When I’m With You (Indigo) (21 page)

“Why not?”

“That one, I can’t answer.” Alex cleared his throat. “Listen, partner, there’s more.”

“Talk to me, Robinson!”

Alex nodded at the chair. “B, you need to sit down.

“What now?”

“Another PI has been making inquiries about Caitlyn.”

Marcel’s eyes flared. “Who?”

“Friend of mine. Name’s Charles Perkins.”

“Well, who the hell hired him?”

Alex swallowed hard. “Alcee.”

Marcel stood straight up, his body shaking. “What the hell for?”

“Alcee hired Perkins to determine who Caitlyn’s father was.”

“Why would Pop want to know who Caitlyn’s father is? He already knows who Caitlyn’s mother is. She told me herself he asked her. So why in God’s name would he need to know who her father is?”

Alcee shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

Marcel gripped the back of his chair and stared at Alex as his eyes filled with an emotion that bordered on sheer agony. “Dear God.” His voice dropped to a whisper, his mind racing a hundred miles an hour at the harsh possibility. Was his father Caitlyn’s father, too? If that were so, then the woman he loved more than life itself could be his…He willed himself not to let the bile he felt rising spew out.

Marcel stared blankly at Alex. “Do you think Pop is…Caitlyn’s father?”

“B, I honestly don’t know.”

“Robinson…” Marcel’s voice became feeble. His knees buckled and he sagged to his chair.

“I know, man. I know. I would have given my right arm not to have to tell you this.”

“Caitlyn could be my…”

Alex walked around the desk, squatted next to Marcel’s chair, and lifted a comforting hand to his friend’s shoulder. “Listen, partner, don’t jump to any conclusions yet. The first thing you need to do is talk to Alcee and find out the facts.”

* * *

Marcel sat alone on the front pew of the chapel and did something he didn’t do often enough.

He prayed.

He had stormed out of his office and headed straight to his father’s house. But once he arrived, he learned from Mama Z that Alcee wasn’t home. He was a man with everything money could buy, yet, money couldn’t buy the one thing he needed most at the moment: the truth.

He felt hollowness so deep inside nothing mattered to him anymore. His head fell back in frustration, and a deep rumble in his chest made its escape in the form of a wail. The only thing he could do was pray. Pray he and the woman he loved more than his own life didn’t have the same bloodline. His hands shook as he ran them down his face. God, how could this be? What had he done in life to deserve that fate?

Marcel went to the altar and knelt before it, making the sign of the cross. He prayed as if his life depended on it—because it did. He wept so hard his shoulders quivered. He knew there was a God somewhere, and at that moment he needed Him to answer only one question: Was Caitlyn his sister?

Marcel prayed for strength. He prayed for guidance. But above all, he prayed for the truth.

* * *

“Why did you hire a PI to investigate Caitlyn?” Marcel slammed the door so hard the walls vibrated. As he stalked to Alcee’s desk, he loosened the knot in his tie and slipped the top button of his shirt. “Pop, start talking,” he demanded. When Alcee hesitated, Marcel’s voice escalated. “Now, dammit. Now.”

“Son…please,” Alcee pleaded.

“ ‘Son, please’ is not what I want to hear, Pop.” Marcel braced his hands on the desk. “You better talk—and fast.” He straightened with his eyes narrowed. “Do you have any idea how I felt when I found out you’d hired a PI to snoop into Caitlyn’s background?” He threw his hands in the air. “Why?”

Alcee stood. “I did it for Ken.”

“For Ken? I don’t understand.”

“Marcel…” Alcee’s voice was a mere whisper. “Both of us had to know the truth.”

“Know what?” Marcel bellowed. “Are you Caitlyn’s father?”

Alcee stood and shook his head vigorously from side to side. “No, Son. I’m not her father.”

Marcel had held his breath as he waited for the answer, and when he heard his father’s denial, the air inside him escaped so fast, he sounded as though he were having an asthma attack.

“What makes you sure you’re not?”

