Chapter 9 #2
“I’m not going to do that, Mother.”
“Why not?” She straightens her shoulders, holds her head high and walks over to me, waiting for my answer. I’m going to give her the truth, and I’m not going to sugarcoat it to make her happy.
“This baby she’s having might not even be Nick’s. He’s not in love with her.”
“Shut the hell up, Cat! This baby is Nick’s, and you know it—so does he. Mother, she’s a jealous little two-faced slut. She’s always been jealous of me.”
What the hell? I’m not jealous of her. I’ve never been a day in my life. “You’re delusional; you trapped a man who doesn’t even like you. This baby was an unexpected accident from a one-night stand. He doesn’t want you.”
“Catherine, stop it right now!” my mother demands.
“And he wants you? Is that what he told you, Cat? You can spread your legs as far and wide as you want, but he will be back here with me and his child. I’m going to be the mother of his child, not you.”
I’m so angry at her, the words are coming out of my mouth before I have a chance to think.
“You might be carrying his child, but he doesn’t love you.
He loves me. You weren’t even a choice, you were a mistake—just like that bab—” My mother stops me before I finish saying the words I know I will regret later.
“Catherine Reed, you stop this! Right now! How could you do this to your sister?”
“You didn’t hear anything I said, did you?” I say to my mother.
“I don’t need to, you are out of line. I don’t know who you are. The daughter I raised would never do anything like this. You slept with her fiancé, the father of her child? what were you thinking? Do you know how this makes me and this family look?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.” She looks at me disapprovingly as she continues to blast me with her anger.
“It looks like I raised a daughter with no morals. You’re running around here acting loose, like a little slut in heat.”
“Well, Mother, if I’m a slut, you must be a two-dollar whore.”
Before I know what’s coming my way she rears back, slapping me so hard across my face I’m momentarily stunned.
Kate’s hand flies over her mouth in shock.
I close my eyes against the stinging pain in my face from the impact of the slap across my cheekbone.
When I’m finally able to look at my mother, the fury in her eyes is mixed with what one would consider concern.
Too bad she wasn’t concerned enough to say anything else other than, “How dare you speak to me that way in my house?”
How dare I speak to her like that? How dare she act like she has never committed a sin in her entire life—when she has committed the greatest sin of all to her family. I’m going to show her how much alike we truly are.
“It amazes me how self-righteous you are, Mother. You are no better than me. If anything, what you have done is far greater of an embarrassment to this family than anything I could do.”
“I have never done anything to disgrace this family.”
“I think having an affair with one of your husband’s friends and getting pregnant with his twins would be called the height of embarrassment and disgrace.”
My mother gasps, the color draining from her face. The shock and terror on her face and Kate’s is palpable.
“I don’t think anything I’ve done could surpass that.”
“How did you know?”
“I found out the same time Kate and Chris did. I overheard you telling Grandmother how Chris and Kate found their original birth records in a safe you forgot to lock. How their father left you when he found out you were pregnant, and you had to beg Daddy to take you back. He loved you so much he took you back and agreed to raise the babies as his own.”
I look at Kate, who is looking at me with fire burning in her eyes.
All these years I knew Daddy wasn’t her biological father, but I didn’t say anything to anyone.
No one else in my family knows. When my mother was pregnant with Kate and Chris, Jay was a little boy.
He must remember what happened, that’s why he is so protective over our family, and he always stresses the fact that no one should come between us and break us apart.
I think that’s the reason he tried so hard to hold on to his own family with Vanessa and Sasha.
“I was never jealous of you, Kate. I knew why Daddy gave you everything you wanted and asked for. That was his way of showing you how much he loved you even though you weren’t his biological daughter.
It didn’t matter that we had different fathers; I loved you the same way I did before I found out the truth.
I didn’t know how much you disliked me because I was Daddy’s biological daughter until now. ”
I refuse to cry in front of them. I feel the tears stinging my eyes, and my voice is breaking with every sentence.
“I’m leaving, I can’t stay here anymore.”
“Good, I think that would be for the best, right, Mother?” Kate says to her.
“I have to tell your father everything.”
I cut my eyes to her. “No, you won’t, Mother. I was there for the end of your telephone call to Grandmother. If you tell him about any of this, I will tell him the rest of the story.”
“You wouldn’t’t.”
“Yes, I would. When I find a place to stay, I will send for my things. I’m sure you can come up with something to tell Daddy about why I left. He loves his devoted wife so much he will believe almost anything you say. Obviously.”
She doesn’t say anything. Neither does Kate. I take a look at them before I leave. This is not my home anymore.
I didn’t make it to the school that day.
I ended up walking in the cold for hours, thinking about what had happened back at my house until I was so cold I couldn’t walk anymore.
