The House (38 page)

“So how did Thelonius find out?”

“He didn’t. Henrietta’s obstetrician was black. Thelonius’ real estate firm had helped him find a house then carried out the purchase. He and Thelonius became friends, played golf together. They belonged to the same country club. I figure he must have explained to Thelonius that he probably wasn’t the father. A day after Henrietta had received the first full transfusion, Thelonius burst into Henrietta’s hospital room and said he wasn’t leaving until she told him the truth.”

“Explained who the father was,” Anna said.

Inman nodded. “He had considered Henrietta and me to be like sister and brother. I think he might have even suspected that we were intimate, but ..” Inman’s voice trailed off. “He just didn’t count on her getting pregnant.”

“But Henrietta’s and Millicent’s illnesses demanded that he know,” Anna said.

“I suppose like Edward’s cancer, it forced a lot of things to the surface.”

Anna lowered her head into a hard silence. Several moments passed.

“Thelonius calmed down after Henrietta and I told him we’d planned to let him bring up baby as his own child. If Henrietta had never had the problem with her placenta, he wouldn’t have known. Thelonius would have raised Millicent thinking she was his, which is what he said he wanted.” Inman gave a bitter chuckle. His solemnity returned. “We never told Millicent.”

“But what about Thelonius and his unfaithfulness?” Anna asked.

“That started after Millicent’s birth. Henrietta said she didn’t hold it against him, that it was her fault. She had hurt him, that Thelonius had sought affection outside the marriage to get back at Henrietta and me.”

“But how would his infidelities hurt you and Henrietta?” Anna was confused.

“I loved Henrietta,” Inman said. Anna’s face warmed to a slow burn. “Thelonius knew that. He also knew I wanted the best for her, but I could never measure up to him.”

“Would you have taken her had she left Thelonius?”

“I wanted to marry her, told her so.” Inman then said, “But Thelonius knew that Henrietta would never leave him for me.”

A momentary silence passed, Anna absorbing the raw truth of Inman’s story. She then considered how close Inman had grown with Millicent. “Why didn’t Thelonius demand you get out of Henrietta’s life?”

“Thelonius and Henrietta didn’t have much of a sex life.” Inman flashed his palm. “Don’t ask me what was going on there. When she made it clear to Thelonius that she’d never thought of leaving him, he seemed to settle down. He appeared complacent and unaffected by my being around Millicent. I was in Millicent’s life until she was thirteen.”

“You would have been married to Marilyn and had Dancia by then,” Anna said.

“Dancia was six the last time I saw Millicent.” Inman twisted his face. “Marilyn hated Henrietta. She thought I was still in love with her.”

“Were you?”

“Possibly. But Henrietta certainly didn’t love me. I came to see that. Though I couldn’t blame her.” Anna’s heart sank another notch in awareness of Inman’s self-loathing. “Every July I went back to Chicago for a week. I stayed in a hotel and spent most of my time visiting Millicent.”

“As her godfather?”

“Yeah, but Marilyn maintained that Millicent was my excuse to remain connected with Henrietta.”

“Did she know that Millicent was your child?”

“No.” Inman shook his head. Even he had sworn himself to silence. “What made you stop visiting?”

“Thelonius’ complacency was short-lived. He started having mood swings when Millicent entered adolescence. He’d get really angry then sink into these deep depressions. By then Henrietta was fed up with his affairs.”

“What do you mean?”

“The spring before I came that last summer, Henrietta threatened to leave Thelonius and take Millicent with her if Thelonius didn’t stop his ways. Thelonius said he’d stop only if—”

“You stopped visiting Millicent.” It all came clear to Anna.

Inman’s eyes receded. “He told her he wanted me out of Millicent’s and Henrietta’s lives forever. Millicent turned thirteen the week I was in Chicago that last summer. Henrietta was hosting a birthday party for her. I was really excited to be there that week. It had been hard for me to get away that particular week, the one of her birthday, in recent summers. Millicent was turning thirteen and I really wanted to be there. After Millicent had opened all her gifts, Henrietta said she wanted to talk. While Millicent and the kids were dancing downstairs in the game room, Henrietta explained what had been going on with Thelonius, his affairs, the mood swings, her threat to leave and take Millicent.”

