The Object of His Obsession (The Alexanders Book 4) (13 page)

“How do you know that when
you won’t give me a chance to say anything?”

“Sound familiar?” she
asked. She’d tried to explain herself to him, telling him that she
didn’t have an affair with Dilvan, but he wasn’t listening.
Something similar had happened before they married. She was just
coming out of an abusive relationship with Dilvan. Tyson had taken
her in and just when she thought she and Tyson were crossing over
the more-than-friends border, he asked her to move out, even taking
the liberty of leasing an apartment for her – all because he
thought she was secretly seeing Dilvan behind his back.

He was wrong then, and
he’s wrong now. And she was done with being accused of things she
would never do, things that had never crossed her mind. With Tyson,
she was seeing this pattern, one she didn’t like. What woman wants
to be accused of being unfaithful by her husband on a constant
basis? What woman wants to be accused of being unfaithful by her
husband at all?

“Tyson, I have never done
anything to make you feel that I would ever be unfaithful to you,”
she said, with tears in her eyes. “And I promise you, this is
the
last
time you
will do this to me.”

“Gabrielle—”

“Save it. You missed the
birth of our son—”

“But I thought—”

“Screw what you thought!”
she snapped. “The bottom line is, I’m your wife and you don’t trust
me. You don’t. That’s why you put me out of your house before we
married...because you thought I was seeing Dilvan behind your back.
That’s why you didn’t want me to go to Chicago...you thought I was
going to cheat on you. That’s why you don’t want me to
work...because you think I will grow independent of you. And that’s
why you think I had an affair with Dilvan...because you’ve been
hurt before and you place me in the same category with the woman or
women who hurt you. Well, I won’t do this anymore,
Tyson.”

“What are you
saying?”

“I’m saying that when I
leave this hospital with my baby, I’m not coming home.”

“You’re coming home,
Gabrielle,” he said confidently.

“No. I’m not. Why should I
be with someone who doesn’t trust me? Better yet, why would you
want to be with a woman you don’t trust?”

“I’m not losing my family
over this,” he said shaking his head. “And none of this is my
fault.”

Gabrielle closed her eyes,
squeezing tears back. “You can see your son whenever you want, but
I personally feel that trust is a necessity in a relationship and
you don’t trust me.”

“Gabrielle—”

“Maybe you should do some
soul-searching to find out why you allow past relationships to ruin
what we have.”

“It was a simple
misunderstanding.”

“No, it wasn’t a
simple
misunderstanding.
I’ve never seen rage like that before, and then you had the nerve
to take a gun from the dresser and storm out of the house like an
insane person.” Gabrielle shook her head. “Who are you?”

“Bri, baby—”

“Please leave me alone,
Tyson.”

“Gabrielle—”

“Please. Just leave me
alone.”

Tyson didn’t want to go,
but he’d already done enough damage. So he turned around, walked
out of the room and once the door had closed behind him, he punched
the wall, angry at himself for possibly destroying his once
wonderful, blissful marriage.

Chapter 24

Sometime later, after
Tyson had left, Henry stepped into Gabrielle’s room with Carmen and
Destiny trailing behind him.

“Hi, dear,” he said to
her.

Gabrielle yawned. “Hey,
Dad. Are you guys heading back home?”

“Yep...in a few, honey. We
had to come see you and the baby one more time before we leave. I
wish I could stay a little longer but duty calls.”

“I understand.”

Carmen and Destiny hovered
over T.J.’s bassinet, admiring him.

“Can I hold him,
Gabrielle?” Destiny asked.

“Yes. Just wash your hands
first.”

“Okay,” she said, turning
on the faucet at the sink that was conveniently located in the
room. After drying her hands, she carefully scooped baby T.J. in
her arms. “Hey little T.J. I’m your Aunt Destiny.”

“He’s not going to remember
you telling him that, Destiny,” Carmen quipped. “He’s a
baby.”

“Duh, Carmen.” Destiny sat
down with T.J. nestled in her arms. “He’s so cute.”

Carmen sat next to her.
“He really is.”

While they acquainted
themselves with their first and only nephew, Henry took a few steps
closer to Gabrielle and said discreetly, “What’s going on with
Tyson?”

“Dad, it’s fine,” she told
him, not wanting to get into it.

“But when I saw him out in
the waiting room, he looked like he was angry. I’ve never seen him
that way before. He told Padma that she made him out to be a
fool...said something about she knew what you did. I asked him what
he was talking about and it was like he didn’t even hear
me.”

Gabrielle sighed. She was
still exhausted from giving birth and she’d been up with the baby
most of the night. And did her father really need to know
everything that was going on? If he did, all he would do when he
returned home was worry about her and think negatively of Tyson,
and she didn’t want to fall into the habit of talking disdainfully
about her husband just because he angered her. Tyson was wrong,
yes, but she saw nothing good about spilling her guts...telling her
father everything he’d done. Their problems were for them to work
out – not for everyone else to take sides and add their two cents.
That’s how marriages ended. If their marriage would end, it
wouldn’t be because of taking the opinion of others.

“Dad, all I will say is,
Tyson and I will work through whatever issues we have, but for
right now, we’re happy that we have a healthy baby boy.”

“He is beautiful,
Gabrielle.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“I can’t wait ‘til he gets
older so Grandpa can show him how to hit a baseball.”

Gabrielle smiled. “That
would be nice.”

“Yep, sure would,” Henry
said, raising his hands above his head. “Well, I guess we better
get going. We have to get a taxi back to Padma’s to get the
car.”

“Okay, Dad.”

Henry leaned over and
placed a kiss on Gabrielle’s temple. “I love you,
daughter.”

“Love you too,
Dad.”

