“I’m a match,” she whispers, causing Edward and I to jolt apart. With wide eyes, I stare at her in wonder, unable to believe what I am hearing. With three words, she managed to give us back the hope we needed. I’ll never be able to thank her enough for that.
“Of course,” Edward says, as if he is mad he didn’t think of it sooner. “Rochelle! Thank God for you Rochelle.” He grabs her towards him and holds her steady by the shoulders. “Will you help us?”
My Angel smiles at him, and turns to address the doctor. “Where do I need to go?”
“Just follow me, Miss.” He gestures towards the doorway down the hall. Edward releases my Angel, but I refuse to let her out of my sight just yet. Grabbing her back to me, I hold her tight as if just the idea of her walking away is too much to bear after the loss I was threatened with today.
“I love you, future Mrs. Alexander,” I whisper in her hair. Edward’s eyes dart angrily to mine when he realizes what I just said. Rochelle pulls away and grins.
“Not more than I love you,” she reaches up on her tiptoes and plants a tender kiss against my lips before turning around and meeting Edward’s startled eyes. With a shy nod, she excuses herself and follows the doctor down the hallway and out the doors.
“You can’t marry her, Son,” Edward says when the doors close and the doctor and Rochelle are out of earshot. “This has gone on long enough. I thought for sure you’d have a little more fun, but then finally come to your senses. You and her, you can never be! Hell, it’s time you listen to me Hunter, about something for once in your fucking life!”
Spinning around, I challenge him with a bitter, hostile stare. He can have his own damn opinion, but hell if I will let it be mine. I will marry her. As soon as I can.
“Give me one good reason, Edward,” I shout, causing him to flinch. “You know what, fuck that. I don’t need your reasons. Because nothing, and no one, can ever stop me from making that woman my wife. You can bet all the damn money you have on that Old Man. So save your breath, and stop trying to ruin my life.”
I start to make my way toward the exit when he hits me with a truth, a curve ball, a fucking complication I never could have seen coming.
“She’s Victoria’s twin, damn it!” Edward’s words stop me in my tracks. Turning around slowly, I dare him to lie to me again. There is no way in fucking hell that is true.
“You’re lying…”
“Why else do you think she has the same damn blood type, Hunter.” My heart freezes. My world shatters. I look behind Edward and see Sylvia still sitting next to Victoria’s bed and can’t even begin to fathom what the man in front of me is saying.
“But Sylvia?” I stutter.
“Could never have kids,” Edward sighs. “The doctor sure as hell got that right. Me on the other hand, I found after one too many trips to Georgia over 20 years ago, definitely can.”
“What do you mean?”
Edward looks over his shoulder at Sylvia who’s clutching Victoria’s hand and saying a silent prayer. Her lips move as she sends her plea up above in the hopes that God answers her in our time of need.
Does she know? She has to. But she forgave him, and stayed? What kind of a woman does that?
“Silvia’s always been a fighter. She never gives up on what she loves the most,” Edward says as if he can read my mind.
He puts his hand on my shoulder as Sylvia continues to cling to Victoria making us feel the depth of her prayers, and the hope that Victoria will be okay.
“When we found out we couldn’t have any children, I felt like less of a man not being able to give Sylvia what she wanted. At that point, we didn’t know where the problem lay. Her, or me.” He begins to tell me his story as I stand motionless, void of any emotion. “My business trips became longer, and like an absolute fool, I took other women to my bed trying to prove to myself that I was man enough. That I could give life to the world when all I felt at home was the cold brutal truth that I couldn’t. That we couldn’t.”
“Your father warned me, told me I was being such a fool, risking losing that strong, beautiful woman in there.” He pauses, and we continue to watch Sylvia through the glass. “But I didn’t. I fell for a woman where we were setting up one of our new stations, in Savannah. She had little, and the thrill it gave her to know someone like me, and what I had to offer, made me feel alive. She became my mistress, but it was short-lived when I found out she too had a husband of her own. A greedy bastard that started to turn her against me. I found out the hard way when she tried to embezzle money from the company into a private account. When I confronted her, she dropped a bomb on me I never expected. She was pregnant, and I was the father.”
“And you believed her?” I ask curtly, turning to face a man I thought I knew and now realize I haven’t the slightest clue about.
“Not at first, no.” He says, before taking a minute to himself, then he continues. “But paternity tests don’t lie. When I found out I was the father, I told Sylvia and she insisted we adopt the child. But we soon learned there was a catch.” He looks at me and waits a moment, “The woman, my mistress, was having twins. And she was hell-bent on not giving them up.”
“So how did…”
“We get Victoria?” He asks, before letting out a heavy sigh. “She came with a price. One I was reluctant to pay, but seeing as your parents, our best friends, had just had you, Sylvia was so eager to have the same. And this, Victoria and Rochelle, presented the perfect opportunity.”
“Why pay at all? And why only take Victoria? They were both your child!” I demand, needing answers and feeling my blood boil knowing that this man has done little if anything to give Rochelle the life he gave her sister.
“We didn’t want a scandal,” he shrugs as a bitter sadness takes over him. “Just like I would ask you to not give us one now. We signed a fucking contract, against my better judgment, but Sylvia was delirious, consumed with the need to get what we obviously couldn’t ever make ourselves. Silence was the key. That and money, lots of fucking money, to keep their mother satisfied and agreeable even though I couldn’t care less after I found out what kind of a woman she really was. Looking back, it was the absolute wrong decision to make. If I could take it back I would, but we all don’t get lucky enough to be given a second chance in life. Victoria’s mother agreed, but not before we paid her a sum that should have set her and Rochelle up to live the perfect life and keep her out of ours.”
“Well I hate to break the fucking bad news, but that didn’t exactly pan out the way you planned. Do you even know anything about the way Rochelle has had to live? What she has been through? How much she has had to overcome? I don’t know where your fucking plan went wrong, but …”
“I know, Hunter,” he cuts me off. “More than you think I know. And more than you or Rochelle will ever know. This is why, in light of finding out what I just told you, and with a heavy warning, I have to continue to insist you haven’t a clue in hell what you are getting into. You need to cut this off. For the both of you.”
