The Object of His Obsession (The Alexanders Book 4) (12 page)

After Padma gave the
update on Dilvan, the family dispersed.

Henry caught sight of
Tyson and said, “Congratulation, man. He’s a handsome fella just
like his ol’ man.” For all he knew, Tyson had been there with
Gabrielle, saw his son being born, cut the cord, held her hand –
all the things an expectant father would do. However, Tyson wasn’t
even at the hospital when his son was born.

“Thanks, Henry.”

Henry frowned. “You don’t
seem happy about it. Is everything okay?”

Tyson slid his hands in
his pockets.

Padma, who’d been standing
in the corner listening, interjected. “There’s just been a
misunderstanding, Henry.”

Tyson’s frown deepened.
“The only misunderstanding is how you made me out to be a fool,
Padma...after everything I’ve done for you—”

“Tyson—”

“I go above and beyond for
you,” he said cutting her off. “I go above and beyond for everyone
and I treat my wife like a queen and you knew what she did to me
and wouldn’t say a word.”

Henry grimaced. Tyson’s
words threw him for a loop. What was he talking about? “And just
what did Gabrielle do to you?” he asked Tyson.

“Tyson, stop this,” Rena
said, coming over to join them when she heard Tyson getting
loud.

Ignoring his mother, he
said, “Tell them, Padma. Tell them what you been sneaking around
behind my back discussing with Heshan, Lalita and whoever else
would listen. Meanwhile, I’m the fool.” Tyson threw his hands in
the air and walked away from them. All of them.

“Tyson, wait,” Lalita said,
running to catch up to him.

Prasad followed
her.

“Tyson, please,” Lalita
called out to him again.

He stopped walking and
looked at her.

“I want to apologize to
you,” she said breathy, “Because I feel like what happened was my
fault. And I don’t know what version of the story you heard, but
Gabrielle didn’t cheat on you with Dilvan.”

“Then what happened in
Chicago, Lalita?”

Padma had caught up to
them by then and said, “Go ahead, Lalita. Tell him.”

Lalita took a much needed
breath. “Padma and I were hanging out late one night and Gabrielle
didn’t want to come with us. She stayed at the hotel. Anyway, I was
on the way back to the room that I shared with Gabrielle and I saw
Dilvan sneaking away from the room. He didn’t see me, but I saw
him. Instead of letting him know that I saw him, I just continued
on in the room to ask Gabrielle why he was even there and that’s
when I saw her, passed out on my bed. She was out of it and by out
of it, I mean, she was drugged, Tyson.”

“What!” Tyson
yelled.

“And I don’t know what
happened after that, but since Dilvan was talking about the baby
might be his, I could only assume that he might’ve…you know,”
Lalita said, refusing to say the word.

Tyson’s lips trembled.
“Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?”

Padma wiped her eyes.
“Well, we don’t know for sure, Tyson. All we have is this suicide
note Beatrice found on his desk. I’m so sorry.” She handed him the
letter.

Tyson undid the half-fold
and read it:

To My Family,

I’m sorry to end things
like this, but I’ve felt like an outcast for some time now. People
say money can’t buy happiness, and I’m living proof. I’ve been
miserable for a long time now, so much so that I look for
compliments from others to make me feel good about myself, but the
truth of the matter is, I’m not good and I have nothing to live
for. Nothing. Heshan and Prasad, I love you and I’m sorry that we
couldn’t be as close as brothers should be. I do appreciate your
efforts. Father, you will forever be my best friend. I wish you
were around more often, but I understand your drive to make sure
the business continues to flourish. Mother, I love you with all my
heart. I know I’ve caused you pain and I can’t take anything back
that I’ve done. Just know that I love you.

Please let Gabrielle and
Tyson know that I’m sorry. Gabrielle, I never meant to hurt you.
You were always a beautiful, sweet soul. I abused you, I hurt you
over and over again and now you have a man who will love you more
than I ever could. I’m grateful now that I won’t be able to hurt
you anymore, and I hope my death will somehow bring this family
back together again.

Dilvan

_____________

Tyson grunted, bawled up
the paper and threw it across the room. He was consumed with rage.
He wanted revenge. Suicide was too easy for Dilvan, he
thought.

But then he began to think
about the other expressions Dilvan had put in the letter – how he
loved his family and felt like an outcast. If he did make it out of
the hospital, he needed to be committed to a mental health facility
because he definitely needed some serious help.

That still did nothing to
calm his hatred of him. His rage towards him.

Tyson’s chest rose in and
out quickly. He was angry and rightly so. Then he looked at Padma
and said, “Does Gabrielle know about this?”

Lalita shook her head.
“No. And she doesn’t know that Dilvan is in I.C.U.”

Tyson flailed his arms
about in the air before resting them on his head.

“I think I should be the
one to tell her,” Lalita said. “I’ll take Tamera with me and we’ll
explain what’s been going on.”

“Okay,” Padma said. She was
too exhausted to explain anything else to anyone. As it stood, she
had already caught Colin up to speed on what was going on and she
couldn’t wait until he arrived. She drew strength from him and she
would need it in the days and weeks to come.

Chapter 21

Lalita and Tamera sat next
to Gabrielle’s hospital bed. She was in a recovery room now. The
nurse had just wheeled in a small bassinet for the baby, after
which, Lalita confessed to Gabrielle what happened in Chicago – the
things she had witnessed and had concluded. The things Dilvan might
have done to her.

“That’s why I had asked you
how you ended up on my bed that morning, remember?”

Gabrielle nodded, tears
falling from her eyes. Even though it occurred almost a year ago,
she still felt violated. Even when she hadn’t known if Dilvan had
touched her at all, she was upset. And now, she knew why Tyson had
gone completely insane.

