Early the next morning the phone ringing woke Mallory, she grabbed it as quickly as she could, hoping it wouldn’t wake Derrick. “Hello?” she answered with a sleepy voice.
“Is this Mallory Ridge?” a strange man’s voice asked.
“Yes, it is,” she replied slowly.
“This is Juan Perez, with American Airway; your flight has been rescheduled for seven this morning. Will you be able to make this flight?”
Mallory glance at the clock. Seeing it was 6:15, she knew it didn’t give her much time to get ready, but she had responsibilities to get home to, so she couldn’t postpone her fate. “Yes, I can.”
After hanging up the phone, Mallory glanced to the other side of the bed. She expected to see Derrick sleeping there, but instead, the bed was empty. Her heart sank at the sight, as he hadn’t even bothered to tell her good-bye. The tears slowly made their way down her cheeks, as not saying good-bye somehow cheapened the night’s experience for her. Then she shook her head, as what did she expect, but a one-night stand from a man she just met!
She stuck her nose into the pillow he’d used and took a deep breath. The aroma of his aftershave filled her, causing her to think she would remember his scent for the rest of her life. She was tempted to steal the pillowcase, which made her chuckle, but since she wasn’t a thief, she dropped the pillow and got out of bed.
Mallory hurriedly got dressed, grabbed her carry-on, and was out the door without realizing she didn’t have her door key. Since her time was limited, she decided not to wait for the elevator, but to use the steps instead. She heard to ding of the arriving elevator, but she continued towards the steps. If only she had waited another couple of seconds, she would have met Derrick coming out of the elevator returning to her room.
* * *
When Derrick woke, he knew he needed to have his belongings ready for when he got notice his flight had been rescheduled. He jumped out of bed and quickly dressed; then he picked up Mallory’s door key so he wouldn’t have to wake her when he reentered the room, then quietly shut the door and rushed back to his room.
When he went into the bathroom to pack his belongings, he saw the two-day bearded face looking back at him, and knew he needed to shave before he didn’t anything else today. When he was done, he threw everything into his shaving kit, and then packed it into his suitcase.
After he zipped it up, he picked up Mallory’s door key and hastened to the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, he pushed the button for her floor. As he stepped out, he turned left to go to Mallory’s room, and so he didn’t see a woman to his right walking towards the stairs.
Just before he could open the door, his cell phone rang and the man on the other end told him that his flight was scheduled to leave in an hour. Derrick was saddened as he was hoping the two of them could spend part of the morning together.
As soon as he entered her hotel room, he knew he was too late to see her before he left, as her room was empty. He felt like crying, as they hadn’t ever gotten around to exchanging phone numbers or any other essential contact information.
Meanwhile, Mallory had reached the front desk to check out. It was then she realized didn’t have her room key and told the girl she wasn’t sure where it was. She didn’t think she had packed it with her possessions, but if so, she would mail it back to them.
She was out the front the door in fifteen minutes flat, making it to the airport shuttle just in the nick of time, as the bus pulled away as soon as she sat down. She fought tears as the hotel disappeared in the distance, wishing they had been able to say goodbye before they parted ways. At that thought, she suddenly realized he didn’t know how to get in touch with her if he wanted to, causing the tears to fall.
Mallory didn’t know if one could fall in love with someone at first sight, but to her, it felt as if she was in love with Derrick. She regretted not telling him how she felt, but they barely knew each other. It was too late now, but she wished she had thought to leave Derrick a message at the desk. As soon as the thought came to her, she realized he probably wouldn’t be interested in seeing her again, as he’d gotten what he wanted from her.
Before she knew it, her flight had arrived in Kansas City, and time for her to return to the real world and quit thinking about a man, she wouldn't ever see again.
* * *
Mallory cringed as she walked into the front door of the house, she thought she wouldn’t ever step back into again. She kept reminding herself that she was doing this for Uncle Eric but was unsure how she was going to take care of a dying aunt she hated.
