A Burning Secret (8 page)

Three months passed and Sasha and Antonio
relationship is continuing to flourish yet, Sasha is
having a lot of anxiety wondering who the father
of her unborn child is.

She is also troubled by the fact that most of her
life had been based upon one lie after another and
she didn’t want to lie to her child.

Even though Antonio had proven himself to
be a mature and caring man, she still felt a need to
let Justin and Tony know about her pregnancy
because either of them could possibly be the father
but she also knew that there were several scenarios
that could backfire on her if she were to tell either
Tony or Justin about her pregnancy.

They both could exclaim that they aren’t the
father; they both could be happy about the news
and want to be in the child’s life, they could view
Sasha’s pregnancy as an opportunity to get back
with her or they could have already moved on with
their life and want nothing to do with Sasha or her
baby.

Sasha believed that the best outcome for the
baby was to have the father remain in her baby’s
life but with or without the father’s involvement,
she was committed to providing her baby with a
healthy and loving environment.

She cared deeply for Antonio but she wasn’t
ready to marry him or anyone else because it was
too soon after her divorce from Justin.

Although she was happy and excited about her
pregnancy, Sasha was also feeling a little stupid for
allowing herself to become pregnant.

After all of her years as a Call Girl, she knew
perfectly well what she needed to do to avoid
getting pregnant, yet she had gotten pregnant by
Justin or Tony and she felt so stupid and that she
had failed all the girls at her school.

She wondered how she could counsel girls
about their life when her
own life is
full of
imperfections”

But on the other hand, Sasha thought who
better to do it than someone who knows better
and yet still has faults.

Sasha enjoyed working with the girls at the
school and she was good at her job. Every girl that
graduated from her program were either back in
school or headed off to college so she had a good
batting
average in helping
to turn girls'
lives
around.

But Sasha worried about what the girls would
think of her, if they were to find out about her
pregnancy.

Would they still view her as a role model or
would they see her as a foolish older woman who
with all her life experiences couldn’t
keep it
together?

However, for Sasha, having a baby and getting
pregnant at her age was not a bad thing.
After all,
she is in her late 30s’ and the time is right for her
because she is financially in good shape to provide
a good life for her child.

More importantly, she is already in love with
the baby she
pregnancy as
blessing.
is
carrying so she
viewed
her

Sasha believes that God has a way of stepping
into our lives at just the right time to save us from
ourselves or he provides us with little miracles that
require nothing more than a loving home and
environment.

Sasha could provide this and more so she
didn’t know why was she so intent on letting Justin
and Tony know about her pregnancy.

She believed it was to ensure her child’s father
knew about the baby's existence before it is born
but there was much more to her desire to be
forthcoming and determined to find out about the
true identity of her baby’s father.

For the time being however, Sasha decided to
wait until after the baby is born to seek the true
identity of her child’s father.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Six months later, Sasha gives birth to a baby
girl who she names Jasmine.
Throughout all of
this Antonio has been right by Sasha’s side and he
was even in the delivery room for the birth of
Sasha’s baby.

He has provided her the love, comfort and
understanding she needed to have a successful
pregnancy and he has been less concerned about
the true identity of the father of Sasha’s baby and
more concerned about her welfare. Antonio had
assumed the role of the father in every way.

Nevertheless, for health and medical reasons
relative to problems the baby could have in the
future, Sasha feels that she needs to know the
identity of the baby’s father.

Therefore, three months later, Sasha phoned
both Justin and Tony to give them the news about
her baby Jasmine and she asked them if they would
be willing to take a paternity test because she
believes one of them is the father of her baby.

