Was it Good for You Too? (15 page)

“You mean any more than you already have?” Tailan countered.

He chuckled and approached her. “I just feel that if I don't, I could lose you again.”

She moved out of his reach, causing him no small amount of frustration.

“We're going to deal with this right now,” he snapped. “I don't care if you respond or not but you sure as hell are going to listen,
Tailan Song
.”

The use of her full name did the trick. Her entire body went into battle mode.

“I worked my ass off for us!” he said. “Everything I did was for
you
and me.”

The tension and anger was coming off her in blasts. He stepped closer, letting his size crowd her. “None of it mattered without you—not the fame, the money. The victories felt hollow, unfinished, without you there.”

After a few spells, her shoulders relaxed. “Gabrielle was never with you on all of those red carpets,” she whispered.

“Why would she be?” he bit out. “She hadn't earned the right to be there—
you
did.”

Tailan turned from him, and Delvin seized on the weakness. His voice softened. “
We
were together every night, sharing our dreams. When this acting thing landed in my lap and I was hesitant, it was you who encouraged me to go for it—not her—never her. She wasn't even part of the equation.”

His lips caressed the curve of her ear, and Tailan trembled at the contact.

“If it wasn't going to be you by my side, then it wasn't going to be anyone.”

Her minuscule nod filled Delvin with optimism. She eased away from him and over to the window. He joined her as they took in the Chicago skyline and traffic rushing along Michigan Avenue.

“I'm so confused right now,” she whispered.

“Then talk to me, Tai.” Delvin had to push her to the breaking point. He saw no other way to get her to open up and let him in. When she didn't say anything right away, he said, “All right, let's go there.”

“You know I wasn't serious when I said have a child by someone else,” she snapped, her chest heaving with indignation.

That's right, baby, get it out!

“I know that now,” he admitted as he tried—unsuccessfully—to pull her closer. “But you could've been a little clearer.”

“By the time we revisited the issue, Gabrielle was already pregnant!” She inched further away from him. “She knew the deal.”

“And unfortunately, so did her grimy family,” Delvin growled.

Tailan paced before him, then moved from the window. “What are you talking about?”

“Here's the quick and dirty,” Delvin started. “Gabrielle's mother learned of the arrangement and put in her two cents. Soon the whole family had added a dime, a nickel, quarter, and a fifty cent piece. Suddenly their
precious starlet
felt
duped
about entering into the contract when we both know she signed it faster than a New York minute because she wanted the money to advance her career.”

Gabrielle became unhinged after she drilled her claws into Delvin's influence, money, and notoriety. She went over the cliff with her ridiculous demands, her drama queen antics, and outrageous publicity stunts.

Her family had burrowed in deep as well. Gabrielle's mother literally ran shotgun over Delvin's entire household. By the time his daughter, Ariel, was born, the only place of peace was in the carriage house he'd had built where he spent his time alone or with Jason and Ariel.

Only five months ago did Delvin finally see a splash of sunlight in his otherwise dreary existence. Gabrielle fell in love with Paulo, a Brazilian artist. Their torrid affair was a blessing from above and the perfect vehicle to escape his farce of a marriage. He didn't have all the details, but he knew this much: Paulo demanded he and Gabrielle marry, but wanted no part of all of her excess baggage—i.e. two kids and a thirsty extended family. The minute it became convenient for Gabrielle not to have a husband or children in tow, Delvin was on the horn with his attorney, his publicist, and his agent. Their assignment was to get him divorced, get him permanent custody of his children, and spread the word of the amicable split.

Delvin saw the end of his long-suffering turn on its head until Paulo flipped the script again. Somewhere along the way, Paulo, unlike Delvin, had figured out that Gabrielle and her dysfunctional kinfolk were matching bookends. The man dumped her in a live interview on international television.

“I understand why you got hitched,” Tailan reasoned, snatching him away from the unpleasant memories. “What I don't get is why you stayed after your daughter was born.”