Eric was relieved to see Mallory, as now there would be edible food on the table, clean clothes in the drawers, and the dust bunnies would be extinct. He didn’t notice Erica informing
Mallory everything regarding to her mother’s care, as well as all the housework was now her job to do. Then without giving her mother another thought, Erica left the house to go have some fun, doing things she hadn’t done since her mother had gotten sick.
* * *
When Derrick reached the front desk, he handed the clerk both room keys, and she gave him a bewildered look. “I found this key in the elevator, so I thought I better turn it in.” Relieved the woman didn’t ask him about it. He wanted to ask for Mallory’s contact information, but knew she couldn’t give out guest’s personal statistics, so he remained quiet.
As soon as Derrick reached home, he got on the computer to begin his search for Mallory or Eric Ridge in Kansas City, but reached a dead-end at each site. Angry at the situation, he slammed his fist down on his desk just as the phone rang. Annoyed at being disturbed, he grabbed the phone before it could ring a second time. “Hello,” he growled into the phone.
“Derrick is everything okay there,” Garrison asked his brother.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, but I was in the middle of something when the phone rang. What’s up?”
“I’m calling to tell you that Brooke had the baby about twenty minutes ago,” he uttered excitedly.
“That’s great. Thanks for calling,” he said, afraid he might say something to his brother he would later regret, he quickly ended the call. Derrick wanted to be happy for his brother, but he couldn’t as they were talking about his ex-wife, the woman who should be his wife and the baby theirs. He felt like a failure that Garrison could give Brooke a child, while he shot just blanks.
What kind of man was he that he couldn’t have given his wife the one thing she wanted the most in the world? And because of his stupidity of getting involved with another woman, he lost the only woman he’d ever loved.
Sitting there looking at the computer screen, Derrick had to rescind that thought as he knew that he had fallen in love with Mallory Ridge, feeling something that he hadn’t felt for Peggy or even with Brooke. Was it even possible to fall in love with a stranger after just knowing her for one day? He wondered if Mallory felt the same way, and if she did, he needed to find her.
* * *
Garrison was stunned by the sound of the dial tone in his ear, as he thought his brother had come to term with the fact Brooke was his now.
“That was a quick call.” Seeing the odd look on her husband’s face, she touched his arm. “Is everything okay with Derrick?”
He looked over at Brooke. “I’m not sure. He thanked me for calling and then hung up on me.”
She gave her husband a weak smile. “Maybe he needs some more time to accept our relationship. Since we have Jenny Marie, it must be hard on him to know he can’t be a father.”
“You could be right. What he needs to do is find a woman with children and then he can be a father.”
“I’ll let you suggest that to him.”
Garrison laughed. “Chicken.”
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* * *
During the day, Erica was too busy watching all her soap operas to help around the house, but as soon as her father came home, she jumped up and pretended she had done all the housework that Mallory had done that day. She also got out of helping with her mother by using the excuse she was afraid she would find her dead, while Mallory on the other hand, couldn’t wait to find the old battle-ax dead.
She decided if she heard just one more cruel word from her aunt, uncle or not, she was going to pack her bags and leave. If she could handle everything regarding her aunt’s care by herself, then so could Erica. Her cousin’s problem was she didn’t like to do work of any kind. Charlotte was Erica’s mother, not hers and she didn’t have to put up with anymore of this hell.
She knew when she first arrived home that this wasn’t going to be easy for her, but now she wasn’t sure she could continue doing this favor for her uncle. Maybe if her aunt had been pleasant to her, she could accept doing all the work, but the woman was full of too much hate to be nice to her.
Mallory was constantly running back and forth from her aunt’s room for every minor thing she needed. First, her pillow was too flat, then it was too fluffy. It was too cold in her room, then it was too hot, and then it was too cold again. It had been six weeks since she arrived back home, the doctors said death wouldn’t be long now, but Mallory decided her aunt was going to live forever just to make her life hell.
Doing everything that needed to be done in the house by herself, Mallory was exhausted. Her emotions were as strung as tight as a rubber band that was stretched far as it could go, and given the right situation, it would snap in two.
