Chapter 9
I walked out of the room and found Ralph pacing back and forth, shooting worried glances at the door once in a while. He rushed to me when he finally noticed me watching him.
“How is she?” he asked sounding so much like a worried husband.
“She’s alright but she is scared. She doesn’t know what she’ll do if it turns out to be true.” I replied sounding much like the doctor I wanted to be. “She wants to be alone until she can be sure of her condition.” I said when he was about to enter the room. “Why don’t you go somewhere? Do something to get your mind off of things.” I suggested. “Go, I promise I will call you if anything comes up.” I said as he was about to protest.
“Promise you’ll call?” he asked.
“Yes, I promise. Now go.” I assured him. With a final longing look at the door he turned and left. I headed towards Troy and mine’s room once I was sure Ralph had left. I slipped into the room quietly to make sure that I wouldn’t wake my husband up. I smiled at the sight before me once I closed the door. Troy was sprawled on the bed; the blanket on top of his body barely covered anything. I went over to the bed and tucked him in gently. I sat on the bed and caressed his sleeping face.
In a sudden movement he had me locked in his embrace with no chance of escape as his lips crushed down on mine in a fierce kiss. I smiled through the kiss as my arms went to my back to unlock his hold on me. He let go when he felt me touch his hands and settled on resting his hands on my hips. He finally pulled away from our kiss when he felt his lungs burn for air; he rested his forehead on mine and looked straight into my eyes with a mischievous smile on his face.
“You’re back.” He said.
“I needed to get a few things.” I replied.
“And here I thought you came back because you already missed me.” He pouted.
“Go back to sleep.” I said.
“Not without you.” He whispered huskily. His arms once again found their place on my back and pulled me closer towards him. He captured my lips in a longing kiss, his lips soft and moving gently against my own. I put restraining hands on his shoulders and pulled back.
“Troy.” I said sternly “I have to go back to Jess.”
“Fine, one more kiss. Please?” he asked. I smiled at him. I took the initiative and kissed him lovingly, not stopping until we were both out of breath.
“Can I go now?” I asked him afterwards. He just smiled at me but let me go. “Go back to sleep okay? We’re going to have a long night.” I said, with a wink as I got up from the bed. He grinned at me. I walked towards the closet and took out my med kit.
“So you’re going to check?” he asked as I walked to the door.
“Yes, just to make sure. It could be Marc’s.” I said.
“Marc’s?” he questioned.
“It’s a long story.” I replied “I’ll tell you later. Go back to sleep. You’re going to need your strength.” I said with a devious smirk then I left the room.
I went straight to Ralph’s room and knocked on the door. When no one answered, I walked in to find Jessica sleeping fitfully on the bed, her face scrunched up in what seemed like pain.
“Jess, are you alright?” I asked. She grunted in response and then I knew what was wrong. “Jess, can you tolerate the pain for just a few minutes?” I asked she nodded weakly. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” I said as I helped her up.
A few minutes later she was laying back on the bed, curled up, her hands on her stomach. “It was all just guilt.” I said “You know it was only because you couldn’t stop thinking about it and the consequences that would happen if someone found out. But all you really needed to do was talk to someone you can trust.” I told her. “Go back to sleep. Take these.” I said as I handed her pills to lessen the pain. “You still have to talk to Marc and then you can think what you’ll do about Ralph, okay? But for now, you should rest.” She didn’t respond then I looked at her. She was already asleep but I knew she heard what I said.
I stood up and walked back to my room. As I passed by Marc’s room, I heard a muffled thud and a feminine voice saying, “Oops!”
I recognized the voice as Bea’s and I knew that was my cue. I quickly and quietly slipped back into my room and took the phone where I had left it at the bedside table earlier. I went to the balcony, hid Troy’s number and then called Marc. I heard the phone ring in the other room. Marc let it ring three times as the number wasn’t registered on his phone. He finally picked up.
“Hello?” he answered the phone.
“M-m-marc?” I said; my voice soft and squeaky.
“Hello? Who is this?” he asked again. “Can you please speak up?”
“I-it’s Christina.” I answered in a frightened voice.
“Who is this? Wait a second; I’ll put you on speaker.” He said then there was a moment of pause. Then he came back on. “Who’s this again?” he asked.
“Marc, can you hear me now?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“Yes, I can hear you. Now can you please tell me who you are?” he asked.
“It’s Christina, you know, Jake’s sister. We met at his party about two months ago.” I replied.
