Chapter 14
MAHOGANY
I sat on the side of the hospital bed, looking down at him with tears in my eyes.
Duke. He was in the hospital. Had gotten into a car accident and had just gotten out of surgery.
The hospital called me a couple of hours ago.
I was with Crescent and left as soon as I heard Ducati Morris and critical condition in the same sentence.
Was it dumb? Me running to his side? It didn’t matter what it was; I couldn’t just stay where I was.
I couldn’t just pretend nothing happened and like the call never came through.
I had to show up. It wasn’t that I wanted to—I literally had to.
Not because legally, I was still his wife but because the itsy-bitsy bit of love I had for him wouldn’t see it any other way.
With a deep breath, I pushed up from the chair, grabbed my purse, and walked out into the hallway to call the kids.
I paced, as I listened to Aubry’s phone ring. After a couple of rings, she picked up.
“Hey ma,” she said.
“Hey boo. Listen,” I paused. “Your daddy was in a car accident—”
“He was what? Oh my God, is he okay?” She yelled, interrupting me.
“In a car accident. Yes, he’s okay. He just got out of surgery and—”
“Wait,” she paused. “What is he even doing here? I thought he was in Ohio.”
“He was,” I lied, shaking my head, rolling my eyes. “He… he just got here. Where the kids? I need you to make sure they do their chores and their homework. You too. Don’t think I don’t know you’ve been slacking, Aubry.”
“Can we come down there?” She asked, ignoring me. “Are you sure he’s going to be alright?”
I looked back toward the room where he laid in bed, with a broken arm, and a couple of broken ribs. “Yeah, he’ll be alright.”
He would be just fine. Which was why I needed to leave.
I’d been sitting on side of this bed, watching him sleep for about an hour, mind racing when my feet should have been moving.
I was stuck. Cemented by fear, the same way I’d been in our marriage.
Today was different. Today was a little earth shattering.
I was laid up, fucking and sucking on another man while my husband got into a car accident.
I was oblivious, in bliss, having the time of my life when he could have lost his. I was… shaken.
That thought… the thought of losing him… it left me shaken. Regardless of where we stood... regardless of what he’d done... he was Ducati Morris, and he’d been a major part of my life for more than half of it.
“Listen,” I said to Aubry, as I continued to pace. “I’ll be home in about an hour or so, okay?”
“When is he coming home? How long will he be in there, ma?”
When was he coming home.
Home. I didn’t want him there. I wasn’t quite ready for him to be back in the house but at this point, what choice did I have?
What fight did I have? Not only did he need help but if he didn’t come home, the kids would wonder why, and it’d be a big thing with him just getting into an accident. Life was stacked up against me.
“I don’t know anything right now, Bry. Everything just happened. We will talk when I get there.”
I didn’t want to answer any more questions. Didn’t want her to be more inquisitive than she already was. Answering questions about Duke and home made me extremely uncomfortable.
After getting off with her, I took a deep breath and went back into the room, when I was supposed to be calling his mother. I should have but I was in no mood to talk to Adena. All he suffered were a few broken bones—he could call her ass himself when he woke up.
Stepping into the hospital room, seeing him laid up, sleep in bandages made my heart ache a little.
I was pathetic. This was pathetic, but the reality of it was I’d almost lost him.
The truck was totaled—he could have lost his life.
Then what? Then what would have happened?
What would have become of me then? How would I have taken that?
That’s what I’d been doing since I’d been here, sitting up thinking about what would have happened if he died and we weren’t speaking. If he died while we were fighting.
It wasn’t that I wanted to throw in the white flag and surrender. I didn’t want to fix things. Didn’t want to forgive, forget, and welcome Diary into our home with opened arms. I wanted this to end. The fight. The silence. The hatred. I just wanted it to be over, with no bad blood in between.
Duke cheated.
He cheated and in the middle of it, he got someone pregnant.
I’d like to say he lied to me for years about it but apparently, he just found out about the little girl.
Still… he lied. He lied for months. Smiled in my face and lived a double life.
