Love Don't Live Here Anymore (The Love Collection Book 3) (5 page)

The workday went by in a blur. Before Summer knew it, she was walking out of her building, heading toward her car. The court date had finally arrived and her emotions were all over the place. The drive from Atlanta to Virginia would be thirteen hours and she wanted time to think without having to focus on driving, so she decided to fly there and catch the train back. That way, she would have extra time to process everything. As much as she wanted to think that this was a big misunderstanding, she couldn’t ignore the constant feeling that it would turn out to be the contrary.

When Summer arrived, Mrs. Heyward was in the courtroom waiting area, sitting on a bench, clutching her Bible.

“Hi, Mrs. Heyward,” Summer said to greet her.

“Oh Summer, honey, how are you?” She stood and gave Summer a tight and warm hug.

“I’ve had better days and I’ve also had worse,” Summer replied.

Mrs. Heyward sat down on the further end of the bench to give Summer room to sit as well.

“Do you think she’s here?” Summer whispered to Mrs. Heyward.

Mrs. Heyward leaned over and whispered back, “I’m not sure. I don’t even know what this child looks like.”

Just then, a tall, slender, brown-skinned woman carrying a small child walked in. Mrs. Heyward was talking to Summer when she spotted the two of them making their entrance. She sucked in a quick breath. Summer followed her eyes and instinctively did the same.
That can’t be. Oh my, how could it not
be
, Summer thought. The little girl looked to be between one and two years of age and was a spitting image of Ajamaal.

“That’s her. It has to be,” Summer whispered. Summer couldn’t believe that she’d just come face to face with the child of her deceased fiancé. “Mrs. Heyward, that has to be her.”

“I know, baby. I think that’s my grandchild. In fact, I know it is. I don’t need no test to prove it. That little girl looks just like AJ did when he was a child.”

The security officer at the desk announced, “Jessica Mullins vs. Ajamaal Heyward.”

Sure enough, the slender woman with the child got up and headed into the courtroom. Summer and Mrs. Heyward were right behind them. After going through the formalities, the judge explained that they were there to establish paternity. She asked about AJ.

Mrs. Heyward spoke up. “Your honor, my son passed away three months ago. Sitting with me is his fiancé.” The expression on Jessica’s face went flat. She appeared more worried than sad and that struck Summer as odd.

“Your honor, how are we going to establish paternity?” Jessica asked.

The judge explained to her that paternity could be established through several ways. And seeing as though no blood samples of Ajamaal’s remained, a parent or another child could be tested to establish DNA structure.

Mrs. Heyward cut in. “To be honest, DNA isn’t needed. That baby looks just like my son, and I nor his fiancé are denying that.” 

Summer felt the same way, but she needed to know for sure. A physical comparison wasn’t enough for her. She had to be certain that the little girl in the courtroom was in fact AJ’s biological child. She wanted no confusion or second-guessing in the future. Mrs. Heyward agreed to do the test and the judge directed them to the lab for testing.

About an hour later, they were leaving the lab. Summer took in everything about Jessica. Although she was a pretty woman, with mocha skin, nice shoulder-length hair, and brown eyes, her face seemed worn, as if she had been through hell and back. She didn’t appear to be too much older or younger than Summer, so she reckoned that Jessica had to be between twenty-five and thirty years old.

The little girl was so cute. Her skin tone matched that of her mom’s but her features were all AJ. She had her father’s eyes, nose, mouth, and even his perfectly shaped eyebrows. Her hair was done up in nice little ponytails, adorned by knockers and barrettes. She had on a cute little jean jumper dress with a purple shirt underneath and purple shoes to match. Summer couldn’t take her eyes off the little girl.

“Excuse me, Jessica,” Summer called out, but Jessica kept walking.

Mrs. Heyward wasn’t sure of what Summer had to say because during the DNA testing process, Summer had chosen to sit in the waiting area. Mrs. Heyward told her that she and Jessica had exchanged a few words, but Jessica seemed distant, as if she didn’t want to chat; so Mrs. Heyward had taken the hint and left well enough alone.

