The Summer of Me (22 page)

T
HANKS FOR THE RIDE,
B
ERTICE,”
D
ESTINY'S MOTHER
said as she turned to open the front passenger door so she could get out of Bertice's car.

“No problem, Mrs. Madison,” Bertice said. “I was coming over to Destiny's as soon as she got in anyway. I couldn't wait to hear all about her trip. Picking you two up at the airport just gave me a head start on getting all the news.”

“And you don't know the half of it,” Destiny heard her mother murmur as she got out of the rear passenger seat.

“Will you get my bags for me?” her mother asked when they both stood outside the car.

“I don't know why you didn't let Bertice drop you off at home, Mom,” Destiny said, heading to the rear of the car so she could get her mother's suitcase out of Bertice's trunk. “I could have brought your car to you later this afternoon.”

Her mother began shaking her head. “That's not necessary. You must be as tired as I am. You get some rest. That's exactly what I plan to do when I get home.”

“Then let me drive you,” Destiny said, following her mom to her car, suitcase in hand.

When they both stood at her mother's open trunk, the older woman said, “I'm fine, Destiny. You don't have to worry. I can drive myself home.”

“You're not fine, Mom,” Destiny said, closing the trunk.

Her mother gave a slight frown. “Yes I am.”

Destiny raised a brow. “Did you forget what you told me on the plane?”

“No, I didn't forget,” her mother said as she moved toward the front passenger door of her car. “This is why I didn't tell you earlier. You worry too much.”

Holding the door open for her mother, Destiny said, “No, you should have told me as soon as you found out. I need to know what's going on with you. What are the doctors saying? What are the treatment options that you mentioned? I need to know, Mom.”

Her mother leaned up and pressed a kiss on her cheek. “Stop worrying.”

Destiny began shaking her head. “That won't happen until I get some more information.”

Her mother sighed. “Okay,” she said. “Charlotte's going to review my case files. I'm supposed to call her office to set up an appointment for us to discuss them. You're welcome to come.”

Destiny nodded. “I'll be there. Just let me know when.”

Her mother eased behind the steering wheel. “I'll call you as soon as I know.”

Destiny closed the door after her mother was seated and
leaned through the open window. “I love you, Mom,” she said.

Her mother smiled. “I love you, too.”

Destiny stepped back from the car. “Drive safely and call me when you get home,” she said.

“I will. And I need you to do something for me.”

“What?”

“Call Daniel.”

“Stop worrying about me and Daniel,” she told her mother. “I told you that I would see him next Tuesday and I still plan to do that.”

Her mother frowned. “Don't wait that long. I'm serious, Destiny. Work this out with him before it gets blown out of proportion.”

Destiny couldn't help but smile. Her mother was still her mother. “I hear you, Mom,” she said.

“Good,” her mother said. Then she began backing the car out of the driveway.

After her mother pulled away from the house, Destiny made her way to the townhouse, where Bertice was waiting for her. Her friend had used her key to let herself in. Destiny found her in the kitchen, standing before the open refrigerator. “There's nothing in there,” she told her friend.

“You're telling me,” Bertice said. She closed the refrigerator door and turned to Destiny. “Do you want to go out to get something?”

Shaking her head in the negative, Destiny walked to the adjacent family room, pulled off her shoes, and dropped down on the couch.

“Tired?” Bertice asked.

“More than tired.”

Bertice sat down beside her. “What's going on with you and your mom? It took you a long while to say bye to her.”

Destiny closed her eyes and then quickly opened them. “Her cancer is back.”

Bertice reached out and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. “I'm sorry, Destiny. What's the prognosis?”

“I don't really know. Mom didn't want to talk about it. She just dropped the news on me when we got on the plane to come back home. This is her third occurrence, Bertice, so it can't be good, can it?”

Bertice rubbed her shoulders. “We don't know that,” she said. “Your mom is a fighter. She's beat this thing before, twice before, and she can beat it again. We have to believe that she'll beat it again.”

Destiny wanted to believe her friend was right, but she knew enough about breast cancer to know that the disease was unpredictable and varied from woman to woman.
Help her, Lord.

“Hey, how are you holding up? You've had more than your share of drama these past few days.”

Destiny sighed. “You can say that again.” She turned to her friend. “They can't have been easy for you either. How are you doing?”

“I've been better,” Bertice said. “Phil and I are done. I dumped him right after I went off on him. I don't think I've ever been as angry with anyone as I was with him.”

Destiny squeezed her friend's hand. “I'm sorry. There was no way you could work through it?”

“Work through it? Please. That man almost ruined my life. I could have ended up in jail.”

Destiny huffed. “Like me.”

“I blame myself for that, Destiny. I hate that I got you involved. I'm sorry.”

Destiny shook her head. “It's not your fault. I'm a grown woman and I'm responsible for my actions. I don't blame you.”

“I appreciate you for saying that, but you know it's my fault.”

“Don't be so hard on yourself. You didn't know it was a scheme.”

“Well, I knew it was a very good gig. I could have looked closer, asked more questions.”

