BACK TO THE PRESENT…
“Jin’jer, baby.” Hades’s voice pulled me back to the present. There was so much care and confusion in his eyes. “Did you hear him?”
I shook my head. “No . . . no. What did you say?”
Dorian cleared his throat. “I said that I moved here with my mother from Colorado when I was ten. I didn’t find out about you until about six months ago.”
“Dorian, I’m sorry that your mother lied to you. When I was fourteen, I did have a son, but he died. There’s no possible way that you are my son.” I glanced at Hades. “Please get the car.” Helooked pissed, but he just nodded and walked toward the valet station.
Dorian stood there in a daze for a beat. “Oh, okay, I’m sorry. I really thought you were her. I didn’t mean to ambush you here. The place I work for mentioned this party and that they needed servers. I volunteered, hoping you would be here.” He snickered then said, “Hey, at least I’ll get paid for being here.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s an upside.” I reached out and put my hand on his arm. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
I turned on my heels and headed to the valet station where our car had just pulled up. Hades opened the back door to let me slide in before he did. We didn’t say anything to each other on the entire way to the hotel. When we got into the hotel room, he sat on the bed. “Is there something that we need to talk about, Jin’jer?”
After a deep breath, I faced him. “That’s why I hate my parents. I hate them for the way they treated me when they found out that I was pregnant. They were dismissive and cold after my son died. I couldn’t even have a fuckin’ funeral for him!”
I didn’t realize that I was crying until Hades wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back. He held me tight. “Baby, it’s alright. I need you to calm down, okay.” He pulled me from him then kissed my forehead. “Let’s get you in the shower, then let’s go to bed. We can talk about this in the morning.”
We showered, got in the bed, and he held me as I cried off and on through the night. My son died, right? That was what they told me. That was what I believed.
BACK IN CHARLOTTE…
It’d been a few weeks since my father’s birthday party. My mother called me in a rage the next day. She told me that they had taken me out of the will and some other bullshit. I told her confidently to go straight to hell. I didn’t want anything from them. My mind was too consumed with Dorian.
Hades and I talked about him the next day. I didn’t really know what to think. My mind picked apart his features, but I wasn’t sure why. My son died. While Dorian and I were talking at the party, Hades took a very good picture of him. Dindi put it into a Google search, and it pulled up his Instagram page.
I felt like a stalker. He was a typical sixteen-year-old boy in most respects. From his post, it appeared that he worked a lot, more than I thought a teenager should.
“Have you thought about going back to the school in Colorado?” Hera asked.
When we got back from Charlotte, I told the girls, Hera, Hestia, Melody, and Dindi about my past as well as my encounter with Dorian. I thought that they would look at me sideways, but they didn’t. Hades had been supportive as well, which I honestly didn’t expect. We hadn’t been together for a very long time. In my head, it was too much drama for this stage of our relationship. When I told him that he could bow out if he wanted to, he told me to shut the fuck up. According to him, I was stuck.
I shrugged. “I don’t really see the point. Go back for what? For them to tell me what I already know, that my son died?”
Hestia placed her hand on my knee. “Jin’jer, you go back to get peace of mind. There is no way that you are at peace with that boy claiming to be your son. Let me ask you this. Did you see your son’s body, or did they just tell you that he died?”
I thought about the day that I was told he died. I asked to see him, but I was told that I couldn’t. My parents didn’t think that it was a good idea. “Um, no, I didn’t see him. My parents told me that it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Well, baby, if your son died, then he had to be buried somewhere, no matter if he had a funeral or not. How about we go to at least find out where he’s buried,” Hestia suggested.
I thought about what she said. I guess she was right. “I never named him,” I said with tears in my eyes.
Hera, who sat next to me, pulled me into her arms. I thanked God daily for meeting her at the hospital. Who would have thought that casual lunches would result in me finding a family. I learned a very long time ago that relatives were given, but family was chosen.
Hestia and Hera made plans to go with Hades and me to Colorado the following day. When we told their parents what happened, Mama Verne prayed over me. I’d never had someone do that. No one ever cared enough about me to go to God about me.
The next morning, we were up early on a private plane that their father chartered for us. The whole way there, I was a nervous wreck. Hades loved on me the entire way.
When we got to the campus, I smiled at the growth of it. I pointed to a building. “I lived in that building when I was here. The on-campus hospital, if in the same place, was toward the back of campus.”
I led the way to the hospital. It wasn’t much different when we walked in. They’d upgraded the décor and expanded, of course. “Hi, is there a Dr. Lidia Sutton here?” I asked the nurse at the receptionist desk. She was an older woman.
With a smile, she responded, “No, she is no longer here.” I asked her how long it had been since she left. “Let’s see, she leftthe year that I got here. So, that means she’s been gone a little over fifteen years now.”
That answer was bothersome to me. “Oh, okay. Well, is Nurse Janice still here? I think her last name was Scales.”
“Yes! Janice Scales is here, but she is no longer a nurse. She is our hospital administrator. I’ll call her up here for you,” the nurse said.
