Flawfully Wedded Wives (7 page)

Reginell smiled up at him. “You always know what to say to make me feel better.”

“Keeping a smile on that beautiful face of yours is one of my most important jobs, and I take that very seriously.” Mark tilted his head down to kiss her. “So are you ready to go back in? They're about to serve the main course. It's steak.”

Reginell thought steak was very apropos, considering that she felt like she was going back into the lion's den. For Mark's sake, she would grin and get along long enough to get through the evening, but she knew she didn't fit in with that crowd any better than she fit into Sullivan's gown. As soon as they got back to Georgia, she was going back to the people and place where she knew she belonged.

—
Lawson Kerry Banks

 

Lawson stood in front of the door with her arms crossed and a glower splashed across her face. Simone Atwood's presence brought a chill over Lawson that had nothing to do with the nip in the night air. It was her Christian duty to be cordial, but it was her obligation as a scorned wife to make Simone feel as unwelcomed as possible.

“If you're looking for Garrett, he's not here,” she barked to Simone, who was standing on the other side of the door.

“Actually, I just wanted to drop Simon's jacket off. It's not too bad right now, but the temperature is supposed to drop later on tonight, and all Simon has on is his sweater. I don't want him out in the cold with no protection.”

She extended the jacket to Lawson, who practically snatched it from Simone's hands. “Fine . . . Thanks. They went to Garrett's parents' house, but I'll be sure to give it to him when they get back. Is there anything else?”

“As a matter of fact, there is. Do you have a minute?”

“I'm in the middle of typing a paper for class so, no, I really don't have any minutes to spare.”

“I think we need to talk . . . woman to woman. It won't take long.”

“It's more like mistress to wife.” Lawson sighed and stepped aside, allowing Simone to come in. “Make it quick. I have a lot to do.”

Simone spun around and faced Lawson in a defiant stance. “I want to know what your problem is.”

Lawson narrowed her eyes. “Excuse me?”

“I want to know what your problem is,” repeated Simone. “What is your issue with me and my son?”

“I don't have an issue with Simon. He's a baby. He's innocent in all this.”

“Then what's your problem with me?”

Lawson laughed, astounded by Simone's gall. “You've got to be kidding me!”

Simone exhaled. “Look, I know what Garrett and I did was wrong, but it was only one night. You all were separated at the time, and it didn't look like you were going to get back together—”

Lawson interrupted her. “A separation is not the same thing as a divorce, and it doesn't change the fact that you slept with a married man, and had unprotected sex at that.”

“Lawson, it wasn't like we planned for that to happen. It was one of those nights. Garrett was upset and—”

Lawson flashed her hand. “Please spare me the details. I think I can pretty much figure it out. Let me guess. Garrett was mad with me and you just happened to be right there to comfort him with your vagina. Does that pretty much sum it up?”

Simone rolled her eyes. “It was never my intent to break up your marriage. I even changed jobs because I felt so guilty about what happened and couldn't face working with Garrett again.”

“Wasn't that noble of you?” Lawson offered a mordant simper. “Then again, why settle for merely working with Garrett when you can have his baby?”

“It wasn't like that. At first, I wasn't even going to keep the baby.”

“Then why did you?” Lawson shot back. “You knew he was married and had a family. Why didn't you just put the baby up for adoption or something?”

“Because I loved my child too much not to have him and not to keep him. I didn't care whether Garrett stepped up as a father or not. I was going to keep my baby. But I did think he had a right to know and be a part of his son's life.”

“You make it sound so magnanimous and selfless, but I wasn't born yesterday, sweetheart. I know exactly what this is about.”

“It's about Simon. That's it.”

“No, it's about the fact that you still want him, don't you?” asked Lawson.

Simone looked up. “What are you talking about?”

“My husband,” answered Lawson. “Admit it.... You still want him.”

Simone exhaled. “What I want is a father for my son. I also want the peace and security of knowing that he'll be treated like a part of the family when he's here, not like some discarded outcast. I want to know that I can leave him alone with you without having to worry.”

Lawson was taken aback. “I can't believe you said that to me! I'm a mother, Simone. I could never hurt another child, not even yours!”

“That's all I needed to hear. You don't have to like me, and I darn sure ain't got to like you, but we do need to be able to peacefully coexist for the sake of my son and your stepson. That's the only thing I want from you.”

