Promises, Love and Baby Page 5

  “Yup, they’re the number two most perfect couple.” Jackson smiled at me, expecting me to humor him and play along.

  I did.

  “Oh? Who’s the number one most perfect couple then?”

  He grinned and wrapped his arms around me, answering my question with a passionate kiss. I sighed contently, wishing I could stay in this moment forever.

  “Babe, do you want some of the leftover cake? I’m getting hungry again.” Jackson opened the box containing what remained of the birthday cake from the party.

  “No, I think I’m okay for now.”

  “More for me then,” he joked as he pulled a fork from the utensil drawer.

  I giggled and smiled over at him.

  “It really was a wonderful birthday party, Jax. Thank you for being so good to me.” I felt like the luckiest person in the world. I had the most amazing husband and best friend, and we were expecting our first child in a few months.

  “Well don’t get use to it.” A boyish grin appeared on his handsome face.

  “What do you mean by that?” I smirked, knowing very well that he was about to say some smartass comment.

  “Well it’s going to be your last birthday where it’s just the two of us. Once our daughter’s born, you’ll be competing with another gorgeous woman for my attention.” He gave a wink.

  I slapped his chest playfully and pretended to pout. “Jerk,” I teased.

  He chuckled and took a big bite from the slice of birthday cake in front of him. “I’m just kidding. Don’t worry, babe,” he said through his mouthful of cake, “I’ve got plenty of love and spoiling to go around for the both of my girls.”

  I couldn’t help but break into a fit of laughter. “You’re such a messy eater,” I teased as I reached over and wiped the cake icing from the corner of his mouth with my thumb.

  Without saying a thing, he grabbed a hold of my hand and sucked the icing slowly off my finger as he stared intensely into my eyes. The mood in the room instantly changed from one of playful teasing to one of sexual anticipation. My breath hitched as he gently circled his tongue around my thumb, instantly causing a pool of pleasure to grow at the pit of my stomach.

  When he finally released my finger from his mouth, he said in a husky voice, “Let me show you how much of a messy eater I can be.” He shot me a meaningful look full of promise and need.

  Our lips met in a frenzy, and before I knew it, he had lifted me up on top of the kitchen island and his tongue was working its way up my inner thigh.

  I gasped when he began to suck me playfully through the thin fabric of my laced panties. I felt his fingers push the fabric aside, revealing how ready I was for him.

  “Baby, you’re so wet for me,” he groaned as he inhaled deeply.

  But just as he was about to enter me with his tongue, I felt a wave of nausea hit me.

  “Jax,” I began.

  “—I know, baby … you’re so fucking wet,” he mumbled as he eagerly lapped me up.

  “No … I mean, I need you to stop,” I said between pants, feeling guilty that I was about to ruin the foreplay.

  He suddenly stopped and looked up at me with concern. “What’s wrong?”

  “Morning sickness.” I frowned as he helped me off the kitchen island. I ran to the sink and began to dry heave.

  “I’m so sorry, Clo,” he said as he pulled my hair back as I leaned over the sink. I could hear the mixture of disappointment and guilt in his voice.

  “It’s not your fault, Jax. I’m sorry I just killed the mood.”

  “Don’t think that way,” he reassured.

  “Can you grab me some ginger ale from the fridge?”

  “Sure.” He walked over to the fridge and looked inside. “Oh, I don’t see any.”

  “Oh, I might have finished the last of it this morning,” I said as I just remembered. “Do you mind going to the store to get some?” I flashed him a grateful smile.

  “Of course, baby. Anything for you and our baby.”

  He grabbed the keys and was out the door.

  After a few minutes, I heard the front door open and close.

  That was fast, I thought with a smile.

  “Daddy’s home,” a deep voice boomed from the front of the house.

  My body stiffened instantly as the familiar voice I thought I’d never hear again shook me to my core.

  Impossible! There’s just no way. How could this be? A chill ran down my back as a flood of memories I’d locked away years ago came rushing back with a vengeance.

  I heard his footsteps come into the kitchen at that very moment. As soon as I looked up, I knew my worst nightmare had just come true. I felt sick to my stomach, but this time, I knew it wasn’t caused by any morning sickness. Shock ran through my body as I met the gaze of the one person I never thought I’d see again.

  It was John. And he wasn’t dead.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Jackson

  When I returned back to the house ten minutes later with a carton of ginger ale, I was surprised to see a car I’d never seen before parked in our driveway.

  I checked my watch to see that it was a little past nine o’clock in the evening.

  “Who could be visiting at this late in the hour?” I asked out loud as I drove pass the car and into the garage.

  As I walked through the garage door that led into the house, the muffled sound of voices somewhere in the living room down the hall caused me to not call out to Chloe like I normally did. Instead, I tried to listen for clues to see what was going on first. I was too far to catch what the conversation was about, so I walked down the hallway toward the direction of the voices. There were two voices—one was Chloe’s, but the other one, I hadn’t quite made out yet.

  By the time I crossed the hallway leading to the living room, the ongoing conversation came into focus and I felt my body grow rigid before my mind had even registered the owner of the male voice.

