The Final Chapter
Jasmine had been ignoring all of Cameron’s calls when he called, and she had deleted all of his texts that weren’t about the baby. She had debated ever going into his office to see him in person again. It seemed to her that the easiest way to keep him up on the baby without going to see him was to mail him the information that Andrew gave to her when he saw her at her appointment.
After two weeks of ignoring him, Cameron came to Jasmine’s house to see her and talk to her. She let him in, and he tried to hug her right away, but she stepped back from him and held her hand out to him.
“I’m not going to allow that any more, Cameron. We can’t carry on like we were before. It’s not right, and you’ve got a lot going on right now that doesn’t concern me, so why don’t you focus on all of that and leave me out of it totally. Just… leave me alone and let me be. When the baby is born, I’ll sign it over to you, if you want it, but that’s it. There’s nothing else between us anymore.” She meant every word of it as she said it.
He blinked and stared at her in surprise. “What is going on with you? I miss you! I want to see you! I need you… you can’t imagine how much I need you. It’s been so very lonely without you. I wanted to see if I could stay the night with you here tonight, and catch up. We seem to have been missing each other all of the time, and I don’t like it.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry that you’re lonely, but you shouldn’t be. You won’t be staying the night here tonight or any other night, ever.” She turned away from him coldly, and his mouth fell full open.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to break things off with me?” he stared at her in utter confusion.
She glared at him and planted her hands on her hips. “I know about Eva, Cameron. I know all about her and the baby.” She knew that she didn’t have to say anymore. That was enough, and then he’d know that she knew all of it. She knew everything.
Cameron could not have possibly been more surprised than he was at that moment. He could only stand there in silence with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide with fear and incredulity. “How… how did you know?” he asked in little more than a whisper.
Jasmine shrugged. “I met her at the doctor’s office and now we’re….” she hesitated as she tried to make herself say the word. “We’re friends.”
He could only gape at her.
“I’ve got another surprise for you, Cameron. This baby I’m carrying is a girl. I know full well how badly you wanted a boy, but I’m sorry, this one is a girl. If you don’t want it, then that will be fine. I’ll take her and I’ll raise her on my own.” She couldn’t believe that the time had finally come to tell him, and it was all in the open.
“A girl?” he whispered as he glanced down from her eyes to her wide round belly. Then he closed his eyes and groaned. “I wish you had never met Eva. I wish that you didn’t know about that.”
“I know you don’t. I have known for a long time, and I kept waiting for you to tell me, for you to bring it up and let me know… to be honest with me, but you never did. You just kept it hidden from me. One huge secret, and now I find out that there are more secrets that I never knew about. Well, I don’t need the secrets, and I don’t need lies.” She felt the tears that were stinging at the back of her eyes come forward, flooding her vision.
She wiped at her face and walked over to the door, grabbing onto the door handle and pulling her front door open as she looked back at him.
“I can’t believe that you know about Eva. That’s… I just can’t believe it.” he stammered.
She held the door open and stared straight through him. “You can leave.” She said simply and quietly.
He wanted to stay and try to work it out, but she wasn’t having it. He picked up his jacket and walked to the door, turning to look at her as he passed her. “I’m sorry.” It was all he said as he walked by her and headed out of her house and down the stairs.
As she closed the door sharply behind him, she burst into tears and went up to her bedroom sobbing,
Cameron wasted no time in looking to his best friend for help. It was the first place that he went to after he left Jasmine’s house.
Justin was at home, mowing his lawn in the back yard. He turned off the mower when he looked up and saw Cameron coming toward him. “What’s on your mind there Cam?” he asked with a light-hearted tone as Cameron came to him.
Cameron’s face was red and Justin could see that he had been crying. “Oh no… what happened? What’s wrong?”
“Everything. Everything is wrong and I need someone to talk to about all of this. It’s ridiculous. It’s out of control.” Cameron waved to him and then turned around and headed back into Justin’s house, and went straight for his bar. He poured them both a drink and then gave Justin’s to him when Justin came in to the room a moment later.
“Wow… double scotch. So… what’s up? What happened?” Justin asked, searching Cameron’s face.
He sighed heavily and took a long pull from his glass. “So, you already know some of this, but I’m going to glaze over it, just so you can have the whole picture.”
