The Object of His Obsession (The Alexanders Book 4) (11 page)

“Gabrielle, I’m going to
step out in the hallway and try to call Tyson again.”

Gabrielle still hadn’t
responded.

Tamera proceeded to step
out of the room, and standing in the hallway, trying to dial her
brother again, she couldn’t get any reception on her phone. So she
quickly took the elevator to a lower level. That would afford her
the opportunity to stop by the café and grab a drink and take a few
moments to catch her breath from a whirlwind of a day. Being a
labor coach had proven to be hard work and she needed a
break.

While she sat at a round
table sipping on a cappuccino, she dialed Tyson’s number. She even
sent him a text and still, there was no response.

Tamera sighed.
Where are you, Tyson?
She
rubbed her tired eyes, finding it hard to believe the events of the
day. She, and the rest of the family were supposed to be at
Gabrielle’s baby shower, celebrating the upcoming birth of the
newest member to the Alexander family but the shower never began,
and Gabrielle had given birth on the same day.

Tamera rubbed her eyes
again.
Henry!
She’d completely forgotten to call him. His daughter had just
given birth to his first grandchild and the man didn’t even know
it. How had she forgotten to call him?
Get
it together, Tamera
, she whispered to
herself. She took her phone from the table and dialed
him.

“Hello,” he answered
quickly.

“Hey, Mr. Robinson. This is
Tamera.”

“Tamera, where’s Gabrielle
and Tyson?”

I don’t know where Tyson
is but your daughter just had a baby
.
“Um—”

“What on earth is going on?
We’re still at Padma’s house, sitting here, waiting...Padma isn’t
here, the caterers are leaving and guests are leaving—”

“Mr. Robinson, Gabrielle
had the baby.”

“What!”

“Yeah. I’m at the hospital
with her now. I’m so sorry I forgot to call you. Things were just
happening so fast and—”

“What’s the name of the
hospital?”

“Regional...are my parents
still there? They know where it is. They can bring you and the
girls here, okay.”

“Okay. I’ll get them to do
that.”

“Alright. And let everyone
else know that they might as well go home.”

“Most of them left already,
but I’ll let the others know.”

“Okay. See you
shortly.”

Chapter 17

“What’s wrong, Dad?” Carmen
asked her father right after he got off of the phone. They were
sitting at a patio table on the deck at Padma’s house.

“Gabrielle had the
baby.”

“What?” Destiny said. “But
she wasn’t due—”

“I know, Destiny, but
sometimes things like this happens.”

“Is she okay?” Carmen
asked, worried.

“As far as I know. Have
either of you seen Rena or John?”

“Yeah. They’re in the
living room,” Destiny said.

“Are we going to the
hospital to see Gabrielle?” Carmen asked.

“Yes. Just come with me,”
he told them.

Carmen and Destiny
followed their father in the house. Henry quickly found Rena and
John and said, “Gabrielle had the baby.”

“What?” Rena
said.

“She had the baby. Tamera
called me just a few minutes ago. She said they’re at Regional. Can
you take us there? I don’t know where it is.”

“Sure. Sure...ah, okay.
Let’s go.”

Once they were all loaded
in the car, John began the short drive to the hospital. Rena took
out her cell and called Tamera.

“Hey, mom,” Tamera
answered.

“Tamera, Gabrielle had the
baby?”

“Yes. Do you have Mr.
Robinson and the girls with you?”

“Yes. We’re on the way
there now.”

“Okay, then I need to tell
you something, so please don’t freak out or say anything to alarm
Mr. Robinson. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Tamera leaned back in her
chair and stretched her legs. “So, Gabrielle and Tyson got into
some sort of argument last night after dinner. He left, didn’t come
home last night, then he returned today, like twenty minutes before
the baby shower was supposed to begin and demanded that I leave the
house. That’s why I showed up to Padma’s house by myself. Anyway,
Padma told me to go back and check on Gabrielle and, when I did,
Gabrielle was crying hysterically. She said Tyson was accusing her
of having an affair with Dilvan—”

“What!”