  “So how have you been, Chloe? You look well-rested. Your skin’s rosy and glowing—pregnancy really becomes you,” the man said.

  There was a slight pause before Chloe responded. “Like I said, Jackson will be home soon. Let’s wait until he gets back. Or if you don’t want to wait, I could always tell him you stopped by and he can schedule a time to see you.”

  The shaky, uncomfortableness in her voice made the hairs on my body stand on end. I knew instantly that something was wrong and she needed help.

  “Chloe? I’m home,” I called out as I turned into the living room, projecting my voice to make my presence known by the man that was clearly harassing her. “Do we have company? I saw a car—”

  The rest of my words got stuck in my throat and my whole body froze in shock at who was sitting on the couch across from my wife. It was the last person I’d expected to see. It was my father—the father who had broke my mother’s heart, the father who had gone behind my back and slept with Chloe, the father who had died of prostate cancer four years ago.

  “Hi, son.”

  His words felt inadequate, leaving me searching for a response.

  “You died,” I finally said matter-of-factly.

  “It’s a long story and I’d like to explain it to you, if you’ll let me.”

  “I’m glad you’re back,” Chloe whispered as she hugged me. Still reeling from shock, I hadn’t even noticed she’d gotten up and walked over to me.

  I blinked and focused my attention on her. “Are you okay?”

  She looked up at me and gave a small nod.

  “Jackson, I’m not here to cause any trouble. You have to know I would never hurt Chloe.”

  It was when he mentioned her name that I truly came back to life and regained all my senses.

  “That’s enough, dad.” My voice was forceful and cold. I took a step forward. “You have no right to be here.”

  “This is my house,” he cut in defensively.

  “Not according to the property records, seeing as you died and left it to me. How are you not dead
?”

  “I came here because I want to tell you what happened.”

  I felt all the rage that’d built up in the last several years bubbling to the surface.

  “So you thought nine o’clock at night would be an appropriate time for this explanation? How dare you just waltz in here like it’s no big deal when everyone thought you’d been dead for years? After everything you’d put Chloe through, everything you put my mother through, and everything you put me through, how do you just show up without even a call and expect that this is going to go well—that we’re just going to welcome you with open arms like it’s no big deal?”

  “Son, you have every right to be angry—”

  “—I don’t need anyone’s permission to be angry, and certainly not yours,” I shot back.

  “Jax,” Chloe whispered gently, “maybe you guys shouldn’t get into a heated argument right now. Maybe hear him out so he can leave peacefully.” There was a concerned look on Chloe’s face as she stood close beside me and away from my father.

  Then I remembered what our OB/GYN had reminded us: Chloe should avoid stress and take it easy through this pregnancy to avoid possible complications. I shut my eyes and drew in a deep inhale of breath to gather my thoughts.

  “Dad,” I finally said after a long period of silence, “I don’t want to upset Chloe. That can harm the baby. So I’m going to stay calm and listen to what you have to say to me—for both their sakes. But after you’re done with your story, you will leave here and not come back again uninvited.”

  John nodded in agreement. “I just want to tell you what happened.”

  I took Chloe’s hand and we walked to the couch across from John’s and sat down.

  “Go ahead. Tell us why you’re not dead.”

  “I think I need to start from the very beginning in order for things to make sense.”

  “Okay.” I eyed my father suspiciously as I watched him take a few seconds to think through his story. Storms of competing emotions flooded through my thoughts, making it hard for me to register how I felt about the fact that my father was still alive.

  “So a number of years ago, before and after what happened between me and Chloe,” he paused and looked over at Chloe, who responded by looking down at the floor.

  “—You don’t have to bring Chloe into the story,” I cut in, feeling the anger rising again.

  He ignored my comment and continued. “I had some indiscretions I wasn’t proud of with some students. I don’t know exactly what happened, but the University found out and started an investigation on me. As you know, I was a bioengineering professor there. So in addition to lecturing classes, I was heavily involved in ongoing research for the University. During these investigations on my indiscretions, the University discovered more than they had expected and they brought the FBI in. You see, they discovered some evidence that I was selling some of the University’s ongoing lab research on bioengineering chemicals and diseases to an underground extremist group.”

  Chloe let out a low gasp under her breath.

  “Did you do it?” I asked curtly.

  He nodded. “When they first approached me, I didn’t know they were an extremist group. They offered a lot of money for just research. For all I knew, they could have been another competing University trying to gain trade secret information or some private research lab who wanted access to our cutting-edge research. I didn’t know who they were and I didn’t care. The money was just too tempting at the time.” He paused and to my surprise, he looked ashamed. “I think after a period of time, I started to have a feeling that they weren’t buying this information for a legitimate organization. But by that point, I was in too deep and was afraid to say no to them.”

  “So when I got wind that the University was about to investigate me, I was worried about what they’d find. So I started to think of an escape plan because I knew if they found out, I had to disappear.”

  “How did you disappear?” I asked, the question came out before I even knew I asked it.

  “Remember my old buddy Samuel Morrison?”