Inman turned away, his gaze receding even farther. He tapped his fingers upon the table.?

Chapter 55

Despite her frustrations, Anna felt sorry for Inman. Henrietta had used him. Inman said, “I left the house that afternoon having promised never to come back. Since Millicent’s wedding I’ve come to believe that it was Henrietta, and not Thelonius, who wanted me out of Millicent’s life. I’m sure Thelonius was relieved. But I was a stain on her life. She, perhaps more than Thelonius, was afraid of what I might tell Millicent, or what Millicent might discover as she got older. I left that summer and Millicent thought I’d come back next summer as usual. I didn’t. A year later, Marilyn left me and Dancia.”

“How did you learn Millicent was getting married?”

“It was kind of freaky, sort of a glitch. I was in Los Angeles Airport waiting for my flight back up here when Millicent saw me. She had been visiting friends from college who then lived in L.A. She was on her way back to Chicago. Both our flights had been delayed for three hours. We spent the time catching up. She wanted to know where I lived, asked for my e-mail address and phone number. I couldn’t refuse her. She was in graduate school, an adult.”

She’s also your daughter,” Anna said. “Did she tell Henrietta and Thelonius of having met you?”

“I figured that out when I called to say I was coming to the wed ding. Millicent and I kept in touch after having met at the airport. A year later, she told me she was getting married. I was a little shocked. We talked every two or three weeks. She’d said nothing about dating or anything. But she wanted me at the wedding to walk her down the aisle and give her away. I should have known something when she assured me that she’d settled everything with Henrietta and Thelonius,” Inman lamented.

“You didn’t call them?”

“Yes, but Henrietta was shocked when I did. It was two months before the wedding. I called Henrietta to see if Millicent had told her that she wanted me at the wedding and to give her away. I also wanted to find out about the person Millicent was marrying,” In man said.

Anna was somewhat taken aback that Millicent had not discussed Theo with him, that he’d had to ask about him.

Inman took a breath. “Millicent had said little of her fiancé. Instead, she focused more on her soon-to-be mother-in-law.” He looked at Anna. A lump formed in Anna’s throat as she recalled having shared with Inman her frustrations concerning Millicent. Anna had referred to Millicent as a
b-i-t-c-h
for which she now felt imminently sorry. But Anna had held no inkling of the possibility that Inman could be, never mind,
was
Millicent’s biological father.

The depth of Anna and Inman’s predicament, coupled with the various discoveries Anna had made about him during the past few weeks, tugged at Anna’s nerves still raw from Edward’s death. Not only was he Mrs. McGrath’s nephew. He was also father to the daughter-in-law with whom Anna least felt comfortable and safe. Again she felt exposed. She interwove her fingers.

Inman said, “Millicent was worried that you didn’t think she was good enough for Theo.” Anna lowered her gaze. Inman stared at his hands. “You were right,” he conceded. “Millicent can be a lot like Thelonius. That’s one of the things that bothered me. As she grew older, Millicent looked up to him. I told Henrietta so. As for the call to Henrietta about Millicent wanting me at the wedding, Henrietta refused to tell me anything. I told her I didn’t want Millicent marrying a rendition of Thelonius. She asked if I’d rather have her marry someone like myself.” Anna’s heart pounded with pain. “Henrietta told me not to come to the wedding.”

“So Millicent hadn’t told her or Thelonius that she wanted you there?”

“No, she hadn’t. And I didn’t want to cause any problems,” In man said. “It was Millicent’s wedding. I left it to Henrietta to tell Millicent that I wasn’t coming.”

Anna read Inman’s downcast eyes. “But she didn’t.”

A thick air of dread washed over Inman’s face as he recalled, “The day of Millicent and Theo’s wedding, I was in Maui with Dancia. I’m on the beach and I get this call. It’s Millicent wanting to know where I was, why I hadn’t come to Chicago for the wedding.” Inman sighed. “Henrietta had been reassuring her I’d be there.”

“Just like Millicent had told you she’d made everything right with her parents,” Anna interceded. “That they were okay with you giving her away.”

