His Substitute Wife... My Sister Book One Page 5
A light on in the kitchen made him wary at first, but then he remembered Charisse and her nurse were in the house.
Someone was rummaging through the refrigerator, but he couldn’t see their face because the door blocked them.
“I thought we put enough upstairs for weeks,” he said.
Charisse looked up from the refrigerator and narrowed her eyes. “It’s hard to get to when she locks her door at night. Anything is hard to get to in this house when all the drawers and cabinets are locked.”
“It was part of the requirements and my keys are upstairs. I’ll talk to Rochelle in the morning.”
“This is above and beyond the requirements, Parker. How am I supposed to feel comfortable?”
“There’s always going back to the facility, Charisse.”
She slammed the door to the refrigerator and huffed. “Who are you to tell me when I can live and die?”
“Who are you to take that right away from God?”
“You’re not the religious person.”
“But I want this to work.”
“I’m not your brother. You can’t save me.”
He tried not to let her statement get under his skin, but it was hard when she tried so hard to bring her verbal nails out whenever she got the chance, but he was shocked that Charisse had really paid attention to everything he had said. “Chyna wants this and I want whatever my wife wants. I’m going to obey the doctor to the letter. I have always been obedient.”
She sniggered. “Was that what you just did to her called? Being obedient?” She imitated Chyna. “Hurry it up. Get it over with.”
Parker braced himself, forcing himself to remember that Charisse hit below the belt verbally and she was sick in the head. She was sick and she had to be excused for what she said.
“Go back to bed, Charisse.”
“I’m not a child.”
“Go!” he barked.
She stomped past him angrily, but she brushed him by mistake. Her skin was soft to touch against his arm and Parker wondered had she ever been touched.
So consumed in her anger, she didn’t even notice she had touched him. She continued up the stairs and he didn’t stop listening until he heard Rochelle reprimanding her for getting out of bed.
Maybe they were treating her like a child, but she had brought this upon herself and he shouldn’t feel any pity for her.
Looking down at his arm where she had brushed up against him, he closed his eyes and remembered the touch of her skin against his own. Why had he thought it would feel rough and cold?
Tightening his robe, he proceeded down into the basement to work out his body so his mind could get some rest.
Don’t think about these things. Don’t think about anything.
When the baby gets here, he knew all would be right in his world. He just needed to hold out for that.
Dinner had been a complete mess. All Chyna spoke about was what she wanted to do with his money and Jaelen’s words kept popping up in his head.
“Let’s take a trip together,” Parker had suggested at dinner right after their dinner plates were cleaned away.
“You’re too busy working to take trips or vacation, Parker.” Chyna had responded.
He hadn’t expected her to refuse. “We could go up for the weekend to the cabin we own in Midland. We haven’t been up there in almost two years.”
“That backwoods cabin that barely has electricity is your idea of roughing it and I refuse to go up there until you put some cable and updated appliances in that place. Otherwise you can go up there by yourself. A swimming pool and Internet is a requirement as well.”
“That takes away from enjoying nature, Chyna.”
“Why on earth would I want to do that?”
Parker knew this was a conversation going nowhere. “How about Hawaii for a week? I could get away. Things are going great and I have people in place that could run everything for a week.”
“Parker, we’re in the middle of trying to make a baby,” Chyna said annoyed. “How could we just go away?”
“Easily. I buy the tickets tonight and we could leave tomorrow morning. We can work on the natural baby making process. I’m sure the doctor would agree with me that we need a vacation from all of this and until they really get down to our problem.”
“And my sister? Did you forget that?”
“They have everything they need on the third floor. The house doesn’t need to be managed because the maid comes in like clockwork twice a week. They’ll be fine without us. Rochelle has the key and knows the security system. She’ll be fine with your sister.”
Chyna still didn’t look responsive to the suggestion. He was wary to suggest the hotel room, but couldn’t she understand he wanted something different?
Once they got home, she was still in a grumpy mood and when he started kissing on her neck, feeling on her body, she just became even angrier.
“Stop teasing me!” she snapped. “What’s all this touchy feely shit? What’s wrong with you Parker? Can’t you wait until we get to bed?”
“Can’t I touch my wife?”
“Please don’t start that again.”
For the third time that day, they argued and it didn’t stop until she went to the bathroom and slammed the door.
He laid in bed for about thirty minutes and when she came out, she laid next to him and just said, “I’m ready.”
That was his usual cue to do what he wanted and since he was horny of course he took advantage of it.
Rolling on top of her, he parted her legs and entered her. She had applied her lubrication and that was all he needed down there in order to effectively get himself to release in her. She braced herself by holding onto his shoulders.
When he started to take his time hoping that her natural lubrication would kick in, she barked, “Hurry it up, Parker. Quit playing around and get it over with.”
Pressing the three hundred pound weight over his head, he growled in aggravation. Driving the memories out of his head. Driving the anger and dissatisfaction with his life out of his head. Driving the touch that Charisse had mistakenly giving him out of his head.
