Chapter 31 Darren
After a good night’s sleep, I woke up and knew exactly what I needed to do. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me to do this before, but I was about to make a trip to Eve’s house and be completely honest with her. She had always been wonderful to me. She at least deserved to hear from me the truth about what was going on.
I didn’t know how I would be received once I got to the house, but I didn’t expect that Eve would be standing outside when I got there. It was early. The sun had barely come up. I guess I assumed that she and everyone else in the house would be sleeping.
She wasn’t. She was out in their small garden in the front yard, pulling weeds. Eve really was a hard worker, I thought.
When she saw me pull up and recognized me, she turned to face me, arms crossed.
“You! What are you doing here?” He words were venomous, like I’d never heard her words come out before.
“Please hear me out,” I said, walking toward her slowly. “I just want a chance to explain what’s going on.”
“Oh? Now, you want to explain? You concoct this whole plan to impregnate my daughter, making her your whore and buying my first grandchild and now you want to come by with an explanation. No need. Please leave.” She turned and pretended to busy herself in the garden again, ignoring the fact that I was still standing there.
“I have a son. He hasn’t wanted anything to do with me since I came home. The doctors told me that I have a few months left and I will be complete sterile. I won’t ever be able to have more children. I wanted so badly to have children, I guess that I didn’t think of what that might mean on a deeper level for your daughter. I thought that I could get the baby that I wanted and help you and your family out of your financial troubles at the same time. I guess I left it up to Hope to tell you what she wanted you to know, but I see now that that was wrong. I should have been the one to step up and tell you what my intentions were. And for that I am truly sorry.”
Eve didn’t respond at all. She just kept right on working in the garden.
“Can you please talk to me?” I begged. I didn’t know what I was looking for. For her to accept my apology? Either way, I didn’t want to keep feeling like an idiot talking to her back. I walked around and stood in front of her, begging her again to talk to me.
She sighed dejectedly.
“What do you want me to say, Darren? I forgive you? It’s water under the bridge? It’s not that simple. What you did wasn’t right. You made Hope feel like she had to lie to me. Her own mother. I’m the reason that you even know who she is!”
“I know! I really know! And you might not believe me, but I really am sorry!”
“Okay, well, I guess I appreciate the after-the-fact apology,” she spat. She stood up and started walking toward the house.
“I’m in love with her,” I called out after her.
She stopped.
“Are you serious?” she asked carefully, turning to face me.
“Yes,” I admitted. “I went into this arrangement thinking that it would just be a transaction. Now that I’ve had time to get to know her, I have fallen in love with her. Now, I want her for more than just having my baby. I want to be with her forever.
She smiled so brightly and even from the distance that I stood, it looked like tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
“You really mean it?”
“I really mean it,” I said.
She ran down from the porch and threw the full weight of her body into me. I laughed as I stumbled backward to catch her.
“Well, now THAT makes me happy,” she said, choking back tears.
I felt like I was floating on the drive back home. I kicked myself for not talking to Eve in the first place. But, it probably happened right on time because the feelings that I now had for Hope were not ones that I felt when we first entered into the agreement. They were feelings that had developed over the past couple of weeks.
Before getting out of the car, I decided to make a phone call.
“Hello, old friend! To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”
“Hey, Harlow! I just wanted to tell you the good news. I am going to have a baby.”
“Wow! Congratulations!”
“Thanks! Hey listen, I’m not sure what your plans are for Christmas, but I would love it if you and your families came by for a party at my house.”
“Yes, sure! That sounds wonderful! Shoot me over the details and I’ll make sure that we are all there.”
“Will do. I’ll be in touch,” I said, hanging up the phone.
This was going to be a first for all of us. I had never had anyone at the house other than Eve, Hope, my mother, and my son Bryant. This made me remember what my life used to be like before the accident, when I was still in the land of the living.
This made me excited for the future.
I was in the land of the living once again.
Chapter 32 Hope
I had such terrible dreams that I was being chased in the woods. I was so scared and, even though I kept waking up, I would fall back asleep and be right back in the dream.
When I woke up in the room that I had been using basically to store my things, I was almost confused as to where I was. When I looked around the room and found my things scattered everywhere, it all came crashing back into my memory.
I was pregnant. I was at Darren’s. I was leaving.
Before I had a chance to get out of bed, I heard a knock at the door.
“Come in,” I said.
The door creeped open and my mother’s head poked around the doorway.
“Hey, Hope,” said my mother, timidly.
“Mom! What are you doing here?”
She walked all the way in the room, looking around at the mess of things scattered all over the bed, floor, and dresser.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Packing so that I can come home,” I said. “You were right, mom. I was stupid to have agreed to this. I don’t know what I was thinking. But, I have come to my senses and I’ve already told Darren that I’m coming home.”
“You can’t do that,” said my mom.
“What?” I asked, incredulously. I was sure that she would be happy to hear that I was coming home. What could have caused this change of heart?
“Darren stopped by and we had a talk. He told me about everything that you two have been planning. But, he told me something else. He told me that he loves you and want to be with you forever.”
“He…he did?” I asked.
“Yes. So, I wanted to come here to tell you that you two have my blessing. But, that’s only if you admit that you did it out of love, not for money.”
“Well, I did,” I said. “I love my family so much that I was willing to do what it took to make sure that we would all be okay. And Darren expressed to me why he wanted a baby and I was convinced that the baby would be taken care of and loved, too. That was important to me. So, I felt that it was a good sacrifice to make that would work well for my family, Darren, and the baby.”
“I know, honey. And I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. I know that you’re not a whore and I’m sorry that that dirty word ever left my lips. I was just speaking out of anger.”
“I know, mama,” I said. We walked to hug each other, tears streaming down both of our cheeks. I held my mother and she held me. It felt like we were both literally healing from our pain right in that moment.
“I love him, mom,” I told her. “I don’t ever want to leave him.”
“I know, baby,” said my mother calmly. “I know. And he feels the same way about you. I never thought that I would be okay with you going to live with someone, especially a man. You’re MY first baby and I’ve always wanted the very best for you. Now, after seeing how deeply you two feel about each other, I feel comfortable knowing that you will take good care of each other. I am happy that you were able to find love, Hope. Take care of it.”
“I will,” I said. “I definitely will.”