“Surely, that's not the
only
thing you want from me, Simone.” Lawson circled her. “Yeah, you'll take that, but if you can have my husband too? Well, that's icing on the cake, isn't it?”

“Garrett is a good man. He's kind, hardworking—”

“I don't need you, of all people, to tell me about my husband!” bellowed Lawson.

“Like I said, he's a good man, but he's
your
man. I'm not trying to take him.” She paused for a moment. “However, he is the father of my child, and nothing would please me more than for us to raise Simon together as a family. Now, if you don't want Garrett or, better yet, don't know how to keep him, I'll be more than happy to fill that position and show you how it's done.”

“You make it very hard not to hate you.” Heat rose to Lawson's face. “If I wasn't a saved, ‘sanctified by the Holy Ghost' woman, the police would be outlining your body with chalk right now,” she spewed.

Simone laughed a little. “If you weren't a lot of things, like frigid, judgmental, and self-righteous, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, would we?”

Lawson had to do some fast praying not to haul off and slap her.

“But don't get your church hat in a bunch,” said Simone, needling her. “I told you, I'm not going after your husband. But if he comes after me, I'm not turning him away.” Simone pranced to the door. “You have a good night, Mrs. Banks. Be sure to give Garrett that jacket. I want my baby to stay warm.” Before leaving, Simone turned around and said, “Be sure to tell your husband I said hello, and I'll see him tomorrow . . . to drop the baby off, of course.”

Lawson slammed the door behind her. Under different circumstances, she might have been impressed with Simone's ability to play both the martyr and the predator simultaneously, but Lawson knew she couldn't rest on her laurels, considering that the role Simone secretly wanted to play more than any other was that of Mrs. Garrett Banks.

—
Sullivan Webb

 

Vera Jackson opened her front door, surprised to see both her daughter and granddaughter standing on the other side of it. Sullivan frowned. Her mother's wig was way too blond and wiry for Sullivan's liking, but Vera was never one who had an appreciation for tact or subtlety.

Vera gulped down her cocktail and reached out for Charity. “It's about time you brought this child over here to see me.”

Smelling the familiar stench of cigarette smoke on her mother, Sullivan stepped back and held Charity close to her chest and out of Vera's grasp. “Don't you come anywhere near this child until you wash your hands and change out of that smoke-infested robe.”

Vera sucked her teeth. Wanting to see Charity outweighed Vera's desire to stand there arguing with Sullivan. She let the two of them into her seaside St. Simons Island cottage and pointed to the sofa. “Y'all can sit over there while I change, but don't go looking through my stuff. Keep that baby out of those ashtrays,” Vera ordered and disappeared into her bedroom.

Sullivan had endured a tumultuous and often violent relationship with her mother for as long as she could remember. While Vera had schooled Sullivan on sex and how to use it as a weapon, she had never taught her daughter about love. Even though they'd made modest strides in their ability to communicate with one another, Sullivan and Vera's relationship was still shrouded in dysfunction. None of that mattered today. Sullivan needed answers, and Vera was the only one who had them.

Vera returned, wearing a fitted Christian Dior T-shirt and tight jeans molded around her slim frame. For a woman nearing sixty, she still maintained a figure that rivaled her thirty-three-year-old daughter's.

“Hmm . . . Dior. The porn business must be booming,” noted Sullivan, referencing Vera's live-in boyfriend's job as an adult film director.

Vera sat down next to Sullivan. “You tell me. You're the one with the sex tape.”

“I'm sure I'm not the only one. Is Cliff home?” asked Sullivan.

“No.”

Sullivan removed Charity's jacket. “Is Cliff
ever
home?”

“What's it to you, Sullivan? Cliff is my man, not yours. If I'm not worried about where he is, why are you? Now, hand me that grandbaby of mine.”

Sullivan grudgingly handed her daughter over to Vera.

Vera stood Charity up on her knees. “Did you ever figure which man was the daddy of this child?”

“How many times do I have to tell you that this is Charles's baby?”

“Uh-huh. I guess time will tell, won't it?” She kissed Charity on the nose. “She doesn't look like either one of 'em if you ask me. Knowing you, there's probably no telling who her daddy is.”

Sullivan adjusted her sitting position. “Speaking of telling . . . why don't you ever talk about my father?”

