The Other Side of Goodness (16 page)

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Authors: Vanessa Davis Griggs

BOOK: The Other Side of Goodness
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Chapter 24
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired.
—Zephaniah 2:1
 
 
 
“T
hank you,” Gabrielle said after she and Zachary stepped into the foyer of her house.
“No problem,” Zachary said.
Gabrielle turned to him. “I know you want to know.”
Zachary smiled slightly. “Know what?”
“Look, Zachary, I saw how you reacted when you heard that I knew Andrew.”
Zachary took Gabrielle by her hand and led her into the den. He sat down, pulling her down alongside him. “All right. Let's get this out of the way once and for all.”
Gabrielle looked toward the ceiling.
Zachary touched her chin. “It's not like that.”
She lowered her head and looked at him. “You're telling me that you're not upset? Seriously? After all that tall talking you did making Lawrence believe we harbored no secrets between us, and then you get blindsided with that information.”
“Listen, Gabrielle, you and I are just getting to know each other. We don't know everything about each other yet. In fact, even if we were married, I'm sure there would be things we still wouldn't know,” Zachary said.
“But the thing is, Zachary, this was something that just took place. I should have told you that I knew Andrew right after it happened.”
Zachary took her hand and placed his fingers in between hers. “And when might you have done that? Come on, think about it. Your friend Paris—”
“Paris is not my friend.”
Zachary nodded. “Okay. Paris and her husband came over to us, and her husband never let on that he knew you.”
“If you knew Paris the way I do, you'd understand why.”
“Then help me understand. What kind of a person is she?”
“She's selfish and quite possessive.” Gabrielle turned her body squarely toward Zachary. “It's like this: Paris had a boyfriend. When I stayed at her place for that short time, he came over a few times. She thought her boyfriend and I were trying to hook up behind her back.”
“Is that why she put you out?”
“I don't know why she put me out. That could have been why. I wasn't quite sure what set her off. I'd gone to pick up a few things from the grocery store and when I returned, she was blowing a gasket, yelling and screaming that I had to get out. I asked her what had happened to get her so upset. She never really told me. Just kept saying that I knew what I'd done. To be honest, I thought she'd found out about me and her father. He'd just learned that I was pregnant a few days earlier, and he definitely hadn't been happy about the revelation. He was telling me I had to get rid of it and I had to do it right then. He gave me money to have the abortion. Said he would help me in whatever way I would need to get on my feet after I got rid of the baby. Then a few days later, here comes his daughter giving me a few hours to get all of my stuff and leave. What was I to do? I had nowhere to go. But I got my stuff and started walking.”
“Wow,” Zachary said. “It breaks my heart to hear this. I can only
imagine
what it must have been like for you.”
Gabrielle stood up while hugging herself. She began to walk toward the window.
Zachary stood and went to her. He grabbed her by the arms that were still hugging her. “I'm not upset about anything, do you hear me? I just want to do whatever I can to help you now.”
“Yeah, but you were standing up for me. And you got hit with something that I could have told you myself . . . I should have told you myself.”
“Okay, so would you like to tell me
now
about you and this guy Andrew . . . Drew, whatever his name is?”
“It's Andrew Holyfield. And, yes, we did know each other. He was Paris's boyfriend's friend at the time.”
Zachary laughed. “That's a mouthful.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. But if her boyfriend and Andrew were friends, why would she not know that you two had met prior to her introducing you the other day?”
Gabrielle walked back over to the couch and sat down. Zachary followed and did the same. “She didn't know I had met him. It was before the two of them even met, most likely. You see there was this time that Cedric, that was Paris's boyfriend, brought Andrew over to the apartment with him while I was there. Paris had already left for the club she liked going to. I'm not sure about the details; I don't know if the real deal was that Cedric didn't own a car or that his car only ran half the time, because Paris seemed to be the one having to always pick him up. I'm not sure what happened this time around; she didn't exactly ever confide in me. She must have been mad with him, so he got Andrew to bring him over. When he saw me, he must have thought it would be a neat idea if the four of us hung out or something. Who knows?”
Gabrielle crossed her legs at the ankles. “I later learned from Drew that Cedric hadn't presented that idea to Paris before deciding to do it. Paris called him on his cell phone while we were on our way to the club. When he mentioned the idea of me and his friend, the four of us, hooking up at the club, she reportedly had a fit. Apparently, Paris hadn't made it clear to Cedric that I wasn't a friend or much of anything in her eyes. All I did was kept the place clean and cooked in exchange for somewhere to stay. That was it. I was not someone she cared to be seen out in public with—ever.”
Zachary pulled Gabrielle into his arms. “Wow. Paris sounds like she was a real piece of work back then.”
“Oh, it was fine. I knew she and I weren't really friends or anything like that. But when you have nowhere else to go, you do what you have to do to survive. I was just thankful she was kind enough to let me stay with her. But what she told Cedric about me was misleading. I gave her money for half the rent. The rest that I did was pretty much what I'd been doing pretty much all of my teenage life: cooking and cleaning up after other folks who sat around like they were kings and queens.” Gabrielle flicked a tear from the left side of her face.
“So Paris didn't know you'd met Andrew?”