“You told Tyson this?”
Gabrielle asked, sniffling, trying to adjust the pillows at an
angle so she could talk to Lalita and keep baby T.J. comfortable
against her chest.

“I just told him about
twenty minutes ago. And I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything before
now. I wanted to, but I just couldn’t get the words out. Finally,
when I couldn’t take it anymore, I told Padma. We were planning on
confronting Dilvan about it after the baby shower, but somehow,
Tyson heard a different version and that’s why he thought you had
an affair with Dilvan. We cleared that up with him. Now he knows it
wasn’t an affair...more like an assault that no one can prove
happened. If Dilvan doesn’t tell us, then we won’t know what
happened and he’s in intensive care. He tried to kill himself with
some pills.”

Gabrielle shook her head
and cried harder. “What’s wrong with this family?”

“Gabrielle, calm down,
honey,” Tamera said. “You just had a baby. You need to
rest.”

“No. I need to take my
baby, and get out of this town. That’s what I need to
do.”

“Gabrielle...”

“Tamera, I’m serious. Just
when I thought my life was perfect here, thought I’d found the man
of my dreams, he does a complete three-sixty on me...accusing me of
things I didn’t do. It’s ridiculous.”

Tamera shook her head. She
could hardly make an excuse for Tyson. What he did was flat-out
inexcusable, so out of character for the man he’d become since
dealing with all the nonsense surrounding Desiree. Tamera was there
when Desiree had broken his heart. His spirit. But Gabrielle had
done nothing of the sort. All she did was love him. “Gabrielle,
Tyson’s been through so much and—”

“That still doesn’t make it
right, Tamera. I’ve been through a lot, too, but I don’t accuse him
of being a cheater. Even if I did think he was cheating, if people
were telling me that he was, I would believe him over everyone else
because I trust Tyson and the bottom line is, he doesn’t trust me.
I don’t think he’s capable of trusting anyone, and if that’s true,
then it’s okay. It’s just not okay for me.”

“Well, I can tell you, he
does have a hard time trusting—”

“And he hasn’t even been
here to see his baby.” Gabrielle shook her head. “How am I supposed
to take that?”

“I’m sure he’ll be here
soon, Gabrielle,” Tamera said.

“Yeah...but it’s a little
too late now isn’t it?”

Chapter 22

When Lalita stepped out of
Gabrielle’s room and out into the hallway, Prasad took her hand,
guiding her away from the room and in an area where there was no
family. No bickering. No going back-and-forth. No chaos. He needed
a moment to discuss things with his wife. Alone.

With her back against the
wall, he looked at her and asked, “Sweetie, is this why you’ve been
acting so strange? You had this on your mind all that
time?”

Lalita nodded.

“Why didn’t you come to
me?” Prasad asked, staring at her lips. “I’m your husband. You’re
supposed to let me carry the burden. Not you.”

“I couldn’t tell you,
Prasad.”

“Why not?”

“Dilvan is your brother. If
I told you, you would’ve told Heshan, then Heshan would’ve told
Tyson, then Tyson would’ve killed Dilvan.”

“Well, that’s not far from
off from how things played out anyway, now is it? The only
exception is, Dilvan tried to commit suicide.”

Prasad shook head. Saying
the words out loud had him sad and angry.
His brother actually attempted to kill
himself
.

“I’m sorry, Prasad. I know
all of this is hard on you.”

“
Sweetheart, I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Prasad
softly stroked her hair.

“What’s wrong with Dilvan?”
she asked him. “And now he’s tried to kill himself...he needs help,
Prasad...some serious help.”

“I know, sweetie. I know,
and if he pulls it through he will get help. Right now, we need to
get you home. We can swing by Beatrice and pick up the kids on the
way.”

“But neither of us
drove.”

“We’ll just get a
taxi.”

Lalita dabbed her eyes.
“But don’t you want to stay here with Heshan and your mom to see
what the doctor says about Dilvan?”

Prasad hugged her tight
and said, “I’ll come back after I get you settled. I love you,
Lalita. I love you and I love our children and I need to make sure
our family is strong. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“You and the kids come
first.”

Lalita kissed his
lips.

“Everything is going to be
okay, sweetie,” he told her. “It’ll all work out for the
best.”

Chapter 23

Tyson stepped into
Gabrielle’s room, watching her rest. She was sound asleep and the
baby was sleeping in the bassinet next to the bed, in arm’s reach
of her.

Tyson admired the baby for
a while, this small, innocent being that had all of his features –
his nose, lips, ears – there was not a doubt in his mind that this
baby was his son.

I have a
son
. A smile came to his face as he thought
about that, about how much he’d wanted a child, but his elation was
soon replaced by embarrassment and regret. He’d missed the birth of
his only child because he’d allowed anger to get the best of
him.

When his son opened his
eyes, he saw his own brown orbs beaming back at him.

I have a
son
. He thought it again and felt a sense
of pride.

Gabrielle yawned and
repositioned herself in the bed when she heard baby T.J. cooing.
Those noises were music to her ears, but when she opened her eyes
and realized Tyson was in the room, holding T.J., the music
suddenly stopped.

At least he came to see
his son
. That was one benefit to him being
here. However, he’d accused her of something she hadn’t done and
didn’t give her time to explain a thing. But what put the nail in
the coffin that
was
their marriage was when he wasn’t there for T.J.’s
birth.

Tyson gently rubbed T.J.’s
back and lowered him to the bassinet again. Walking next to the bed
now with his eyes fixed on Gabrielle, he said, “Hi. How are
you?”

Gabrielle frowned.
Now you want to know how I am?

He released a worried sigh
and said, “Gabrielle, I know I have a lot of explaining to
do.”

“No. Not really, because
there’s nothing you can say to me to make this right, Tyson. Not a
thing.”