Chapter 17
“He also said in his letters how he had to take Precious out of the house when Mindy had her episodes. I never understood why he would go to Mom’s for a week or two at a time. He would say Mindy had a headache or Mindy had a huge project for work so she needed quiet to focus so he would take her to our mother’s. We think he was protecting Precious from Mindy’s temper.”
She shook her head, “it’s possible but she was still her mom.”
“But biologically you are.”
She nodded, “she might have part of my DNA, but she was their child.”
“It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted you to be her mother.”
She didn’t know what to say.
“My mother wants to meet you, Famke. She wants to meet the woman who gave selflessly of herself to provide a child to her son.”
She looked away, “why?”
“We need you, Famke.”
“What exactly do you need from me. You keep saying Precious needs a mother and you tell me how you want me to take care of her but what does this entail? How will this work? My life is here. Are you going to give up Wall Street to come here?”
“No.”
“You expect me to move to New York.”
“Yes.”
“I have a life here.”
“I can give you a better one in New York.”
She shook her head. “My brother.”
“Can finish his school year in New York as easily as he can here.”
“You want me to move my brother to another state because you have a misguided sense of duty to your brother who is deceased.” She was angry, “he has a career path here. He has a company ready to offer him his apprenticeship for his course in community college.”
1/3
“I can find another company to take him. If he needs to be part of your life,” he flinched when she smacked at him.
“If? If he needs to be part of my life? How is it working for you not having your brother in your life?”
He held his hands up in surrender, “okay, then he comes and lives with us.”
She pulled her head back in surprise, “with us?”
“Yes. You will move into my house with me and Precious.” He cut off the rant he was about to hear, “and your brother too. Look, my place is huge.”
“Ooo,” she waved her hands as if she were supposed to be impressed. “How exciting. Did you think I was going to jump at the offer of a big house?”
“No,” he snapped finally. “I thought you would jump at the offer to be a mother to a child you gave away. I thought you would want this.”
“Did it even once occur to you what you are doing to me?” She felt the anger boiling under her skin. “The wounds you are reopening. The pain you are causing me?”
“No.” He was blunt in his answer.
“No?”
“No. No matter what, I saw the way you looked at her when I carried her into the coffee shop. The longing and the recognition. You talk about all the pain, but you know, as well as I do, you need your daughter as much as she needs her mother and being with her will ease the pain of their betrayal.” He reached out a hand and tilted her chin, “I know you’re angry with me. I understand you feel I’m upsetting your entire life, but I believe, to the depths of my soul, my brother wasn’t wrong. You were meant to be the mother of his daughter.”
“Its not fair,” she whimpered. “You’re making me want things I never dreamed.”
“I know.” He spoke lowly, “I can’t do this on my own, Famke. I need help. My mother and father are in their sixties and while they are young, they don’t have the energy a five-year-old needs. My sister just got into law school in Boston. My cousins all have families of their own but really, letting anyone else raise my brother’s daughter isn’t in me. He entrusted her to me. I’m smart enough to know I need you to help me.”
“Why me?” she shook her head. “You could hire a nanny.”
“Because of his letters,” he said simply. “Despite you telling me you didn’t love him, he loved you. He trusted you. I know, deep in here,” he thumped his chest, “if I could have one more conversation with him, he would tell me I’m doing the right thing by insisting you be part of this.”
“I don’t want to.”
2/3
“I think you’re lying to yourself.” He ruffled his hair with his fingers as if he were struggling to keep them to himself. “One weekend.”
“What?”
“Give us one weekend. Stay with us one weekend. Come to New York for the weekend and if you find you really, truly do not want to be her mother, I will bring you back and never bother you with the request again.”
She took a breath.
“Your brother is done school for the semester. Come back with me, the pair of you. Please.” He took a breath. “I’m not above begging. Please, Famke. One weekend.”
She cursed her inability to refuse a person in need as she gave a single nod. “One weekend. If I hate New York, I want to come home right away.”
He laughed, “nobody hates New York.”
She stood up, “there’s one thing you have to do.”
“What’s that?”
“I had three shifts Friday, Saturday and Sunday working here. You need to be the one to tell Keshaun I can’t work my shifts and,” she pointed at him, “you need to cover my lost wages.”
“Done.”
He surprised her when he pulled her in for a hug, holding her tight in his arms. She froze, her hands at her sides as he squeezed her. Crazy flashes of the dreams she’d been having almost had her lips pursed to kiss the chest right near her face and she panicked and pulled away from him.
“Right. I need to get back to work.” She turned and bolted out of the office. What the hell had she agreed
to?
