The Object of His Obsession (The Alexanders Book 4) (6 page)

She dabbed her eyes. What
had she done? In hindsight, she knew she should’ve taken Dilvan to
the doctor, got him the proper treatment, but she figured if he
lived a charmed life, if she gave him everything he wanted, if she
made his life pleasant so that he had no worries, he would not be
affected by the disorder. He’d be happy that life for him was easy.
That he had money and privilege. Her plan, however had backfired.
She made him worse.

She shook her head. How
had she passed this illness down to Dilvan. Heshan didn’t have it.
Prasad didn’t have it. So why did Dilvan have it? And to make
matters worse, it was her fault because he’d inherited it directly
from her.

Padma dialed her husband’s
number. It was time to come clean with a secret that she’d kept
from him for decades. Dilvan needed help, and since he listened to
his father more than he’d ever listened to anyone else, maybe if
Colin told him to go see a doctor, he would actually take the
advice. If Colin couldn’t help him, then it was too late for anyone
to help him.

“Hey, honey,” Colin
answered. “How’s baby shower planning going?”

Padma sniffled. “Colin, I
need you to come home.”

“Dear, are you crying?”
Colin asked, concerned. He’d been in New York for the last two
weeks.

Padma whimpered and
sniffled. “Dilvan needs your help. He’s losing it, Colin and if we
don’t help him, we’re going to lose our son.”

“Sweetie, wait,” Colin
said. He stood up and shut to the door to his office. “Okay, now
tell me what’s going on.”

Padma dabbed her red nose
with a Kleenex and said, “First, I have to tell you something about
myself...something I’ve been hiding from you.”

“What is it,
sweetheart?”

“I have a condition,” she
confessed.

“A condition?”

“Yes. I have bipolar
disorder.”

“That’s what has you so
upset?”

“Yes, because I know Dilvan
has it too. That’s why he’s been behaving the way that he does
and—”

“Dear, let me stop you
right here for a moment. Now, I knew you had bipolar disorder
already.”

“You did?”

“Of course I did. We’ve
been married far too long to have secrets. I saw you medicine
bottle a long time ago when you had me get something from your
purse. Years ago.”

“Why didn’t you say
anything?”

“I figured you didn’t want
me to know, so I pretended I didn’t know. Either way it goes, I
still love you and will always love you. No matter what, you’ll
always be my lovely, sweet Padma...the women I vowed to love
forever and I will love you forever.”

“Oh, Colin,” Padma said,
dabbing her eyes. “I love you, too.” She sighed in relief and said,
“Now, we have to help Dilvan. I’ve suspected he’s had bipolar for
some time now but I never said anything.”

“Tell me what’s going on
with Dilvan.”

“I just got off the phone
with him. He was so rude and short with me.”

“Oh, I’ll take care of that
right now,” Colin said.

“No, honey. The last thing
he needs is a scolding from you. He needs help...mental health. He
needs proper medication. He’s fixated on Gabrielle and—”

“Gosh...Gabrielle again? I
had the Gabrielle-talk with him. I told him to leave her
alone.”

“Well, it didn’t work. Now,
he seems to be upset about the baby shower, and then there’s
another matter...”

“What’s that?”

“I think he may have...”
Padma’s lips trembled. More tears fell from her eyes. “I think he
may have drugged her and...oh my gosh,” she cried.

“You think Dilvan would do
something like that? Our Dilvan?”

“Yes. I
know
Dilvan would do something like
that. When he was with Gabrielle, he did the same thing. Why do you
think I removed Gabrielle from that situation? Dilvan was horrible
to her and now, he’s obsessed with her. He won’t leave her alone.
And to think that Gabrielle might be pregnant with
his
baby instead of
Tyson’s...Tyson has no idea any of this is going on. It’s a mess,
Colin.”

Colin sighed. “I don’t
believe this,” he said. “Who else knows about this?”

“Well, Lalita knows. She’s
the one who brought it to me.”

“No one else
knows?”

“No, not that I’m aware of.
I’m not sure what Dilvan is telling Beatrice these days. She may
know something. What are we going to do, Colin?”

“Well, let’s just keep this
thing at bay for now. Wait until the family leaves then we can
address it after the baby shower.”

“I agree. I had already
told Dilvan that I was coming over to his house Sunday evening to
talk. I didn’t tell him what it was about, though.”

“Okay. I’ll try my best to
be there. If I can’t get there in time, I don’t want you to go,
okay? We need to take care of this together.”

“Okay, honey.”

“Now listen...I don’t want
you stressed out, so please just relax, darling. As far as we know,
Dilvan could be making up this stuff about being the baby’s father
just to get back at Tyson, you know, especially if he’s as obsessed
with Gabrielle as you think he is?”

“Yeah, that could
be.”

“Still, we need to get the
boy some help and we’ll do that promptly after the baby shower,
okay. We don’t need to drag the family into this.”

Padma nodded. “I agree.
Well, I’m going to get back to planning.”

“Okay, dear. Talk to you
soon.”

Chapter 9

“Hey, ladies,” Tyson said
when he arrived home. He saw Gabrielle and Tamera sitting on the
couch.

“Hey, Tyson,” Tamera said,
standing to give her brother a hug. “You always have a smell that
makes me want some dessert.”

He smirked. “Comes with
the profession, baby sis.”

Tyson was happy to see his
sister, but he was even more elated to lay eyes on his woman. She
looked well-rested today. Her face was glowing and beautiful. She
wore brown lipstick on her lips, her hair was silky straight like
she’d just left the salon and it was hanging long and flowy,
settling around her breasts. She wore a long, black maternity dress
and glancing down at her feet, he saw that her toenails were done
in the French-pedicure style.