“Oh! So how are you? I hope you don’t mind that I brought you up to your room that night. You were just too drunk to stay on your feet.” He said.
“I actually called to say thank you and that we have a problem.” I said as I started to sob on the phone.
“Wait, ‘we’? How can ‘we’ have a problem?” he asked utterly confused.
“Before I tell you I have to know what else you did to me when you brought me up to my room because I really don’t remember anything about that night.” I said as my sobs grew louder.
“I didn’t do anything to you except put you on the bed. You can ask Ally if you want to make sure she was also there.” He replied.
“I did ask her. That’s how I got your number. I asked her for it then she told me that she left my room before you did and you didn’t go back to your car until after a half hour.”
“That’s true but only because your brother wanted to speak to me. He said thank you for bringing you home and we spoke about some other guy things.” Marc replied suddenly unsure of his own explanation as to why he was late.
“Well if you’re telling me the truth then how come I’m…?” I trailed off as sobs started shaking my frame.
“What’s wrong? I know I’m telling the truth and what was the problem you told me about?” he asked.
“M-m-marc… I’m pregnant and you’re the only one that I know of in the past two months that has been alone with me in a room.” I said feigning a desperate attempt to calm myself down. As the words slipped past my lips I found an angry Troy looking at me with a murderous glint in his eyes. I held a hand up in defense, pointed to the phone then to the adjoining balcony. He didn’t understand my signal and his forehead creased in confusion.
“WHAT???” a scream from the room and the phone startled both of us. When Troy finally recognized the voice he understood. “Y-y-you’re what? You can’t be? Are you sure? B-b-but how…?” Marc trailed off and Troy had to put a fist in his mouth to contain his laughter. I turned away from him to keep myself from laughing into the phone.
“M-m-marc?” I whispered into the phone, my voice shaky and uneasy. I took a deep breath that sounded like I had to calm myself down, but actually it was to stop me from snickering at my husband’s stifled laughter. “I-I-it’s true.” I said, feigning another frightened voice. “I-I’m pregnant and you’re the father.” I finished. A look of intense jealousy and possessiveness passed through Troy’s handsome features and he grabbed the phone from my hand eager to end the talk.
“You bastard! How dare you touch her?” he screamed into the phone. “It had to be you of all people, Marc. I never expected this from you. How could you take my sister’s innocence from her?” he said with a regretful sigh. “I trusted you with her and this is what you do?” he said, taking another calming breath. “What’s done is done; we can’t do anything about it anymore. But, you have to do something about this Marc; you know my father and he will not be happy about it. I will not let my future niece or nephew grow up without a father and I will not let my sister kill this child. You both had a choice, you chose and now you have to face the consequences.” Troy finished.
“B-but…” Marc started to argue but Troy cut him off.
“Please, just don’t try to say anything. I can’t talk to you right now Marc. I’m sorry, bye.” Troy finally ended the call. He sighed tiredly before reaching out to me and pulling me into a passion-filled kiss. His arms locked behind me possessively as his lips moved against mine gently, my arms around his neck. We pulled apart when we heard another voice from the other room.
“How dare you?” the voice asked. “Y-y-you told me that you were just going to drop Lexi home. And I can’t believe I actually believed you.” Then she laughed a hollow laugh. Bea’s voice cracked, the next time she spoke. “I-I… there’s nothing more to say.” She said then we heard her footsteps as she ran to the door. Another set of heavier footsteps was heard and then nothing. A resounding slap echoed off the walls of the room and carried on to the next.
“Don’t touch me,” were the only words that came out of her mouth. Her voice shook as she cried. The door to their bedroom opened and Bea rushed in, her head bent over as she tried hiding her tears through the curtain of her brownish-red locks. I pulled away from Troy and rushed to her but because she wasn’t looking at where she was going, she barrelled right at me and we both fell over and landed on the bed with a thump. The breath was knocked out of me when her body fell right on top of me. She quickly rolled over to the side when she heard me gasp for air then held on to me for dear life. I heard heavy footsteps come from the other room and then followed by a soft voice,
“Bea.” Marc said his voice hoarse. Troy’s head snapped to the door after he looked at the pitiful sight on the bed. He threw murderous glares at Marc, obviously concerned for his ‘baby sister’s’ well-being.
“What did you do?” Troy asked his voice laced with venom. He stared at Marc who was merely standing on the door staring at Bea with a forlorn gaze. “What did you do?” Troy asked once more when Marc didn’t answer, his voice raised if only to some degree.