“Excuse me,” Summer said again and this time Jessica stopped. “Hi, I’m Summer Hughes. I was AJ’s fiancé. Your daughter is beautiful.”

“Yeah, she’s okay. Thank you,” Jessica said flatly. “Come on, Akia.”

Her statement took Summer by surprise. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

Jessica looked down at Akia and back at Summer. “No, nothing is right in my life anymore. I really need to be going.” She walked off without another word.

Mrs. Heyward walked up to Summer. “Well, that was odd,” she said.

“Tell me about it,” Summer replied.

Something was up with Jessica and curiosity was getting the best of Summer. There were so many questions she had that required answers. How, when, why now, and a plethora of other inquiries swirled inside her head. The train ride back home was what Summer needed. After having lunch with Mrs. Heyward, they had both caught cabs to their destinations, with the promise to call one another soon. While on the train, Summer analyzed and analyzed some more and she reasoned that the only way she could get answers was to ask questions. She decided to search for Jessica on Facebook. Nowadays, everyone had a Facebook page and she was hoping that Jessica Mullins was one of them. Several photos with that name popped up. She scanned every last one of them until she came across a picture of a woman, who looked like Jessica, hugged up with a man.

Pressing the photo icon, Summer waited patiently for the page to load. Just her luck; the page was private. Summer contemplated sending her a message.
Fuck it, might as well. Inquiring minds need to know
.

The message read:
Hi Jessica. This is Summer. My number is 555-786-5682. Please call me when you can. I’d love to talk to you.

Summer read it over again and hit send. There was no need for her to get too wordy. She figured she could save all that for when they talked. She placed her phone inside her weekend bag, leaned back, and closed her eyes.

When she opened them, Summer was back in Atlanta. There was a fleet of cars outside waiting to snag a customer. As Summer was about to walk over to the nearest one, a guy came from behind, bent down, and picked up her bag.

“Don’t be bothered with them fools; I got you,” the cab driver offered. 

“Braxdon?” What are you doing here?”

“Doing my job. Now, do you need a ride or not?”

“Yeah, of course. I had no idea you drove taxis.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about a brotha,” he replied. He walked over to his cab and popped the trunk, ready to place Summer’s bag inside.

“Oh no. I’ll take that,” she rebutted, and he handed it to her.

Another patron asked for service, and Braxdon obliged. “You,” he said pointing to Summer, “sit up front.”

Summer furrowed her brows. She didn’t remember Braxdon being so authoritative. Although she wasn’t upset by his bossiness, it still took her by surprise, but she complied. After dropping off the gentleman in the back. Braxdon asked Summer where she was going. She gave him her address and he headed to that area.

“Why didn’t I hear from you after our lunch date?” he asked.

“Braxdon, to be honest with you, I have a lot going on. My mind has been here, there, and everywhere, and I’m not sure how much good company I would’ve been.”

Braxdon didn’t say anything. He just nodded real cool like. When he approached the red light, he pulled out his wallet and handed her a card.

“Oh my goodness! Braxdon Jones has health insurance,” she cooed.

Braxdon smirked. “Yeah, I made that happen. To be honest, if it wasn’t for you and your heart felt speech, I probably would’ve taken my time making that move. You were right though. My son is the most precious thing in my world and I need to make sure I’m healthy in all aspects of my life, not just in my wallet.”

Summer wondered why he’d mentioned his son but not his other child. “I thought you had two children.” 

“I do. And it’ll take a lot longer than your cab ride home to get into that.”

Braxdon seemed like an attentive and caring dad and it struck her as odd that he raved so much about his son but not his daughter. Sure, little girls were daddy’s girl but for some reason Braxdon was head over hills with only his son. Nosiness was getting the best of her but she decided to leave it alone. If and when he wanted to elaborate, he would.

