Gone Too Far (6 page)

Julia was not a stupid woman. She knew that Carter didn't love her, but she wanted to be a Chase, and the opportunities that could open for her through Carter were more than enough to overcome the inconvenience of the affair he and Avery began last year. Carter had ended it with Julia once he thought that he and Avery were going to be together again, but then Anthony's accident changed everything.

In a fit of rage, Carter thought of a way to hurt Avery the most. He proposed to Julia as part of an overall plan that was supposed to end with him taking Connor away from Avery. He hadn't been able to bring himself to that yet, because, despite trying desperately, he still felt something for Avery that prevented him from hurting her to that degree.

“I have tried,” Julia said, shaking her head. “I have tried to make you love me, make you forget about Avery, but you won't.”

“Avery is the mother of my daughter,” Carter said. “But I'm marrying you.”

“But you love her.” Julia's voice sounded as if she was on the verge of tears.

Carter was not in the mood for another self-pity session. “I don't want to talk about her!”

“Do you think I do?” Julia asked desperately. “How can I ignore her when I see you look right through me whenever she is around?”

“You're getting what you want,” Carter shouted as he shot up from the bed. He zipped his pants back up, looking down at her. “Let's not fool each other, Julia. You want me more for what I can give you access to than my heart.”

Julia's expression flattened. “I want it all, Carter. Is that so wrong?”

Carter turned his back to her, headed for his balcony. “No one gets it all, Julia.”

Carter welcomed the fresh air as he stepped out onto his balcony. He wondered how he was going to manage this. He didn't love Julia, but love had ripped him to shreds. He wasn't going to let it do that again. He had always assumed that he would find someone to share a life with, because he wanted what his parents had. Whatever their faults, Janet and Steven had shown their children, through example, what a loving marriage was. But after Avery, Carter had just come to accept that this kind of love was very rare, and it wasn't going to happen for him.

It hurt just to think of how foolish he was to believe that he and Avery could stay as happy forever as they were for that short time. He was filled with regret and was sick to his stomach playing over and over in his mind whether or not every step he made was right or wrong and what could have been if he'd chosen differently. He had admitted to all his missteps, his lies and deceptions. None of it mattered. She still left him, and he doubted that she ever really loved him.

 

That morning, Avery was just closing a deal with a customer for a Nubian princess sculpture created by a seventeen-year-old artist from Compton when Carter walked in. He had that all-too-familiar look of contempt on his face as he darted right for her. She quickly thanked the customer and promised to have the piece delivered in two days. Carter had done this before, stormed into Hue, the art gallery owned by Avery's mother, Nikki, and interrupted Avery with some gripe or another. He never cared that there were customers around.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as soon as he reached the counter.

Avery noted the $5,000 gray suit he was wearing. “You came all the way down here from L.A. to ask me why I'm here? I work here, Carter.”

“Not on Tuesdays,” he said. “I've been calling your cell phone for two hours.”

Avery reached into the back pocket of her jeans, expecting to find her cell phone, but it wasn't there. “I must have left it in my purse in the back room. What's wrong? Is it Connor?”

“How in the hell would I know?” Carter asked loudly. “I'm frantic wondering what is going on with my daughter, and—”

“Our daughter,” she corrected. “And she's with my mother.”

“I found that out,” Carter said, “after I called her. Dammit, Avery. You don't work on Tuesdays. You're supposed to be taking care of OUR daughter.”

“For your information,” she replied, “I am always taking care of our daughter. I told you two weeks ago that with the ethnic art festival in L.A. this week, we were going to get extra traffic and I would have to work extra hours.”

“And I told you no.”

Avery's eyes closed to almost slits. “I wasn't asking for your permission. I was telling you so you would know.”

“Your mother can't take care of Connor the way she needs,” Carter said.

Avery laughed. “You're ridiculous. My mother raised three children perfectly fine.”

“Yes, but she's taking care of your father. She can't watch a baby and a sick husband at the same time.”

