“Is that a threat?” Queen’s left brow arched.
Mother Abigail cut Delilah another hate-filled look. “This isn’t over between you and me. Not even close.” She walked out with Tyson hurrying to open the door and hold it for her. The doctor and deputy left with her.
“You’re late,” Delilah said. She put a hand to her head and the other to her hip.
“Sorry. I got here as fast as I could. A lot going on at the station.” Queen looked to Charles. “How is he?”
“The same.” Delilah’s voice cracked with emotion. “The doctors say he’s not going to wake up. That the machine keeps him alive. That evil witch wants to unplug him. They want to kill him.”
“Dee, I don’t think she wants to kill him. Now his brothers’ are a different story. An investigation is going to be opened on that weasel, Derrick. You just need to stay calm and focused.”
“What about Noah and me? We’re suffering too, Queen,” Delilah whirled on her friend. “Just two weeks ago, he was recovering. Then he has a stroke? A stroke on top of cancer? I’m here every day. We need to give him a chance.”
“I know, sweetheart,” Queen sighed. “This is hard for everyone.”
“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore.” Delilah walked over to the chair and sat in it. She put her face in her hands. She let go of a deep, mournful sigh, and after a minute or two, her friend was there. Her hand was to her back, rubbing.
“He’s dying. I don’t care how many court orders I fight; he’s dying,” Delilah wept.
“I’m sorry, Dee.”
“I hate him,” she looked up at Queen with tears in her eyes.
“Don’t say that,” Queen said. “You don’t mean it.”
“I loved him so much, Queen. But he was such a fucking liar!” she sobbed.
“What’s really going on?” Queen asked.
Delilah sniffed. She had to catch her breath.
“Mother Abigail told me that he told her that I had an egg donor, and that’s why Noah doesn’t look like me.”
“You believe that?” Queen asked. “Charles would never say that.”
“There are other things too. Every day there’s something. I don’t know what to believe about Charles anymore.”
“Believe what’s in your heart. He is your first and only love. I saw how much Charles cherished you. How much he adored you before and after you married him. You loved him, and I know he loved you. Right now, you need to be strong for your son. Dee, you’re the strongest person I’ve ever known.”
“You don’t know a lot of people Queen,” Delilah chuckled and wiped her tears, smearing her makeup.
Queen laughed. “I admit my friend circle is pretty small.”
Delilah looked at her friend at first, confused. Queens’ smile was always infectious. She smiled too. And then she laughed. Her friend reached down and hugged her. “It’s going to be okay. He’ll survive this. Somehow. I just know it. He’ll be okay.”
Delilah hugged her and forced herself to believe. A week later, she buried Charles Montgomery.
DECEMBER 2019 - NEW York, NY
Delilah sat in a room full of men. Montgomery men and shareholders. The Charles Montgomery and Yaşar Fikrit’s Fertility Clinic called ‘Eve’s Promise’ was under federal and state investigations. Allegedly research was authorized and done against the patient’s knowledge on embryos and fetuses. Delilah turned the page with a shaky hand. The attorney outlined the offenses. There were accusations that women were inseminated with other sperm than their donors. Most died in childbirth. The list of women on the document was short, no more than twenty. However, she was included. She looked up into Tyson Montgomery’s eyes. Her brother-in-law glared at her. They were still embroiled in a brutal estate feud over Charles’s legacy. She had won some battles and lost many others. The ranch was hers. The law firm was hers and some investments. Everything promised to her in the prenup had been challenged. The trust to secure her son’s future was among them, and a DNA case was before a judge just as Mother Abigail promised it would be. Tyson had the nerve to smirk. Delilah never let anyone see her break. She had two best friends. Between them and Charles, no one knew her vulnerabilities. This invasion into her life was too much. She closed the folder and summoned inner strength.
“I’ve heard enough,” she announced.
The attorney stopped reading. All of the men in the room gazes turned to her. She picked up her sunglasses and put them on. “Send the rest to my assistant.”
“We aren’t done,” Tyson Montgomery said.
“Last time I checked, I’m the chairman of the board. We’re done when I say we’re done. After I review the legal motions filed against us tonight, we will reconvene tomorrow.” She pushed back from her chair, and one of the attorneys sprung from his seat to pull it out for her. She hated the gesture of kindness. Everyone in the room seems to mock her with either silence or sympathetic politeness. It implied that her son was not her biological child. It told the worst shame in her life. She hurried from the building. She got inside her car and immediately began to call her friend Godiva. Eventually, her friend texts her. Godiva told her that she discovered Jaxon Price was at Mayfair and had quit. She was going to get on a plane and meet her in New York. Delilah then called Queen.
“Hey, I can’t talk right now, I need to—” Queen rambled.
“Queen,” Delilah wept. “Queen, it’s true. Noah... it’s Noah...”
“Dee? There’s something else going on with you. Tell me. Tell me right now. What’s wrong?”
Delilah wept. All she could do was cry. “Mother Abigail is right. I may not be Noah’s mother. He might not be my son!”
TWO WEEKS LATER
Noah ran around the doctor’s office. Delilah watched as he jumped and played. Only two years old, he was the happiest toddler in the world. When she was with Noah, she felt his freedom. It was the only time she felt such happiness.
“Have you heard anything from her?” Delilah asked.
“No. I don’t understand. If she was headed to New York, why didn’t she meet us?” Queen asked. Delilah had three childhood friends. Queen Douglas was her friend from pre-school all through life. She was more like a sister than a friend. And the other half of the trio was Godiva Johnson. They called her Shelly. She was the freest of them all and the most unpredictable. A few years ago, Shelly had an incident in L.A. that forced her into hiding. But she was better now. She’d moved to New York and then returned to Falcon Cove. She took a job at Mayfair, and since then, they hadn’t heard from or seen her.
“You said she was getting on a plane, right? Headed to New York. Right?” Queen asked.
“I showed you the text,” Delilah mumbled.
“Then where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Delilah snapped.
“Call her again,” Queen snatched out her phone.
“You call her. Shelly thinks I’m too bossy. You call her.”
Queen sighed. “She’s better at this disappearing act than Houdini.”