Accidental Lovers (The Accidental Series, Book 3) (14 page)

“
So you took
Jackie at her word?”

“
Yes, at first I
did. When I saw how upset she was, I knew she was telling the
truth. But just for proof, I decided to request a copy of your
birth certificate to confirm what she’d told me.”

“
And?”

“
And it’s true,
Carter.”

Was he happy or
angry? He didn’t know. There was a stew of emotions tearing up his
insides and he wasn’t sure what to do about them.

“
Where is it?” he
asked her.

“The birth
certificate?”

“
Yes. Where is
it?”

Shayla stood up,
walked over to where her purse sat on the dresser and took out a
folded piece of paper. Turning to him, slowly walking in his
direction, she said, “Um...there’s something else I should tell you
before you see this.”

Carter sat
expressionless and emotionless. Had he even heard her? He was so
shocked, he couldn’t move. Couldn’t feel.

“
Um…your
father—”

“
Let me guess…he’s
alive, too.”

“
Yes. He is.
Um…his name is Christopher.”

Carter frowned and
immediately looked up at her. “Christopher who?”

“
Christopher
Fargus.”

Carter shook his
head, and let out a very uncomfortable chuckle. “I’m supposed to
believe that Jackie is my mother and Chip Fargus, the C.E.O. of the
largest bank in the country, is my father?”

Shayla handed him
the birth certificate and watched his hands tremble as he stared at
the truth. His lips quivered. “How long have you known
this?”

“
She told me last
weekend.”

“
This can’t be
true...it can’t be. I work with this guy...just had a meeting with
him and a few other managers last week.”

“Did he say anything to
you?”

“
He just
spoke…like he normally does, and got right down to business.”
Carter sighed again, then said, “C’mon. Let’s go.” He stood up from
the bed, slid his legs in a pair of jeans and threw a shirt over
his head.

“Where are we
going?”

“
To her house.” He
sat and put on a pair of Nikes.

“Carter, it’s after
midnight.”

“I could care less about
the time.”

“Okay, well are you sure
you want me to go with you, because—”

“
Positive.”

“Carter—”

“
I need you with
me, Shayla,” he told her. He appeared flustered, as anyone would be
who believed their parents were deceased and found out that both of
them were still very much alive.

“
Okay.” Shayla
stood, found some jeans, a T-shirt and a cardigan, then hurried to
put her shoes on.

Chapter 24

Carter banged on
the door when they arrived at Jacqueline’s house. It was close to
one in the morning so she was probably in bed, which is why he
knocked so hard. If she was sleeping, she had to get up now. If she
didn’t, Carter would knock the door smooth off the hinges, because
there was no way he was leaving this house without talking to her.
No way.

He knocked again,
louder than before, and then saw the living room light illuminate
the curtains hanging at windows. Finally.

“Who is it?” Jacqueline
asked behind the closed door.

“
It’s Carter and
Shayla.”

Jacqueline threw
her right hand over her heart because she knew what this meant.
Carter and Shayla showing up at her house in the wee hours of the
morning meant only one thing – Shayla told him.

After tightening
the belt around her robe then retying it, Jacqueline opened the
door, already in tears.

Carter, wasting no
time, held the birth certificate out in front of him and asked, “Is
this true?”

Jacqueline wiped
her eyes and said, “Carter, I’m so sorry.”

“
Is this true,” he
repeated.

Jacqueline sniffled,
dabbed her eyes with the back of her hand and said, “Yes, son. It’s
true.”

“
Wow,” he said,
not in an excited way, but more along the lines of
I-can’t-believe-I’ve-been-lied-to-my-whole-life kind of way. And
the fact he was standing in front of her, could feel some sort of
bond with her, and see some of his features in her made the whole
ordeal seem surreal. “Why didn’t you just tell me? Why keep this
from me after all these years?”

Jacqueline opened the
door wider and Carter, letting Shayla pass ahead of him, walked in
the house and sat on the couch.

“
I didn’t want to
hurt anybody,” Jacqueline replied, sitting in a chair opposite of
them. “I thought when Lenora died, the truth would come out, but it
didn’t and I didn’t want to tell you, Carter, especially since you
thought you’d buried your mother.”

Carter released a sigh
and Shayla held on to his hand, assuring him of her support.

An hour or so
later, Jacqueline had finished up telling him everything that had
happened when he was a child – how Lenora didn’t want to give him
back. She even went into details about his father, Christopher, and
how they met at a concert, fell in love and how, when she got into
trouble with the law, Christopher had left her. Said it wouldn’t
look good for his career path and goals in life to be attached to a
woman with a shady background. She then explained to Carter that
she and his father were starting to talk again and over lunch last
week, Christopher told her that he wanted to tell Carter he was his
father, but she told him to wait.

Jacob
was right all along
, Carter
thought. Standing up, he said, “I can’t believe this…going to take
some time to sink in.”

Jacqueline stood,
too. “I know you probably hate me—”

“I don’t hate you,
Jackie.”

Jacqueline looked
relieved. “I just want you to know that I love you very much. I
always have.”

Carter lips
trembled. He was trying to hold everything inside, like men
typically do, but when he heard her say those words, he broke down.
He could never recall an instance when Lenora said those words to
him.

Tears sprang from
Shayla’s eyes when she saw Carter upset to the point of tears. She
stood up, wrapped her arms around him, telling him that everything
was okay.

Carter collected
himself, cleared his throat then said, to Jacqueline, “Lenora never
said that to me…she never told me she loved me. She gave me things,
left me all her money, but she never told me she loved me. I didn’t
know what love was until I met Shayla.” He held Shayla’s hand tight
as she stood next to him. “You were supposed to teach me that,
Jackie.”