Delvin massaged his temples and took a seat on the arm of the sofa. He felt Tailan follow. “Ariel had medical issues soon after she was born. Before her first birthday, she had a tumor removed from her brain. The surgery went well, but there was a major complication.”

Tailan's cell rang, but she let the call go to voicemail, she leaned against the wall, waiting.

“When Ariel came out of her coma …” he whispered, the images of that day floating in his mind. “When she opened her eyes, the only person she recognized … was me.”

Delvin smiled, and Tai's expression softened.

“I couldn't leave my little girl,” he said. “Blood tie or no, I couldn't leave her because she needed me. And I sure as hell wasn't about to leave her to Gabrielle's maternal care.”

Tailan cringed.

“I told Gabrielle that I'd take custody of both children so she could focus on her career.”

“She must've felt like she'd hit the trifecta after that announcement,” Tailan cracked.

Delvin shook his head. “On the contrary. Once again she played lowdown and dirty. Gabrielle bragged quite often that making me as miserable as possible was her new career. And if I tried to leave her, she'd make it so I never saw the baby again.”

Tailan gasped, “That skank!”

“Yep, and a whole lot of other adjectives I could use,” he agreed.

“After all you did for her, for her son?”

“Tai, you don't know the half of it when it comes to Jason. If not for me and my love for that kid, Jason would most likely be in a mental ward.”

“What?!” she screeched.

Delvin nodded. “I learned how Jason found out about his mother. He was under the care of a family member who let it slip who his real mother was. He found Gabrielle that day she showed up with him at our house.” Delvin paced the area in front of the sofa. “I later learned that Gabrielle had paid a doctor to misdiagnosis Jason with a mental illness. She kept the boy pumped full of drugs. I snapped. It was the only time that Gabrielle got a real taste of exactly how I felt about her. She backed off and literally left the boy and our daughter in my care. She didn't give a damn about either one of them.” Delvin watched Tailan's reaction intensely. His next words would hurt. “I couldn't leave my kids, Tai. Not for you—not for anyone.”

She turned from him then, concealing the tears rising in her eyes.

“That's why keeping Ariel and Jason with me became my first priority,” he confessed. “Your words always echoed in my head.” Her head snapped his way. “Monsters are real, you used to always say. That truth compelled me to keep my children with me as much as possible. I accepted parts in movies that took me across the country or the globe, but they were always with me. My stomach would twist into knots at the idea of ever leaving them with strangers for too long.”

“What about Gabrielle?” Tailan asked. “Didn't she want to pimp them for publicity?”

“I put my foot down about that,” he replied, his anger fueling him. “Over time she cared less and less, so long as the rest of our lives remained the same.”

“Why didn't you just keep them overseas?”

Delvin stretched out his hand and waited. After a moment she accepted it, and he slid down the arm of the sofa beside her. “Jason's not my biological son. At first, Gabrielle refused to let me legally adopt him—another way to ensure I remained miserable. Then when Paulo laid down his demands, she couldn't get rid of me and the kids fast enough. She agreed, in front of the judge, that I could have full custody. But now that he's dumped her …”

“I so despise that woman,” Tailan mumbled.

“Get in line.” Delvin brought his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. “I love my children, Tai. Jason is as much mine as Ariel.”

“I understand,” she whispered.

He followed her gaze to the clock on the nightstand.

“We can't be late,” she said. “Get showered and dressed. We have to get moving. The tour waits for no one.”

Tailan stood from the sofa, and Delvin grabbed her hand. “Tai?”

“Yes.”

“I'm not giving up this time.”

She gave him a small, bitter smile that didn't sit too well with him. “You didn't have to marry her.”

“You know what Gabrielle threatened to do,” he said finally. “You have said for years that people are ugly. So, would you have wanted the death of my child on our hands?”

Tailan was silent for a long while until finally she whispered, “No.”

He stared at her. The tears threatened to spill down her cheeks, and he realized that her pain ran deeper than anything he could fix in four days.

Delvin went to her, held her for as long as he dared, then gathered his things in his hands. He aimed in the direction of the door but headed back to place that package of orange cupcakes in her hands before leaving her to ponder all he had said.

