He shook his head. “Not good. Whoever beat him wanted him dead. They’ve got him hooked up to a machine monitoring his vitals, and they’re also trying to flush drugs out of his system. The doctor said he shot up with a lethal cocktail of heroin, crack, and another drug whose name I can’t recall.”
Tonya rested a hand on his arm. “I thought he lived in Baton Rouge.”
“That’s what I thought.” He ran a hand over his face. “Now that he’s here, I can keep an eye on him. I don’t know where he got the drugs, but once they release him I’m bringing him home with me—that is if you don’t mind him living with us.”
Tonya looked at Gage as if he’d lost his mind. “It has nothing to do with whether I mind, Gage. The boy’s your son, and it is your responsibility to make sure he gets help and stays clean.”
He pulled her into the circle of his arms. “Thank you. That’s really a load off my mind.”
She wanted to ask him if he really thought she was that callous and would tell him his son couldn’t live with them. “How long do they plan to keep him?”
“I don’t know. Remember, Tonya, this is not Wesley’s first rodeo, but if I have anything to do with it it’s going to be his last. There’s no way I’m going to send him back to his mother after this.” A blood-curdling scream reverberated out in the hall, followed by a woman calling Wesley’s name. “Shit! That must be Winifred.”
Tonya followed Gage to the hallway, stunned to find a woman clawing at Gage as he tried dislodging himself from her. She had to assume the woman and Gage were around the same age, but his son’s mother looked old enough to have been Gage’s mother. Her face was sallow and pockmarked, body emaciated, and when she opened her mouth, she was missing several teeth. It didn’t take the IQ of a genius to know the woman was abusing meth.
Tonya felt like she was witnessing a brutal assault captured by police or closed circuit cameras when Gage grabbed the woman’s upper arms and shook her as if she were a rag doll. Winifred was screaming that he was killing her, and Gage retaliated with, “He can’t get clean if you’re on the shit, too!”
“Let her go, Gage, before you break her arms,” Tonya pleaded as hospital staff and patients came out of their rooms to witness the fracas.
Winifred’s cloudy blue-gray eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want you anywhere nearmyson. Yes, Gage,myson. I told him the truth when he was fifteen when he asked about you; I told him I didn’t know who his father was, because I wanted him to hate you just like you hated me for being what you wanted me to be.” Spittle had formed at the corners of her mouth.
A member of hospital security arrived, and Gage told him he didn’t want Winifred anywhere near his son.
“For the last time, he’s not your son!” she screamed.
“I may not have fathered him, but it is my name on his birth certificate, and legally that makes him my son.”
Tonya backed away as if they were carrying a communicable disease. She did not want to believe Gage had asked her to marry him, yet did not trust her enough to tell her about his son’s paternity, even though he knew the boy wasn’t his biological son. Did he believe she would think him a fool for claiming a child belonging to another man? That he’d loved Winifred so much he didn’t care if she’d cheated on him with other men?
The questions bombarded her as she left the hospital and sat in his car in the parking lot. What if she had consented to marry him? Would he have hidden the truth from her, or would he have been forthcoming because she said yes?
She punched the start-engine button when he opened the passenger-side door and got in. “How did it go?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!”
“You have to talk about, Gage.”
“No, I don’t, because it’s none of your business.”
“You’re right,” she mumbled under her breath. “It is none of my business.” As she drove, she acted as if she didn’t have a care in the world, while her insides were churning like a whirlpool. Tonya parked the car and went inside the house.
She went into the bedroom, retrieved one of her bags from the closet, and opening and closing drawers, filled the bag with enough clothes to last at least four days.
Gage was sitting on the sofa when she came down the stairs, and she knew she would never forget the haunted look in his eyes. She left the set of keys to the condo on the dining table and walked out of the house.
* * *
Gage watched Tonya walk out of the house and out of his life. He wanted to go after her, but his mind was in so much turmoil he wasn’t able to form a coherent thought. It had been years since he last saw Winifred, and it only took one glance to know why Wesley wasn’t able to stay clean.
At twenty Wesley was no longer a minor, but he was the only father the boy had ever known. And despite Winifred’s claim he was not his biological father, Wesley’s birth certificate indicated legally he was. He picked up his cell phone and placed a call to his attorney’s office, leaving a voice mail message that it was an emergency.
He knew he had treated Tonya unfairly when he told her that what went on between him and his ex was none of her business, but he didn’t want to involve her in the ugliness that had begun to plague him within days of exchanging vows with a woman he never should’ve married.
He tapped Tonya’s number, and the call went directly to voice mail. He left a message for her to return his call. Gage knew his life was in crisis: Wesley was in critical condition from a vicious beating, while he’d practically assaulted his ex after her insane display, and the woman he loved beyond description had walked out on him.
Four hours later he called Tonya again, nearly pleading with her to call him. Panicking, Gage called local hotels and motels asking for her, but with no success. He decided to wait until Sunday to contact her again. After a good night’s sleep he prayed things would be better.