Why the hell was he even thinking that? He was not about to have sex with his sister-in-law. He knew that would only complicate this already complicated matter between Chyna and him.
Chapter 6
The phone rung early in the morning a week later. Every night he had been working himself lifting weights to get away his sexual demons, and despite that he was mentally tired from working so much at his business. He couldn’t escape the physical needs that had started to ache at the thought of anything feminine around.
Chyna’s headaches weren’t helping him and when she did give him anything it was almost reluctantly.
To be precise it was seven in the morning when Parker pressed the speaker to see who it was without picking up the phone receiver.
“Who is it?” he said gruffly not bothering to clear the sleep out of his voice.
“Hello Parker, this is Doctor Redmond at the hospital. I was calling to speak with you and your wife about your test results.”
Parker hadn’t expected a call so early and he knew in his gut this was bad.
***
Charisse was up when her sister came to invite her to breakfast with “the family.” She almost wanted to sneer, “What family?” but she kept this snide comment to herself.
Rochelle laid out the clothing she was to wear that day and then retrieved the clothing Charisse had worn through the night. “That’ll give me time to wash and prepare the room for our activities.”
“What activities?” Charisse questioned.
“Obviously you didn’t read the calendar.”
“I’m not in kindergarten.”
Rochelle only turned away to finish hanging the sheets.
“Come Charisse. You must be hungry,” Chyna insisted.
“Actually I’m not, but if you’re just trying to get me down there to talk alone, that’s
all you had to say.”
Chyna produced a stiff smile. “It seems, sister dear, as you grow older you mature, but your bluntness never falters.”
“You just mistake my silliness in killing myself as stupidity.”
“And it gets much more outspoken too. Reminds me of father. Too bad he’s not here to enjoy it as well.”
That was enough to shut Charisse up and she walked ahead of her sister to the steps.
“I’m taking the elevator,” Chyna invited. “Join me.”
“Suit yourself. I prefer the steps. Enclosed spaces might bring on episodes of insanity.” This was a lie, but Chyna didn’t know that. Anything to inconvenience her sister was always a plus.
They walked to the kitchen together, but Parker wasn’t there. He had left a note on the refrigerator, saying an emergency came up and he had to leave right away.
“Well, I guess it’s just us then.” Chyna said hopefully. “That’s even better because I won’t have to lie about my reasons as to why we need you.”
Charisse sunk in the chair, wondering why all of a sudden Chyna looked gravely serious.
Instantly Charisse’s defenses rose.
***
Parker sat on the edge of the bed in a trance after he hung up the phone. Chyna’s voice sounded far away as his mind was filled with everything the doctor had said along with the despair that he was a failure.
Just when he thought that things could actually go right in the world, Dr. Redmond let them know this was not going to happen with Chyna. Her eggs were useless, just like he knew Cheyenne’s were, due to his deep affair and confession from his wife’s twin sister. And the younger sister probably wouldn’t keep herself alive to carry the pregnancy.
Did it run in the family or was it just bad luck on his part? Now his marriage was not the fairy tale he had wanted it to be and would never be since no child could be conceived.
“It’s not the end of the world, Parker,” Chyna said desperately after the phone call was over with.
“You heard the doctor,” Parker said in defeat. “You have no viable eggs and your body wouldn’t be able to carry the egg.”
“Then we’ll find another egg,” she said simply.
He looked at her confused. “Isn’t that just the same as adopting? The baby won’t be blood relation between us, Chyna.”
“If it’s from my sister and no one has to know we’re using her egg. They already know we’ve been trying to fertilize my eggs. They’ll just think we implanted the eggs in her, but we can just use her eggs.”
“We’re talking about Charisse. Don’t you think we should ask Cheyenne?” he suggested.
“Cheyenne is not going to agree to help us have a baby and you know this,” she sneered cruelly. “Plus she’s unable to carry because of the several abortions she had before she was eighteen.”
He didn’t want to go into the whys and hows because that would bring up the complications they never spoke about.
“Charisse won’t agree,” he said flatly. “Have you also thought about her mental condition and touch issues?”
Chyna snorted. “Her mental condition has nothing to do with her eggs, Parker.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Just trust me in that this matters when I say it doesn’t. You didn’t see my sister before my father died. You probably would have loved her. Probably more than you loved me.” Fondly Chyna looked away trying to hide regret in her eyes. “Charisse had a smile that could light up a room and she used to be the joy in my father’s life. He would say Charisse had magic in her laugh.”
Parker couldn’t imagine Charisse looking truly happy about anything despite the fact that she was nice to look at as a woman, but she had never shown an inch of happiness.
“We don’t know what she’ll say unless we ask, Parker,” Chyna sat on the bed next to him and held his hand. “All she can say is no, right? And we’ll just cross that bridge once we get to it, but we’ll do it together. At least we can say we tried.”
