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Authors: Vanessa Davis Griggs

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“Would you risk your career for this situation?” Lawrence said.
“I'm sorry. I'm not quite following you,” Zachary said.
Lawrence looked at Gabrielle as he spoke. “When Gabrielle and I spoke that other time, she indicated, or one might say
threatened
, to use the information about me and her to get me to do what she wanted.”
“I didn't actually threaten you,” Gabrielle said. “I was just letting you know that this was important and that I'd do whatever was needed to help save her life.”
“You say toma-toe; I say to-mato,” Lawrence said. “I don't like being threatened or
made
to do what others say I have to. If you're the child's birth mother and you don't match, what makes you think I would be a match, even if I was the birth father? What I'm afraid of is that you'll try and pull my children into this—”
“With all due respect,” Zachary said. “Siblings are much better at being a match than even a parent is most of the time.”
“That may very well be,” Lawrence said. “And if this was one of the three children my wife and I had produced, there might be more of a case for that being true. But let's just hypothetically say that this child is mine, hypothetically now. My other children have the DNA of me and my wife. We would all actually be going through a bunch of trouble for nothing because the likelihood of any of them matching with a child I supposedly had with this woman here”—he used his head to point to Gabrielle—“would be no better than another set of strangers possibly matching. You would be tearing up my family for nothing.”
“May I make a suggestion,” Gabrielle said. “The only people who know anything about this at this point are me, you, and Zachary.”
“And William,” Lawrence said. “William knows.”
“Okay, then,” Gabrielle said. “Me, you, Zachary, and William. Why don't you use this issue as part of your reelection campaign platform?”
Lawrence leaned in closer. “I'm not following. What do you mean?”
“I mean you say that you're pro-life. Why does pro-life only seem to mean protecting the unborn child? Why is pro-life not about life
after
a child is born? Think of the good you'd do if your platform somehow brought awareness to those in need of donor-type help . . .” Gabrielle stopped to compose herself. “Black people aren't so great when it comes to being donors. If you were to take the initiative on something like bone marrow transplant, you could help bring more awareness to the forefront. At the same time of leading in this, you could show how lives can be saved, if it turns out you or one of your children is a match and becomes a donor.”
“I just don't know about my children being involved. And let's just say one of them turns out to be a match. I would never force them to do something like this, not if they didn't want to do it on their own.”
“If one of them turned out to be a match,” Zachary said, “at worst, their part would only require them to have a special needle draw marrow from their hip bone. Here lately, they've developed a way to do it like taking blood, separating the cells needed and pumping the blood back into the donor. And since the donor's part is an outpatient procedure, there's no real recovery time required. The body replenishes the extracted morrow cells very quickly.”
“Still, what you're proposing,” Lawrence said to both Gabrielle and Zachary, “might be something to consider as a possible win for all. But I'd have to think about it a bit longer. I'm not quite sold on the part that if I'm not a match, I'd need to involve my children. That's the part causing me pause and concern. Also feeling as though I'm being blackmailed into doing this doesn't sit well with me either.”
“I'm not blackmailing you,” Gabrielle said. “I'm merely fighting for a child who didn't ask to come here and who appears to have been dealt a bad hand. I'm praying for her healing but doing what I can to help. I don't match, so I'm on step two of the process of what comes after that. And that just happens to involve you.”
“Well, if God were to heal her, it would certainly save all of us a lot of heartache and trouble,” Lawrence said. “I wouldn't have to be weighing my options right now. And you, Dr. Morgan, wouldn't have to be wondering what tangled webs you may have gotten yourself into.”
Zachary stood, reached down, and took Gabrielle by the hand, helping her to her feet. Gazing lovingly into Gabrielle's eyes, he said, “I don't have to ever worry about what I've gotten myself into. I'm just thankful to God that I'm here. And I can assure you: I'm going to do all that I can, in anyway that I can.” He turned back to Lawrence. “I'm confident God will take care of this little girl, He'll take care of Gabrielle, and He'll take care of me as we go through whatever we may find ourselves facing.”
Lawrence stood to his feet. “Well, I will pray about my next move.”
Gabrielle picked up her purse and took out a card. “Here's the info you need to schedule the test to see if you're even a possible candidate to be a match. If you'll provide them with that access code, it will let them know you desire to be tested for that particular recipient and
only
that one.”
Lawrence took the card and gazed down at it before looking at Gabrielle. “This is good, because I'm
seriously
not trying to be a donor for anybody else I might end up being a possible match to.” He laid the card down on his desk.
“Oh, and since I have such a hard time getting past Ms. Stevens when I call to talk to you, will you—”
“I will inform Mattie to put you through if I'm available. And if I'm not, I promise to call you back as soon as it's convenient. But I'd like to put this to rest, once and for all, to take this completely off the table. So I'm going to go get tested. And should the results return stating that I'm not even
remotely
close to being a possible match, then let's all agree to leave this and be done with it. Agreed?” Lawrence presented his hand to Gabrielle to shake in agreement.
Gabrielle looked at his open hand, then shook it. “Agreed,” she said.