“I know, Carter. I’m
sorry.”

In a move that
surprised and impressed Shayla, Carter walked up to Jacqueline and
embraced her warmly in his grasp, squeezing and not wanting to let
her go. Finally, his life was beginning to make sense, even if it
was happening too late.

“
I love you so
much, son,” Jacqueline said crying while his arms were still locked
in place around her.

“I love you too,
Mother.”

Shayla, standing
nearby watched them embrace with a smile on her face and tears in
her eyes, happy for Carter and his family, and that things were
finally starting to make sense for him.

Carter and
Jacqueline separated and he stared at her, seeing himself in her
eyes. “You look like me,” he told her, then chuckled.

“I think that’s the
other way around, Carter,” Shayla said, smiling.

“Right,” he replied.

“
Thank you for
telling him, Shayla,” Jacqueline said, “Because I don’t know if I
would’ve had the guts to do it.”

Shayla smiled.
“You’re welcome. I know I was getting a little irate with you over
it for a minute there, but I love Carter so much and I wanted him
to know.”

Carter looked at
Shayla and smiled, feeling his heart skips beats at the happiness
she’d brought to his life. Where would he be without this woman?
He’d probably still be a playboy bachelor, clubbing it up with
Terrance every other night, wining and dining women who had no
interest in and he definitely wouldn’t know his parents were alive.
Diverting his attention back to Jacqueline, he said, “Well, we need
to let you get your sleep.”

“I’m too excited to
sleep, now,” Jacqueline admitted.

“
Me too,” Carter
said, “But we’ll pick this up tomorrow. We still need to talk about
my father.”

“Yes, of course.”

Jacqueline hugged them
both again before they left.

Chapter 25

“
So that wasn’t so
bad, huh?” Shayla asked.

Carter shifted the
car in reverse, backed out of the driveway and said, “No. Not at
all. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.”

Driving down the
road, he turned to look at her, several times, watching her briefly
then glancing back at the road. The look of satisfaction on her
face spoke volumes in terms of her love for him. She did this for
him, even against Jacqueline’s wishes she told Carter things she
felt he needed to know. What woman had ever gone to greater lengths
to make him happy?

He glanced at her
again, feeling a swell of elation in his heart that she was his
woman, reflecting back on his life with her – how he found her.
Homeless. Jobless. Dirty and fraile. How he stayed with her in the
hospital. Brought clothes for her. Took her to his home the day she
was discharged from the hospital. Cared for her. Made sure she took
her medicine. Gave her his car. Opened a bank account for her.
Nursed her back to help. Took her to therapy. Helped her find a
job, get back on her feet. He was foolish to let her go, once, but
quickly fixed that error by making her his wife. And even after all
the things he’d done for her, what she’d done for him far
outweighed it all. She brought his mother back into his life. She
found out his father was still alive. And above all else, she loved
him.

At home now,
Carter kissed and pulled on her lips with his, and while they made
love, he thought about all the things she’d done for him. When they
first met, he saved her, but after their journey together, he
realized she was the one who saved him. They saved each
other.

Holding her
quietly against his chest now, their bodies relaxed, he ran his
fingers through her hair and said, “I’m in love with you,
Shayla.”

Shayla smiled, tired and
sleepy but said, “I’m in love with you, Carter.”

“
You are the
reason my life is turning out the way it should be. I don’t care if
it was an accident how we found each other or not...doesn’t make a
different to me.”

“What you talking about,
Carter?”

“
A while ago, you
said our marriage was an accident.”

“I was upset when I said
that.”

“
Yeah, but it was
on your mind, otherwise, you wouldn’t have said it, right? So let
me put your mind at ease, darling. Think about this for a
minute…had I not stopped that day I found you and helped you, I
wouldn’t even know any of this stuff about my family. I think about
that constantly…how I wasn’t supposed to park where I parked that
day…wasn’t supposed to take that walk to my office and wasn’t
supposed to even stop and help you because truthfully, I never do
things like that. But I stopped, fell in love with you, married you
and you have truly changed my life, Shayla.”

Shayla kissed his chest
then rested her head against him again, feeling satisfied and happy
that she was able to do these things for him.

“
You reintroduced
me to Jackie, who I now know is my birth mother. You gave me some
insight into Jacob’s death, and you even found out that my father
is still alive. And you know what the truly amazing thing is to
me?”

“What’s that?”

“
You didn’t have
to do any of those things…but you did because you love
me.”

A big smile grew
on Shayla’s face. “Yes, I do. As a matter of fact, I love you so
much, that I called your father’s secretary, left a message with
her to have him call me and he called me yesterday.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“It’s difficult to get
the C.E.O. of one of the largest corporations in the country on the
phone. How did you manage to do that?”

“
Easy. I told his
secretary to tell him I was married to his
son
and wanted
to arrange a meeting. Not even five minutes had gone by before he
called me back, almost in tears. Said he wanted to tell you that he
was your father after working with you for so long. I invited him
over Tuesday night. I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah...it’s cool. If
you thought I was being rough on your father, wait ‘til you see
what I do to mine.”

Shayla giggled.
“Speaking of my father, you know he’s leaving in the morning. We
should get up early and have breakfast with him.”

“
Yeah, we can.”
Carter glanced at the clock. “We only have a few hours before we
gotta get up, though.”

“Uh huh...like our
honeymoon night. Remember we stayed up extremely late?”

“Yep.”

“Then we had breakfast
with Kaitlin and Russell...wonder how they’re doing?”

“Didn’t you exchange
numbers with her?”