“How’s my baby?” he asked,
leaning over Gabrielle and pressing his lips against
hers.

“I’m okay,” Gabrielle
said.

“Good. I like it when
you’re okay.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Mmm, hmm,” he said,
kissing her again.

“Hello...I’m sitting right
here,” Tamera quipped.

Tyson and Gabrielle
laughed together.

Gabrielle wiped her
lipstick from Tyson’s lips with her thumb.

“So I know you’re beyond
excited about the baby,” Tamera told him. “Earlier, I was telling
Gabrielle that you’ve wanted this for a long time now.”

“Yeah. Gabrielle knows how
excited I am for our son to arrive.”

“I certainly do,” Gabrielle
chimed in. “I bet if you could deliver him today, you
would.”

“You better know it,” Tyson
responded.

“Then go get some rubber
gloves and a pair of scissors so you can cut the cord. I’m so ready
to get this baby out of me.”

Tamera
chuckled.

Tyson grinned, then he
kissed Gabrielle on the cheek. “Anyway, thanks Tamera, for looking
after my babies while I was working,” he said but never took his
eyes off of Gabrielle. “It’s been a long day, but daddy’s home
now.”

Gabrielle
blushed.

Tamera made gag gestures
like she was going to vomit. “Okay, I can’t take any more of this
lovey-dovey stuff. I’m going upstairs. Goodnight,
lovebirds.”

“Goodnight, Tamera,”
Gabrielle and Tyson said with blended voices.

Tyson helped Gabrielle off
of the couch.

“Where are we going, baby?”
she asked.

“To the bedroom where we
can have some privacy, sweetie.”

“Okay,” she said taking
hold of his hand.

Once in the bedroom, Tyson
helped her sit on the bed, then on his knees in front of her, he
began massaging her toes, then her ankles after squeezing lotion in
his hands. “How does that feel?”

“It feels good, Tyson,” she
whispered, sitting on the bed so he could rub her shoulders
next.

He smiled. “Your hair
looks beautiful. And your fingernails. And your toes.”

“Thanks. Tamera took me out
for a day of pampering.”

“That was nice of
her.”

“Yes, it was. I so needed
it.”

“What did you eat for
dinner?”

“A turkey and cheese
sub.”

“And you feel okay after
eating it?”

“Yes. I’m fine. I could use
some water, though.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back,
baby.”

He eased off the bed. In
the kitchen, he took two bottles of water from the fridge and came
back in the bedroom. He sat there, opened her bottle first, handing
it to her.

Gabrielle sat up, drunk
the water quickly, quenching her thirst.

Gabrielle placed the empty
water bottle on the nightstand and laid down again, with her back
toward Tyson. He rubbed a glob of lotion in between his hands for a
moment to warm it, then spread it all over her back, enjoying the
smoothness of it. Enjoying pleasing her. Everything he did was for
her satisfaction. Since the day he met her, he realized he’d
stopped living for himself because he finally had someone to live
for, to love for the rest of his life. And she was giving him a
son.

He smiled at the thought
of it, of being happy with a family which also made him think of
Prasad and his issues with Lalita. Prasad had been worried and
attributed Lalita’s behavior to something that may have happened in
Chicago.

“Bri?”

“Yes?”

“Back when you went to
Chicago, did you notice anything weird about Lalita’s
behavior?”

“Why?”

“Just curious,” he said. He
didn’t want to tell her that Prasad was concerned. There was no
sense in alarming her unnecessarily.

“Um...” she said, thinking
for a moment. “Nothing too out of the ordinary.”

“But there was
something?”

“Yes, and it’s probably
nothing. I just noticed that, at breakfast, I think it was the
morning we were heading to the airport, she got into a little
back-and-forth with Dilvan.”

“Like an
argument?”

“No, not necessarily. He
said something, she didn’t believe him and mumbled something under
her breath. Like I said, it was probably nothing. I just thought it
was odd because Lalita is usually always happy and calm...but that
day she was a little, um...
off
.”

“I see.”
So something is wrong with
Lalita
, he thought to himself. Maybe Prasad
was on to something. But what happened in Chicago between Lalita
and Dilvan that had her behaving so out of the norm? “Gabrielle?”
he said, to see if she was still awake.

“Yes,” she said
faintly.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,
Tyson.”

With an arm around her, he
rested his palm flat against her belly, against his baby, and they
feel asleep together.

Chapter 10

Gabrielle opened the door
to let her mother-in-law, Rena, and father-in-law, John,
inside.

“Oh my goodness. Look at
you,” Rena said. She looked Gabrielle up and down. “You’re just all
baby...don’t look like you’ve gained a stitch of
weight.”

“Tell that to my ankles,”
Gabrielle joked. She had on a pair of capri jeans, and a
short-sleeved, cream-colored maternity blouse.

“Hey, sweetheart,” John
said, hugging her as best as he could.

“Hey. It’s good to see you.
Both of you,” Gabrielle told Tyson’s parents.

Tyson stepped out of the
kitchen and John said, “Hey, son.”

“Hi Dad,” he replied,
hugging his father. “Hello, Mother,” he said, hugging her right
after.

“Hello, son,” Rena said
looking upon Tyson in admiration.

“Did Tamera make it here
yet?” John inquired. “Thought I saw her car out front.”

“Yes. She’s upstairs,”
Tyson told him. “She’ll be down in a minute. Can I get you
something to drink, mother? Father?”

“I’m okay,” Rena
responded.

“I’ll take some water,”
John said, following Tyson to the kitchen. “You know we have to get
over to Padma’s house before she explodes. I think she’s more
excited about the baby than your mom and I, and we’re beside
ourselves with excitement.”