“Okay, I have my drink… go.” Justin sat down and looked at Cameron.
“You remember when I first decided to do a surrogacy pregnancy program. I had decided on one surrogate mother. Just one. I only wanted to start with one child. I interviewed several women and finally chose Jasmine to carry the baby.” he began in a level tone.
Justin nodded. “I do remember that.”
“Then, after I left the doctor’s office and had it all squared away, Eva came to see me as a friend.” Cameron said and he began to walk around the room as his mind went over it all.
“I still don’t know why you’re friends with her. You broke up with her, but if you want to be friends, then okay. So she came to see you as a friend.” Justin sipped on his scotch and Cameron continued to walk around and pace.
“She knew how much I wanted a son, and so she made this offer to carry another baby for me, so that I’d have a better chance at having a son; I’d have two women both pregnant at about the same time, and my chances of having a son would be much better. I wasn’t for it to begin with, but then she talked me into it, and I said yes.”
“Famous last words,” Justin said as he watched Cameron walking around the room.
“Now, fast forward to recently. She shows up in my office and tells me that she misses me and she wants me back. She wants to be in a relationship with me again, and she’s carrying my son. It’s official, it’s a boy, and she wants to get back together with me and start a family.” He groaned and lifted his glass to his lips for a quick drink.
“What did you say to that?” Justin asked curiously.
“I said no! I said I was seeing someone else. I wanted someone else. I broke up with Eva. I don’t want her back.” He sighed and walked over to the sofa, sitting down on it beside his best friend.
Looking at Justin, Cameron sighed and spoke in a weary voice. “Jasmine isn’t speaking to me, at least, not about anything but the baby, and even that isn’t much at all. She won’t talk to me about herself or me, or about us. Other than that, she isn’t having anything at all to do with me. She thinks that Eva and I are back together, and she’s giving that a chance, and that’s great except that I don’t want Eva. I want Jasmine, but Jasmine doesn’t want me!”
Justin watched him and then nodded sagely, “Leave the women alone and just take the babies.”
“I honestly don’t know what to do.” Cameron said in a low voice, leaning back against the sofa and staring straight ahead.
***
Andrew looked over his plate of Indian food at Jasmine and beseeched her imploringly, “Jasmine, I know that you can see all of the good reasons why this is bound to work out perfectly! Honestly… it’s the best decision that you could ever make. I can’t see how there could be any hesitation on your part at all. You keep your baby girl and be mine. We’ll be together. We’ll raise her. You won’t be alone!”
Jasmine sighed and frowned. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I did tell Cameron that this baby is a girl, and he left my house and I haven’t seen him since. That’s partly because I told him I didn’t want to see him, but I still have no idea if he’s going to want this baby girl or not. So, I don’t know yet if I’m keeping her or not, and I don’t know anything at all yet about you and I.”
“Listen, just keep her. Don’t even bother with him or mess with him. Just walk away from him altogether. There’s not even a reason to talk to him or be around him at all. Just let him go, and keep your daughter, and then you and I will take care of her together. We can do that, you and me. We can do that.” he looked as if he was swearing a vow to her.
She had agreed to go out to dinner with him again thinking that it would be some good peace of mind and that it would be helpful in keeping her mind off of Cameron, at least in some small way, but the whole time that they had been out to dinner, all that Andrew wanted to talk about was her and him and the baby girl that she was carrying and how Cameron shouldn’t have Jasmine or the baby.
Jasmine didn’t stay out with him for very long as the conversation didn’t stray much from those topics and that was exactly the last thing that she wanted to talk about. He took her home and walked her to her front door again, as he had before, and just as he had before, he tried to kiss her.
He didn’t start with her cheek at the end of the second date, he reached his hand up to hold her cheeks in his palms and leaned in to kiss her lips. She let him at first, hoping that it would push Cameron even further from her mind, but all it did was bring him that much closer. She could only remember his embrace and think of just how powerful and wonderful his kisses were.
She turned away from Andrew again and he sighed in frustration and impatience.
“I’m sorry, Andrew, I really am. I’m trying, but there’s a lot going on right now and I just need to get through some of these changes. I hope that you can understand that. I’m going to need some time. Maybe a lot of time.” She pulled herself from his arms and went into her house, closing the door.
