Out Of Bounds (Balls To The Walls) (13 page)

“Okay, is everyone ready?” Dr. Myer asked.

No not really but today is the day. We could have had the results delivered to the house but I didn’t want Jack to accuse Mason of tampering with the results. Jack seemed to be in a desperate place. He really wanted my baby to be his.

The doctor opened the sealed
white envelope.

Dr. Myer started to clearly read the single sheet of paper.
“Our tests use 15 different loci or markers to determine paternity. The test concluded that the test subject Mason Lorenzo Rizza, is the father of the child with 99.99 percent inclusion. The test subject Jack Unger was 100 percent excluded as being the father of the child in question.”

There was silence. It wasn’t hard to understand. The doctor pushed the paper with the results over to me and I actually sat there and read it.

Dr. Myer stood. “I will give you all some time alone to go over the results.”

Mason and Jack remained quiet. I couldn’t even here them breathing. “Thank y
ou doctor.” I said and Dr. Myer left us all alone.  

Jack slowly stood. At first I thought he was go
ing to take a look at the paper in front of me but he didn’t. He went straight for the door and left Mason and I alone without even saying a word. 

“Mason.”

Mason looked over at me. I glided the paper over to him on the table. He picked it up and looked at it but didn’t say anything. He ran his hand over his face like he was wiping sweat.

“Mason.” I called out again hoping for some kind of response.

“Kari, I’m happy but I didn’t think it was me so I’m shocked. I’m happy but I am shocked so bad that I can’t even express my happiness. I thought I was going to flip this fucking table over. Now I just don’t know how to be. Karson is my daughter. She’s ours.”

“Yes she’s ours.” I looked in Mason’s eyes and I could see the tears forming. Those tears were contagious because now I was crying.

“I didn’t try to love her because I thought she wasn’t mine. I’m sorry. I swear I’m going to love her. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” I reached over a
nd hugged my husband. His honesty warmed my heart. I was more than happy with the outcome. Mason cried into my shoulder and after we composed ourselves we left the office.

CHAPTER 11

MASON

There was silence on the ride home. Kari wasn’t talking and I was feeding off of her mood.
I honestly wasn’t sure what mood she was in. There was no energy to feed off of. We stopped at a light before words were spoken.

“Mason.”
She called out to me.

I looked over at Kari in the passenger seat. “Yes.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.”
As good as good gets, I was still very shocked by the news. I can’t deny that. I had hoped, prayed and wished in a fallen star but I just knew Karson wasn’t my daughter. The chances were slim and I guess I had already wrapped my mind around the worse case scenario.

I even felt guilty for keeping a safe distance between Karson and me. I didn’t even allow myself to love her and she was just a baby.

In the end, as it now stands she is my daughter. She was a Rizza all along. What a stupid assclown move on my part. Who taught me how to parent, Lamar?

“Are you good?” I asked Kari.
I wondered if she knew how I had distanced myself from our daughter. Of course she did. Kari has to think I’m an unfeeling asshole.

“Yeah, I’m happy. I’m just glad its over.”
Kari donned a smile.

“I feel the same way.”

“Let’s go home first before we get the kids.” She suggested. Kari is probably tired given all that has happened today.

“Okay, you want to lay down for awhile?”

“No, I want to fuck my husband.”

My cock would have hit the steering wheel and caused an accident if I didn’t have these blue jeans on. I swallowed hard as I imagined being inside Kari. I hadn’t had sex with my wife in six weeks.

“Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“Yeah, I’m healed.
My body feels ready. I’m ready, yeah I am.” Kari’s left hand crossed over into my territory and rubbed my leg. Shit! How many miles to the house? I thought my evil twin brother was dead but here he is trying to break through denim just like David Bruce Banner.

Today was the day I realized I had everything I wanted. Today was the day I was a pleased man. Today was the day a daughter was born to me.
As far as I’m concerned Karson has two birthdays. The day she arrived into the world and the day her stupid father welcomed her into his heart and loved her more than anything.

I drove a little faster trying to make it home to do some nasty things to my wife.

Six weeks is a long to live off masturbation and the occasional blowjob. I love getting blowed but nothing on earth could beat the warm wet feeling inside my Kari. Thinking of it makes my cock ooze.

***

Life is what you make it. Life was going good for me. As weeks passed it only got better for my family and me. I was happy.

It was late when I crept into the nursery to see my daughter Karson. She was sleeping like a baby because in fact she was a baby.

I adored her and Kari even thought it strange how I stared at her all the time. She was beautiful in a way that I couldn’t describe. She was like a miracle to me and I wasn’t quite sure why I felt that way. I love Karson’s mother so much that when I look at her all I see is love.

There was only a glimmer of light that shone threw the window this peaceful summer night. The moon was full and it cast a heavenly glow on my little baby as she slept, my beautiful baby girl Karson Simone.

We had a video baby monitor but I had to always come in and check on her when she wasn’t in bed with us. It was well past midnight and the entire house was peaceful.

Trey had fallen sleep in his room with his Nintendo 3DS pressed across his face. The music was still playing when I went to check on him earlier.

I was going to pick up Hannah, Matt and Tim in the morning so we could all hang out together. Tess was going to let them sleep over. I knew I should get some sleep but happiness had me up in the night.

There was something about life here at plaza de Rizza that was tranquil. Jack had been eliminated from our lives and now we could breath. Now I could truly enjoy my good fortune.

I almost made it to bed when my cell phone rang. I hurried from Karson’s room. I should have had my phone on vibrate this late at night.

