Wives and Champions (15 page)

“
And here I was thinking
you’d be the closed-minded, hotheaded one,” Dante said to
Dimitrius.

“
Trust me…I’m struggling
with this, too. And, on top of it all, I have a situation with
Melanie.”

“
About the ex?”

“
Yeah, man. Found out he
texted her, saying some crazy stuff like, no one would have her
heart like
he
had
it.”

Dante snickered. “He’s just trying to
get under your skin. Do you really think Melanie wants anything to
do with him?”

“
I’m not so sure. Found
out, too, that she’d been wearing a necklace he’d given her. Why
would she still be wearing the man’s necklace if she despised
him?”

Dante’s eyebrows rose. “That, I don’t
know. What I do know is, Melanie is a good woman, and there’s a
side to every story. You just need to take the time to understand
hers, just like I’m trying to understand Emily’s. Hey, nobody said
marriage would be easy, man.”

“
You’re right about that.”
Dimitrius tapped on the table and looked around the bar. “Emily’s
still in Jacksonville?”

“
She is…for a week or so,
she said. I’m trying not to crowd her. She needs time to sort some
things out and quite frankly, so do I.”

Dimitrius nodded.

Dante’s eyes shot open when he saw
Desmond walking back towards their table with Harding. “Looks like
Desmond didn’t leave after all,” he said to Dimitrius.”

Dimitrius turned around to see Desmond
walking back towards their table with a tall, gentleman who looked
almost identical to him. He frowned, then looked back at Dante. “Is
that—”

“
It is. Harding
Champion.”

Dante stood, glanced at Desmond before
turning his attention to Harding. He extended his hand. “So, we
meet again.”

Harding grinned. “Looks that
way.”

“
I see you’ve already met
my brother, Desmond.”

“
Yep.”

“
And I’m Dimitrius.”
Dimitrius stood up, shook Harding’s hand and returned to his
seat.

“
So, have a seat,” Dante
said, trying to be as cordial as he possibly could. After all, if
Harding was his half-brother, there was no need to take out any
frustration on him.

Desmond returned to his seat next to
Dimitrius while Harding took the seat next to Dante.

“
So, the other day when we
talked, I was a bit out of line,” Dante said. “I first would like
to apologize to you if I came across as rude.”

“
Thank you, but an apology
isn’t necessary. I probably would’ve had a similar reaction if some
guy walked into my place of business and claimed to be my brother,”
Harding said.

When the waiter came by, Dimitrius
ordered a round of beers.

“
So, ah, I don’t know where
to begin,” Dante said.

“
I’ll begin with this,”
Harding said, taking a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “It’s
my birth certificate.” He handed it to Dante and, sure enough,
Nolan Champion was listed as Harding’s father.

Dante passed the document to Dimitrius
who, in turn, passed it to Desmond.

“
I named my son Nolan,”
Desmond said, looking up at Harding. “How old are you?”

“
Thirty-eight.”

Desmond placed the birth certificate
on the table in front of Harding. “Well, we’re obviously related.
Anyone can see that you have a striking resemblance to each of us,
so my question for you is, why did you wait so long to say
something?”

Harding smirked. “I wanted to say
something earlier. You don’t know how many times I’ve talked myself
out of contacting you all. I didn’t know how you would react and I
didn’t want to start any family drama, so I thought it might be
best not to say anything.”

“
What changed?” Desmond
asked.

“
Interesting story,”
Harding said. “I got a call from Garrison Blackstone.”

“
Who?” Dante
asked.

“
Garrison Blackstone,”
Harding repeated.

“
He’s one of the executives
over at Blackstone Financial Services Group,” Desmond said.
“Must’ve been calling you about my recent proposal with them. Maybe
he thought you knew us…wanted to get some information.”

Harding nodded. “He asked if I knew
the three of you. Of course I gave him a yes-no answer. While I
knew you existed, I didn’t know you personally.”

“
Do you live in
Wilmington?” Desmond asked.

“
Yes, and so does my
brother and—”

With raised eyebrows, Desmond asked,
“There’s another one of you?”

The men chuckled at his question.
“Yes. I have a brother. Mordecai. And then I have two sisters –
Zoya and Amira.”

“
And you’re telling us
that
our
father
is not only
your
father but their father, too?” Dimitrius asked.

“
Yes.”

“
Are they all living in
Wilmington?” Dante asked.

“
They are.”

“
And your mother?”
Dimitrius inquired.

“
She’s there,
too.”

“
She is.”

“
What’s her
name?”

“
Florence
Ludwick.”

When the beer arrived, seemed all the
brothers took a sip precisely at the same time. All four of them.
After a round of questioning, Harding could use a break.

“
What do you do in
Wilmington?” Dante asked, looking at Harding.

“
Freelance tech
work.”

“
Such as?” Dimitrius
inquired. Since he was also tech savvy, Harding’s work caught his
attention.

“
I design websites, apps,
help businesses with search engine optimization…that sort of
thing.”

“
Sounds similar to what I
do at TCC,” Desmond said, “Although I don’t dabble with apps. I
leave that up to Dimitrius.”

Harding nodded.

“
So, where do we go from
here?” Dimitrius asked.

Harding shrugged. “I don’t know, but
listen, fellas…the last thing I want to do is cause problems within
your inner circle. My desire to reach out to you was from a place
of loss. You all had our father full-time before he died. My family
only had him part-time whenever he was in town on business. Now,
none of us have him. And to answer your question in more detail,
Desmond, about why I waited so long, my mother, from day one, told
me that you all wouldn’t want to know my family. Said you wouldn’t
claim us, and honestly, you don’t have to. My expectations weren’t
to be received with open arms, so this – your agreeing to meet with
me at a bar to discuss this – is a lot more than I
anticipated.”

