Key To My Heart (Love Conquers All) (8 page)

Charles slowly nodded again. He had been witness to the clandestine rendezvous so long ago, and was put in a position where he had to be the go-between for the parties involved. Back then he hadn’t wanted anything to do with the secrecy. But what could he do? He was the sole provider for a sickly mother and seven younger siblings. So when he was given extra cash, he kept his mouth shut and looked the other way.

Years of guilt gnawed at the older man. He loved Langston like a son. He should have broken his silence years ago. He should have revealed what he knew the night Ava had been cruelly kicked out of the elder Warrington’s home.

“You’re a man now. You should know what happened,” Charles finally said. He paused for a second, letting out a deep breath. “To tell you the truth, I should have told you years ago. I should have told you before they ran Ava away. She was a sweet girl.”

Langston stared at Charles, imploring him with his eyes to continue.

Charles wiped his weathered hands over his old, weary eyes. “Your father was in love with another woman.”

“What?” Langston asked, his face a mask of disbelief.

“Yes, son, your father had a mistress. When you brought Ava home, it was like the past had caught up with the future. Ava could have been the woman’s twin. A dead ringer, that’s how much the two looked alike.”

Charles remembered how that night after Langston had taken Ava back to her dorm, Beatrice and Langston’s father had an awful fight. The scorned woman had never gotten over her husband’s betrayal. The sight of Ava had opened old wounds, causing her to experience the pain all over again.

Langston felt like the air he’d been breathing was being siphoned from his lungs as he listened to how his father was in love with another woman for whom he had considered leaving his wife. What was even more startling was Charles’s confession that the other woman was the love of his father’s life. But because Beatrice had been chosen for Langston Jr., he was bound by family duty to marry her, and not the other woman.

Although he married Beatrice, his heart never belonged to her. Knowing this, and to secure her position as a Warrington, Beatrice quickly became pregnant. Once her son had been born, she demanded that her husband break off the affair or be prepared for a very dirty, public divorce. Even with the threat of a messy divorce, Langston Jr., in all his arrogance, continued the affair until his lover got tired of being the other woman, moved away, and married someone else.

“So you see, dear Langston, your mother never got over all those years of what your father did to her. She never got over the fact that she wasn’t his first choice. Lord knows that if Lydia hadn’t gotten tired of being the other woman, they’d probably would have had an affair until the day your old man died.” The elderly man sadly shrugged his shoulders. “Your poor Ava took the brunt of your mother’s anger.” He wanted to add that Zoe was now taking it, but decided not to. Langston had enough on his plate dealing with this new revelation. Besides, Langston was a bright man. Most likely he had figured out the puzzle for himself.

Langston was angry at his father and at himself. The entire time he and Ava dated, his father knew the reason why his mother hated Ava. How could he have sat by and not said anything? Why did he allow his wife to take out years of bitterness for something he had done? And most importantly, Langston right about now loathed himself. Why hadn’t he protected Ava? If he had known this information years ago, there was no way he would have given her up so easily.

Standing, Langston went over to the elderly man. Placing a hand on his shoulder, he said, “Thanks, Charles. I knew I could count on you to tell me the truth.”

The elderly man offered Langston a hopeful smile. “Take what I’ve told you and make this right, son.”

“That’s what I plan to do.”

Livid did not even begin to describe how Ava felt as she walked the eight blocks from her job as a school nurse to her home. Most days she enjoyed her job. Today, however, wasn’t one of them.

Some parents really behaved like they didn’t have two brain cells in their head. Sending children to school sick was a serious pet peeve of Ava’s. All it took was one sick child to spread a school wide epidemic.

First thing this morning ten-year-old Matt came into the nurse’s office vomiting all over the place and running a fever of one hundred three degrees. Ava was too through when she called his mother to notify the woman her son was sick and needed to be either seen by his pediatrician immediately, or taken to the emergency room.

“Just give him some Tylenol or aspirin or something. I’m on my way to the hair salon,” had been the woman’s irritated response.

“Well, how about I report you to social services for child neglect?” Ava was sure she’d be in the principal’s office tomorrow morning for threatening Matt’s mother, but she really couldn’t care less. Matter of fact, she was welcoming it. The poor child was so dehydrated and listless he could hardly keep his head up, let alone walk.

No sooner had Ava gotten Matt safely into the care of his irksome mother, second grader Britney was ushered, or rather pushed into her office by the assistant teacher. Ava wanted to scream! The child was clawing at her scalp due to a horrendous case of head lice. Yikes!

There was no way this child’s mother didn’t know something was up with the way the little girl was clawing at her head and whimpering. After donning a pair of latex gloves, Ava parted the child’s hair. Sure enough, just as she thought, head lice. Poor baby’s scalp was nearly scratched raw from all the digging.

The rest of her day had been consumed with doing thorough head checks for the critters on the remaining second graders in Britney’s class. She could just see it. Tomorrow morning her phone was going to be jumping off the hook with frantic parents. Good grief, she was so not up to dealing with the drama. But, hey, what could she do? It was her job.

After a day like today all she wanted to do was take a nice long, hot shower and then curl up with a good romance novel. The thought made her giggle. Starr and Summer would never let her live it down if they knew she was a closet romance junkie, so she always made sure to keep her stash out of sight when they came over to visit.

Might as well read about it. Ain’t no action going on over here,
she thought as she dug in her purse, searching for her house keys.

Turning the corner, Ava’s smooth, brisk stride came to a jerky halt. What was Langston doing sitting on her doorstep talking to Mrs. Virginia? Fury spread through her like wildfire as she remembered their last meeting. He was the last person she wanted to see.