For the last few days, Mallory hadn’t been feeling well, but chalking it up as stress and exhaustion, she didn’t give it much thought. That evening as she sat on her bed, she happened to think of how long she’d been home. Something nagged in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t seem to grasp what it was. Then it came to her like a flash, as she hadn’t had a period since the night, she had sex with Derrick.
“I can’t be. Please no, I can’t be pregnant,” she cried after realizing being pregnant would explain why she felt the way she did.
Needed to be sure, before she went crazy, Mallory told her cousin she had an errand to run and would be back soon. After she returned home, she rushed into the house, not giving her cousin a chance to stop her, she ran up the stairs to the bathroom, and hurriedly locked the door.
She tore open the box and quickly used the test, then she sat down on the toilet lid to wait for the results. As she counted the minutes, her eyes never left the test and it wasn’t long before she had the answer she didn’t want. Yes, she was most defiantly pregnant.
How was she going to tell her uncle? Since this wasn’t something she could hide, she would have to tell him as soon as he came home. What would he think of her now?
“Mallory, my mother is calling for you.” Erica hollered from the living room as soon as Mallory came downstairs.
She held back the name she wanted to call her cousin. “Can’t you see what she needs?”
“No, I’ll miss my show,” she whined.
Mallory shook her head. Like mother, like daughter, both lazy, worthless bitches. She couldn’t take the chance of anyone finding the test, so she put it back in the plain brown sack and shoved it into the bottom of the trashcan. She knew no one would find it there, as she was the only one who ever emptied the trash.
Mallory hurried into her aunt’s room, “Yes, Aunt Charlotte. What do you need?”
“I want a glass of water.”
“There is a full glass sitting next to you.”
“That water is stale,” she complained.
“Aunt Charlotte, I brought that glass to you not twenty minutes ago. There’s even still ice in the glass.”
“It’s flat. Do you want me to tell your uncle you are refusing to help?” she asked with a wicked smile.
Mallory almost hope she would tell her uncle and be kicked out, as then she would be free to go back to California. Thinking her uncle would soon be losing his wife; she picked up the glass and walked to the kitchen. She put ice in a new glass and then poured the water from the old glass into the new one, smiling the whole time. She went back into her aunt’s room and handed her the glass.
Charlotte took a sip. “That’s so much better.”
Mallory smiled and walked away, figuring she had won that battle whether her aunt knew it or not.
After dinner, Mallory asked her uncle if she could speak with him in private. He said they could take a drive and get ice cream. After they received their cones, they returned to his car to eat them in private.
“Well, what did you want to talk about?”
“Uncle Eric, you aren’t going to like what I’m about to tell you.” She tried to fight the tears, but soon they were running down her cheeks.
“It can’t be that bad,” he said, as he assumed, she was going to complain about his daughter.
“I’m pregnant.”
“What? Is this some kind of sick joke?” he asked, shocked by her statement.
“No. During that snowstorm in Chicago I met a man and we had sex.”
“Mallory, what do you plan to do?” he asked, instead of telling her what she needed to hear.
She looked at him with her head held high. “I’m going to have my baby and raise it the best I can on my own.”
His face filled with concern. “You think that’s wise? What about the father?”
“I’m not sure how to find him to tell him about the baby.” Embarrassed what had happened that night, she didn’t tell anyone what she’d done with Derrick. But if she had told Skyler, her friend from high school, about that night with Derrick Hart, she would have told her exactly where to find the father of her baby.
He was disappointed in her choice of having unprotected sex with a man she’d just met, but he didn’t tell her how he felt; as he was guilty of having unprotected sex himself once upon a time. “Since you aren’t married and haven’t a husband, the best thing for you to do is to get an abortion,” he said roughly, as he was thinking of Charlotte, wishing she had gotten one all those many years ago.
Mallory uncle’s comment disheartened her, as she was hoping he would say he wanted her to keep the baby and continued living with them. She wanted to keep this baby so badly it hurt her heart to think of never seeing her child grow up.
If she couldn’t keep her child, adoption was the only other answer, the child would be better off with a couple instead of her trying to raise it on her own. It would be hard on her, but it was better than killing Derrick’s baby.
