Chapter 84 - Daddy Dominant's Good Girl

Ken crawled into bed with me early in the morning. “Mommy, I don’t feel good,” he said, rubbing his stomach.

“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked. I sat up and felt his forehead. He didn’t have a fever but he looked really uncomfortable.

“My tummy really hurts,” Ken whined, rubbing it again.

“Are you going to be sick?” I asked, looking around for the nearest trash can.

“No. It just hurts,” Ken said. He whimpered and started to cry. “I hurt all over.”

“Okay, come here,” I said. I got up and helped Ken into my bed, tucking him in. I went to the bathroom and grabbed a thermometer. I took Ken’s temperature but it was normal.

He didn’t have the flu or anything.

“It really, really hurts,” Ken whined, holding his stomach.

I pulled the blankets back and pulled up Ken’s night shirt. When I touched his stomach lightly, he screamed.

“That hurts!” he yelled.

My mom hurried into the room. “What is going on here?” she asked.

“Ken’s in a lot of pain. He doesn’t have a fever but he keeps holding his stomach,” I said.

“He might have appendicitis. I’ll call the doctor,” my mother offered. She got the Richardson family physician on the phone and he raced over.

He kicked my mom and me out of the room while he examined Ken. Behind the closed door, I could hear Ken moaning.

I paced back and forth, my hands trembling. I kept shaking them to ease the tremors, but they kept coming back.

Had Ken been exposed to something at the chapel? I couldn’t help but think that his illness was somehow related to Toby falling in the water.

“Honey, honey, calm down,” my mom said. She grabbed my shoulders to keep me from pacing.

“I can’t. Ken is sick and in a lot of pain. There’s nothing I can do for him,” I said, tears pooling in my eyes as my whole body shivered. I felt like I could wriggle out of my skin at any moment and at the same time it felt like a belt was tightening around my chest.

“The doctor is here. He is the best pediatrician in this city. He’ll take care of Ken,” my mom assured.

I sighed and relaxed enough for her to let me go. Inside, I still felt like my bones were rattling against each other.

“Are you going to be okay here?” my mom asked.

“Um, yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said with a nod.

“I hate to leave if you need me but your father has been declining and I really need to talk to the doctors about what comes next,” she said, her eyes cast to the floor.

I touched my mom’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Mom. Go take care of Dad. I’ll take care of Ken,” I said.

She smiled weakly and left. Moments later, the doctor emerged from the bedroom.

“Well, it isn’t appendicitis. I gave him a pain killer and I’ve drawn some blood. I’ll run a few lab tests and let you know what I find out. He’s no longer in excruciating pain, though,” the doctor explained.

“Thank you. What should I do for him?” I asked.

He handed me a small pill bottle. “Half of one of these twice a day will help with the pain. Call me if things get worse,” he instructed.

I nodded and walked the doctor out the front door. Immediately, I pulled out my phone and called Bennett.

“Ken is really sick,” I explained. I started walking back to my room where Ken was in bed. “The doctor doesn’t know what is wrong.”

I went to the edge of my bed and sat down, watching Ken as he slumbered.

“Is there anything I can do?” Bennett asked.

I reached out and brushed my fingers down Ken’s cheek. “I don’t know. The doctor is running tests but it kills me to see him in such pain.”

“Let me come over. I’ll help you out,” Bennett offered.

Ken’s eyes snapped open. He flailed his arms and kicked the covers off. “No! No!” he wailed.

“K-Ken, it’s okay,” I said. I stood up, trying to calm him down.

“I don’t want Bennett! He’ll make it worse,” Ken cried, continuing to kick and flail.

I stepped away from the bed. “I’m sorry, Bennett, it doesn’t seem like a good time. I’ll call you later and let you know how he is doing,” I explained.

“Alright, but Olivia, if there is anything you need, please let me know,” he said.

“I will.”

“I don’t want Bennett! I want Ellis. Ellis will make it better!” Ken wailed.

“Ken, please stop kicking,” I insisted. I sat back down and he stopped his violent movements.

“I want my dad,” Ken demanded.

I sighed and smoothed down Ken’s hair. My son was seriously sick. I couldn’t refuse a request from him. A little hesitantly, I called Ellis.

“Miss Richardson,” he answered, his voice cool and distant.

I swallowed and tried to speak. My words got stuck and I cleared my throat before trying again. “I’m sorry to bother you. Ken is sick and he’s asking for you,” I explained.

“Ken is sick?” Ellis asked, his voice taking on a serious tone. He sounded worried, really worried.

“It would mean a lot to him if you could come by and sit with him for a while,” I said.

“I’ll be there,” Ellis assured.

It didn’t take Ellis long to arrive. He practically brushed right past me as he went to Ken’s side. I stood in the doorway, watching as Ellis hugged Ken and started talking to him, asking how he was feeling.

Ken smiled a little and asked Ellis to read him a story.

I kept several of Ken’s story books in my bedroom for the nights he wanted to sleep with me. Ellis dug through the pile and grabbed one. He sat on the bed beside Ken and opened the book.

My heart melted when Ken leaned against Ellis’ chest, getting completely absorbed in the book. Ellis used funny voices for the characters and everything.

Together, they were so obviously father and son.

I clasped my hands over my heart and wondered what damage I was doing, keeping Ellis and Ken apart. Ken needed a father.

At the same time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Ellis was only being so kind to Ken because, like me, he saw Ken as a substitute. I was his Nancy substitute and Ken was the substitute for any child he would have had with Nancy.

A soft snore pulled me from my thoughts and I saw Ken had fallen asleep. I smiled as Ellis slipped off the bed and tucked him in. He came out of the bedroom and shut the door almost all the way.

“Might we have a word, Olivia?” Ellis asked.

“Sure,” I said. We went to the living room and I took a seat on the couch. Ellis stood in the center of the room, his lips pursed, his face serious.

“What Bennett said yesterday…”

“That was just him being protective,” I said, waving Ellis’ concerns away. I didn’t want him to think I had any intention of going to the police.

“No, please, let me say this. What he said made me realize how much Nancy’s presence in my past hurt you. I didn’t respect that enough before,” he said.

“It is in the past, Ellis,” I said, shrugging.

“I hope not. I hope that you can forget about Nancy and we can be together again. What I feel for you can’t ever compare to anything with Nancy,” he said.

I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at him. Everything with Nancy had hurt, but I’d been willing to move on because it was in the past. Claire wasn’t in his past, though, she was in his present.

“I might have been able to get past Nancy. I can’t get past Claire, though,” I said, clenching my jaw.

“Claire?” Ellis asked, creasing his brow. “How do you know about her?”

“You’ve hidden so much from me. How could you hide her too? How can I move past that deception? Is there anything else you haven’t told me?” I asked, ranting suddenly.

Ellis cocked his head to the side, his brow creasing deeper. “What do you mean? I didn’t deceive you,” he insisted.

“Don’t lie to me!” I stood up and threw my arms out to the sides.

“Olivia, I’m not,” Ellis said, shaking his head.

“I saw you with her! I saw you with Claire. She was pregnant with your child the same time I was. Now you’re telling me you didn’t deceive me?” I asked, my voice rising shrilly.

Ellis scoffed, completely taken aback. He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know what you saw, but Claire is not my lover. She’s Nancy’s sister and is married. She has a couple of kids with her husband, including one that is about Ken’s age.”

“She…” I dropped my arms, my anger deflating like a punctured balloon. Claire was Nancy’s sister? That explained why they looked alike. “I was so sure…”

“Olivia, Claire has remained in contact with me because of how close Nancy was to my family. She is not a romantic interest of mine and she definitely did not have my child,” Ellis repeated, more emphatically.

I pressed my hands to my temples. How had I messed that up so much? Now I understood why Ellis was so surprised when I mentioned Claire and when I talked about how much he hurt me. We’d been talking about things with Nancy and I had finally reached a point where I thought I’d move past it.

That was when I’d seen Ellis with Claire and decided to leave. Of course, Ellis didn’t know why he’d hurt me because he really hadn’t done anything wrong with Claire, like he said.

Had I been wrong about him, then?

It didn’t matter about Claire. We still hadn’t worked through everything about Nancy.

I opened my mouth to speak.

Clatter!

I closed my mouth and looked toward the kitchen. “What was that?” I asked aloud.

Ellis and I went to the kitchen. Ken was standing on a step stool and pulling snacks out of a cabinet.

“Ken?” I asked.

He yelped and looked over, a sheepish smile on his face. “Hi, Mommy,” he said.

“What are you doing?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips.

“I needed a snack,” he said.

“Are you feeling better?” Ellis asked.

We stood shoulder to shoulder in the kitchen doorway. Confusion settled through me as I watched my son.

“Well…” he sighed and stepped off the stool, several snack cakes in his hand.

“Ken, what did you do?” I asked sternly. I took a step forward and grabbed his snacks away.

“I’m sorry, Mommy. I wanted to see Ellis. Ellis is better than Bennett,” he said, putting his hands on his hips and glaring at me.

“You pretended to be sick?” Ellis asked, chuckling.

I glanced at him. “Don’t sound so proud,” I hissed. Ellis just shrugged.

“I did,” Ken admitted, nodding.

I groaned and pressed my hand to my temple.