Chapter 22 – Hope
When it was over, I laid there staring at the ceiling, in complete shock. My body shook for several minutes afterward. Darren caressed my face and hair, letting the waves die down, watching me carefully.
He was so sweet and gentle. I couldn’t believe that anyone would ever see him as a monster.
“That was amazing,” I told him. “But I have to go. My mom’s waiting for me. She’s going to be a bit confused.”
“Yeah,” he admitted, standing up and helping me to my feet.
We began to retrieve our clothes from the floor.
“I hope she takes the news okay,” Darren said. “Your mom has always been very good to me. I hope she understands the situation.”
I looked at him and couldn’t help but laugh.
“Who could ever understand this situation?” I asked him.
Soon, he was laughing too.
“I know, right? Well, at least I hope she eventually comes to accept it.”
When I got back home, I sat in the car in the driveway for a long time.
How was I going to break the news to my mom about what was happening?
I still didn’t know as I walked into the house. She was standing at the door, waiting for me, a look of concern on her face, but it was also mixed with happiness, which was a huge relief.
“Hope! I’ve got great news!” she called out. “The doctors ran some tests and found out that the reason that I’ve been having so many headaches is due to a deviated septum, which they can easily fix. It looks as though things are starting to get better already.”
Her hopeful smile made me happy and sad all at the same time. I was glad that she was getting better, but wasn’t sure how the news that I was about to give her would affect her.
“What’s wrong?” she said, her smile fading as she read the sadness on my face.
“Mom, we need to talk…”
I walked into the living room and sat on the couch, my hands folded neatly in my lap, waiting for her to join me. She slowly walked from the foyer into the living room and sat down.
“Hope, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”
“It’s not bad, mama,” I said, patting her hand. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to let it out.
“I’m going to go live at Dar… at Mr. King’s house, to be his live-in maid.”
My mother blinked a few times, like she was trying to process what she had just heard. She was surprised, and I couldn’t blame her. It was very surprising news.
“Why? What do you need to do that for? You can be his maid and live here!”
My mother was starting to get upset just by that little piece of news, so I decided that I wouldn’t mention anything about the baby at all. She would not understand and I knew it.
“He just wants me to be there to help him out more. I guess he’s going to be doing more at the house and he wants someone who can live there with him. I told him that I have two younger brothers and about your health, so he doesn’t want to impose on you.”
“But, he’s perfectly fine with imposing on you?” She looked truly angry, and I felt bad that I was coming between her and her best employer. “Hope, you are so young. You have your whole life ahead of you. I never wanted you to get roped into my life like this. I only agreed to let you help temporarily. Now you’re talking about moving in with one my clients? I do not like it at all and I’m not okay with this! Please don’t do this!”
She burst out in tears, sobbing loudly.
“Mom, no, please. Don’t cry! It’s okay. This is only going to be a temporary thing until he finishes with a few of the projects that he’s working on. And you haven’t even heard the best part. He’s going to be sending a payment of $50,000 for my services as soon as I move in.”
Her sobbing slowed to sniffles.
“$50,000? Wow. That’s a lot of money. Why he is being so generous?”
“I’m not really sure,” I lied. “I know he likes both of us very much, and that he has a lot of money. But, whatever the full reason, you know that this would be amazing for our family right now. We can finally get a handle on some bills. And it will even help me to pay toward my tuition and set up a college fund for the boys. They will definitely be needing one in the next handful of years.”
I could tell that she was thinking about it more rationally.
“That’s very true,” she said quietly.
Her tone sounded good and gave me hope, but I could tell that she was still torn.
“And besides,” I continued. “It’s not like I can’t come home to visit. It will be like I’m staying at college and can come home on the weekends.”
Her tears had completely stopped.
“Well, that’s good.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I waited for her to talk.
“Well, okay, we can always try it out. And if it doesn’t go the way that we hope, you can always come back home and we’ll just have to figure out another way to take care of our bills. There will be a way no matter what. I have faith.”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling weakly.
I knew that I was lying, but I couldn’t bear to see her cry anymore. I figured that I would just deal with things as they came.
“Congratulations on your new job,” said my mother, hugging me tightly.
I hugged her back, knowing that it would be one of the last hugs that we would share for a very long time.