Dennis clapped a hand over his mouth at the same time he sank down to the sofa. “I can’t believe it,” he whispered. “We finally did it. We made a baby!”
Precious walked over and sat next to her husband, her arms going around his neck. “Yes, we did, my love.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I hope it will be a boy.”
“Boy or girl, darling. It doesn’t matter as long as it is healthy.”
Exhaling an inaudible breath, Precious smiled. She knew Dennis wanted a son, but she hadn’t known whether he’d want a daughter until now. Whatever it was, she would love it to her last breath.
CHAPTER4
Precious wrapped the lace-trimmed handkerchief around her fingers over and over as she stared out the windshield. Dennis had canceled an important business meeting with his banker to drive her to Dr. Raitt’s office in New Rochelle, but said it was more than worth it. Since she’d told her husband that he was going to be a father, Dennis hadn’t been able to stop grinning from ear to ear.
“If you don’t stop twisting that handkerchief, you’re going to rip it to shreds.”
It was the first time since her mother had disclosed the scheme—the one she’d concocted to get her daughter into fooling her son-in-law that he had gotten her pregnant—that Precious was not only anxious, but also frightened that she wouldn’t be able to pull it off. It took nine months, nearly a year for her pretend she was carrying her husband’s child. And a lot of things could happen during that time. Justine Russell’s insistence that she live in Mount Vernon until the end of January was risky, while Precious knew she’d made a grievous mistake when she threatened to beat her if she hadn’t gone along with her plan. There was something about theteenage girl that reminded her of a dog that decided to attack his master after being beaten by him once too often. However, she could understand why Justine would want to graduate from the local suburban high school rather than move back to the one she’d attended in the Bronx. She was smart, scoring in the top ten percent of her graduating class, and had been accepted as a matriculated student in the City College of New York, where she planned to enroll as a night student. Justine said she would begin looking for employment within days of graduating, because she needed to save money to secure an apartment, buy clothes, pay student fees, and purchase books. Those were her plans before Precious and her mother had blackmailed her into sleeping with Dennis.
“I don’t know if I told you, but Mama and I have decided to give Justine a graduation gift for her to attend secretarial school.”
Dennis gave her a quick sidelong glance. “But isn’t she going to college to become a teacher?”
“Yes.”
“If that’s the case, then why are you sending her to a secretarial school?”
“Justine is planning to take night courses, because she wants to work during the day. Mama has been in touch with one of her sorors in the city who rents rooms to young female college students, and she claims she’s willing to put Justine up until she finds a job.”
“What are you going to do to get someone to help Miss Flora once Justine leaves?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem hiring someone willing to work as a live-in housekeeper, Dennis. I will ask the pastor at our church if he knows a lady who is looking for work or someone who needs a place to live.”
Dennis grunted. “It seems as if you and your mother have really thought of everything when it comes to Justine’s future.”
Precious decided to ignore her husband’s disapproving tone.“Yes, we have because Justine is the next generation of young Negro women who want to better themselves, and it’s up to us to make it easier and not harder for them. It will be the same for you once you have your son or daughter, my love. I know you will do everything you can to build a foundation on which our children will not only thrive but also prosper.”
Lines fanned out around Dennis’s large dark eyes when he smiled. “You can count on that.”
Precious knew she had defused some of his annoyance when she’d called himmy love. She had learned from the first time she’d garnered Dennis Michael Boone’s attention that he was all ego. And she’d used everything in her female arsenal to say and do whatever she needed to become Mrs. Dennis Boone. It hadn’t mattered that he wasn’t college-educated, or that women of all ages were vying for his attention because he’d made a lot of money.
The first time he’d asked her to have dinner with him, Precious was ready to run in the opposite direction, because despite being impeccably dressed, his table manners were atrocious. He’d held his knife and fork like he was attacking his steak, and she thought she was going to be sick when he talked with his mouth filled with food. Instinctively he knew she was appalled when he asked her why she wasn’t eating. Precious knew telling him the truth would probably end whatever relationship she’d hoped to have with him, but decided to be forthcoming, and much to her surprise, he laughed and told her it was a test. It was something he’d devised to judge whether he would continue to see a woman, or their first date would become their last. And because she hadn’t been reticent to tell him how much she’d been nauseated, she passed his test.
Dennis further shocked her when he revealed he never would’ve been accepted into the closed circle of professional, college-educated Negroes if he hadn’t learned to mimic their lifestyle. He’d paid a woman to teach him what to wear for different occasions, dining etiquette, and how to dance. Oncehe completed his transformation, he planned to marry a woman whose status would permit him entrance into an assembly that would have outrightly rejected him no matter how much money he’d earned. It had become a win-win for the both of them. Dennis had married a woman with the right pedigree, and she had a husband with the resources to give her whatever she wanted. Now, she was about to embark on a journey of deceit and subterfuge, and she prayed everyone would come out a winner.
Dennis would become a father.
She would become a mother.
Justine would graduate in January and give birth at the end of June, which left her time to recuperate before she enrolled in college in September.
Precious sat on the table in Dr. Raitt’s exam room. His nurse had directed her into the room and helped her exchange her dress for a hospital gown. “The doctor will be with you shortly.” The door closed behind the nurse, and seconds later Dr. Raitt walked in, closing and locking the door behind him. She managed a tight smile for the slightly built, middle-aged doctor wearing a pair of rimless glasses. He’d begun losing his hair in his twenties, and his barber had cut what was left close to his smooth, nut-brown scalp.
“Your mother told me everything,” he said in a soft drawling voice, his cadence verifying he’d grown up in the South. “I’ve been reading about experiments in several medical journals about lab rats being injected with a drug that will prevent pregnancy, but the side effects include weight gain and increase in mammary glands, and a few have swollen abdomens.”
Precious slowly blinked. “You’re saying it mimics the appearance of pregnancy without actually being pregnant?”
Dr. Raitt nodded.
“Are you considering giving it to me?”
He nodded again. “Only if you approve. I wouldn’t give itto you now, but further along in your confinement. Meanwhile, I’d like you to increase your intake of food and try to put on a couple of pounds each month until the beginning of February. Then, when I come to your home, I will administer you an injection of the drug, and within a few weeks, you’ll definitely look as if you’re carrying a baby.”