I took the train to Manhattan and called Ava.
I didn’t tell her what happened till she opened her door and saw me.
The look on her face told me exactly how I looked.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Kate and my mother. I was outnumbered and outmatched.”
I take my coat off and sit down on the couch next to her. She lightly touches the side of my cheek with her fingertips, and I flinch from the pain. “Ouch!”
“I’m going to get you some ice; your face is fucked up. God, it looks like it hurts.”
I grab her arm to keep her from getting up. “No. I’ll be fine. Does it look as bad as it feels?”
She scrunches up her face and shakes her head in a sympathetic way. She also looks mad.
“What the hell happened? Which one did that to your face?”
“My mother.”
“She hit you on purpose?”
“She slapped the shit out of me when I called her a two-dollar whore.”
Ava’s blue eyes almost pop out of her head. “You didn’t!”
“I did.” And it was worth it to see the look on her face.
I tell Ava everything, about the whole argument between Kate, my mother, and me, from start to finish, leaving nothing out.
“I can’t believe all of this happened this morning.
I would have never in a million years have guessed that Mr. Reed wasn’t Kate’s and Chris’s father.
I can’t believe your mother cheated on your father!
And had two kids that weren’t his, and he still took her back!
My God, if that isn’t love, then I don’t know what is. ”
“I don’t know. Is it love, Ava?”
“I don’t know, but it takes a certain type of man to deal with that. I can’t think of one man I know that would be able to deal with that.”
“Me either.” I nod my head in agreement. “You know what gets me, he forgave her after she did all of that to him, and one call from this man who left her when she was pregnant with twins, and she was actually considering leaving my father again to be with him. How fucked up is that?”
“Your father never knew?”
“No, before she had a chance to see him, he died in a plane accident.”
“Would you really tell your father?”
“No, what purpose would it serve for him to find out the woman he considered the love of his life was thinking about leaving her son and him a second time?” I slump back in the couch, my hand over my face, and groan.
Damn, my face hurts. I pull a compact mirror out of my purse, the same one I had at Nick’s house—I didn’t have time to change bags.
I wince when I see the side of my face in the mirror.
My face is puffy and swollen, and there’s a nasty black-and-blue mark across my left cheekbone.
“It’s not that bad. I can help you cover it with makeup,” Ava offers.
“Thanks,” I say quietly, putting the compact back.
“Did you tell Nick?”
“Not yet. I didn’t want to bother him; he’s in court all day.”
“If he sees that, he’s going to lose it.” She tips her chin toward my face.
“I know. Oh God, Ava. What am I going to do?” I groan, resting my head back on the couch, looking at the ceiling like it holds the answers I’m looking for.
“I know how my cousin feels about you, Cat, but did you find out how you feel about him?”
“No man has ever made me feel this way. I know in my soul no one ever will. I have wanted to be with this man from when I was a little girl with stars in my eyes. I have dreamed of it countless times, and it was everything I knew it would be and more. If this baby is his, I don’t know if I can do it.
Can you tell me, how I stop loving him when I’ve just begun? ”
“Cat, I’m sorry it all happened like this.”
“So am I.”
Ava puts her arms around me, and I lay my head on her shoulder and let the tears flow freely.
“I’m pretty sure the man I love is the father of my sister’s child.
My mother and my sister can’t stand me, and I’m homeless and unemployed.
Monday morning reality—I knew it was coming, but I didn’t know it was going to mow me down like a tractor trailer and drag me through the streets at a hundred miles an hour. ”
“I can’t help you with your sister and mother, but I know you are not going to be homeless. You’re officially my new roommate. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“Thank you.”
“What was I going to let you do, roam the harsh cold streets of New York? I’m sure Nick would take you in, but I know you’re not going to go there.”
I raise my head and wipe the tears away. “I have to tell Nick.”
Ava nods her head at me. Her hair is tied back in a neat ponytail, and she looks fresh and fabulous with hardly any makeup on. “Yes, but don’t tell him about your mother hitting you, and for God’s sake, please don’t let him see it.”
“Does it look that bad?”
“You thought you had trouble today? If he sees your face like that he’s going to go ballistic. He’s not going to care if it was your mother who hit you. If you want to keep this thing quiet so no one else finds out, don’t let him come over here.”
She’s right. I don’t want this situation getting worse.
I don’t need my brothers or father finding out about us.
Nick would go over there and knock the door off the hinges; he’s not going to care who knows what.
The only reason he’s still pretending he’s engaged to Kate is because I asked him not to say anything yet.
“How am I going to stop him from coming over here?”
“I’ll help you, let me talk to him.”
“Okay.” Now all I have to do is tell Nick.