“Exactly. It was a mess. I hated doing it, but I told Millicent that I had spoken with her mother two months earlier and that Henrietta had suggested I not come to the wedding.”

“What happened then?”

“Henrietta stonewalled Millicent again, like she had me.” Inman then said, “I heard about the fiasco that nearly took place the day of the wedding with Thelonius threatening to call off the ceremony if I showed up, and then Millicent saying she was going to elope. When Millicent called, I asked her about Theo. She’d said nothing of him. I told her I didn’t want to hear anymore about Theo’s mother. I needed her to tell me about Theo. She said he was nice and kind, was always concerned about her happiness. She began to cry. I asked why. She said she didn’t think she deserved him. She was afraid his mother was right about her. That she would hurt him.

“I told Millicent, ‘You need to marry him and you need to treat him right. If you can’t do that, then call it off. He’ll be hurt now, but later, he’ll thank you.’ I’d been thinking about me and Henrietta during the entire phone conversation. I know that Millicent can be better than her parents. I knew it then; I know it now. But how could I say that without speaking badly of them and letting her know what kind of man I’d been? A person who’d had an affair with a married woman,
her
mother. There was no way I was going to tell Millicent how she was conceived.”

“What does she say now that she knows?”

“It’s a shock. But she’s older. Five years of marriage has provided a padding of experience. That and the fact that I revealed the truth to save her life.”

Anna momentarily considered all that Inman had endured. The loss of a fiancée, and then his wife, Marilyn. Fixed between those events stood his affair with Henrietta, a married woman wherein Inman had suffered as a casualty. However wrong he was in sleeping with Henrietta, she was an adult. As such, she bore half the responsibility for the affair having taken place. And then to order Inman out of Millicent” s life despite the fact he never wanted Millicent to know he was her father, to believe and see Thelonius in that role. Anna shook her head in recognition of how ruthless Henrietta had behaved.

Briefly, she met Inman’s gaze. And for a moment Anna saw the eyes of Stella, Esther, and the other unnamed women with whom Edward had lain. Perhaps it was her imagination. Anna then beheld the reflection of her own self. No longer pursuing the divorce, and she having brought Edward home to die, she had slept with Inman.

Anna said, “You never came to visit Millicent even after she and Theo married.”

“I told Millicent she needed to get to know her father and see who he was beyond his affairs,” Inman said. “By this time she knew of Thelonius’ unfaithfulness. I told her I wanted her to do this for herself and Theo and their marriage. I added that like always, she could call me anytime, night or day. I wanted Millicent to be happy with both Theo
and
Thelonius. The best way to do that was to make myself available only to Millicent, and to not ask anything of her.”

Nor of Henrietta.
Anna bristled. “So you did that by staying away? What about Dancia? When do you plan to tell her about Millicent? And does Millicent know about Dancia?” Inman lowered his head. “Having Dancia made me respect what Thelonius had done for Millicent, loving her as his own daughter. Losing Marilyn showed me what Thelonius must have felt when he learned that I was the father of the child Henrietta was carrying. I didn’t want to lose Dancia by her learning about my sordid past. Same as with Millicent.”

“Surely you don’t think Dancia will judge you? Millicent hasn’t.”

“Perhaps. And you’re right about Millicent,” Inman said. “But then again, you have.” ?

Chapter 56

Inman’s story left much for Anna to ponder, least of which were her feelings of having been exposed due to revelation and discovery. Yet again, Inman held much in his past for which he felt ashamed. They had been intimate, thus making Anna’s life like a glass house with pristine windows through which Inman could see her soul. Wrinkles and spots dotted the way; Anna’s foibles of intense self-judgment had inevitably shaped her opinion of others.

Unlike it had been with Edward and his shortcomings, Anna found herself exercising more criticism of Henrietta than she was willing to level upon Inman. He had needed protection, Anna thought. And then,
If only I could have ...
She shot down the idea. It bore too much hope and possibility concerning her relationship with Inman. Though she felt sorry for him, deeply empathized with his hurt, Anna could not,
they could not,
continue their involvement. Inman was Millicent’s father. Anna was Theo’s mother. Anna and Inman were in-laws, soon to be grandparents to the twins Millicent was carrying. Things could not continue as they had.