“Mom, please don’t alarm
Mr. Robinson, okay. Just listen...don’t say anything. I don’t want
him to panic.” Tamera took a deep breath. “So he accused her of
having an affair, said the baby probably wasn’t his and Gabrielle
said he had a gun and was going after Dilvan.”

Rena placed a hand over
her mouth. Now she knew what had been bothering Tyson the night
they had dinner at his home.

“By the way, Tyson isn’t
here,” Tamera continued. “I don’t know where he is. I’ve been
trying to call him, text him, he’s not responding. Mom, he didn’t
even see his baby being born, and it
is
his baby. The little boy looks
just like Tyson.”

“Okay, dear. We’ll be
pulling up in a few minutes.”

“I’m in the cafeteria. Meet
me here.”

“Will do. Bye.”

As soon as Rena hung up
the phone, John asked, “Is everything okay, dear?”

Rena sucked in a breath,
and so that Henry didn’t suspect anything, she said, “Yes.
Everything’s fine.”

Chapter 18

Tamera took a sip of her
cappuccino and saw Heshan walk through the entrance of the café.
She waved her hand in the air so he could see her and when he did,
he walked directly to her table.

“Hey, what are you doing
here?” she asked him.

“I was about to ask you the
same thing,” he said, then took a seat.

“Gabrielle went into labor
and had the baby, and Tyson is nowhere to be found.”

“Wait...Gabrielle had the
baby?”

“Yes...a little
boy.”

“But she’s not due for
another month.”

“Try telling that to the
baby. Apparently, he was ready.” She took another sip. “Why are you
here?”

“Dilvan is in
I.C.U.”

Tamera’s lips trembled.
“Oh my gosh! Tyson did it! Tyson shot him?”

“No, Tyson didn’t shoot
him. Dilvan tried to commit suicide. He took a lot of pills and—”
Heshan shook his head.

“What?”

Heshan sighed. His brother
was a pain in everyone’s rear, but he loved him. How could he not
love his little brother? He just found it difficult to get along
with him. “I don’t know what’s happening to this family, Tamera,
but I’m so tired of all the drama. Dilvan hates Tyson. Tyson hates
Dilvan. Dilvan’s obsessed with Gabrielle. Gabrielle can’t stand
Dilvan. Tyson and Gabrielle are breaking up. Now Tyson hates
me.”

“Why?”

“He thinks I knew something
about an affair that supposedly happened between Gabrielle and
Dilvan eight months ago.”

“But Gabrielle said she
never slept with Dilvan, and I believe her. Heshan, that little boy
is Tyson’s baby. He looks just like him.”

“Well, I’m not sure what’s
going on, but, like I said, I’m tired of it.”

Tamera nodded. “My parents
are on the way with Mr. Robinson and Gabrielle’s sisters. They
should be here in a few. Maybe
Tyson will show up eventually. When was the last time you spoke
with him?”

“About an hour ago. I told
him what happened to Dilvan and he was like,
okay...whatever. Your brother tried to kill himself, at least
he’s doing something productive with his life
. That’s what he told me.”

“You know when Tyson is
mad—”

“Yeah...it nearly takes a
miracle for him to think clearly and rationally.”

Tamera sighed. “How is
Dilvan doing?”

Heshan shook his head.
“The doctors are doing everything they can.” Heshan thought about
what he said. Had the family did everything they could for Dilvan?
As the oldest of the brothers, Heshan knew he should’ve tried
harder with Dilvan, to settle the feud he had with Tyson. To make
him see that he needed to leave Gabrielle alone. All too often,
when people realized that someone close to them was in trouble,
they did nothing to help that person correct the matter for fear of
retaliation. Heshan had fallen into that category, silently
watching from the sidelines as Dilvan spiraled out of control. Now
he just hoped it wasn’t too late.

Chapter 19

“Go on in, honey,” Rena
said to John. “I’ll be right there. I just have to make a phone
call.” She had one thing on her mind and that was finding out where
her son was. Tyson had missed the birth of his baby and why was he
going ballistic all of a sudden?

John went inside with
Henry, Carmen and Destiny, leaving Rena outside with the phone
pressed against her ear.

“Come on, Tyson. Pick up,”
she mumbled. When he hadn’t answered, she dialed him
again.

“Hello, Mother.”

“Tyson, where are
you?”

He rubbed his head. “Just
sitting around thinking about how messed up my life is...about how
no matter how hard I try—”

“Son, now is not the time
to have a pity party. You’re stronger than that, Tyson, now listen
to me. Gabrielle had the baby.”

Tyson frowned. He wanted
to be happy but was the baby his?

“Did you hear
me?”

“Yeah. I heard
you.”

“Tamera told me what
happened, Tyson...told me that you didn’t think the baby was yours
and I’m telling you to get here now,” she said, whimpering. “You
already missed the birth of your son over a bunch of nonsense
and—”

“My wife having an affair
is nonsense?”

“How do you know she had an
affair, Tyson? Did she confess it to you?”

“No. She doesn’t have
to.”

“As much as you love
Gabrielle, you won’t even give her the benefit of the doubt? That’s
something I never understood about you.”

“What do you mean that’s
something you never understood about me?”

“Remember, back to when you
were trying to get into culinary school...you had supposedly left
the application in the kitchen, told your father to mail it off,
then got upset when you hadn’t heard from the admissions office.
Remember that?”

Tyson sighed. “That was a
long time ago, Mother.”

“Yeah, but I’m saying it to
prove a point. Son, you were so angry with your father that you
didn’t talk to him for weeks. Then you realized you had the papers
in your backpack all along. The point I’m trying to make is, you
can’t just assume that everybody is out to get you...that the
universe is somehow zeroing in on you and punishing you for some
reason. You have to give the other party a chance to explain
things. And you love Gabrielle. I know you do.”

“Of course I do. Why do you
think this is so hard for me?”

“Tyson...please...you need
to get here to this hospital as fast as you can and repair the
damage you’ve already caused. Please, son. I’m begging
you.”

Tyson frowned. “Yeah.
Okay.”

Chapter 20

“I wish we were here under
better circumstances,” Padma said to the family as they were all
huddled in the corner of the waiting room, an area that they
designated as temporarily theirs for the moment.

“Well, it isn’t all bad,”
She added. “Gabrielle had her baby. A beautiful baby boy.” Tears
rolled from Padma’s eyes.

After a few moments, Tyson
walked in, joining the rest of the family – Henry, Carmen, Destiny,
Lalita, Prasad, Tamera, Heshan and his parents, Rena and
John.

Padma continued, “The
doctor is not optimistic about Dilvan. They don’t know if he’ll
make it through the night,” she said with a shaky, distorted voice,
“But they’re doing every thing they can for him.”

Henry didn’t care much for
Dilvan, especially after learning how he treated Gabrielle, but he
cared for Padma and since Dilvan was her son, he could empathize
with her. Besides, he was a father and he never wanted to know what
it would feel like to have a sick child, let alone lose a
child.

“Let’s remain hopeful,”
Henry told her.

“I’m trying to,” Padma
responded.

Heshan hung his head. It
took a tragedy for him to realize how much Dilvan really meant to
him, and the possibility that he could never get the chance to talk
to his brother again had him regretting the distance he had put
between them. Even though they were getting back to a good place,
there were years before then in which they hadn’t spoken. Wasted
years. And he knew that his mother had been modest in her wording
of the doctor’s statement to soften the blow for the family. What
the doctor actually said was, it was going to take a miracle to
pull Dilvan through this. A miracle.