BirthRight by Sydney Addae

don’t know, do you,
mom?”
    It was on the tip of her tongue to lash out,
but she resisted and shook her head instead. Rather than explode
over her treatment, she picked up her purse, hefted it onto her
shoulder and left the room without a backward glance. She’d made it
to the lobby, when her cell beeped.
    Inhaling, she spoke in a calm tone. “Hey,
baby. Where are you?” she asked Tyrese while pushing open the heavy
glass door and then walking into the gardens.
    “I’m just finishing up my debriefing. I’m
waiting for my driver and then heading over there. How’s Rone?”
    “He seems to be doing better, the doctor
wants to move him to another facility for therapy and stuff,” she
said, wondering what he thought of the move. He knew better than
anyone how serious Tyrone’s injury had been.
    “He does? Hmmm. What do you think about
that?”
    She released a long pent-up breath. “First
off, I’m surprised by how fast he’s healing. Don’t get me wrong, if
I never see him look the way he did that first day, I’m okay with
that. It’s just, this is so fast. When I asked the doctor about it,
he got offended and Rone acted like I’d embarrassed him.”
    “For real?” The surprise in his voice was a
soothing balm to her injured feelings. It had always been the three
of them against the world. She understood they were grown men, able
to make their own decisions, but there had always been respect and
love between them.
    “Yeah.” The sadness in her voice must have
translated through the phone.
    “Mom, you know he’d never do anything to
stress you out. He’s going through some things right now, don’t let
it get to you.”
    She looked straight ahead at the wild array
of brilliant colors in the garden, inhaled the multitude of
fragrances, and allowed the sweet smell ease her pain. “Hmmm.”
    “Where are you?”
    “What?”
    “Where are you right now?”
    “I’m at the hospital.”
    “With Rone?”
    “No.”
    “Okay. Tell me, where you are?”
    “Sitting in the garden.”
    “Garden?”
    “At the hospital. It’s pretty and it calms
me down.”
    “Okay. I’m in the car now and should be
there in about…” he paused. She heard him talking to someone,
“…ten more minutes. I wanna see you first. Can you wait for me in
the garden, please?”
    Jasmine looked up at the cloudless blue sky.
Throughout most of her marriage, she’d been ignored by her husband.
The one thing she’d counted on keeping her sane was the connection
with her sons. Now that appeared to be waning.
    A shaft of pain lodged in her chest. “Yes,
I’ll wait. See you soon.” Weary, she disconnected, and pulled a
stick of gum from her purse. “What the hell happened to me?” she
murmured. She’d met Davian in high school, they’d become friends.
One night he’d been in pain and had come to see her. He could
barely speak, he hurt so bad. Something clicked inside her and all
she wanted was to ease his suffering. Instead of following her
parent’s rule of no company when they weren’t at home, she’d
allowed her friend to come in for just a few minutes.
    He’d looked terrible.
    Sweat dripped from all over his body. One
minute he’d been hot, the next cold. She’d been baffled and had no
idea what to do, so she just held him as he cried, jerking in pain.
Later, his breathing normalized and when he could speak, he thanked
her. She’d pushed away, but he’d grabbed her hand and kissed
her.
    Initially, she’d struggled, but the timid
boy who’d been her closest buddy turned out to be real strong. One
thing led to another and the next thing she knew, she’d cried out
in pain and tried to push him off her. He moved a few more times,
grunted, and rolled off. She’d scrambled away from him and demanded
he leave. He started crying and apologizing as she pushed him out
the door.
    Two months later she told him she was
pregnant. Her life had been one of duty and doing the right thing
ever since. Davian never loved her, and