“So could I. Looking back doesn't help anything. I'm just grateful things turned out the way they did. They could have been a lot worse.”

“You can say that again. Daniel really saved our behinds. I can't believe that he has been investigating HR Solutions the entire time he's been in Atlanta. Did you have any idea?”

Destiny shook her head. “None whatsoever. I thought Phil was just somebody from his past.”

“Are you okay with how everything went down?”

Destiny shrugged. “It's complicated. Daniel's most attractive feature is his heart. He cares about people, not only with
words, but with his actions. Everything he did is consistent with the man I know him to be.”

“I hear a
but
in there somewhere.”

Destiny smiled at her friend. “Not really. It's just that since he's such a high-character guy, can he really be content in a relationship with me, given what I've done and what happened as a result?”

“There's more to you than that one incident. If Daniel is the man you think he is, he'll see that. If he doesn't, then he's not the man you think he is and you're better off without him.”

“That's easy to say, but it'll break my heart if he wants to end things. I really felt we had the beginnings of something good between us.”

“Well, don't give up on him yet.”

Destiny looked at her friend. “Like you gave up on Phil?”

“That's different.”

“They're similar enough. Phil made a mistake, a big one, but there's more to him than that mistake. Daniel told me that you were the reason he blew the whistle on the whole fraud scheme in the first place.”

“What?”

She nodded. “He told Daniel that he was falling for you and he didn't want to see you hurt. He regretted his actions, Bertice, and tried to make things right. He really did.”

“I didn't know,” she said. “I thought he was playing me.” She looked over at Destiny. “He told me that he thinks he's in love with me.”

“How do you feel about him?”

Bertice shrugged. “I don't know how I feel. A part of me wants to put the whole situation, including him, behind me and move forward. That would be the smart thing to do.” She paused and then she grinned. “But when have I been known to do the smart thing?”

Destiny chuckled. “Whatever you decide, I'll support.”

“We're quite the pair, aren't we?” Bertice said.

“Friends forever.” She turned to Bertice. “Have you spoken to Natalie?”

She shook her head. “She's called a couple of times, but I haven't had the courage to call her back. Turns out she was right about me and my schemes. Do you think Daniel told her and Gavin everything?”

“Yes, he told them. I spoke to her briefly before I left Los Angeles. We should go see her. You know how she worries.”

“That she does,” Bertice said, standing up and extending her hand to Destiny. “Get up.”

Destiny took her hand. “Where are we going?”

“To raid Natalie's refrigerator, if she's home.”

“Good idea. We've made her wait long enough.”

I
'
M GLAD
D
R.
W
ELLS AGREED TO JOIN YOUR CARE TEAM,
Mom,” Destiny said as she placed the bowl of salad on her mother's dining room table. “I'm feeling a lot better after talking to her.”

“You can tell she's a teacher,” her mother said, taking a seat at the table. “I appreciate the way she clearly presents the information to you and encourages questions. Not all doctors like questions.”

Destiny sat next to her mother. “And I asked a lot of them, too.”

After she blessed their meal, her mother said, “You sure did. And they were good questions, too. You worry about me but you also worry about Kenae, don't you?”

Taking a bite of her lasagna, Destiny nodded. She'd felt relieved after learning that her mother's cancer was noninvasive, but the mere fact that her mother was experiencing her
third bout of breast cancer made her concerned for Kenae. “I worry about her the way you worried about me. You know, I did that genetic testing when you had your second occurrence back when I was in college. I was relieved when the tests came back negative.”

Her mother scooped some salad from the serving bowl into her salad bowl. “Kenae's much too young for such testing, so that's one thing you don't have to worry about. I'm glad Dr. Wells made it clear that you shouldn't even think about testing her until she's at least eighteen.”

Actually, Dr. Wells had said those ages were the recommendations given the current standard of care, but given the rapid advancements being made in the medical field, the standard could change. “It's still hard not to worry.”

Her mother put down her fork. “There's something I have to tell you, Destiny, and I guess now is as good a time as any.”

Destiny's heart jumped at her mother's statement. Please, God, she prayed silently, don't let anything else be wrong with my mother. “What is it, Mom? Did the doctor tell you something that she didn't tell me?”

Her mom reached for her hand. “It's not that,” she said. “This is something I should have told you years ago.”

“Years ago. Does it have something to do with Dad?” Destiny didn't have any memories of him since he died when she was four and her mom rarely talked about him. As a child, she'd thought they didn't talk about him because it was so sad. As she grew older, she began to think that her parents hadn't had a good marriage.

“It does have something to do with your dad, but what made you think so?”

Destiny shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe because you mentioned him when we were on the plane coming back from L.A. So what did you want to tell me about my dad?”

Her mother sighed. “He had an affair before you were born.”

“That explains why you don't talk about him. Were you pregnant when he cheated on you?”

Her mother shook her head. “At one point, I thought he was going to leave me for her, but he chose to stay with his family.”

“Why are you telling me this now, Mom? He's long dead and this happened before I was born.”