He held out his hand to Zachary next. As Zachary shook it, Lawrence grabbed him by the elbow with his other hand, giving it a nice strong pump.
A power move,
Zachary thought as he smiled.
Okay, so . . . he's trying to prove he's the more powerful between me and him.
Zachary nodded.
Chapter 23
I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
—Hosea 13:5
 
 
 
W
illiam was in Lawrence's office before his two visitors were out good. He practically slammed the door. “What was
that
all about?”
Lawrence had his chair turned as he stared out of the window. He turned around slowly.
“And why did you send me out of here? You know I would have gotten the two of them out of here quickly and with minimal damage,” William said, sitting down.
Lawrence rocked his chair back and forth.
“Will you say something?” William said.
“It's okay. I think I handled things all right. You know I'm quite capable of watching my own back. I was doing it long before we met.”
“Yeah. Back when neither of us had a pot nor a window to throw anything out of.”
“Must you always go there?” Lawrence said.
“Well, at least I cleaned the quote up. But you know I'm speaking the truth. You and I were out there wandering in the wilderness. Times were tough. We were eating dust from drought,” William said. “You'd met Deidra and she was more accustomed to the finer things in life.”
“Yeah,” Lawrence said. “And still, I won her over.”
“You with your good little church boy act. Quoting scriptures and having folks saying that you had a calling on your life. You have a certain charm, that's for sure. And your charm is definitely an asset in politics. But some of the messes, which come as a result of fallout, can be hard to mop up.”
Lawrence opened the red folder. “I'm more interested right now in this tidbit of information you just dug up about my son-in-law. So it appears Paris was right. Andrew
did
know Gabrielle prior to the other day.”
“It looks that way. Not that there's anything listed saying that they dated or anything. But there was definitely something that went on.”
Lawrence closed the folder. “Well, all of this is starting to get out of hand. I was just with Andrew and he pretty much lied to my face.”
William laughed. “That's funny coming from you.”
“I don't lie. What I do is called massaging the truth.”
“Yeah. Some form of truth is generally in there somewhere. It's just a matter of finding where and getting your hands on it. But on another note: Your little girlie friend that just left appears to be a problem we really don't need. Mattie told me that was Dr. Morgan with her. So I suppose our plan to expose her past to him in order to get her to back down is out of the window now?”
Lawrence nodded. “He knows everything. Except that one bit of news I sprung on him about her knowing Andrew. Apparently Gabrielle totally forgot to mention that to him even after running into Andrew the other day. Maybe the two of them are not as tight as they'd like me to believe. I have to give it to him though; he's standing with her on this. I don't know if she's
that
good or if he just really cares about that child in need of that transplant.”
“Speaking of which,” William said. “As I'm sure you saw in the folder, there really
is
a child, and she really
is
in need of a bone marrow transplant. Whether the child was fathered by you or not, without a blood test or DNA to confirm it, I honestly can't say.” William reared back on his chair's hind legs and smiled as he looked at Lawrence.
“If your question is: Was I there at one point in time and is there any possibility, then the answer is yes. But that admission is strictly to remain between me and you.”
“Man, you know I'm not going to say anything. I've kept all your
other
secrets all of these years.”
“As I have yours, in case you'd like to believe you're some saint without sin and can freely cast the first stone.” Lawrence's face was stern.
“Hey, that's what blood brothers do. That's what being a blood brother is all about. And you and I are brothers to the end. We've come too far to mess up now. So”—William clapped his hand—“what are our plans for the present mess we find ourselves in? In addition to, of course, that Rev. Walker fiasco that I believe we may be able to get out of easier than even
we
first thought. Greed is such an ugly animal. Someone should have informed Marshall Walker of that, a long time ago. So, I think we can cross Rev. Walker off the
done
list. And now that we've run into this information on Andrew, he just
might
help us more than he was originally willing to do if we need it.” William beamed with pride. “Conflict of interest, my foot!”
“Andrew is
still
family now. Whatever negatively affects Andrew, affects my daughter. And whatever affects Paris—”
“Affects the whole entire world,” William said. “Especially since Paris thinks the whole world revolves around her.”
“Precisely. If Paris is affected, then her mother will most certainly get involved. Then I'll be left to have to act like I care and that I'm doing all I can to fix it. I don't want to even start down that road. Not with everything else that's going on and most likely will be still going on if this bone marrow donor situation breaks the wrong way. Leave my son-in-law to me. You just remain focused on getting me reelected or we'll
both
find ourselves looking for a job.”
“Right,” William said. “And what about Miss Goodness and Mercy . . . Gabrielle Mercedes?”
“William, I know you'd love nothing more than to put her in her place. But I must say: She offered a pretty compelling solution to this whole mess should we need to go there. I didn't dare let on too much to either of them today, but I believe her idea could be just what this campaign needs to give me that air of caring boost that those focus groups you paid all that money to claimed I lacked and needed to strengthen my reelection bid.”
“Okay,” William said. “I'm all ears.”
Lawrence recapped what Gabrielle had said about a bone marrow donor awareness campaign where he and his family would appear to be leading the charge.
