Taxi Delivery (9 page)

            At that moment, Brenda came bouncing down the stairs, Ellison cooing in her arms.  Sadie wanted to scream at her to go back up and hide her daughter, but it was too late.  Brenda froze when she saw Jed and felt the tension in the air.  Ellison began to cry and time stopped.

            Sadie watched Elias as he looked from Ellison to Sadie and then back again.  She could see the wheels in his head turning.  He was likely wondering whether the baby’s was Brenda’s or Sadie’s.  Sadie had the monitor when he arrived, but Brenda had been the one to go and retrieve her.

            Brenda was pulled back into the moment by Ellison’s insistent cries.  She rushed down the rest of the stairs and handed the baby over to Jed who tickled her cheek and calmed her instantly.

            “I love how that works,” Brenda said, smiling at her cousin.  “Jed,” she said, still feeling the tension in the room, “let’s let Sadie and Elias talk for a bit.”

            Jed looked confused, but he could tell that his cousin was trying to hint at something so he followed her into the kitchen.

            “What’s going on?” Jed asked as he began to pace the kitchen with the baby. 

            “I’m not sure,” Brenda replied as she got out a few glasses and began to pour sun tea into them.  “Elias Cane just showed up at the door.  He claims to know Sadie.  Did you know Sadie was an extra in some of his movies?  Apparently they’re old friends.”

            Jed frowned.  Sadie hadn’t told him any of that.  Did she not trust him at all?  Or was there some other reason she didn’t want him to know?  “What does he want?” he asked.

            Brenda shrugged.  “I don’t know, I didn’t exactly ask.  I fawned over his latest movie, made a fool of myself, then went to grab Ellison.”

            Jed looked down at the little baby.  He didn’t tell Brenda how much the little family meant to him.  Or that he had looked up the meaning behind her name.  Sadie seemed to put so much thought into her name by giving her his last name as her middle name.  He thought she likely had a reason for naming her Ellison as well.  The name, he found, meant two different things.  First, my God is Lord.  And second, child of Elias.

*          *          *          *          *

            “Tell me you did what I asked,” Elias said, accusation running thick through his voice.

            “I did what you asked,” Sadie answered meekly.  She felt like she had gone back in time, bowing to his every whim.  Once his charm had turned, she still followed him around like a puppy.  It took her a little time to figure out who the real man was beneath all of his facades.  Once she did, she turned away from him took her baby, and never looked back.  “I took care of her.”

            “Her?” Elias asked.  “How do you know it was a her?”

            “IT,” Sadie proclaimed, “is a baby,” realizing that Elias’ investigation hadn’t revealed all of the details.  The bodyguard found her and knew about Brenda, but apparently the details about Ellison had been left in the dark.

            “Is,” Elias caught on to the present tense Sadie was using.

            Sadie stormed out of the room and into the kitchen.  Without saying a word, she took Ellison from Jed and a look of sorrow passed between them.  Whatever bliss they lived in without having the entire truth out in the open was over.  It was time for the group to address the issue head on.  Sadie tilted her head towards the living room, inviting Jed and Brenda to come along with her.

            “Elias,” she said as she entered the living room with Ellison in her arms and Jed and Brenda standing awkwardly behind her.  “This is your daughter Ellison.  Ellison Leida Walker,” she completed.

            “Daughter,” Elias said with a blank look on his face.  He certainly wasn’t acting now.  And he wasn’t welling up with tears the way a normal father would upon meeting his daughter.

            Sadie held the baby out to Elias so that he could hold her for the very first time.  Instead, he held his hands up in front of him and backed away.  “Who have you told?” he asked.

            “Told?” Sadie said, completely missing the point.

            “About this baby.  Who have you told?” Elias glanced at Jed and then Brenda without looking at the beautiful little baby again.

            “No one,” Sadie said.  “Not until now, at least.”

            “She’s yours?” Brenda chimed in, facing Elias with shock written on her expression.  “We had no idea.”

            “She’s not mine,” Elias denied.  “I don’t have any children.”  With that declaration, he pulled his pocket book out and began writing.  “What is this going to cost, Sadie?” he asked.  “You didn’t do as I asked last time, but I presume if I write down a number big enough, you’ll do what I want this time.”

            Sadie narrowed her eyes.  “What exactly is it that you want?” she asked.  In her nightmares, Elias found out the baby, hired a high powered lawyer, and took her daughter from her, claiming that he never knew she was pregnant or he never would have allowed her to leave.  Her nightmares didn’t seem to be coming true so she was at least grateful for that.  But the situation was still tense and the conversation wasn’t going well.

            “I want this,” he said, making a gesture towards her daughter, “to disappear.”

            “Disappear?” Sadie said in a small voice.

            “You can’t make a child disappear,” Jed popped in, close to Sadie’s side.  “She’s a person.  And she’s not going anywhere.”