She heard his car drive away and felt the flood of tears as they burned her eyes and spilled down her cheeks onto her face. She knew why she hurt so much as the tears fell and she went to her bed and wept until she fell asleep. When she woke up she knew why the pain was still very much there and why it wasn’t going anywhere.
She was in love with Cameron and it didn’t matter that he was with another woman, and it didn’t matter that he was trying to be with them both. It didn’t matter that they were both having his children. All of that was wrong, but none of that hurt her enough to make her stop loving him. Nothing that he had done to that point was enough to make her stop loving him and wishing every moment that she could be with him.
Jasmine knew that no matter what, she couldn’t be with Cameron. Not ever. She knew that the only thing that she could do was to find out if he wanted to raise the baby or if she would be raising it, and as she had not heard from him, she was truly beginning to believe that it was only going to be her.
***
“Well Jasmine, you’re at eight months now, and you’re looking healthy and strong, and your little one here is looking exactly the same… healthy and strong.” Andrew looked at her with a broad smile as he lifted the sonogram from her belly and picked up a towel to hand to her so that she could wipe the goop off of her stomach.
“Thank you.” She said with relief. She had been under a great deal of stress dealing with her heartache and she wasn’t sure whether it had affected the baby at all or not. She was relieved to hear that it had not.
“Have you given any more thought to what I-” he began to say to her, but she held her hand up and shook her head.
“I’m here for the appointment and that’s all. Andrew, I have your number and I know where to find you. If I figure out what I’m doing and what I want, I’ll call you. Otherwise, we need to keep this just business for now, please.” She looked at him seriously.
He nodded. “I understand. You know what I want, and I can live with the fact that you’re taking some time to do whatever is right for you. I’ll wait until you’re ready, and we’ll go from there. In the meantime, I want you to know that I am waiting for you and no one but you, and that it isn’t going to matter to me if you keep that little girl or not. I want you, and no one else, so you take all of the time in the world, and I’ll be here when you’re ready for me, whenever that is.”
She smiled at him. “I really appreciate that, Andrew. Thank you so much. You’re being very understanding. That is so helpful to me, and I hope I don’t have to keep you waiting too long.”
He gave her a hug and walked out of the examination room. She grabbed a tissue and wiped at her eyes, wishing that he didn’t push so much and wishing that she didn’t hurt so much, but Cameron was still right at the center of her heart, and there was little chance that he was ever not going to be there.
Jasmine picked up her purse, still wiping at her teary eyes, and walked out of the examination room to the waiting room. By the time she got there, the receptionist was just standing up and picking up her purse.
“Do you have any tissue?” Jasmine asked her, and the kind woman handed her an entire box of it.
“Here honey, you keep this.” She picked up her bag and turned from her desk. “Good thing that you caught me, I was just headed out of the door to go to lunch. You have a good day. Bye now!” with that the receptionist vanished out of the back door of her office, and Jasmine picked up the box of tissue and walked out of the front door of the office into the cool October sunlight.
She stopped short just as she left the building when she saw Eva walking into it. Eva stopped and waved at her, coming over to give her a hug and a smile.
“How are you darling?” she asked with an effervescent smile.
“I’m alright, Eva. How are you doing?” she returned, wishing that she could have been just five minutes faster and missed seeing Eva altogether.
“Oh! My god, you wouldn’t believe it! I’m amazing! Cameron, that’s the baby’s father, well he and I are doing so well! We’re together and it’s even better than it was the first time. It’s incredible. He is going to be such a great father and husband. We’re getting married! Isn’t that the best news that you ever heard! I’m so happy. I wish you could be this happy. Hopefully someday you will find a man who is as good as Cameron is and you will be happy then too. It is my wish for you.” Eva looked at her with a grin and deep dark eyes.
“Congratulations on your family, Eva.” Jasmine said as genuinely as she could manage. Eva’s words made her feel as if they had ripped out hear heart and thrown it on the ground, still beating, right in front of her. She could not stomach them, and all that she could think about was getting away and escaping to her car.
“Well, best of luck with your baby and your future!” Eva sang out as Jasmine told her goodbye and hurried to her car. Jasmine waved at her and willed herself not to cry in front of Eva.
