I knew he would just tell me to take you back no matter what. So then I thought for a minute and said, hey Jenae. Why not call the person who has known Chase the longest? So I contacted her. I called Andrea.”

Chase fidgets. His eyes contort. His forehead wrinkles.

"Andrea? I haven't spoken to her since...since everything ended with us. She never returned my calls, my messages, my texts. I even showed up at her place one day and turns out she moved. She didn’t leave a forwarding address. I called the psychology department at the university and they said she resigned. She just dropped off the radar. I assumed she must have gotten one of those packages too and didn't want to have anything to do with me."

“No, Chase. I don't think that was quite the reason. I mean, I don't know if she got a package or not, but she seemed surprised to hear about your past when I contacted her. I sought her out for advice because the two of you were such good friends. Of course, I didn't know
how
good until she invited me over to her loft for a chat over wine and dinner."

"A chat?"

"Yes, a chat."

“And she was drinking?”

“Yup,” Jenae says with emphasis on the
puh
sound.

It’s like a doomsday piano chord just played in his mind. Chase’s respiration increases and his heart rate ratchets up.

"So after I talk to her about the whole Tevarus Huxley thing, she proceeds to reveal something you never shared with me. She said that the two of you used to be quite the couple.”

“Uh, Jenae I—“

“I mean, girlfriend was going on and on about all the places you two used to go to, vacations in Aruba, how you used to lay it down and handle your business in bed. It was quite illuminating I must say. Huh, you think you know a person right?"

"Look Jenae. I—“