Gabrielle shook her head. “No. Cedric wasn't going to tell her then that he'd just been to the apartment and convinced me to come with them. Not after Paris let him know that I was neither welcomed nor worthy to be in her presence outside of the apartment. So Drew dropped Cedric off at the nightclub and brought me back to the apartment. Drew and I talked for a little while. He's really a very caring guy. I suppose he thought I'd been treated badly and he was trying to make it up to me. About a month later, everything pretty much went south for me, and then crossed the border.”
Zachary squeezed Gabrielle tight. “You know I have a lot of questions swirling around in my head after hearing all of this.”
“Yeah.” Gabrielle broke from his embrace. “So here I was being thrown out on the streets for the second time in three months with nowhere to live. I had money in my purse for an abortion, from the father of my baby, with strict instructions to get rid of the baby, and the knowledge that he wanted nothing to do with any child of mine. So I'm walking down the street pulling two large suitcases behind me, trying to decide where to go while I figure out where to go, when this car pulls up alongside me.” Gabrielle looked toward the ceiling and smiled before looking at Zachary. “It was Andrew Holyfield.”
“Great timing.”
Gabrielle let out a short laugh. “Yeah. That's what I thought when he rolled down the passenger-side window and asked if I needed a ride somewhere. But since I'd met him only that one time, I really didn't know him well enough to be sure I could trust him. I wrestled with whether I should get in the car with him or not.”
“That was smart. At least you stopped to consider the possibilities of what could happen.”
“Yeah, but I was pregnant, walking down the street, with nowhere to go, and no way to get there.” Gabrielle looked at Zachary so she could better gauge his reactions to everything she was saying. “I did decide to get in, which really could have turned out badly, but thank God, it didn't. Andrew asked me where to. And that's when I lost it and broke down completely, right there in his old Chevy.”
Zachary gathered her back into his arms.
Gabrielle pulled away again. She didn't want him holding her while she told him the rest of the story. “He didn't know what to do; he wasn't that kind of guy.”
“But still he took you to his place,” Zachary said resigned.
Gabrielle smiled. “Oh, yeah. He took me home to his place.” She let out a short laugh.
Zachary nodded. “It's okay. I understand.”
Gabrielle touched Zachary's arm softly with her hand. “No . . . you
don't
understand. Andrew lived at home with his mother. He was working and attending college, studying to be a lawyer. His mother was such a sweet woman. And she was a Christian who didn't play that ‘playing house' stuff. But she welcomed me into her home with open arms after Drew told her exactly what was going on.”
“Did he know you were pregnant? Did you tell him about the baby?”
Gabrielle shook her head. “No. That was something I've pretty much kept from everybody all of these years . . . everybody, that is, except for you. Oh, and Johnnie Mae Landris. Andrew only knew that I had nowhere to live. He knew about my aunt and how she'd shown me the door the day after I graduated from high school. And he knew Paris had just put me out.”
Gabrielle stood again and cupped her neck with both hands before sitting back down. “I didn't know what to do next. I knew I couldn't stay with them for long. I would be showing soon. I had no job anymore, no home, and a baby I was determined I wasn't going to abort. I had no one to turn to for answers. So for the first time in my life, I looked toward the sky, and I said, ‘God, please help me. I don't know what to do.' I didn't know it then, but God absolutely heard me and He answered my prayer.”
Zachary smiled at Gabrielle, then nodded.
“By some divine intervention, I saw a promo on television about a home for unwed mothers who didn't want to get an abortion. It was advertised as a caring place. So I took down the number and called. I visited them and decided to go there.”
“And you told no one.”
“Who did I have to tell? I was there with Drew and his mother for ten days, not enough time for them to figure out I was pregnant. I told her I had found somewhere to stay. She asked me to let her know once I was settled.”
“So did you?”
“I called when I arrived at the home to let her know I was okay. After giving birth to the baby, I called once more just to say hello. That was the last time I spoke with either her
or
Andrew.”
“So there's no way Jasmine might be Drew's? I mean, if there's even a
remote
possibility, then you should let him know so he can be tested to see if
he's
a potential match.”
“Paris would have a fit if she even
thought
that Drew and I hooked up, especially now that they're married.” Gabrielle laughed. “She never knew he'd come to her apartment. I certainly never told her, and I'm pretty sure Cedric never said a word.”
“Wait a minute. You
did
say that Drew was her boyfriend's friend. I wonder how the two of them hooked up and ended up married.”
Gabrielle shrugged. “Beats me. But if I know Paris, when she met Andrew, she decided that Andrew was a better catch than Cedric and merely dumped him like two-week-old spoiled milk. Andrew had goals; Cedric seemed content in merely hanging out and having fun off of other people's money. Whatever happened that brought them together as a couple, I guess Andrew never mentioned anything about having known me to Paris, which is fine by me.”
Zachary's pager went off. He pulled it out and looked at it. “I have to go. There's a badly burned patient en route to the hospital.” He stood up.
Gabrielle hated when Zachary's pager went off like that because usually he had to leave quickly. She also knew this was a part of his world, thus a part of hers now. She'd once asked Zachary why they all continued to use pagers in a world of high-tech phones and gadgets. He'd said that pagers were still more reliable than cell phones. In certain places, like even the basement of a hospital, you might not be able to receive a signal from a cell phone, but pagers still worked. As a burn specialist, every second counted.
Because Zachary had to leave so quickly, she didn't get to answer whether or not she'd ever slept with Drew. Whether it was the night he'd been so caring and brought her back home after she'd been dismissed by Paris (which would make it possible that Jasmine could be his child) or during those few days she'd stayed at his home.

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