Did me dirty. Fucked a bitch raw and probably came home that same night and fucked me raw too.
What he did was unforgivable, but I couldn’t just…
hate him. Not like I had been. Today rattled me and—
He coughed.
Caught me off guard so bad I jumped, the keys attached to my purse rattling, getting his attention. Slowly, he turned to face me. His eyes widened and his eyebrows furrowed.
“What happened?” He asked.
I sighed and scratched at the back of my head. “You got into a car accident.”
“Ssss,” he hissed in pain. “Fuck. I did?”
I nodded. “Mmhmm. Hit your head on the window so you have a mild concussion. Broke your arm and a couple of your ribs. Hold on, let me tell the nurse you up.”
Swallowing, I stood to walk out of the room. Before I could, he touched my arm, stopping me. I rolled my eyes and looked over my shoulder at him.
“Thank you for coming I know—”
“Don’t even worry about it,” I interrupted before walking off.
I said I wanted the hatred and the beef to end—I didn’t say I wanted to be friends.
Didn’t say I wanted to ride off into the sunset with him, wearing a big ass smile.
Today just made me realize how short life was.
I could have lost him. They could have lost him.
He would have died my husband and only my sisters would have known what he’d done.
That… I don’t know… it was kind of an eye opener to me.
I’d been ignoring him for days. He called me earlier and every one of his calls went unanswered.
What if that would have been the last time he ever called me?
I got the nurse and we walked back into the room.
The entire time she talked to Duke, he kept his eyes on me.
Looking back at him was uncomfortable as hell.
Not because I’d just fucked Crescent neither.
I just wasn’t there with Duke anymore, and I hoped he understood that.
I hoped he didn’t mistake me showing up for him as anything other than support.
Once the nurse left the room after giving him a run down about everything, it was just the two of us and I was on my way out. Hadn’t even sat back down. Had my purse on my shoulder and everything, ready to skate.
“Okay well… I called the kids. I told them you were alright. I’m about to head out—”
“You leavin? You can’t stay here with me?”
I drew back with a frown. “What? No. I can’t stay here with you. I’ve been here long enough. Just wanted to make sure you woke up.”
That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. I wasn’t here to do my wifely duties. I didn’t plan on taking care of him or anything like that. I just wanted to make sure he was good and since he was good, I was good and it was time for me to go.
“Well,” he paused and frowned again, the pain he was in written all over his face. “I—I would like for you to stay, Ne. I want to talk and—”
“You need to rest. We’ll talk later.”
“Later when? Tonight?”
“When you get out.”
“I can come home?”
“Where else you gon’ go?” I snapped, with my top lip curled up. “Get some rest, Ducati.”
“You gon call me later?”
“No, I’m not going to call you. You have other things to worry about.”
“You the only thing I give a fuck about, Ne.”
I didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds before sighing. “Good night, Ducati.”
“I love you, Mahogany,” he said as I walked towards the door.
I paused, looked over my shoulder at him, shook my head and said, “Love you too.”
Because I did. We had history. A ton of it.
And a secret baby didn’t just erase that.
I didn’t hate Ducati for real. I hated what he’d done to me.
I hated what he did to our family. That was it.
If things were different… if Diary wasn’t an issue…
we probably would have made it this time.
We might’ve worked. But the facts were the facts, and a whole baby came out of him cheating. I couldn’t move past that. Never would.
“How come you didn’t stay at the hospital?” asked Aubry, sprawled out on the other end of the couch, phone in hand.
“Hmm?” I asked, pretending not to hear her.
She sat the phone on her chest and peered over at me. “Dad. Why didn’t you just stay with him? I could have made dinner.”
I knew exactly what Aubry was doing. She was telling me she knew something without actually telling me she knew something.
She was fishing, trying to get me to tell another lie, which I did.
I told her I needed to be home. Said I needed to come home to make sure they did what they were supposed to do since they had been slacking so much lately.
Of course, she didn’t buy it.
“You told me to make sure they did their homework and chores. I was going to. You could have stayed, mom. I know he wanted you to.”