“I
never
had a relationship with Caitlyn’s mother.”

Marcel’s eyes bulged at the thought that hit him right between the eyes. He’d been so consumed with the horror that Caitlyn might be his sister that he’d blocked everything and everyone from his mind. “You mean Ken…”

Alcee nodded. “Yes, Son. We both believe Caitlyn is Ken’s child.”

“Did you know Ken broke into Caitlyn’s apartment?”

“No, I didn’t know that, but I’m not the least bit surprised.”

“Why?” Marcel stopped pacing and faced his father, then told him what Alex had discovered about the break-in. “That little stunt scared the shit out of her, Pop.”

“I’m sure that was never Ken’s intention.” Alcee walked around the desk and stood in front of Marcel. He patted him on the shoulder and motioned to the sofa. Once Marcel sat, he sat next to him. “Remember the night we were in your office and Caitlyn came to meet you for dinner?”

Marcel nodded.

“The moment I set eyes on Caitlyn, I thought I was seeing a ghost from the past. Then I noticed the bracelet she had on and knew who she had to be. There was little doubt in my mind that the Della who was Caitlyn’s mother was the same Della Ken had fallen in love with almost forty years ago.”

“Ken popped in that night, too.” Marcel gasped. “I introduced him to Caitlyn.”

Alcee nodded. “Tell me about it. After you and Caitlyn headed out, Ken came down to my office white as a sheet. We talked about how much Caitlyn resembled Della. He hadn’t noticed the bracelet Caitlyn had on, but I told him about it. That’s when he began to suspect that Caitlyn was his child.”

“B-But the bracelet?” Marcel looked confused. “What’s so significant about Caitlyn’s bracelet?”

Alcee smiled. “Ken gave that bracelet to the Della he fell in love with. She was a friend of your mother.”

In the past few hours, so much had been thrown at him, Marcel felt as if he were on information overload. Nothing made sense at that moment. He braced his arm along the back of the couch. “Okay, start at the beginning and tell me everything.”

“I’ve never told any of you kids…but I have a half-brother, Louis. We are only eighteen months apart. My biological father died when I was just three months old. Mama didn’t have any skills and took whatever jobs she could just to keep food on the table.” Alcee paused to gather his thoughts. “I’ll go to my grave believing that she didn’t love Louis’s father, that marrying him was a means to an end.” Shaking his head at the irony of it all, he added, “It was a way to make sure I didn’t go without. Anyway, she died in my arms. I was fifteen, and my world turned upside down. That’s when the real trouble started. Seems like overnight, nothing I did was good enough. Ben, Louis’s father, never let me forget that Louis was his flesh and blood and me…I was just some other man’s child he had to care for. That’s when the beating started.” Alcee stared at Marcel, and his eyes were filled with pain. “I took it for as long as I could.”

Marcel winced at his father’s words.

“The day I turned eighteen, I left and never looked back. I had a scholarship to Dillard.” He stared at his hands. “I had to work like a dog at any job I could find to get through school, but I was determined to graduate.”

“But when…how…did you meet Caitlyn’s mother?”

“I met Della and your mother a year later. They were in the freshmen class. By that time, I was a sophomore. Della and Angelique were best friends. Louis was in their class and dated Della.”

“Did
Mère
know that Louis was your brother?”

Alcee nodded. “Yes, your mother knew.”

“So what happened between Della and Louis?”

“For about a year or so, things seemed to be going okay. Then one night, Della came to your mother’s dorm beaten to within an inch of her life. Your mother called me, hysterical, and I went to check things out. Louis always lived on the edge, loved to flirt with danger. I confronted him, but he told me the situation was between him and Della.”

“Then what happened?”

“Della knew she had to get away from him, so she dropped out that year.”

“What happened after that?”

“Louis stalked her.” Alcee shook his head. “Don’t know if you know someone who’s had to go through that, but it’s not pretty.”

Marcel knew all too well what that was like. His Caitlyn was living proof of the horror. “Then what?”