Taking a deep breath to keep from exploding and airing all her business in the street, Ava tried to think happy thoughts, like beating Langston into the cement with a lead pipe. A wicked smirk twitched her lips as she walked up her front steps.

Ignoring Langston, she spoke to her neighbor, giving the elderly woman a genuine smile. “Hey, Mrs. Virginia. How are you?” Although her friends found the older woman nosy, Ava was quite fond of her. Ava knew that the older woman was just lonely, and that was why she was in everyone’s business.

“Pretty good. Nothing extra,” Mrs. Virginia responded. “I was keeping this young man company. I told him you’d be getting home soon.”

Ava almost laughed. Mrs. Virginia was a trip. She was standing outside in her old lady housecoat and slippers. The tiny goose-bumps on her arms were a telltale sign that she was chilly. Too inquisitive to go inside and get a sweater, Ava was sure the woman had asked Langston a thousand and one questions.

“Thanks, Mrs. Virginia. You better get inside before you catch a cold,” Ava said flatly as she turned her attention to Langston.

The elderly woman looked from Ava to Langston, and then back to Ava. The lips that had smiled at her a few seconds ago were now pursed in a tight line. Something wasn’t right. Her young friend wasn’t pleased at all to see this young man, who seemed like a perfect gentleman to her.

Maybe Ava would tell her what was going on Sunday night when she came over to watch
Desperate Housewives
. “I’ll see you later, Ava. It was nice meeting you, Langston.”

Langston gave the older woman a warm smile as he thanked her for keeping him company.

Ava had to quickly turn her head to hide her feelings. What was happening to her! A feeling that had lain dormant for years simmered to the surface as butterflies fluttered in her stomach.
It’s that smile.

When she and Langston began dating the last semester of her freshman year, all her friends wanted to know what she saw in him. They didn’t believe he was her type.
No, he wasn’t a pretty boy or what one would call traditionally handsome. Neither was he gruesome, for that matter. However, he did possess the most bewitching smile that illuminated his whole face, not to mention his towering height and well-defined, chiseled body. What he lacked in good looks, the man made up in sex appeal. To Ava, Langston was beautiful.

Girl, you need to leave those romance novels alone and get a grip! Don’t go frolicking down no freakin’ memory lane! You need to find out why he’s sitting on your doorstep looking like a stray.

Stomping down her pesky butterflies, Ava snapped, “What do you want? Haven’t you made my life miserable enough?”

Ava’s sharp tone didn’t take Langston by surprise. She had never been one to hold back how she really felt. Years ago she was way gentler with her approach. The new Ava was glaring at him like she wanted to do some serious bodily harm.

“Av, I need to talk to you.”

“Don’t you call me that! My name is Ava!” How dare he call her by her nickname that was reserved for family and friends, of which he was neither.

Holding up his hands in surrender, he said, “All right, all right,
Ava,
can I please talk to you?”

The way he put the emphasis on her name made Ava jerk her head to the side.
Oh… no…the hell…he didn’t. Man, don’t play with me, for real.
“What is it you need to talk to me about, Lucifer? I mean Langston?” she sneered.

Langston’s face twisted into a scowl. She was pissing him off. “You got a smart mouth. I came up here to give you some information,” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

Watching her standing there defiantly with her arms folded across her chest, looking at him like she was bored to death, pushed Langston to his limit. He didn’t need this. Here he was trying to right a wrong, and she was making each step he took impossible.

Throwing his hands up in the air in frustration, he said, “You know what? I don’t need this!” Langston stalked off down the steps. Reaching the sidewalk, he threw over his shoulder, “When you want to know about your daughter, you know where to find me.”

Blood rushed so fast through her body that she could feel her heartbeat pulsating in her ears.
My baby!

Ava ran down the steps to the sidewalk, catching Langston by the hand before he reached his vehicle. Automatically his large hand curled around her smaller one.

Any traces of tough-attitude girl vaporized into the chilly air as she held on to her former lover for dear life. He had some information about her baby. Swallowing the lump in her throat, not caring that a tear made a track down her cheek, Ava whispered, “You know where she is?”

Gazing down into pleading eyes, he told her the truth. “I do. Let’s go inside so I can tell you everything.”

An hour later Ava sat in a daze as she stared at the photo of Zoe she held in her trembling hands. Ava had spent the last hour quietly listening as Langston shared with her how their daughter was never put up for adoption.

Immediately after she had given birth to Zoe, Langston was notified by hospital administration. It hadn’t been difficult at all for him to get access to the newborn, since his father served on the board of directors for years and made sizable yearly contributions to the hospital.

One look at the tiny babe and Langston fell in love. He had given up her mother, but there was no way he was giving up his child too. The adoptive parents were devastated when the hospital’s social worker notified them that one of the parents had changed their minds.

His decision had caused a rift between him and his parents. His father threatened to cut him off if he dared to keep the child. His mother only cared about what other people would think.

Langston explained to Ava that he had never be more ashamed of who he was until that day. His parents carried on as if Zoe wasn’t their grandchild, their flesh and blood. Furious, he’d told his father he could take the Warrington name and all that came with it and shove it! To his mother, he bellowed, “I don’t give a damn what people think! She’s my daughter and I won’t abandon her the way I did her mother!”

With Charles’s help, Langston packed up Zoe and three of them went to Atlanta. In no time he’d settled into his new life as a single father, and found a well paying job at a prestigious law firm.

After being estranged from his family for two years, his father suffered a stroke. If the old man hadn’t begged his forgiveness and asked him to return home, Langston would still be in Atlanta raising Zoe with Charles’s help.

Ava had only tearfully interrupted him once to ask, “Why didn’t you come for me after you had Zoe?”