“I'm trying to set the stage so you'll understand.” Her mother paused for a moment, as if she were trying to organize her thoughts. “One day his lady friend came to visit me and she brought me a gift.”

“Well, she had some nerve. What made her come here?”

Her mother sighed. “Since your father wouldn't leave me, she wanted me to leave him.”

“I hope you threw her and her gift out of the house.”

Her mother gave a dry laugh. “I threw her out,” she said. “But I kept the gift.”

Destiny took another bite of lasagna. “What was it?”

“A baby. Her baby.”

Destiny stopped eating and looked at her mother. “A baby?”

Her mother nodded. “A baby she said was fathered by your father.”

It was Destiny's turn to reach for her mother's hand. “I'm so sorry, Mom. I can't believe she brought a baby here. What did Dad say?”

“Your father wasn't home at the time. The baby's mother said that since I had the man, I should also have the baby. Then she left, leaving the baby with me.”

“She left her baby? What did you do?”

“I didn't know what to do,” her mother said. “I started to call your dad and give him a piece of my mind about his woman coming to my home, but I didn't.”

“He deserved it, Mom,” Destiny said. “You should have done it.”

“Well, I didn't do it because I got distracted by the most beautiful and perfect baby girl that I've ever seen.” Her mother gave a soft smile and Destiny knew she was remembering that day. “I know this makes no sense at all, but I literally fell in love with that baby the moment I looked at her.”

“It was a girl. Does that mean I have an older sister somewhere?”

Her mother shook her head.

“Oh no, did she die?”

Her mother shook her head again.

“Then where is she?”

Her mother met her eyes. “Right here,” she said. “That baby is right here. You are that baby.”

Destiny thought she had misunderstood her mother. “What did you say?”

“You are that baby, Destiny. Your birth mother brought
you to me when you were six weeks old. You've been my baby since that day.”

Destiny started shaking her head. “This makes no sense. Are you saying you didn't give birth to me?”

Her mother nodded. “That's exactly what I'm saying.”

“I don't know how I'm supposed to respond. Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because I don't want you to worry about Kenae and breast cancer. I don't know of anyone in your birth mother's family who's had breast cancer.”

Destiny sat back in her chair. This conversation was going too fast for her. “So you knew the woman?”

“I didn't know her until she showed up at the house, but I learned who she was then.”

“And you've kept up with her family?”

“Not really,” her mother said. “But I did meet with her after this last diagnosis.”

“Mom, this is sounding crazy to me. You need to stop with these one-sentence comments and give me some information. None of this is making sense to me.”

“I'm sorry, Destiny. Let me go back to the beginning. After your birth mom left, it was just you and me until your father came home from work. Of course, the first thing he did was ask about the baby. I told him what had happened and his reaction was to take you and go confront your birth mother. I still can't believe what I did next.”

“What did you do?”

“I told him he could go wherever he wanted to go, but he wasn't taking my baby anywhere.” Her mother chuckled.
“He looked at me like I was crazy, but when he left, he didn't take my baby.”

“Your baby?”

“From that day on, you were my baby. Your dad and I had been married about four years at the time and we hadn't been able to conceive. I knew the moment I looked at you that you were God's gift to me. I knew it then and I've never doubted it since.”

“What happened after Dad came back?” Destiny asked, still trying to wrap her mind around the story her mom was telling.

“Well, he found your birth mother. She essentially told him that she wanted him and his baby, not just his baby. You see, she thought I would leave your father because of the baby and then she'd get them both. What she didn't know was that I would have given her your father, but she was not going to get my baby.”

Destiny smiled because she could imagine her mother saying just that to somebody. “So what happened?”

“After your dad came home, we talked and decided that we would raise you as our own.”

“And you never saw my birth mother again?”

“No, she came back a couple of years later, but by then I wasn't giving you up. All three of us decided it would be best if she gave up her parental rights. To be honest, I strongly suggested that she do so. In all honesty,
coerced
might be a better word than
suggested
.”

Destiny stared at her mother, taking in her every feature. Over the years, she'd looked for pieces of herself in her
mother and had not found them. As a result, she'd assumed that she was more like her father. Turned out she'd been right. “I still can't believe this. I don't know what to say.”

“This is a lot to hear. I'm sorry I waited so long to tell you. I really should have told you when I had the last recurrence and saved you the genetic testing and associated worry, but I didn't have the courage. It's been me and you for so long that for stretches of time I forget that I'm not your birth mother.”

The woman who raised her was not her birth mother. Destiny couldn't make sense of it. She knew she'd have a thousand questions over the next few days, but right now she had none.

“I know it will take a while for you to digest all this, so take all the time you need. I just hope you get a little relief by knowing that Kenae is not predisposed to breast cancer because of me. You've had so much come at you recently. You don't need that worry.”

Destiny knew her mother meant well. While she appreciated not having to worry about Kenae and breast cancer, her mother had given her a whole new set of reasons to worry. She asked the only question she had at the moment. “Who is she, Mom? Who is my birth mother?”

Her mother looked her directly in the eyes. “Annie Robinson.”