“I’m not going to abort my baby, so don’t even bother taking about it again,” she told him angrily. “If you don’t like my choice, then I’ll pack my bags and leave as soon as I can get a flight to California.”
Her response put the fear of God in him, as the last thing he wanted was for her to leave him alone with his dying wife. “No, I still need you to take care of Charlotte.”
Mallory was hurt by his reply but didn’t say another word on the trip home. Once they entered the house, Mallory went straight to bed without talking to anyone.
The next day, her aunt was bossier and demanding than usual. Finally, Mallory told her cousin she had to leave, as she’d made her first doctor appointment. She had liked the doctor as soon as she met him; so much so, she told him everything about her situation, including that her uncle wanted her to get an abortion. She mentioned that she wanted to keep the child but wasn’t sure if that would be in the child’s best interest. The doctor recommended several adoption agencies, saying, no matter what she decided, he would help her in any way he could.
When Mallory returned home from the doctor’s visit, Erica gave her a dirty look.
“What’s the matter with you?” Mallory asked, not caring what her answer would be.
“It’s your job to take care of my mother, not mime.”
“I came here to help, not to do all your work for you like I have been for the last six weeks.”
“You are just a poor relative. You better remember that before I have Daddy throw you out.”
She leaned close to her cousin’s face. “You know what, Erica, I really don’t care if you tell your daddy or not. You know what else; I think you’re a bitch.” Mallory then simply walked off, not caring if Erica told her father what she’d said.
“Mallory,” her aunt called from her bedroom.
“I’m coming.” Mallory wiped the tears away and went to see what her aunt wanted this time. “What do you need, Aunt Charlotte?”
“Eric told me you slept with some stranger and now you are expecting his baby, you’re such a tramp.”
She was hurt as well as speechless, as she’d never dreamed her uncle would tell her aunt about the baby. There wasn’t a need for him to tell his wife about her situation because she’d be dead before Mallory even started to show. She decided she wasn’t going to take any more cruelty from her aunt. “I hope you when you die you rot in Hell.” She turned and left the room.
She had had it, she wasn’t taking anymore from this family, and even though, she heard her aunt hollering for her, she kept on walking. She went to her room, packed a few items into her suitcase, grabbed her purse, and walked out of her room.
When she reached the living room, her cousin was sitting watching television. “I’ve had enough of your mother’s bitter tongue and doing all your work, so I’m leaving.”
Erica jumped up and raced after Mallory. “You can’t leave, who is going to take care of my mother?”
“Sorry, but you’ll have to start taking care of your own mother, as well as the rest of the duties as none of it is my responsibility. Good luck.” Mallory continued her way to the front door, not looking back as her cousin called after her. “I’ll get the rest of things when I know where I’ll be staying.” She walked out the door with Erica right behind her yelling at her to come back.
“Mallory, you can’t leave me here alone with mother. What if she dies,” she complained.
Mallory didn’t even acknowledge her cousin, but simply got into the car her uncle had given her to thank her for taking care of her aunt and drove away.
It felt good to get out of the house. She would get a motel room for now, and in the morning make a reservation to fly home to her old life. She had just stopped at a stoplight when her cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Mallory, what happened at the house today?” Eric rudely asked her.
“I have done everything for that woman for almost two months. Not once has she ever told me thank you, let alone say anything nice to me. Today she called me tramp.” Mallory took a deep breath to calm herself.
“I’m sorry; your Aunt Charlotte shouldn’t have said that.” Please come back.”
“No. I’m your niece, but since I’ve been home, I been treated more like a servant. I’m not coming back to take care of that bitch; I’m going back to California to my job and my life.”
“You can’t expect Erica do everything by herself.”
His words hurt her. “Why not? I’ve done it all without any help from Erica these past six weeks, as she’s too busy watching television all day to help me. Of course, as soon as you come home, she jumps up and acts as if she has done everything.”
“Now Mallory, you know that isn’t true.” Eric said in Erica’s defense.
Mallory didn’t say a word to her uncle, but merely disconnected the phone. She smiled, knowing Uncle Eric would soon find out the truth about Erica. When the phone rang again, she let voicemail pick up the message, as she didn’t have anything more to say to him.