Braxdon pulled up to the development where Summer was renting the home meant for her and AJ.

“Thanks for getting me home safe,” she said.

“It’s nothing, Miss Lady. So when am I gonna see you again?” he inquired.

Summer gave it some thought. Lunch with Braxdon had turned out to be better than she thought it would be, but the truth was she hadn’t given much thought to seeing him anymore after that. “I don’t know. I have your number, so I’ll call you.”

Braxdon twisted his lips and sucked his teeth. “You stay frontin’, Miss Lady. But it’s all good. Front on. One day, I’mma make you love me, baby,” he teased.

Summer smirked. “Nah, boo. I don’t think so. Love don’t live here anymore.” She patted her chest where her heart was. Summer exited his cab and gently closed the door behind her. She had barely made it inside her home when her phone started ringing. Although she didn’t recognize the number, she answered it anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Summer?”

“Yeah, this is she. Who’s calling?”

“Jessica.”

Summer’s heart raced and she had to find a seat. She really wanted to talk to Jessica but she had no idea she would call so soon. “Hi.”

“Hello. I want to apologize for earlier. It’s just that I’ve been in such a bad place lately and finding out that Ajamaal had passed made things worse.” Before Summer could begin her barrage of questions, Jessica continued. “You see, Ajamaal and I only dated for a few weeks. When we first started communicating, I was already in a long-term relationship with someone. My then boyfriend did a lot of traveling for his job. After a while, I started to feel lonely and began seeking affection elsewhere. That’s when I met AJ.

There were times when my boyfriend would return from his ‘business trips’ and not even touch me. His behavior was so abnormal that I started snooping but never discovered anything. I was convinced that he was doing me wrong, but I couldn’t find proof. But that didn’t stop me from messing around on him while he was away. I started seeing AJ, and two weeks into our courting—if you can even call it that—I slept with him. We only had sex three times, and each time he wore a condom. During one of the rare times that my boyfriend was home, he had used my phone, and when he saw a text from AJ, he freaked. I was given an ultimatum, so I quickly cut it off with AJ. My boyfriend and I got engaged and I never spoke to AJ again.

Six months later, I ran into AJ at the coffee shop. He just stared at me and then my belly because by then, I was beginning to show. That afternoon, he walked into my office and asked me if the baby could be his. I told him no because, to be honest, I didn’t think there was any way Akia could be AJ’s. Like I said, we always used protection. AJ admitted that one time during sex the condom had broken.

When Akia was born, she didn’t look like anyone we knew. The older Akia got, the tanner she became. After a while, we knew there was no way she would ever look like my husband, you see, because he is Caucasian and there was no resemblance.”

Caucasian?
“You mean white?” Summer asked in shock, hoping it didn’t come across the wrong way to Jessica.

“Yes. When Akia turned one, he demanded a blood test and if I denied him, he told me that he would automatically file for divorce; so I agreed to the test. I hoped and prayed that some way, some how, Akia would be my husband’s, but in my heart I knew she wasn’t. The results came back that the baby was not his and when he found out, he told me he wanted to separate. He said that as long as I was raising another man’s child he wanted nothing to do with me … or her.” Jessica sighed. “I know I shouldn’t be telling you all of this, but I felt you needed to know. After all, it’s only fair, especially since you can’t get any answers from AJ.”

Summer couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Just when she was about to ask Jessica what her plans were after the paternity results, she spoke again.

“I love my husband more than anything. He has always been good to me. He’s a great provider and lover, and the thought of my illegitimate child coming in between my husband’s and my happiness pains me. AJ was the only man I’d had sex with besides him, so I know she’s his.”

That was a lot to take in. The next dose of reality came when Jessica—in so many words—confessed to loving and wanting her husband more than her own flesh and blood. That hurt Summer to the core. Her parents would give their golden wings to come back to earth to be with their children. Now, she had heard a mother basically denounce her child. That caused a level of discomfort that Summer had never felt before.