He could only ask, but as he waited for them to come down, he found himself unable to face his sister-in-law to ask her this most important favor. So he lied in a note and left hoping Chyna could do it.
So bothered by what he had done, Parker pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the car. He felt numb all over, but a sense of hope filled him.
He was hoping on crazy, but maybe it was going to take an insane woman to give him what he needed to complete in life.
Praying on crazy, he hoped she accepted.
Getting back on the road, he drove towards his first assignment for the morning. This was a new client and he wanted to make sure things went right, because if it did he could possibly get his first hotel client. That would be a major deal for him and the future of his company.
***
“What do you want?” Charisse asked after Chyna had made small talk for the past fifteen minutes about the past and how they had all grown up around their mother after the death of their father. While her sister had been speaking, Charisse was trying to figure out why Chyna was being cordial along with other things that obviously Chyna wasn’t speaking about, but who would speak openly about why they treated their husband like crap.
Parker was a nice looking man from the inside out, especially if one took from that messed up picture he took from his wedding. The years had been overly kind to him, but Chyna either still saw him as this blind, pimple faced brace-wearing low confidence man.
That could be still it, but there was really no way to understand that part of their marriage unless Charisse came right out and asked.
“Parker and I need you to help us make a baby.”
Charisse waited a few minutes for the punch line, but when her sister’s serious expression didn’t change, she shifted her weight. “Why me, when you know I’ll say no?”
“You can say no,” Chyna said obviously. “Plus, we knew a long time ago Cheyenne had those abortions and her system is so screwed up she had to have all her plumbing removed seven years ago.”
Charisse stuck a piece of bacon in her mouth. “They’ll have to touch me.”
“It’ll be a doctor. He’ll have gloves and tools, but no touching the way you don’t like. You’ll have to be examined to see if you’re healthy enough to even be a surrogate. They’ll extract an egg, fertilize it and then re-implant it. We’ll have a home birth, so there won’t be a lot of people touching you.”
Nervously, she said, “I wouldn’t want to be touched at all!”
“Fine, but you’ll have study being a midwife, so the health of the baby won‘t be in danger.”
Charisse still pondered on when Chyna was really going to get to the gist of the matter as to why she didn’t have to lie. “I’ll never agree to this. It’s stupid to even think of asking me.”
“I wouldn’t have asked if this wasn’t important to me!” Chyna exclaimed but then calmed immediately. “I know you’re healthy, Charisse, and I know you could carry this child for us, despite how you’ve tried and repeatedly failed at killing yourself. Parker needs this child.”
“And you? What do you need? Honestly, Chyna.”
Her sister’s shoulders slumped and a miserable look crossed her features. “You want the truth, Charisse?”
“Yes.”
“I need to make sure I can keep my husband and you may be my last hope.”
Charisse stood up and looked out the backyard at the fall leaves concentrating on the different colors. “You’ve both been mean to me, Chyna. All my life you’ve made me feel like I was nothing. Especially after mom died. Why should I help you out? Why should I be nice to you and do this for you? You don’t even want a baby. I don’t know how you’ve convinced Parker, but I’m not a fool. I know you don’t want one.”
Chyna slowly stood up behind her sister, with remorse in her voice. “I’ve done a lot of things to you and I’m not proud of it, and up until a few years ago I didn’t realize how important you could be to me.”
“Right after you were admitted I found something horribly wrong with my marriage. I really didn’t wake up until Cheyenne applied for custody of you again.” This was new to her. “But I thought she didn’t want me.” After she had said this, she was positive Cheyenne hadn’t wanted her. ‘You’re better off dead.’
“I thought that too, Charisse, until I snuck into her apartment. I was in a daze about knowing Parker was out there being a whore, but then I also found out that he had a mistress. His records traced it to an apartment and then I found the apartment was the same as where Cheyenne was staying.” Chyna covered her mouth as if she was reliving the horror of finding out the secret. “I wasn’t going to tell you this. And if Parker was here, I wouldn’t have, because I knew with him here, I would have had to fake that bringing a child in this world was important.”
“Why is it so important to have this baby for him, Chyna?”
“Because even though I married him for the financial potential and the plant money and no one else was asking because they thought I was too beautiful, Parker was the first man to want to give me everything that I wanted, even if it meant working double and triple shifts. In some weird way to me he deserves some type of happiness after so long.”
It was almost sweet, but Charisse was still doubtful that her sister had changed from her mean and evil ways, just like Cheyenne had been. Without turning to look at her sister, she snipped.
“And of course now you also realize looks don’t last forever, right Chyna.”
Her sister ignored that and said, “I would have just stuck with the fact that he wanted the baby in order to convince you to do this, Charisse,” Chyna said. “But if this is the only way to convince you to help me then I’ll tell you everything. She still keeps her journal under the mattress. Can you believe she hasn’t changed in all these years?”
“And you have?”
“Dad always said actions speak louder than words.”
“Mom always said keep your enemies closer.”