“So let me see if I've gotten this straight,” William said. “You want us to pretend we're taking this on, highlighting awareness for folks to consider becoming donors in some form or another, highlighting the plight of those especially in need of bone marrow transplants. You'll parade your family out to the public to prove just how serious and how much you truly are behind this rhetoric.”
William made several approving facial expressions. “Admirable. But what happens if, let's say, you or one of your children turn out to be a match? Then what? Can you seriously convince your family to go along with something like this? Being a donor for most folks is no joke. Black folks don't even want to hear about it, let alone possibly offer themselves up. And I don't mean to beat a dead horse to death, but I'm sure Paris will be the first to give you attitude about doing anything like this.”
“I've thought about that. But we're basically planning to highlight only one person to bring home the point. We're not putting ourselves out there to be a donor for just anybody in need. Think of all the publicity we'll generate doing something like this. We make a big show about the initial test required, complete with the cotton swab inside the cheeks. Again, using this one person as the one we're trying to help. When it comes back that none of us are even
possible
candidates for any further matching testing, then it's done . . . it's over. My candidacy profile is raised considerably. Me and my family appear to truly care about others. And this child's plight has gained exposure she otherwise wouldn't have received, possibly finding her a
real
donor.”
“Okay. I get that part. But
if
there's another person that one of you matches and you refuse to help, how will it look if you balk at going further for
that
person?”
“That's why I'm expecting you to have this all crafted to protect us from anything remotely like that happening. Again, we'll emphasize our main goal is to shine the light on help for this young child, which will absolutely be true. And just imagine the residual publicity that will occur if a match is found from someone who was encouraged to be tested through our campaign drive.”
William nodded. “Yeah. This could really give you a boost in the polls. It will definitely get you tons of publicity that we
absolutely
can use to get more of the word out about your political agenda. I have to admit, Lawrence: This really could turn out to be a win-win for ever ybody.”
Lawrence leaned back in his chair as he gazed up at the ceiling. “It would definitely be a win-win for
all
concerned.”
“The real win will be you getting your family on board with this.”
Lawrence sat back straight and faced William. “You handle your part and leave my family to me.”
William stood up to leave. “I'll get right on it.”
“Oh, and William?”
William stopped. “Yeah?”
“Do your magic or whatever it is you do, and get Mattie to start putting Gabrielle's calls through to me if she calls in the future. I don't need Gabrielle riled at this point. If we play this right, she won't be bothering us too much longer, especially after this is all over.”
William chuckled. “Man, you know you have more influence over Mattie than I do.”
“Yeah, but when something like this comes from you, she knows we're not playing and there's no room for her creative implementation of the order.”
“I suppose what you're
really
doing, in your slick way, is letting
me
know that I need to cooperate better with Gabrielle as well. That's what you're really doing right now.” William nodded. “I don't know why you're trying to play me.”
“I just don't need any more trouble coming from Gabrielle. If we play our cards right, I'll do this little swab test, get the word out about the plight of this child, who I'm sure is a sweet child regardless of
who
her father really is, and in just a few weeks . . . tops, all of this goes away. Poof! A mere distant memory of what was.”
“Yeah. A blip on the radar, then we're on to our
next
exciting opportunity that awaits us with open arms.”
“Oh, and William? One more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“I want you to participate in the swab test phase along with us. And get as many on our staff and working on my campaign as possible to sign up as well.”
“Me? You want
me
to do it? How did I get involved in this?” William said. “I didn't sleep with her.”
“We're a team, remember? And we want people, including my family, to believe this is a team effort. If we're going to do this and not draw attention or scrutiny, then we all need to put some skin in the game. Or as will be in this case: a little saliva on a piece of cotton.”
“And I suppose it goes without saying that we're on a short timetable for all of this to take place?”
“Yeah. I'm going to go get tested tomorrow so I can see where I stand,” Lawrence said. “I'm going to do it through their anonymous system first.”
“You know, if it turns out that you're a good candidate for a match, then maybe none of us will need to do it at all. What say before I begin to move on this, we wait on your results to come back first? If you end up being a match, then I'd recommend we adjust this strategy completely.”
Lawrence looked up at the ceiling again. “You know . . . that's probably the best plan. Because if I
am
a match, we'd really need to keep this as hushed as possible,” Lawrence said.
“Yeah. And if you're a match and end up qualifying as a donor for her, we could easily manufacture a business trip for you while you have the procedure done and the time you need to recuperate.”
Lawrence nodded. “Good looking out. But if they say I'm not even a potential candidate to proceed any further and we need to involve my children to satisfy Gabrielle and keep her quiet with what she knows, then we'll enact Operation Become a Possible Donor.”
“Hey, I like that: Operation Become a Possible Donor.” William walked to the door and opened it. “I like that.” He closed the door as he left.
Lawrence retrieved the card Gabrielle had given him with the special number connected to the child in need of the bone marrow transplant, picked up the phone, and made an appointment. He then called Andrew and told him he needed to see him again, sooner rather than later.
It was on now.

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