“
How long are you in town,
Harding?” Dante asked.

“
I’m leaving first thing
tomorrow morning.” Harding leaned to his right side to reach for
his wallet in the back left pocket of his jeans.

“
I got the check,” Dante
told him.

“
No, I got it,” Harding
said, pulling out a few bills, placing them on the table. “Again,
thank you. It was nice to meet you, but I have to go prepare for my
departure in the morning. Besides, I know I’ve given you a lot to
think about and discuss.” He took his birth certificate from the
table and folded it.

“
All right, man. Thanks for
coming by,” Dante told him.

“
Yep. Have a good one.”
Harding walked away.

For a moment, the brothers didn’t say
a word until Dimitrius finally broke the silence by saying, “I’m
having a hard time processing this.”

“
I am, too. I can’t fathom
our father being unfaithful to mom,” Desmond said. “Do you think
Harding’s telling the truth, Dante?”

“
He stated his case as
plain as day. He even furnished his birth certificate. What more
proof do we need?”

Dimitrius sighed heavily.

“
Okay, so if he’s family,
and the evidence is pointing in that direction, I think we need to
reach out to him,” Desmond said. “Family is everything, even if you
have some you didn’t know about, right?”

“
I’d say so,” Dimitrius
said, “But it’s not so easy to accept someone who’s the result of
our father’s infidelity, now is it?”

“
No, it’s not,” Dante said.
“But—” Dante shook his head. This was troubling for him, too,
probably more than it was to his brothers, but being the oldest,
they looked up to him. So, forcing his feelings to the side, he
said, “What kind of men would we be if we got up from this table
with the mindset that we were never going to contact Harding or
attempt to get to know his family? We can’t do that. We can’t do
that to them or ourselves.”

Desmond nodded.

“
Agreed, Dimitrius?” Dante
asked, looking at him.

“
Fine.”

“
All right,” Dante said.
“I’ll contact Harding to discuss a plan of action. In the meantime,
I have to go call my wife, fellas.”

Chapter
Fifteen

“
I can’t help but notice
you’ve been different,” Antoinette said, as she stirred chicken and
dumpling soup. She placed the lid on the pot and turned the stove
down a notch.

“
Different how, mom?” Emily
asked.

Antoinette shrugged. “I can’t put my
finger on it,” she said, sitting next to Emily at the kitchen
table. “I get a sense that something’s wrong. You know you can talk
to me, don’t you?”

Emily nodded. Deciding to take her
mother up on her offer, she said, “I didn’t think it would be so
frustrating.”

“
What’s that,
dear?”

“
Marriage.”

“
Well, this isn’t your
first rodeo, Emily. You were married once before.”

“
But things were different
with Melvin. We didn’t have children.”

Antoinette chuckled a bit and said,
“Oh, now we’re getting to the root of the problem.”

Emily stood up, taking a cup of tea
with her to the window as she stood there, staring out into the
yard, admiring the palm trees. She took a sip, turned to her mother
then said, “Don’t get me wrong, mom. I love Dante. It’s just that I
didn’t expect life to be so demanding, especially after
Ezra.”

“
Are you and Dante okay?”
Antoinette asked, concerned.

A few seconds passed before Emily
answered. “I think so.”

“
But you’re not
sure?”

“
I’m sure. I love Dante,
and he loves me. But it’s not as simple as that. It’s
hard.”

“
You’re still dancing
around the issue. Just tell me exactly what’s going on.”

“
I don’t want to put our
business out there, mother.”

“
How can I help if I don’t
know what the problem is?”

Emily thought long and hard before she
said anything more. She remembered the happiness then instant
sadness in Dante’s eyes when she told him about the baby and how
she wasn’t ready for another child. He had a right to be upset. She
knew that. He cared about her, and the baby. She did, too, which is
why she wanted to keep all of her feelings to herself until she
could come to terms with having another child. But after a line of
intense questioning by him, she ended up telling him
prematurely.

“
Okay, well, the issue is,
Dante wants another baby. I do, too, but not right now.”

“
Why not? Don’t you want
your children to grow up together?”

Now you sound like
Dante.
“They
will
grow up together.”

“
So, ideally, you want to
wait until Ezra is what–three, maybe four–before you have a
baby?”

“
Yes, but Dante wants
another child right now and we got into a huge argument over
it.”

“
Well, honey, that’s
something you two have to sit down and come to an agreement on.
It’s not like he can
make
you have a baby when you’re not ready. This is
where teamwork and communication come into play.”

Emily nodded. “I don’t think I’ve ever
asked you this, but why was I an only child?”

“
I had so many
complications with you, your father and I decided it was best if we
didn’t try for more.”

“
Oh. I guess you wouldn’t
fully understand my perspective then, only having one child and
all.”

“
Try me.”

“
Well, right now, my life
is completely full,” Emily said walking back over to the table to
sit next to her mother. “I’m a wife, mother to the sweetest little
boy on the planet, I run the boutique and I try to manage a
household. With that being said, we have help. Our nanny is a
blessing but I’m jealous that she gets to spend more time with Ezra
than I do. So, now, I’m at the point where I’m like, do I give up
the boutique and become a stay-at-home mother to my children or
continue to work and—”