Vera rolled her eyes and sat Charity down in her lap. “What is there to talk about?”

“Who is he? Why did he leave? How did the two of you meet?”

Vera twisted her face into a scowl. “Why do you care? That man ain't bothered to even show his face around here in almost thirty years!”

“I know that. What I want to know is, why not? What went down between you two?”

“Nothing. He was married, I was his side chick, and you were something that was never supposed to happen. End of story.”

Sullivan glared at her mother. “You can be so cruel sometimes, you know that?”

“Well, Sullivan, you asked for the truth, and I gave it to you. Don't start whining because you don't like it.”

“The truth?” echoed Sullivan. “Are you even capable of saying anything that isn't wrapped in a lie, Vera? It's no wonder Samuel got as far away from you as fast as he could.”

Vera immediately took offense. “Oh, so you assume I was the problem, huh? I did something to run him off, right?”

“Are you going to tell me that
I
did?” shot back Sullivan.

Vera set Charity down to let her explore the living room. “I don't know what kind of fantasies you got going on in your head about Samuel Sullivan, but he wasn't no saint. Far from it.”

“Well, that's obvious by the mere fact that he slept with you!” Sullivan watched Charity fling magazines off of Vera's coffee table. “I can only assume you weren't half the shrew back then that you are now.”

“Believe whatever you want to believe, Sullivan.”

“Why won't you just tell me about your relationship with my father?”

Vera was annoyed. “What for?”

“For me. For your granddaughter. She has a right to know where she comes from.”

Vera howled with laughter. “That's funny coming from you, considering you don't even know where she comes from!”

“You're not going to distract me or stop me from digging by insulting me,” warned Sullivan. “I'm not leaving until you give me something to go on.”

“Just let it go, Sullivan. You're going to start digging around, and I promise you, you ain't gon' like what you come up with. People who go looking for something usually find it.”

“All I want is to know the man who gave me life. Why is that so bad?”

“If he wanted you to know him or if he wanted to claim you, don't you think he would've done something about it by now?”

“Not if you made it clear that he wasn't welcome.”

“When a man loves his baby, there ain't nothing you can do to keep a man from that child.” Vera frowned. “Why are you worried about him all of sudden, anyway?”

“I called him.”

“Called who?”

“Samuel Sullivan.” Sullivan's eyes met her mother's. “I think I may have found him.”

Vera ceased to budge for a moment before regaining her composure. “Girl, you're talking crazy. You ain't found your daddy.”

“Actually, I wasn't the one who found him. Charles ran into him at a ministers' conference.”

Vera laughed to herself. “I see Samuel Sullivan is still frontin' like he's a preacher.”

“So you knew he was a minister?”

“I knew he was a man who
claimed
to be one. I can't rightly say that he is a minister, not a real one, anyway.”

“He hung up the phone as soon as I told him who I was, so I'm thinking about going to see him,” revealed Sullivan. “He can't avoid me if I'm right in his face.”

Vera scooped up Charity as she hobbled toward the fireplace. “Sullivan, that man doesn't want to see you.”

“How in the world could you possibly know that, Vera?”

“Did he ask you to come? Has he made any effort in all this time to see you?”

“I can't say for sure that he hasn't tried to get in contact with me. I don't put it past you to have purposely kept the two of us apart.”

Vera shook her head. “If believing that helps you to sleep better at night, Sullivan, have at it!”

“Well, then, what's the reason? Why did he stop coming around?”

“I told you he already had a family. You, me—we were outsiders. You were never going to be a part of the family no matter what I did or didn't do.”

Sullivan crossed her arms. “How do I know you're not lying?”

“You don't.” Vera blew raspberries at Charity. “But you'll see. If I were you, I'd pretend Samuel Sullivan didn't exist and focus on my beautiful grandbaby. You've got enough to worry about trying to figure out who her daddy is instead of trying to dig up yours.”

“I don't care what you say, Vera. I'm going to see my father.”

Vera shooed Sullivan away. “Fine. Go see him. Just don't believe anything that man says. I doubt that he's changed much, and once a liar, always a liar.”

“Thanks for the warning, but I want to see for myself. Besides, he can't be as bad a parent as you were.”

“For all you know, he could be worse. You mark my words,” Vera warned her. “You're going to regret the day you let that man into your life.”