“You're really reaching now,” Avery said. “My father is just fine now. He doesn't need any extra care at all.”

Avery's father, Charlie Jackson, was the police chief of View Park. One evening, while out for dinner with Avery's brother, Sean, they came across a group of kids trying to steal a car. Charlie was shot twice in the stomach and almost died. It was this emergency that made Avery come out of hiding in Miami, where she had gone to keep her pregnancy a secret from Carter, and return to View Park with Anthony, thus letting her secret out. Although he was not fit enough to return to the force, he had recovered nicely and was doing fine.

“I'm stretching?” Carter asked, fuming. “The only thing that I'm stretching is how long I'm going to let you keep our daughter if you keep handing her off to other people.”

Avery rushed around the counter to come face-to-face with him. “Don't you dare threaten me! I don't pawn her off on anyone. Nikki is her grandmother!”

“Well, she may be Connor's grandmother, but she's acting like a better mother to her than you!”

Carter didn't have a second to think before he felt Avery's hand slap against his cheek like a cold whip. He blinked at the burn before locking his bright hazel eyes with Avery's large and raging ones. His entire body lit on fire, and without thinking, he grabbed her by her upper arms and pulled her to him.

When his mouth came down on hers, Avery was shocked. She was so filled with rage that to have it mixed so unexpectedly with desire was a jolt to her system. But only for a second because as soon as she felt his strong lips against hers, Avery experienced a ferocious pull in her gut that set her body on fire. His kiss was hard and demanding, and her body melted into his as she received it, feeling the longing inside her awaken at rapid speed. The intensity of so much anger and passion sparked an all-consuming craving.

The taste of her lips was so good to Carter that it was painful. It had been so long since he tasted them, but it had not been long since he'd dreamed of tasting them. There was something about her mouth that made him want more and more. He aggressively drew her even closer to him and drank up her sweet taste that sent electric waves through his body.

“No,” Carter said in a tortured whisper as he pushed her away. He was so angry with himself for being so damn weak when it came to this woman. How could he hate her so much but within seconds want nothing more than to touch her, kiss her, and be inside her? What was she doing to him? What was this power she had?

“This isn't going to work,” he said, trying to catch his out-of-control breath.

Avery was too stunned to even think or focus. Her entire body was like a volcano, and all she could think was that she wanted him, needed him, more. “What isn't…What…What won't work?”

“You're not going to seduce me,” Carter said, finally able to look her in the face. How is it that a man who had spent his life controlling his feelings for women easily could have absolutely no control over himself when this woman was near?

“I wasn't trying to seduce you!” Avery's anger at his audacity brought her senses back. “You arrogant jerk! You kissed me.”

“You knew that was going to happen,” Carter accused. “Every time you slap me, we end up kissing or making love. You know the effect you—”

“What?” Avery asked. “The effect I have on you? That's my fault? And what effect would that be, Carter? To make you want me and then hate me?”

“How is that different from how you feel about me?” Carter took a step back, because while his mind was in control, his body still wanted her.

“I don't hate you, Carter.” Avery sighed, looking him in the eyes. “I love you. I'm sorry that we couldn't—”

“Don't show me your pity,” he exclaimed. “Don't tell me how sorry you are that you couldn't love me enough.”

“I can't do this again,” she said. “I can't keep explaining to you that my choice wasn't about how much I love you.”

“Don't waste your time,” Carter said, feeling the resentment boiling inside of him. “Quote your scriptures to yourself. If you really loved me, you would have chosen me.”

Avery tried to control her emotions, feeling tears begin to creep into her eyes. She had cried so many nights over this, but she couldn't let him see her do it. Not anymore. “I did love you, Carter. I still do, but I—”

“Bullshit,” he responded, and was gratified with the angry expression that took over Avery in response to his dismissal of her feelings. He wasn't going to be her fool again. “It's not going to work anymore. If you insist on neglecting MY daughter in favor of everything else, I'll see to it that you don't have that choice anymore.”

