Wives and Champions (13 page)

“
Will do.”

“
Thanks,
Phyllis.”

“
You’re
welcome.”

Dante remained at his desk,
waiting until this
Harding Champion
had time to find the conference room. Who was he
and why was he requesting to see him? Phyllis said he wasn’t
dressed up, so maybe his visit didn’t have anything to do with
business. Surely someone who wanted to do business with The
Champion Corporation would present themselves in professional
business attire. But what really piqued his interest was the man’s
name. He was a Champion. Maybe his impromptu visit was of a
personal nature.

Deciding to be proactive, Dante packed
up his briefcase and logged out of his computer. As soon as this
meeting with Harding Champion was over, he was done for the day.
After a botched lunch with Emily, he wasn’t in the mood for
work.

Briefcase in hand, he locked his
office door then strolled down the hallway to the conference room
where his visitor should’ve been waiting by now. When he opened the
door to the conference room, he immediately froze. His mouth opened
to speak, introduce himself, but no words came out. His eyes
widened, nearly bulged out of his head as he stared at Harding. He
didn’t know who Harding Champion was, but looking at him was like
looking at one of his brothers. Same build. Same hazel
eyes.

Harding stood up, reached to shake
Dante’s hand and said, “Hi. I’m Harding Champion. You must be
Dante.”

Still shocked, Dante didn’t reach for
Harding’s hand. He just stood there.

Harding raised his brows before
returning his hand to his side. “I’m sorry that this is completely
sporadic and I know I probably should’ve made an appointment but I
figured it was now or never. I’m your half-brother.”

“
That’s impossible,” Dante
said. He closed the door to the conference room. “I have two
brothers.”

“
Yes. I know. Dimitrius and
Desmond.”

“
Then who are you, and why
do you think we’re related?” Dante asked.

“
I’m Harding. I live in
Wilmington, North Carolina.”

“
Have a seat,” Dante said,
gesturing to a chair.

Harding sat down again.

Dante sat down across from him. “Why
do you think we’re related?”

“
Because we have the same
father.”

Dante frowned. “Who’s your
father?”

“
Nolan
Champion.”

Dante shook his head. “This isn’t
possible. There is no way we have the same father. You have to be
mistaken.”

“
I wish that was the case,
but it’s not. Nolan is my father.”

“
How old are you?” Dante
asked him. “Thirty-eight.”

“
I’m forty-one. My brothers
are thirty-five and thirty-one. If what you’re saying is true,
you’re, in essence, telling me that my father was cheating on my
mother.”

“
I’m sorry for the
implication, but I’m not the one at fault here. I just thought
you’d like to know that I existed.”

Still frustrated from earlier, Dante
said, “I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t know you, and I was
just heading out of the office.”

Harding stood up. He had a feeling his
revelation wouldn’t be received well, but he at least expected
Dante to hear him out. “Well, if ever you want to discuss it, you
have two sisters and a brother who would love to meet
you.”

Harding continued out of the
conference room and Dante, still seated, buried his face in his
hands, trying to wrap his mind around what the man just told him.
How could this be? There had to be an explanation. His father loved
his mother. They were dedicated to each other. In love. He saw it
with his own eyes, and such being the case, there’s no way his
father could’ve had a separate life. No way.

Standing, he took his briefcase from
the floor then walked to Dimitrius’ office. He tapped on the door
before pushing it open.

Dimitrius looked up. “What’s up? You
ducking out early?”

“
I am, but I wanted to run
something by you.”

“
What’s that?” Dimitrius
asked, typing an email. He glanced at Dante then back at the
computer screen.

“
Do you think our parents
had a good marriage?”

Dimitrius stopped typing, took his
hands off of the keyboard and said, “Of course. Where’d that come
from?”

Dante sighed heavily and shook his
head. “I just got a visit from Harding Champion.”

“
Who?” Dimitrius
asked.

“
Harding
Champion.”

“
Never heard of him. Is he
a distant relative?”

“
Well, he says he’s our
brother.”

“
What?” Dimitrius asked,
his face contorted. “I don’t think I heard you
correctly.”

“
He said he’s our brother.
Said we have the same father.”

“
Do you think there’s any
merit to it?”

“
I don’t want to believe
there is, but I do think there’s merit to his claim.”

“
Based on what?”

“
The fact that he looks
just like us. If people saw us with him, they’d know, right away,
that we were related. Same skin tone, build, hazel eyes and the
same height range.”

“
There are plenty of
look-a-likes in this world, Dante. Doesn’t mean they’re
related.”

“
Dimitrius, give me a
break. You don’t think I know that?”

Dimitrius rubbed his hand across his
face out of irritation.

“
I’m telling you he’s our
brother,” Dante said.

“
Then where is he?”
Dimitrius asked, gesturing wildly. “Why am I not being introduced
to him this very second?”

“
Because I sent him
away.”

“
Why’s that?”

“
Didn’t want to deal with
it. At least not right now.”

Dimitrius leaned back in
his chair. “So let me get this straight. A guy comes here, tells
you he’s our brother and you send him away because you don’t want
to
deal
with
it?”

“
Not right now. I have
enough problems to concern myself with.”

“
I see,” Dimitrius said,
seeing the angst in his brother’s eyes. “You and Emily…”

Dante nodded. “We got into it today.
She finally told me about the baby, but she’s talking like she
doesn’t want it. Like my baby means nothing to her. She’s upset
about the pregnancy. About everything.”

“
She’ll come
around.”

