I opened my eyes just in time to see Maud trying to take off my shoe. I glared at her and she grinned. I struggled to my feet with the assistance of Reverend Julian. I was no lightweight so Maud had to come to our assistance. I sat down in the chair and turned to Reverend Julian as he handed me the letter which had fallen from my hand to the floor. "Did you know about this?" I asked. "Oh no Miss Cecelia!" was his swift response. When Cassie's Grandmother asked me to read the letter and I noticed the name on the birth certificate, I just knew that I had to get it to you right away. It's a good thing that Cassie's Grandmother
is illiterate because the entire community would have known about it." I shook my head in agreement and said it would have been on Facebook and my friends and coworkers would have known about it before me! Awe sah. I put on my glasses and started to read the letter. It began with:
“My Dearest Esmie,
It is with great sadness that I write to you. However, by the time you receive this letter I will be out of the country. I am very sorry but I will not be able to see you anymore. It was so wrong, of me, to start a relationship with you in the first place knowing that I would not be able to give you what you wanted. You said you wanted us to get married but I could never marry you. Why not, you ask? Because I am already married. Yes, I was wicked and cruel to hide this fact from you, but I could not resist the temptation of being with you Esmie. You are so young and full of life! I have never been so happy! You make me laugh so much and just thinking about you makes me smile through my tears. My wife and I are leaving for England today. I don’t know if she suspects anything but based on her actions of late I believe she knows that I am seeing someone else. The Doctor has said that she is dying and that I should do my best not to upset her in any way. The sickness my wife has can linger for years and caring for her will take up a tremendous amount of my time and will leave me with no time to be with you. It is really best that I end the relationship and we not see each other again. Forgive me please. If it is God’s will for us to be together then it will happen. One thing I am certain about is that I love you Esmie, and I always will.
Yours always,
Vincent.
p.s. Please check with Miss Norma, I gave her an envelope with $10,000.00 to give to you.”.
p.p.s. I love you Esmie.
I threw the letter on the floor! I was furious! How could my father do this to my mother! How dare him! I realized that I did not know my father as well as I thought I did. “How could my father be so callous as to have an affair with a young girl, knowing he was married, and end it like that! Not to mention leaving her while she was pregnant!” I exclaimed. “Calm down.” said Reverend Julian, “Based on the conversation I had with Cassie’s Grandmother, the father of the child did not know that Esmie was pregnant. One of Esmie’s friends told her that it was after Vincent left for England that Esmie realized that she was pregnant. Esmie was ashamed that she had no way of contacting him to let him know about the pregnancy and that was the reason why she refused to talk about him.” I sighed. I had always wanted a younger sister and I had one and did not know. I remembered once when I asked my mother why she didn’t have more children and she said I was enough for her and God was satisfied. I also remembered how my parents looked when they returned from England after being there for nearly two years. My mother was withdrawn and my father would have this faraway look in his eyes. He was probably thinking about Cassie's mother! I sat up in the chair, it was all making sense to me now! “Cassie knew that we were sisters and that’s the reason why she came here to the house!” Maud responded “Of course!” Reverend Julian shook his head in agreement. “Your father’s information was on her birth certificate and in this age of technology and your father being who he was it would not take her too long to put two and two together.” I said I wished she had told me. The Reverend agreed, “But” he asked, “Would you have believed her? You would have demanded to see the birth certificate and maybe she would have refused to show it to you. You were definitely sisters because you both had that stubborn streak just like your Grandmother Charmaine.” I squirmed a little when he said that. "Reverend Julian, you saw her attitude when she came here, she was practically demanding to stay here!" I said. "And that's because she knew that this was her father's house and she felt she would be safe here." said Reverend Julian. Conroy left from Maud’s arms and came and crawled into my lap. I rubbed the top of his head fondly. It was hard to believe that I now had a nephew! I asked Reverend Julian what was going to happen to Conroy? Both his parents were dead. Was he taking him back to Cassie’s Grandmother or was he going to keep him? Reverend Julian cleared his throat and said, “I’m afraid you’ll have to keep him Miss Cecelia.”
“Whhaattt!” I sputtered.
No comments:
Post a Comment