“Hello.” I said as I quickly answered the call.

I was having a déjà vu moment. I had been summoned to Edward’s Hospital in Naperton.
I jumped in the Rover and drove beyond the speed limit.

This was the same hospital my mother died in. I did not want to be here. I didn’t have a choice. My nephew was here. That’s what I had been told over the phone. 

I had already built a brick wall around my emotions. I had just seen RJ a few hours ago at the office. I didn’t know what to expect. He was here, his condition a mystery that would be solved soon. He had been rushed to the emergency room. I was too confused by his girlfriend’s words to fully understand the magnitude of what would come next.

I played her frantic tearful words back in my mind but that didn’t help me at all. Deja said RJ is at the hospital. Come quick. Maybe there was more but I could only recall those words. She mentioned the hospital and maybe there was more.
I’m sure there was more. She hung up on me but there was a dire severity in her words that was tragic. Maybe I had read more into it.

As I walked further into the emergency room I recalled my question to her ‘Is he alive?’ She said yes. I heard that much. I remember that much. I remember I
had paced the bedroom before Kari shoved me out the door with the keys to the Range Rover. 

I spotted Deja sitting in a chair across the busy emergency waiting room. She was sitting next to a Naperton uniform police officer. There were a few more officers scattered around her. An officer had unknowingly blocked my view of her and when he shifted a few inches to the left Deja came back into view. That was when I saw the blood. She was covered in bright red. I hurried my pace. It had to be RJ’s blood. There was no other feasible explanation for it. There was so much blood.

Did Kari call my sister? I scanned the area. Karen and her husband Robert hadn’t arrived. Maybe they had. Maybe RJ was dead and they were identifying his body. Why was Deja covered in blood? Why was she so disheveled? Why was her face so distraught? As soon as she saw me barreling toward her she leapt from her seat and flew into my arms.

All the officers took notice. I had questions but I also had my composure. I wasn’t going to break down, not like when my mom died. I was different now, stronger.

Deja was obviously here alone. She was a kid. I was a man. I could breakdown later. Now was not the time. Deja was sobbing into my chest and as much as I wanted to pull her away from me and shake some answers from her I just stood there and held her.

An officer was standing behind her. My eyes meet his. He was
a stoned faced black man with a slight beard and the same height as me. He was younger than me but not by much. His dark eyes gave me no clues as to RJ’s condition.

“Are you Mr. Palazzo?” His deep voice asked.

I heard his words but it took a minute for me to form an audible reply. He meant my brother-in-law.

“No,
I’m Mason Rizza. I’m RJ’s uncle.”

Without any coaxing I moved Deja back to the chair she occupied before I arrived. The other officers parted as Deja and I moved. She sat down and I noticed she had dead eyes. The blood made her look like she was dressed as a zombie for a macabre Halloween party or an extra in
The Walking Dead
.

“What happened?” I addressed the officer who had followed us and was eager to speak to me.

“I’m Officer Montgomery with the Naperton Police Department. Mr. Rizza your nephew was shot tonight.”

“Shot?” I questioned the officer’s words because they seemed so foreign to me. “I think he went to a movie.” Is that what RJ told me?

“Sir he was hit with a stray bullet. His girlfriend and some other on-scene witnesses at the movie theater said an altercation broke out inside the theater and your nephew was hit with bullets that were intended for another person in the theater.”

“Bullets?” More than one? He didn’t respond even though I had posed it as a question. “Is he alive?”

“He was a live when he arrived. Sir, he is in surgery. I don’t have any further information but one other person was shot in the theater. The alleged perpetuator has been apprehended and is in custody at this time.”

“How long has my nephew been in surgery?”

“Not long. He arrived here just minutes ago. There were a lot of patrons in the theater and there was a quick response by all emergency response teams.”

“He was alive when he got here?”
I needed clarity.

“Yes sir.”

Deja appeared from the side of our two-man conversation. “Mason he was alive, he was. He was talking to me but he passed out in the ambulance. I put my jacket in the hole.”

The hole? “What?”

“I was trying to stop the bleeding but there was so much blood. I don’t. I don’t. I, I.”

I noticed my sister and her husband rush through the automatic emergency room doors as they parted. I needed more information.

Deja would be a doctor like her father. I know that much about her. I decided to pose my next question to her instead of Officer Montgomery. “Deja where was RJ shot?”

“In his neck and in his chest.” Her voice crumbled as the words hurriedly escaped her lips. Those words broke a huge gaping hole in the brick wall I forged around my composure. What the fuck? I latched onto another area of the wall I built that was still intact. Neck and chest. Neck and chest. Neck and chest. Karen and Robert are here. Mason, calm the fuck down. I had to tell myself to calm, the fuck, down.

The anxiety was inscribed all over my sister’s face. I wished I had something to say that would ease her fear. I wished this wasn’t really happening.

An image of little RJ with a runny nose and loaded diaper flashed in my mind. He was the first kid in our family. There was absolutely no way his short life could end tonight. He was still a kid to me.

Karen’s eyes shifted from me to all the blood that was smeared across Deja’s shirt and jeans. I wished she could have changed into something else. Her bloody clothes conveyed the severity of RJ’s condition. Karen’s head must be swirling just as mine had before I got the little bit of information Officer Montgomery shared with me. Robert’s eyes glanced quickly from Deja to me.

I can imagine how they felt. I had felt that same shock and dismay when I entered this place that reminds me of death and disaster.

Karen went straight to me ignoring bloody Deja and the officer.