            Elias gave him a demeaning look.  “I don’t care where she goes,” he said with venom.  “Or what she does.  I just don’t want to have any connection with her.  Don’t you see?” he asked, directing the question at Sadie.  “An illegitimate child would ruin my reputation.  In Hollywood, whether I get hired for a movie or not is based solely on my reputation.  If the producers think I don’t take care of my own child…it’s over.”

            “She’s not your child,” Sadie said, standing tall for the first time since Elias entered the room.

            “What?” he said, looking up from the check he was writing.  “I thought you said there hadn’t been anyone else.”

            “I know what I said,” Sadie continued with confidence.  “And I was being honest with you.  But she is not your child.  You are not her dad.  You might be her father, but it takes a real man to be a dad.  I thank God that I met you, Elias.  I thank God every day.  Because without you, I wouldn’t have her.  But I can continue to have her without you now.  I don’t need you.  She doesn’t need you.  You obviously don’t want her.  I release you, Elias Cane.  I release you from any responsibility.  I didn’t put your name on her birth certificate and if the word ever gets out that you are her father, it won’t come from me.  I don’t want your money.  I don’t want your time.  I don’t want you.”

            Sadie took a deep breath as Elias stopped writing and looked at her in a new light.  “I’ll pray for you, Elias.  I’ll pray that someday you find God and invite Him into your heart.  If that happens, and I pray that it does, you will start to understand what is important in life.  It certainly isn’t money.  It definitely isn’t movies.  But until that time, I’ll think of you and pity you for not being a part of this little girl’s life.  I am the lucky one for getting to be a part of her world.”

            Elias slowly closed his checkbook and put it away.  “So you’re not going to the media?” he asked, missing the point.

            “Not now and not ever,” Sadie confirmed.  “You think I want to live under a microscope?  You think I want that for Ellison?”

            Elias nodded and reached out to place his hand on Sadie’s shoulder, but then thought better of it and drew back.  He glanced at Brenda and then locked eyes with Jed.  The two men started at each other for a few minutes and then Elias left in the same calm manner in which he came, as if he owned the place.

            Sadie collapsed on the couch in tears.  “He thought he could buy me,” she sobbed.  “How did he ever get the impression that I was the type of girl who would just take his money and slink off into the night?”  She realized as she said it that it was exactly what she had done before.  She had taken the money he had offered, but only because she had needed it to survive.  Without it, she wouldn’t have lasted a day in New York or anywhere else.  She rationalized that she took the money to “take care of the baby,” just as he had said.  But her form of taking care of Ellison and his were much different.

            Brenda patted Sadie on the shoulder and told her she did the right thing.  She could feel that it was her turn to leave the room.  She knew from the moment Jed brought Sadie into the house that there was more to the story than he had shared.  And she knew now that the two of them needed to be alone.  Brenda and Sadie had grown closer over the past few days, but they had nothing compared to the bond that Sadie shared with Jed.

            “Sadie,” Jed began, as he placed an arm around her shoulders and felt her lean her head against him.  “You need to do just as you said.  Pray for that man and take care of Ellison.  You’re doing the right thing.”

            “Oh, I know I’m doing the right thing,” Sadie agreed.  “I just don’t know how exactly I’m going to do it.  I haven’t told you the whole story, but I took money from Elias before.  That money is running out and now, well, I turned away the opportunity for more.  What will I do?”

            “You’ll find the right job.  Maybe that producer job with Brenda’s friend will even go through.”

            Sadie nodded.  “I just don’t want to take the wrong path,” she said.  “I don’t want to do anything that would hurt this little girl.”

            “Of course you don’t.  And you won’t.  With God on your side and friends around to help you, nothing will get in her way.”

            Sadie took her head off of Jed’s shoulder and gazed up at him.  “I keep thinking I don’t know what I’d do without you.  First, when Ellison was born. Then, at the hospital when you came to pick me up.  Later, when I needed a place to stay.  And now, just when I need a shoulder to hold me up.  Jed, the thing is,” she paused, wondering if she should go on.  “I don’t know that I want that feeling to end.”

            Sadie watched as Jed listened to what she had to say and attempted to process her words.  “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” she said, standing up from the couch to put some distance between the two of them.

            “I’ve never been uncomfortable with you,” Jed said softly.  “Even in the most terrifying moment, I felt like things were going to be okay.  God was watching over us.  God put us together for a reason, Sadie.  I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud, but from the moment we first met, when I looked at you in that rearview mirror, I felt like you needed protection and I was the one to provide it.”

            “Protection?  From what?” Sadie asked as Ellison woke and began to rustle around in her arms.

            “I don’t know.  Life, I guess.  Circumstances.”

            “You really have been there for me, Jed.  Unlike anyone I’ve ever known.”

            Jed nodded.  “But it’s more than that,” he said, trying to get his point across to her.  “Sadie, I want to be there for you for the long haul.  I can’t say that I’ve ever been in love before, but if this is what it feels like, it’s even better than I expected.”