  “Doctor Morrison? The one that treated you when you had your cancer?”

  “Yeah, well I’ve known him for a very long time and I know some secrets about him that he wouldn’t want to be made public. So it didn’t take too much encouragement to get him to agree to fake my death. He is the director of the oncology department at the hospital, so he had access to a lot of resources at the hospital. He doctored all my test results and charts to show that I had prostate cancer, and we made sure that I died quickly. And on the pretense of this terminal cancer, I had my lawyers immediately draft up a new will that directed that my body was to be cremated immediately upon my death.”

  “Did mom know about this?” I asked.

  “No, she didn’t. She wouldn’t have understood.”

  “But…” Chloe spoke up.

  I turned and looked at her in surprise. “What is it?”

  “Those letters…the ones you wrote to my mom. I must have read them hundreds of times when I found them. There was one letter where you said you were about to die from the cancer.”

  John nodded in understanding. “Yeah. Well, I knew I’d have to make my death convincing, just in case anyone suspected anything. So I spent a few days imagining that I did really have prostate cancer and did the things that I think I would have done if I was really dying, and that included writing those letters to your mom.”

  “Oh.” Chloe shifted uncomfortably.

  “So where did you go after you faked your death?” I cut in, changing the subject.

  “I found a guy who could give me a new identity and had everything set up. Samuel arranged for one of the hospital’s John Doe corpses to be cremated in my place. And ever since then, I’ve been living in various parts of South America.”

  “So why are you back now then? Aren’t you afraid the FBI will find you and figure out who you really are?”

  “Yes, I know that’s a risk, but I came back for you.”

  “Me?” I looked at him incredulously.

  “Yes, you. You’re my son, Jackson. You’re my only family now. When I heard you and your beautiful wife were expecting a child, I knew I couldn’t stay away. I don’t have that many more years left in this world and I was tired of living in hiding. I wanted to be around to see my first grandchild.”

  My body stiffened at the way he mentioned Chloe.

  “How did you know about the pregnancy?” My eyes narrowed at him suspiciously.

  He let out a light chuckle that only made my blood boil. “Again, it was my buddy Samuel to the rescue. He’d noticed you guys at the hospital a few months ago. He checked the hospital records and found out Chloe was pregnant. When I found out recently the sex of my grandchild, I knew I had to take the risk and see you guys.” He smiled at Chloe and then looked down at her bump. “I’m looking forward to meeting this baby girl. I’m sure she’ll be as beautiful as her mother.”

  “That’s out of line, dad,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “What?” He looked at me innocently. “What did I say that was out of line?”

  I shook my head, trying my best to contain the fury that was burning my insides and remain calm. “I think we’ve heard enough of this story. I need you to leave before I’m forced to call the police.”

  “Son, come on. Be reasonable. I really do regret a lot of things I’ve done in my life. In the last few years of being in hiding and pretending to be someone else, I realized how much I missed my family. I may not really have prostate cancer, but I don’t think I have many good years left in my life. I don’t want to leave this world alone and full of regrets. Please. I just want a chance to make amends here.”

  For a brief moment, I felt a flicker of sympathy for this man. He had definitely aged since the last time I’d seen him. He looked feeble and worn down by life. And during that brief moment, a part of me wanted to believe what my father was saying—that he really was sorry for everything he’d put m
e and Chloe through when he schemed, tricked, and lied to keep us apart.

  But as soon as that moment had passed, I knew I wasn’t ready to believe that he had changed. And even if he had, I wasn’t sure I was ready to forgive him. Seeing him tonight brought back many buried feelings of anger, and I realized I hadn’t let go of all the pain he had caused.

  “I’m not ready to forgive you, dad. I’m not ready to trust you or to include you in my life. And I’m certainly not ready to include you in Chloe’s or our daughter’s life.”

  “Could we just take it slow? Maybe one day at a time? I can maybe come visit every week? Or we can grab lunch somewhere and catch up? I want to hear about all your successes in life.”

  As early as I could remember, I always wanted my father’s approval. I excelled in classes, I excelled in sports, and I even joined his fraternity—all to make him proud and win his love. And now, he said he wanted to give me that approval that I used to work so hard for.

  But could we actually go back to the way we were again? I wasn’t sure we could. We couldn’t go back in time. What was done was done. What happened had happened. You could superglue a shattered mug back together again, but every last crack from when it shattered was still there and would always be there.

  “I’m sorry, dad,” I finally said as I got up from the couch, ready to escort him out of the house. “I’m just not ready to have you back in my life, and I’m not sure if and when I will be ready.”

  Instead of arguing with me, to my surprise, he got up from his seat and nodded solemnly. “Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be around. I’ve decided to stay in the area. I got myself a small apartment in town. I gave Chloe my contact information if you ever want to meet up.”

  “Okay. Bye, Dad.” I had no more words to say to him at that point.

  As I closed the door behind him, I felt torn inside. I wasn’t sure what to think anymore. Had he really changed? Was he now the father I’d always wanted him to be? Was he someone I could trust to be in my life again?

  CHAPTER NINE