Destiny stood and lowered
the baby into the bassinet. “Bye T.J.,” she said. Then she walked
over to the bed and wrapped her arms around her sister’s neck.
“Love you, sis.”

“Love you too,
Destiny.”

Carmen followed suit,
waving at baby T.J., then hugging Gabrielle.

“We’ll make plans to visit
you guys soon,” Gabrielle told them.

“Okay, dear. Take care and
take care of my grandbaby.”

“Alright, Dad. Will
do.”

“And tell Tyson we said
bye.”

“Okay. I will.”

When the door closed,
Gabrielle closed her eyes, not necessarily out of relief but
because she knew the hard part would begin. With the family
leaving, she had to deal with the situation at hand – taking care
of a newborn while trying to cope with marital issues.

Chapter 25

In the morning, Padma woke
up slowly next to Dilvan’s bed. She’d been up sobbing most of the
night and her bones were stiff in the uncomfortable faux leather
chair she had been glued to for six hours straight. When she
drifted off to sleep on one interval last night, she had a short
dream about her children – remembering Heshan, Prasad and Dilvan as
small, sprightly little boys. In those pre-teen years, they were
those hardcore, play-in-the-dirt, soccer-ball-kicking,
we-hate-girls boys. Then she noticed that one of her boys was
drifting away from typical adolescent behavior – Dilvan.

In high school and
college, he was a straight ‘A’ student, received numerous awards,
so many that a parent could begin to take it for granted, and he
excelled at subjects that most people cringed at including
chemistry and calculus. His aunt Rena used to call him an evil
genius because, even though he was so academically gifted, he had a
mean streak. He wasn’t evil, per se, but he was sneaky and had
duplicitous ways. And he was arrogant. He was very much aware of
how attractive he’d grown up to become and he had girls falling at
his feet. Most of it went to his head and Padma knew she had to put
a stop to it, especially after he began his modeling career. Her
son was losing control, spending haphazardly and he wasn’t ready
for the responsibility that money put upon him.

So to gain the power back,
Padma felt compelled to shield him, pick out a woman for him,
basically choosing a life for him by steering him away from
modeling, loose women and everything that came with living the fast
life. He needed something to keep his mind stimulated. She thought
that by having him work the accounting aspect of the job as well as
by finding a wife for him, a good wife, he could settle down, enjoy
a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble. But what did Dilvan
want? At the time it didn’t matter. It was what she wanted for
him.

So he gave up the things
he aspired to do to get back in good with the family. He tried to
force himself to conform to being with Gabrielle at the time, but
that life wasn’t what he wanted. He wasn’t sure if he wanted
marriage and kids. Some men, and women alike, were content with
being single. Maybe that’s what he wanted. To be free and single.
Had she just let him be, he wouldn’t be lying on a hospital bed
now, clinging to life.

Padma blew a distressful,
overwhelming breath and covered her face with her hands. She’d
failed Dilvan as his mother and that thought alone made her
lightheaded. If he was to take his last breath in this hospital,
there would be no one to blame but herself.

She wiped tears from her
eyes. Seemed they just ran out involuntarily, her response to the
pain of watching her youngest son fighting for his life.

She closed her eyes again.
Colin was due to arrive soon. When she told him over the phone what
happened to Dilvan, he wailed and screamed in pain. No parent
claimed to have favorites when it came to their children, but
Dilvan was his father’s shadow. Heshan and Prasad tended to follow
their mother footsteps, before finding their own path, but not
Dilvan. He loved his mother, but admired his father.

“Mo-ther,” Dilvan whispered
softly.

Padma jumped at the sound
of his voice. Was it really him talking or was she so desperate for
him to make it through this that she was hallucinating?

Standing next to his bed,
she leaned over him and said, “Dilvan, are you awake? Can you hear
me?”

His eyes remained
closed.

“Dilvan, can you hear me,
son?”

No response.

Padma, overcome with
emotion, stepped out into the hallway and sobbed into a scarf,
hiding her face from the hospital staff.

“Sweetie,” Colin said,
running down the hallway to comfort his wife. He’d just arrived
there and was looking for Dilvan’s room when he saw Padma in
tears.

When Padma heard the voice
of her comforter, she fell into his embrace and sobbed.

“Honey, it’s going to be
okay,” Colin said, consoling her.

“He’s not waking up,
Colin,” she cried. “Our baby is not going to make it.”

“Padma, you can’t think
that way, okay? Dilvan needs us right now.”

Colin rubbed his hands
down the length of her silky strands and said, “Let me go in and
see him, okay?”

She sniffled and dabbed
her eyes. “Okay.”

“You look exhausted. Why
don’t you go get some coffee or something? Take a break. I don’t
want you stressing—”

“I can’t help but be
stressed. He’s my baby, Colin.”

“I know,” Colin said,
placing his hands against his wife’s damp face. “I just need you to
take a break right now. Go get some water or something from the
cafeteria.”

“Okay...uh...okay. I’ll be
right back.”

When Padma walked off,
Colin stepped in Dilvan’s room. The sight of his son lying there
motionless instantly made him weak.

“What did you do, son?” he
said throaty. He realized Dilvan’s eyes were closed and that he was
probably sleeping, completely unaware of what was going on, but
still, he felt the need to express his worry and frustration aloud.
Maybe his son could hear him. “Why would you do this, Dilvan?”
Colin pinched his eyes shut. Then he leaned down next to him.
“Why?”

“Fa-ther,” Dilvan said,
below a whisper.

Colin snapped his head up
quick. “Dilvan?”

Dilvan’s eyes remained
closed and Colin gripped his hand.

“Dilvan, I’m here,
son.”

Dilvan smiled. It was a
barely noticeable, lazy one, but Colin could see it.