Ties That Bind Page 21

  “Don’t insult my intelligence. I know about your ongoing affair with Harry Connors eight of the ten years we were married. But at least, as far as I know, Harry had the decency take you to hotels rather than screw you under my roof.”

  She lifted her chin and glared at him, wondering how he’d known about her and Harry. They had tried being careful. Harry was a bank executive she had met long after her marriage to Randolph. When she saw that Randolph had had every intention of keeping his word and not make their marriage legitimate, she had turned to Harry for sexual relief. “Harry loves me.”

  Randolph smiled but it was a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Then you should marry him, or hasn’t he asked you?”

  Angela’s gazed hardened. “That would pose a problem since I still consider myself married to you. There were those ten words the preacher spoke that day that sounded like … what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.’”

  Randolph drew in a shuddering breath to keep his anger in check. “There’s also a line about not committing adultery. You should have thought of that before you began opening your legs to every Tom, Dick … and Harry.”

  She glowered furiously at him. “I didn’t come here to be insulted. I thought I’d let you know about Trey. You may as well get used to the idea that your son won’t accept another woman in your life.”

  “No thanks to you. I’ll deal with Trey in my own way. He’s going to have to realize that he can’t have everything he wants and that we’ll never be a family again.”

  He sat down behind his desk as he continued to stare at her. “Besides, in a few years he’ll be so absorbed in a woman of his own, he’ll care less about what I’m doing and who I’m doing it with. What will you do then, Angela, when you won’t have him to use as leverage with me? Take my advice and get a life.”

  Randolph watched her face as her anger rose to the boiling point just moments before she snatched open the door and walked out.

  A few minutes after she had left, he leaned back in his chair. His chest expanded and he drew in a deep breath. No man should have to put up with an ex-wife like Angela and if it weren’t for his son, he wouldn’t either. He loved Trey very much, and Trey loved his mother and thought she could do no wrong.

  If only he knew.

  But his son didn’t know and like it or not, Randolph had always shielded Trey from the sordid truth about Angela. But he refused to allow Angela to use his love for Trey as a way to keep him on a leash.

  Randolph stood and moved to one of the windows in his office that faced downtown Richmond. He would never forget the time he’d run into Kathy Taylor, the woman who’d been Angela’s best friend, confidante and her roommate in law school. Like him, Kathy had been one of many attorneys attending a four-day conference in Houston. She had joined him for dinner that first night and it didn’t take long, after she’d consumed a couple of drinks, to spill her guts.

  He could remember that night like it was yesterday …

  “So, how are things going with you and Angela?” Kathy asked, taking another sip of brandy. Evidently she liked the stuff, Randolph thought, since she was drinking it quite heavily.

  “As Angela’s best friend I’d think you would know,” he responded dryly, taking a sip of his own drink. He wondered why he had asked her to join him for dinner. There were too many things about her that reminded him of Angela.

  She smiled as she took another sip of brandy. “Angela and I haven’t kept up over the years. She found out I was bumping and grinding a former lover of hers and didn’t like it too much, although the man hadn’t slept with her in years—at least not since we had graduated from college.”

  Randolph lifted a brow, thinking Kathy was mistaken. There couldn’t have been former lovers for Angela since she had been a virgin when he’d touched her. Unless Kathy was referring to someone Angela had screwed around with after her marriage to him. Not knowing which was the case, the attorney in him decided to dig deeper, especially since Kathy was flapping her jaws with all kinds of information. “I thought Angela was a virgin.”

  Kathy began laughing so hard, for a moment Randolph thought she would choke on her drink. After a few hearty laughs she was able to recomposed herself. “Virgin! I can’t believe you of all people fell for that. Angela was screwing anything in pants while attending Bronson.” Kathy giggled. “Hell, she even got it on a few times with the security guard. But her main squeeze was Dean Hightower himself. He showed her all the tricks of the trade and in return he made sure she got good grades. He even arranged her abortion when she got pregnant by him in her senior year of college.”

  Randolph stared across the table at Kathy. He was shocked as hell. Could she be telling the truth? If she was telling the truth then how had Angela convinced everyone, including his grandmother, that she was a prim and proper innocent? Convincing Ross would have been fairly easy since the two had never slept together, and he remembered nothing of that day they had slept together other than waking up in bed with her and Jenna standing over them.

  He watched Kathy, who had stopped drinking long enough to wrap spaghetti around her fork and chew, return his scrutiny smiling. “It’s hard to digest, isn’t it? What I’ve just told you about Angela. She started freaking out when she was pregnant with Trey thinking you would find out about the abortion. Her doctor did and he asked her about it and she confessed all. But her doctor assured her that her medical history was confidential.” Kathy smiled, taking another sip of wine. “She’s been a good actress all these years. In fact, one of the nation’s wealthiest men, Robert Morgan, is the one who taught her all about blowjobs when he paid a visit to Bronson while she was there.”