Chapter 17

S
OUL
E
XPRESS
T
OUR
– D
AY
4
W
OODLAND
IN E
VERGREEN
P
ARK

Tailan stood at the front of the tour bus, smiling as David stepped out of the limo and climbed on. “Everything's squared away on my end,” he said. “I've been watching the news. Woman, you've been, as Pam says in her blog, kicking ass and taking names.”

“The authors are putting in the work, but …” Tailan's focus shifted to the woman with ivory skin, dark curly hair, and owl-rimmed glasses who stepped onto the bus directly behind David. She gave Tailan a wide smile

“I'm Sabrina Adrian, and I'll be joining the tour for the last day,” she said to Tailan. “They want me to do a write-up in
Publishers Weekly
.”

At the mention of the premiere literary magazine, all of the occupants on the bus became pin-drop quiet; just dropped-the-pregnancy-bomb quiet.

Tailan lifted an eyebrow as she pinned a steely gaze on David.

He pointed a finger upward, signaling that this idea came from up top.

“We're thrilled to have you,” Tailan proclaimed, extending her hand.
Margo, I'm going to snatch you bald-headed the next time I see you
.

“Why don't you have a seat back there with the staff?” she continued, while thinking
away from my problem children
.

The petite woman moved forward, giving a few smiles along the way. Sabrina stopped like a child playing one-two-three-red light when her gaze snagged on Les. “That vampire article I did on you got so many responses.”

“Thank you,” Les said, giving the woman a warm smile that disappeared the second Sabrina moved on.

She continued along, practically beaming as she spotted a familiar red-haired, cinnamon-skinned woman. “And Brenda, the release of your 100th book was the talk of the staff.”

“Glad to hear it,” Brenda coyly answered, her Southern manners coming through.

“If you don't mind,” Sabrina said, gushing at the leery Vets. “I'll sit up here with them.”

After four days with The Vets, Tailan could practically read their thoughts. The Vets' expressions were nothing short of
strained
tolerance.

Tailan made a circling motion with her index finger, signaling the driver to get moving. Once the bus pulled into traffic, she sat in the back and whispered to her staff, “Man, talk about having to be on your best behavior in front of mixed company.”

“Mixed company?” Terry asked, confusion painting her delicate features. “But we're white, too,” she said, gesturing to herself and Tailan's boss.

“Yes,” David acknowledged. “But we're considered honorary Black folks. We
earned
our hood cards years ago.”

Terry's pink tinted lips pulled into a frown as she scratched her head. “I don't think I know how to take that.”

“It's a compliment,” J. L. chimed in, tearing his gaze away from his iPad. He looked at Terry. “You're considered family. That chick,” he nodded toward their new guest, “is not.”

“Do we have a problem?” Terry echoed the whole team's internal thoughts.

“Yep,” J. L. answered with a pointed look at Tailan. Then he nodded toward The Divas. “Especially since those four were tipping the bottle at breakfast like eighty-proof was oatmeal. All of ‘em are juiced off that top shelf. No telling what they might say—in
mixed company
.” A shadow of sadness lit in his eyes as he added, “My father's an alcoholic. Trust me, anytime brown liquor is on the table like that velvet purple bag, ‘Cardi Black or Remi and José , even the best of people act real stupid. Ask me how I know …”

The sadness in his voice touched Tailan's heart, and she reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. His wan smile was tinged with a pain she knew all too well. He nodded toward The Divas as if to say, “Thanks, but handle your business.”

Tailan was out of her seat and hovering over The Vets in two seconds. She placed a hand on Beverly's shoulder. The minute Sabrina's focus fell on the notepad in her hand, Tailan's eyes ping ponged to each Vet, to The Divas, then back to The Vets. Each Vet gave a wink or slight nod, conveying that they understood their new mission.

She wanted to kiss each of them because they would be working double duty—keeping Sabrina moderately entertained while covertly keeping The Divas under firm control.