As he stormed out of the gallery, Avery let herself go and tears began streaming down her face. She ran behind the counter to grab a Kleenex and push the bell that rang in the back room, asking for help at the counter. Her coworker was on break, but Avery had to get some air. She knew what Carter meant by taking away “that” choice. He meant taking away her custody, and there was nothing that Avery feared more in this world.

 

“You're doing a great job, Darryl.” Leigh was warmed by the proud smile of the twelve-year-old boy sitting on the patient's table in room 5 of Hope Clinic in South Central Los Angeles.

“I feel good.” Darryl's dark brown face lit up, showing his bright white teeth. “I was outside playing for like five hours yesterday.”

Leigh looked at Aliyah, Darryl's thirty-year-old mother, sitting in a chair a few feet away. Aliyah shook her head with a laugh.

“It was only two hours,” she said. “And not more than that.”

“I'm sure it felt like five hours,” Leigh said as she turned back to Darryl.

Four months ago, the diabetic preteen showed up at Hope Clinic very weak. The normally active boy broke into an exhaustive sweat after only twenty minutes of activity. After years of struggling, Aliyah had finally gotten off of welfare and was working as a part-time receptionist at a veterinary clinic. Unfortunately, the new job didn't include health insurance, so she came to the clinic.

Leigh diagnosed him easily. A drug he had been taking to manage his diabetes had turned on his kidneys and was damaging them. They were degrading fast, and if he hadn't come to her when he had, they would have likely failed. There was no way Aliyah would have ever been able to afford dialysis, which is what he would have needed to stay alive.

However, switching his medications, Leigh was able to stop the damage, and his kidney filtration rate was back to normal. It was the minimum of normal, but he was on his way. It was such a small change but meant the difference between life and death, and this was what Leigh lived for.

“Two hours sounds good,” Leigh said, “but you want to take it slow. Your mom will tell me if you don't.”

“I will.” Darryl had a light in his youthful eyes that had recently returned after months of having the dimming eyes of an old man.

Leigh looked around the makeshift medical room, separated from the other rooms by partitions. The closed rooms were reserved for patients with much more personal health issues, such as HIV or pregnancy.

“I don't see my prescription pad anywhere.” She placed her hand gently on Darryl's knee. “You get your shirt back on and I'll go find the pad so I can write you a new prescription. I'll be back in five minutes.”

Leigh winked at Aliyah as she walked by her and was satisfied with the appreciative smile. Aliyah was like many girls in her neighborhood who had gotten pregnant too young, but unlike so many of the young girls in her neighborhood, she wasn't satisfied with the life she was living. She wanted more for herself and for her son and had struggled to get it. She was a great mom in a world that made it real hard to be one. Mothers like her needed this health insurance bill Leigh was fighting for.

Leigh quickly made her way to the front lobby of the clinic, where she was confronted with a roomful of waiting patients. This always reminded her that she had to open up that third clinic quickly. Both Hope Clinics were always full to the brim, and Leigh and the doctors and nurses on her payroll had only so much time.

“I'll be ready in a second,” Leigh said to Lauren, the receptionist. “Do you have an extra prescription pad?”

“They're locked up,” Lauren said as she reached into the top drawer of her desk for her keys. “You've been here since five in the morning, and you're going to act like you don't see this?”

“What?” Leigh, who had been surveying the patients' sign-in sheet on the desk, looked up. The second she did, she realized what Lauren was talking about.

It was an enormous bouquet of flowers that Leigh recognized as very expensive lilies of the valley and Casablancas. Casablanca lilies were her favorite.

“There is no—” Before Leigh could finish her sentence, Lauren handed her a small, pink-colored, petal-shaped envelope. “Did you read it as well?”

“Since when did you start dating Senator Cody?” Lauren didn't bother to whisper, which caught the attention of several in the waiting room.

“I'm not dating him,” Leigh responded loudly. “I barely even know him.”