  Randolph pushed his plate aside, no longer having an appetite. He met Kathy’s gaze across the table. He decided to play another hunch. “What about that time she slept with me? Was she being an actress then?”

  Kathy chuckled and replied, “Depends on how you look at it. You’ve always been an obsession with Angela. She was with Ross but wanted you. In fact she would sleep with all those guys pretending they were you. The more you ignored her the more obsessed she became. She had been waiting for some way to rid herself of Ross and his death gave her a perfect opportunity. She didn’t waste any time trading one brother in for another one, including taking some speed off me to drug you with. Your mind was all screwed up over losing Ross, your girlfriend was out of town and Angela’s body was hot. She knew what she was doing and did it. Her plan worked just the way she wanted it except she hadn’t counted on your girlfriend forgiving you after being caught in bed with her.” Kathy laughed out loud. “Now that really pissed her off. But she wasn’t about to give up. Right after Ross’s funeral she slept with a number of guys, intent on getting pregnant from one of them and claiming the child was yours.”

  Kathy shook her head, grinning. “Did you know that she wasn’t even sure the baby was really yours until Trey came out looking just like you? There was no doubt he was yours. She was so happy she couldn’t stand it that you had indeed been the one to get her pregnant. Now that was good timing on her part.”

  Randolph sat there, not believing what he was hearing. But after listening to Kathy, things were beginning to fall into place, like Angela’s insistence that he not go with her to her doctor appointments when she was pregnant with Trey.

  Later that night when he’d retired to his hotel room, he had laid in bed and replayed in his mind everything Kathy had told him, especially the part of how he had ended up in bed with Angela that day. She had drugged him.

  He’d been furious, madder than hell and the next morning he had checked out of the hotel with the intention of confronting Angela with everything that he had learned. His unexpected return home had been the cause of another revelation for him, when he had walked into his house and found her making love with their neighbor’s son who’d been home from college.

  Although she had asked his forgiveness about being caught in the act—which he refused to do—R
andolph had never shared with her his meeting with Kathy and the fact that he knew how far she had gone to seduce him during the time of Ross’s death, and about her sordid past and her abortion. Even now she didn’t know he knew everything.

  Randolph walked back over to his desk, opened his briefcase and pulled out the envelope that had been delivered to him that morning before leaving for the courthouse. The letter had come from the private investigation firm he had used to find Jenna when no one would tell him of her whereabouts. Although he had honored her wishes and hadn’t sought her out after finding out where she had gone, he had to know she was doing all right. So each year the PI firm had reported to him, usually in a one-page briefing.

  He’d known about her father’s death from with cancer eight years ago, and on impulse had gone to the Knoxville cemetery and had been there, watching from afar as John Haywood was laid to rest.

  It had been the first time he had seen Jenna in the four lonely years since she had disappeared from his life and her beauty had still taken his breath away. And on that cold, gray day as sprinkles of snow blanketed the earth, unknown to her, he had been there for her, just like she had been there for him the day Ross had been buried. He had wanted to go to her, talk to her, touch her, let her know he was there. And he wanted to ask her if the same beautiful memories that had sustained him over the years were sustaining her. But he had done none of those things. Instead, he had caught a plane back to Richmond that day to return to the wife he didn’t want and the son he loved to distraction.

  The following year he had received the letter from the investigation firm advising him that Jenna had married a man by the name of Steven Malone; a guy who worked for the same company she did. And then two years later he’d been told of the birth of her daughter, a little girl that she had named Haywood.

  He inhaled deeply as he tore open the envelope and read the contents.

  November 10, 1980

  Mr. Fuller,

  Please find our annual report on Jenna Haywood Malone. We regret to inform you of the passing of Mrs. Malone’s husband, Steven Malone, from a sudden heart attack, just one month after our last report had been sent to you.

  Mrs. Malone and her daughter now reside in Atlanta, Georgia. Her change of address is noted on the card enclosed with this letter.

  Please contact our company if you have any questions. Your next report will be sent in approximately twelve months from the date of this letter.

  Respectfully yours,

  Aaron Exelberg, Exelberg Investigators

  Randolph’s breath caught in his throat as he folded the letter. Jenna was no longer married.

  “You know, Jen, it’s a sad day for our country when an over-the-hill movie star can become a United States president.”

  Jenna smiled but didn’t bother glancing up from icing the cake she had baked. Carol Strong, her neighbor and a woman she considered a friend, was still upset about an election that had been held over two weeks ago. “If hearing about it bothers you that much why don’t you turn off the television?”

  “I would but then I’ll risk the chance of not finding out who shot J.R. Tonight was the worst possible time for my television to go on the blink.”

  Jenna shook her head. Carol was hooked to the nighttime soap opera, Dallas, and had called her in a panic. Tonight was the night that concluded the cliffhanger and according to the newspapers they expected the show to draw more viewers than any other show in television’s history.