They both agreed to do the testing because
they also wanted to know the answer.
It turns out that neither one of them were the
father and Sasha was baffled with this finding and
she thought if Justin nor Tony weren’t the fathers’
then who is the father of Baby Jasmine?
Then Sasha
remembered the night Steve
brought Justin and the other man whose name she
could no longer remember for a threesome.
She was horrified by the thought of it being
someone she had no real relationship with but she
knew she had to find out the truth and it was more
important now than ever.
Steve had been in touch with her often but
Sasha was not interested in Steve as a lover so he
had stopped calling her.
However, now she needed to approach Steve
and requests that he take a paternity test. He too,
agreed to take the test and the results were 99.99%
that Steve is the father of Baby Jasmine.
Sasha didn’t know how to feel about this news
because there had been no real relationship with
Steve except for the sexual encounters she had
with him at the Manteca Inn.
She worried if Steve would try to impose
himself more in her life and now she was sorry that
she even bothered to have the test performed.
In the end, she knows that it was important to
find out the truth and Steve has promised that he
will not give Sasha any problems.
But he told Sasha that he would be there to
give any love and support he could give to the
baby.
However, Sasha wanted Steve to relinquish
any rights to the baby because she wants to marry
Antonio and have Antonio adopt the baby and
carry his name.
Steve agreed with the exception that he wanted
Sasha to periodically let him know about how the
baby is doing.
Sasha reluctantly agrees to this request and
then tells Antonio that she is now free to marry
him.
However, when she gives Antonio the news,
he is lukewarm about it and says he thinks they
need to cool it for a while.
Sasha said, “after all we have been through and
I have done to make things right to marry you and
you are now saying let’s cool it!”
“What’s going on?”
Antonio
hung
his
head
and
said,
I’ve received some bad news today and I wasn’t
going to tell you about it tonight because I need
time to have it sink in but I have been diagnosed
with terminal cancer and I only have a few months
to live.
Sasha broke down crying uncontrollably.
Then she jumped up from her chair and began
hugging and kissing Antonio because of all the
men she has loved in her life, Antonio has been the
most deserving of her love and she was devastated
by this horrible news.
She wanted to know if he was going to get a
second opinion but the doctors were adamant that
there is nothing anyone can do for him.
He had been having terrible headaches for a
long time but he did nothing about it until now
because he wanted to make sure that he could be
in the best health for Sasha. He thought he would
be given a few pills and everything would be okay.
Nevertheless, Sasha believed it more important
than ever to move forward with the wedding as
they had discussed.
Antonio agreed to it but told Sasha that he
didn’t want to be a burden to her because he knew
that she had to take care of Baby Jasmine.
Even with his
diagnosis, Antonio was
still
sensitive enough to worry and care about someone
other than himself.
Antonio looked like he was fine so Sasha told
him that they would deal with his sickness as it
progresses
and for now
she
just wanted to
concentrate on the good in their life.
Sasha was very busy with her baby but she
desperately wanted to marry Antonio before it was
too late.
She
asked Kelly
Lismont, a
sitter in her
complex to care for Baby Jasmine while she made
her wedding preparation.
Sasha went shopping for her wedding dress
and found a beautiful white dress that hugs her
voluptuous body.
This is the gift she received
from giving birth to Baby Jasmine.
Antonio often told her how much he loved the
way she looked when she was pregnant and hoped
that some of the weight that she had gained would
remain after she had given birth.
Sasha hurried home with her dress excited to
show it to Antonio who had agreed to come over
for a special
We’re Getting Married Dinner
with Sasha.
Since Kelly had agreed to keep Sasha’s baby all
night, she and Antonio would have the whole night
to themselves without interruptions.
When
Antonio showed
up for
dinner, he
brought apple pie and ice cream.
It
was
the
way
they
had
begun
their
relationship so long ago.
He grabbed Sasha and
kissed her passionately.
The effects of his disease had not yet robbed
him of his good looks and Antonio looked vibrant
and handsome to Sasha.
But unlike before, Antonio lacked the stamina
that he is so noted for but that was unimportant to
her.
She loved Antonio with or without the
lovemaking that they so enjoyed with one another
but he was much more to her than a lovemaking
machine.
He is the most decent man that Sasha has ever
known. Sasha put on music and they danced the
night away forgetting about the steak and potatoes
that she had gone to the trouble to prepare as a
special celebration dinner.
The dinner was meant to be a celebration of
their love for one another. For now they simply
wanted to savor every moment and not think
about the little time they had left together.
The
next morning, Sasha
got up early to
prepare breakfast while
Antonio slept soundly.
She returned to the bedroom with fresh fruits,
eggs, sausage and toast and then called Antonio
name. He was in a deep sleep, she touched him
lightly to awaken him but there was no response.
Antonio was gone! Gone just like that with no
goodbyes. Maybe that’s why he had brought the
ice cream and apple pie, Sasha wondered as she
sobbed uncontrollably.
She didn’t know what to do so she called 911
and they arranged for a policeman and coroner to
come to Sasha’s home.
When the coroner arrived to pick up Antonio’s
body, Sasha was hanging on to his covered body
not wanting to let go of the best man she had ever
had in her life.
She didn’t know what she would do or how
she
would move
on. She
tried to pull herself
together enough to bring Baby Jasmine home but
Kelly persuaded Sasha to let Baby Jasmine remain
with her for a few more days.
When Sasha
hung up
the telephone,
she
noticed Antonio sports coat dangling from the
back of her sofa chair.
She pulled the coat from
the chair and began holding onto it, caressing and
sniffing it and trying desperately to get a sniff of
Antonio’s good body scent.
She would always tell him how fresh and clean
he smelled and the coat had his scent on it.
She knew she would never clean it because she
wanted to have a part of him for as long as
possible.
As
she
squeezed the coat more,
she
felt
something bulging in the inside pocket of the coat.
It was a notarized letter that Antonio had prepared
indicating
that in the advent of
his
death, he
wanted
Sasha
to
assume
responsibility
and
ownership of his business.
He also had a $150,000 life insurance policy
which would cover any outstanding bills he had
and the remainder would go to Sasha and left
$50,000 to his son from a prior relationship.
Sasha was numbed with sorrow and her heart
ached so much it felt as though a hole had been
made in the center of it.
She would much rather have Antonio alive
than any business or money. She already had all the
money she needed and right now she was thinking
about how fulfilled her life was with Antonio, a
simple man with an apple pie and ice cream.
Yet, in many ways, Antonio was much more.
He was the sunset in her evenings, when they got
together to just
talk and catch up on the
happenings of the day.
But mostly, he was her lover who never turned
her down for lovemaking even when he had a hard
day on the job.
He was willing to meet Sasha’s every need and
now he was gone and Sasha didn’t know what she
would do without him.
Sasha phoned the only other person she knew
who would understand what she
was
going
through and that was Tula.
Tula has a nurturing way about her and Sasha
really needed this now.
She phoned Tula and told
her about everything that had happened between
her and Antonio and about his death.
She also told Tula about the birth of Baby
Jasmine and the unexpected father. Tula didn’t ask
questions, she just simply listened and provided the
support Sasha needed right now.
Tula offered to come to Texas to be with Sasha
and although Sasha knew that Tula was getting up
in age and shouldn’t be travelling, she accepted
Tula’s offer.
Tula wasn’t worried about leaving her business
for a while because she had a strong management
team in place that was ready, willing and very
capable of running the business until Tula returns.
Besides, there was no way Tula wouldn’t be
there
for
Sasha
because
Sasha
was
greatly
responsible for the success of the Manteca Inn.
In fact, she put the Manteca on the map and
she was the real reason why Tula attracted so many
high caliber clients.
Sasha was known all over the world not merely
for her great beauty and her intimate escapades but
she was classy and took time to understand each of
her clients and they greatly appreciated that about
her.
It was not all about the bedroom.
She was
compassionate and she made all of her clients feel
special.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN