Chapter 13

Chapter 13
Jay has been keeping our destination a secret, and honestly I could care less where we are going. I’m just happy that we are all going to be together. We are all up and in the cabin for breakfast. There are pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast, biscuits, fruit salad, and milk. I knew this plane was fancy, but how were they able to cook all of that delicious food? My stomach starts growling as the scent wafts into the cabin from the kitchen. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now. I guess that could be because I haven’t really been eating or sleeping enough since I’ve been home with Nicholas. All the running around making sure that the kids are taken care of and the house is clean leaves very little time to take care of myself. I know that I should take better care of myself, but I haven’t found that balance yet.
“Jay, where are we going?” Everyone, including my wife, looked up at me as I spoke. I could tell from everyone else’s expressions that they were wondering the same thing as well. Jay sits up straight in her chair, as if she is in a business meeting, and takes a sip of her orange juice.
“Well, we are heading to New York for a while. I would prefer to leave the country, but the children aren’t old enough to get vaccinated yet and we don’t have time to get passports for everyone. Once we get there I will be contacting Mr. Fontenot to retain his services once again.” I shivered a little remembering the last time she had to use his services. He is one of the men responsible for getting me back home to my family. I can still remember him coming to that house pretending to be a preacher, and giving me hope that I was going to be rescued. Those words of hope still echo in my mind today. “I know who you are, and you will be home with your wife and daughter soon. Stay strong Mrs. Lexington, help is coming.” The stewardess comes out at that moment and starts clearing the table of the empty plates while asking everyone if they would like coffee.
We all agree to coffee and she says that she’ll be right back with the beverage as soon as possible. Jay tells her not to rush and to bring some doughnuts and other pastries along with the coffee. The stewardess simply nods and walks away with the dirty dishes. I hear Nicholas crying and head to the bedroom where he and Alexa were sleeping to check on him. After getting his diaper changed, I check on Alexa and see that she is lying still in her crib, eyes bright and shiny. I guess her brother must have woken her up. Lifting her out of her bassinet, I take her over to the bed where her brother is now laying and change her diaper as well.
“You look good doing that. Motherhood suits you.” I turn to see my sister standing in the doorway smiling at me. I smile back at her and finish buttoning my daughters’ onesie up before placing her back in her bassinet.
“Well there are good days and there are bad days, but honestly I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.” I put my head down and my sister notices the sad expression on my face.
“Renee’ what’s wrong?” She comes and sits down next to me on the bed after I pick up my son and begin rocking him back to sleep.
“Sometimes I just wonder if I did the right thing. You know that I don’t believe in abortion, and I couldn’t stand the thought of knowing that I had a child out there somewhere if I gave him up for adoption, but honestly that is not how I felt when I found out I was pregnant.” She just looks at me for a minute as if thinking about what I’m saying, so I continue.
“I mean when I found out, all I wanted to do was get found in enough time for me to have an abortion, otherwise adoption was definitely going to be an option. I was afraid that if I kept him, every time I look at him I would see Terrence. I know it is not his fault how he was conceived, but I felt like I would blame him for what his father did in some way, and I didn’t want him to live like that, plus there was the terrifying thought that if I did want to keep him, that Jay wouldn’t want me anymore. Actually I thought that she wouldn’t want me anyway after she found out that Terrence raped me. I felt she thought that I would be damaged goods and divorce me, but at some point I came to realize that he was my baby and I loved him so to hell with all the rest. Imagine my surprise when she told me that she loved me no matter what and that we would get through everything together. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful woman in my life and in our children’s lives. She doesn’t treat him different from Alexa, if anything I think she is kind of happy about having a boy.” I look up at my sister and realize that we both have tears in our eyes. I get up and put my sleeping baby boy onto the bed and my sister and I creep out of the room so that we do not wake them. We both sniff the air as the smell of fresh brewed coffee flows through the air vents, and quickly head back to the others. Once we return to the others, the stewardess comes back out with the tray of pastries and sets it down next to the carafe of coffee.
My wife gets up to start pouring coffee but I grab her arm and give her a look that tells her to sit down. I stand up and start pouring everyone coffee and handing out cups. My sister and I both grab a bear claw to go with our coffee while others take either doughnuts, crepes, or cheese Danish. My mother is a diabetic so she doesn’t take anything from the tray. My wife must have remembered this fact because a minute later the stewardess comes out with a tray of wheat thin crackers and another with fresh fruit for my mother before vanishing back to where ever it is that they go on the plane.
Everyone is sipping there coffee and talking while I’m just sitting here thinking that I cannot wait for this flight to be over. My children are becoming more restless and honestly I’m quite tired of flying myself. Right now they are in the bedroom playing with their toys. Jay had crackers and apple juice brought to them for their snack. The flight actually should have only taken us about five hours to get there, but for security reasons we took a longer route by not going straight there from Lake Charles. I hate this and I hate even more that my children and family are involved this time. When will this nightmare end? I sigh deeply before taking another long sip from my cup. The coffee is nice and warm going down but it does nothing to settle my nerves. The loudspeaker crackles and soon we hear the captain’s voice.
“This is your captain speaking. We will begin our descent in ten minutes.” The loudspeaker goes silent once again and I go be with the children as we prepare to land. They are still fast asleep and I lay down with them. Everyone else is sitting quietly waiting for the plane to land.
Two hours after we’ve landed, we are all in limos with tinted windows being driven to a secure location out in the suburbs. Jay and I barely speak as we are being driven to our new home that we’ll be occupying until this is all over. Her phone has been ringing non-stop since we landed and she’s been either yelling or talking in hushed tones with everyone that has been calling. I finally gave in and left my phone with Mr. Fontenot and his people to go through in order to try and find out who is behind all of this and hopefully put a stop to it really soon. Jay has promised to get me another phone once we are settled.
We’re all supposed to be going into the city later to buy clothes and other things we’ll need since no one was given time to pack anything. I managed to bring along some of the kids’ toys but other than that we have nothing. Everyone is exhausted once we reach the house or should I say mansion. Jay and I take the master suite while everyone else picks their own rooms. The children share a room next to ours and we get them settled before going into our room and lay down on the bed. We don’t turn on the television or lights we just lay there in silence together. As we lay there just looking at each other, we both reach for the others’ hand at the same time and entwine our fingers together.