  Jenna was glad she’d never gotten caught up watching it. Friday nights were the time she got to unwind and spend with Haywood. At six, this was her daughter’s first year of school and the report card she had brought home today indicated she was doing extremely well—which was the reason for the cake. Haywood had been close to her father and missed having him around. That was why Jenna had made the decision to move to Atlanta. She thought the change in location would do them both some good.

  “If they show one more commercial, I’m going to scream!” Carol yelled, breaking into Jenna’s thoughts.

  “They have to make their money somehow,” Jenna said, stepping back from the table to view her handiwork. “So what do you think?”

  Carol took her gaze off the television long enough to give the frosted cake a cursory glance. “I think it would have been appreciated much more if you had made it with green icing. You know how much Haywood loves green.”

  Jenna chuckled. That was an understatement. The two most important things in her daughter’s life at the moment were the color green and the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

  “Speaking of Haywood, where is she? I haven’t seen her but once since I got here.”

  Jenna decided not to tell Carol that Haywood had come through the kitchen several times but that Carol had been too absorbed in Dallas to notice. “Right now she’s in my room playing with that Pac-Man game her uncle Jarvis gave her.”

  Jenna had just placed the cake in its keeper when Carol released a long whistle. “Now that’s the kind of commercial break I don’t mind,” she said, indicating the quick news flash that had spread across the television. “He’s one good-looking man and he’s winning every case he gets his hands on.”

  “Who?” Jenna asked as she snapped the lid to the cake keeper in place.

  “That hotshot attorney, Randolph Fuller.”

  Jenna’s hands froze. “What about Randolph Fuller?” she asked, trying to sound calm.

  “I said he’s won another case and it was one everybody was convinced would go the other way. He’s dynamite as an attorney and is definitely making a name for himself. This is the sixth high-profile case he’s taken on in the last three years and won. He’s really something else and to top it off he looks totally awesome. A man like that would definitely make me forget about watching Dallas. Look at him, Jenna, and let’s see if you don’t start drooling at the mouth.”

  Jenna looked at the television where an interview segment between Randolph and some reporter was being shown. She didn’t start drooling but she did feel a strong, stirring sensation in her stomach. In less than six months, both she and Randolph would be celebrating birthdays. She would be thirty-four and he would be thirty-six. And like Carol she had to admit, he looked totally awesome. Time had only enhanced his looks.

  She blinked when the television went into another commercial, wishing she had not seen his face on the screen. Seeing it brought back memories too powerful and too painful to dwell on after twelve years.

  Later that night after Carol had left and Haywood had gone to bed, Jenna sat in the rocking chair in her room and tried to read a book. The words appeared fuzzy to her mind as her thoughts drifted back twelve years to the last night she and Randolph had shared together. She had known it would be their last but he had not.

  Instead of the two spending Christmas with her family as originally planned, Randolph had spent time with his grandparents in Virginia and South Carolina. The holidays had been hard for them since it had been the first without Ross. He had arrived in Memphis two days before New Year’s and from the moment he had walked into her apartment, she had tried to absorb him within herself knowing it would be the last time she could do so.

  Without bothering to explain why, she had encouraged him to remain inside the apartment with her. She didn’t want to go out and do any of the stuff they had planned to do like go to a New Year’s Eve party. Instead, in the hours leading into 1968, the need to be a part of him had grown into a clawing ache that had to be filled.

  And filled it he had. He had kissed her over and over again, everywhere, touching her, caressing her, preparing her body to take his and by the time she had, she had experienced one mind-blowing orgasm. It had been the first of many.

  That night they had made love with their hearts, minds and souls as well as with their bodies. Neither spoke of Angela and the baby she carried or how the situation would affect them and their relationship. All they had wanted was to concentrate on each other and the love they shared. H
e spent five glorious days with her and a week after he left, so did she. She left for Paris without letting him know where she was going.

  When April fourth came around, a day they had shared celebrating their birthdays together for the last two years, she had been so miserable she had gotten sick. It didn’t help matters when news reached her that day about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. She had cried her eyes out over such a loss and knew that back home in the States, masses of people were also grieving. She had thought of Randolph and what he had to have been feeling. He had always admired and respected the civil rights leader and after working with Dr. King that summer on the voter registration drive, she knew Randolph’s admiration and respect had increased. And then two months later, in June, tragedy struck again when Robert Kennedy was gunned down. It seemed during that time America was losing all of their good leaders. Leaders who had been committed to making a difference.

  The ringing of the telephone interrupted Jenna’s thoughts, bringing her back to the present. She automatically reached for it, thinking it was probably one of her brothers. All three had remained in Atlanta after graduating from Morehouse. And her mother, lonely after her father’s death, had moved to Atlanta to be near her children. “Yes?”

  “Jenna? Hi, it’s Leigh.”

  A huge smile touched Jenna’s lips. “Leigh, how are you doing? How are Noah and the kids?”

  “Everyone is fine. I’m sure you’ve heard what Castro did. The entire city of Miami is up in arms right now, and as city commissioner, Noah has his hands full.”