“Della transferred to a small college in Memphis. That’s were she met Ken.” Alcee shook his head in amazement. “God, she loved him. A few months later, your mother and I went to Memphis to visit them. Ken wanted to ask Della to marry him, but he didn’t have the money to get her an engagement ring. Instead, he gave her a bracelet that had been his grandmother’s. Della loved that bracelet more than anything. It’s the bracelet Caitlyn wears.”

Confused, Marcel asked, “So why didn’t Ken and Della stay together?”

“A few days after we left, Louis found out where Della was. He told her if she didn’t come back to him he would hurt Ken. She loved Ken with all her heart and was determined not to go back to Louis. To keep Ken safe, she packed up and left Memphis in the middle of the night.”

“Do you think Ken knew Della was pregnant?”

“I’d stake my life on the fact he didn’t know. Maybe Della didn’t even know right then. After she left, it was like she went underground. She didn’t even keep in contact with your
mère.
” Alcee sighed. “The first thing Ken and I did was get a copy of Caitlyn’s birth certificate, but the name of the father wasn’t listed. That’s probably why Ken snuck into Caitlyn’s apartment. I suspect he needed to see that bracelet for himself. When he couldn’t find it, he called me, and in turn, I hired the PI. Son, you have to believe me when I say that’s the only reason I did what I did. Ken and I were hoping the PI could retrace history to determine if Ken really is Caitlyn’s father.”

Marcel leaned forward. Verifying that fact through DNA was easy enough and he planned to do just that. He shifted his thoughts away from Caitlyn’s parentage for a moment. “You and Louis…why haven’t you told any of us this before now?”

“Louis thought your mother and I talked Della into running away, and he hated us for it. I could live with the hate because I knew we’d done nothing wrong. But one day, he decided to take his frustrations out on Angelique.”

“What did he do?”

Tears spilled over the rim of Alcee’s eyes. “He tried to rape her.” He brushed the tears back with his hand. “That’s where I drew the line. God, I hated him for what he almost did to her. My own flesh and blood, but I hated him. I knew if I ever laid eyes on him again, I’d kill him, brother or not. From that moment on, I cut him completely out of my life.”

Marcel sat motionless. Finally, he stood and opened his arms to Alcee. They shared an embrace for a long time.

“Pop, I’m sorry. I—”

“Don’t apologize, Son. If I were in your shoes, I probably would have thought the same thing and would have reacted no differently.” He chuckled. “I know what it’s like to lose all sense of reasoning in order to protect the woman you love. Now do you understand why I didn’t tell you kids about Louis?”

Marcel looked his father straight in the eyes. “Totally.” He blew out a hard breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. There’s something you need to know, though.”

Alcee frowned. “What is it?”

“Louis is our rival for the new dealership.”

“Damn.”

“Did you know he did time in prison?”

Alcee stared, stunned. “No.”

“Well, he did. Five years, as a matter of fact.”

“Do you think Louis is seeking revenge and that’s why he’s been after us?”

“I don’t know. But I plan to find out.”

* * *

“Caitlyn has to be my child, Marcel.” Standing, Ken braced his hands on the edge of his desk to steady himself. “She just has to be. She’s all I have left from Della.”

“From everything Pop has shared with me the last hour or so, the probability is in your favor.” Marcel sat in the chair in front of Ken’s desk. As soon as he left his father’s home, he headed straight to BF Automotive. “Trust me, we’ll find out soon enough.”

Ken sat in his chair and stared with his jaw slack. “How?”

“A DNA test. I don’t want to say anything to Caitlyn until we’re absolutely sure you are her father. First thing in the morning, I’ll make arrangements for the test to be performed.”

“Does Caitlyn know any of this?”

Marcel shook his head. “Before I tell her anything, there has to be a certainty that you are her father. I’m going to send a hair sample from Caitlyn to the lab. I need the same from you.”

Ken nodded.

Marcel fished out the item in his pocket and handed it to Ken. “I believe this is yours.”