“
Not so sure about that.
And now, I have to deal with this extra bit of confusion in my
head, having to think about the possibility that maybe dad didn’t
love mom as much as I thought he did, which means my whole concept
of having a beautiful family and a spouse to love forever are all
based on lies.”

“
Not necessarily,
Dante.”

“
Hear me,” Dante said.
“Some people marry for fun. Some men marry because they got the
woman pregnant. Some women marry because they’d always planned to
do so before a certain age. Whatever the case, when the thrill of
the newness wears off, they go about seeking that same
serendipitous feeling of love with someone else. Our parents didn’t
marry for any of those reasons. They genuinely loved each other. I
witnessed that. Now, I’m learning that it was all lies? Dad had a
secret life?”

“
We don’t know that for
sure, man. I think you’re jumping the gun on this.”

Dante stood up. “Well, I’m going to
find out. I have to. If our parents weren’t in love and faithful to
each other, then what hope do I have to hang on to?”

“
I’m not following
you.”

“
I based my life, my new
start on Dad’s good example. Now there’s a possibility that it was
a sham.”

“
Again, let’s not jump to
conclusions,” Dimitrius said. “Since you sent Harding, or whatever
his name is, away, let’s meet up with him–me, you and Des–this
weekend. No need to drag this out. Let’s get to the bottom of it,
and we’ll go from there.”

“
All right. I’ll check with
Phyllis on my way out to see if Harding left any contact
information.”

“
Cool.”

Dante headed for the door. He touched
the handle, then turned around to look at Dimitrius again. “He said
he has two sisters and a brother. All Dad’s.”

“
We’ll find out the truth
soon enough.”

Dante nodded, then walked
away.

Chapter
Twelve

Dimitrius stepped inside of a quiet
home. Instead of announcing his arrival, he walked to the family
room and saw Melanie sleeping peacefully on the couch. And she was
out, mouth wide open, probably exhausted from a long day of
entertaining Grace.

Grace.

Dimitrius headed upstairs to her room
and upon rounding the door, he saw her standing up in the crib,
playing with a toy giraffe. When she saw him, she smiled, jumped up
and down while holding on the crib’s rail gate.

“
There’s my darling angel,”
Dimitrius said. “Hey, sweetheart.” He lifted her from the crib,
gave her a loving kiss on the cheek then carried her downstairs.
“Did you tire mommy out today?” he asked, stepping inside of the
family room again. He was seconds away from bending down to plant a
soft kiss on Melanie’s lips when he heard her phone buzz. He didn’t
know why it caught his attention. He never paid much attention to
her phone, but today he picked it up and saw a text message from a
number that wasn’t programmed into her contacts:

828-555-7970
:

if you love him so much, why do
you still wear that necklace I gave you? You had it on at the
museum last Saturday. Guess you don’t hate me that much. You wake
up in the morning and put on that necklace. Must mean
something.

Dimitrius frowned. Right away, he knew
who this message was from. Scott. His wife’s ex. While he had her
phone, he decided to see if there were any other messages exchanged
between the two of them.

828-555-7970
:
the reason we broke up is because you apparently lied to me…told me
you couldn’t have children and then low and behold you have a baby
with that Champion dude

828-555-7970
:
was this all planned? I mean, if it was, I can’t fault you…the guy
is loaded, so I heard. Guess money trumps love.

828-555-7970
:
one thing is for certain…he’ll never have your heart like I had it.
No man will. Joke’s on him.

Immediately, Dimitrius felt a stabbing
pain shoot through his heart. First, why was Melanie entertaining
anything Scott had to say? Did the guy still have a hold on her?
That would explain why she didn’t dismiss him at the museum. Was
she still in love with him?

Secondly, was she lying about not
being able to get pregnant? He didn’t think so. He remembered how
much of a struggle the issue was for her. Still, Scott brought it
up. Then, there was the matter of some necklace that Scott
supposedly gave her. He looked at Melanie’s neck but didn’t see a
necklace. Scott claimed she wore it last Saturday. Dimitrius had
seen Melanie wear a gold necklace, but she had plenty of gold
necklaces. Why would she wear the one she received from Scott? Why
would she still own the necklace?

He wasn’t sure if he should bring it
up, but how else would he know if she wasn’t over Scott. And in his
text messages, Scott claimed that Melanie married for money. That
he would always have her heart.

When Dimitrius saw Melanie shifting
and repositioning on the couch, he eased her phone back down to the
table.

“
Hey,” she said lazily,
then yawned.

“
Hey.”

“
When did you get here?”
she asked drowsily.

“
A few minutes
ago.”

Melanie sat up, reached for Grace. “Go
change clothes and get comfortable. I’ll watch her.”

“
Okay,” Dimitrius said,
lowering Grace to Melanie’s lap. “Have you thought about dinner?
Gino isn’t scheduled to come by today.”

Gino was their chef who came by three
days a week to cook.

“
Then let’s go out for
Italian.”

Dimitrius smiled faintly. “All right.
Be right back.”

* * *

At the restaurant, Dimitrius quietly
observed Melanie with thoughts he dreaded swirling around in his
mind. He forced them away to focus on her. He watched her secure
Grace in the high chair. A very attentive mother, she made certain
to keep one of those high chair covers in each of their vehicles
just to ensure Grace didn’t pick up any germs. She removed a packet
of antibacterial wipes and cleaned the area where Grace’s hands
would come into contact with the table. Then she settled in her own
seat, looked at the menu and asked, “What are you
getting?”

“
Don’t know yet,” he said,
looking at her. The menu remained on the table in front of
him.