She let herself into her car and pressed her hands firmly to her face, trying her bet to hold in her emotion and not to cry. She told herself to remain strong and not to give in the heartbreak that was threatening to tear her down.
If Cameron wanted Eva, he could have her and they could have a son, and maybe they could really truly be happy together, she told herself. She would have her daughter and be on her own and maybe someday she wouldn’t be so distracted with Cameron that she could allow a nice man like Andrew Clayton into her life to be at her side as a lover and partner. He even wanted to be a father to her baby, if she would let him.
She stopped short then and looked around. Her cell phone was not anywhere that she could see it. She checked the other seat and her purse, and it was gone. With a sigh, she realized that she must have left I back in the examination room.
Jasmine got out of her car and headed back into Andrew’s office. The receptionist was gone, so she let herself back into the offices and went to the room where she had been. The door was slightly cracked open and as she reached for the handle, she heard voices inside. The first one was Eva’s.
“Your son is kicking me, Andrew.” She laughed. “He knows his daddy is near!”
She blinked in shock and Andrew’s voice sounded.
“Well, his daddy is about to be real near his mama.”
Jasmine gasped and held her hand to her mouth to stifle the soft noise she made. She heard some other strange kind of noise from inside the room, and she opened the door and walked in, only to stop short and stare at the scene before her.
Andrew’s pants were down around his knees, and Eva’s dress was hiked up over her hips. He was holding fast to her breasts as he entered her with his body, pushing himself inside of her.
Every one of them cried out at the same time.
As Jasmine stared at them unable to look away, she realized that Eva was not carrying Cameron’s baby. Eva was carrying Andrew’s baby, and passing it off as Cameron’s. She grew angry and sick all at once.
Eva screamed at her at the top of her lungs. “What are you doing?! Get out! Get the hell out of here!”
The shout was enough to break Jasmine from her reverie. She looked around swiftly and saw her cell phone laying on the counter, right where she had left it. She reached over quickly and picked it up and then turned and ran from the room as she heard Andrew and Eva begin to argue.
She rushed out to her car, got in, and left as fast as she could. Her mind was going a million miles an hour, and though there were dozens of thoughts going through it, they all came back to one central subject.
Cameron Elliot.
She had to get to him. She had to hurry to him as fast as she could and tell him the truth about Eva and Andrew, and about the baby that she was carrying.
She drove quickly to the sweet little old street downtown, where she was able to find a parking spot near to the front of his office. She rushed inside and took the elevator up. The receptionist there looked surprised and happy to see her, waving her in as she went flying through his office door.
He was sitting at his desk with an ashen look on his face and the telephone in his hand. He looked up at her as she came rushing toward him. He held his hand up and rose from his seat, coming around his desk to her.
“Before you start, you should know that that was Eva on the phone. She said that you were on your way in here to talk to me. She said that you’re jealous that she and I are also having a baby and that you and her got into a fight about it. She said that you are probably going to come over here to tell me a big scheming lie to try to get in between she and I.” he told her with a serious and sad face.
She ground her teeth for a moment and wanted to turn right back around and leave, but she knew that she had to say something. “NO! Now you listen to me. I know that things are difficult between you and me, or in simpler terms, over, but that doesn’t change the fact that you have to hear this. You have to know this. She is not pregnant with your baby. I just walked in on her and our doctor, Doctor Andrew Clayton. They were talking about it before they knew that I was there and listening, and when I walked in, they were…” she hesitated and drew in a breath, “they were having sex.
That is not your son she’s carrying.” She hated having to say those words to him, knowing how much they were going to hurt him, but she told herself that he had to know. There was no way around it. He had to know.
“She told me that you’ve been dating Andrew Clayton and that you’re pregnant with his child! I don’t know what in the hell is going on here, but I’ve had it with the lies and the deceit! I’m going to demand that both of you have a paternity test!” he raised his voice in anger and frustration.
Jasmine crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “I have never lied to you, Cameron Elliot. I care far too much about you to lie to you. I only came here to tell you this because I knew that you deserved to know the truth. Now you know it, even if you can’t see it or believe it, so I’m leaving. Good bye.” She turned and walked out of his office, heading for her own home.