Your Love Is King (24 page)

“Then I guess I’m crazy. Look, baby, I’m not gonna lie. Playing with Herb has been like a dream come true. It’s been phenomenal to work with such a legend. But it is nothing compared to being with you. You gotta know by now what kind of man I am, what’s in my heart. I could tour the world and play in the best venues, and it would mean nothing without you. My life is empty without you, Marli. I love you. You’re my perfect fit, remember? I
need
you. How I’ma be the next black president without you, baby?”

I laughed as I felt tears begin to fill my eyes. “Chris, I’m—”  

Before I could finish the statement, Chris stretched his long body across the table and covered my lips with his. He kissed me deeply, and I could feel his passion and love for me all the way down to my soul.

He cupped my tear-streaked face in his hands. “I’ll do anything to make things right with you. We can get married tonight and live wherever you want to—no more playing house. Just give me a chance.”

Through my sobs, I said, “I’ve missed you
so much
. I should’ve stayed and waited for you. It’s… it’s not your fault that things got all messed up. I was
so broken
. All you ever did was love me and make me feel special. You were… you
are
so good and now I know that God sent you to me—to help me heal. To show me that I was worthy of love—real, unconditional love.

“I just… at the time, I didn’t know how to accept it. I didn’t think I deserved it or
you
for that matter. And… and when you left, I was almost relieved that it finally happened. Because a part of me always expected it to happen. But still, it hurt. In the rational part of my mind, I knew you weren’t trying to hurt me. But in my messed up heart, it felt like you deserted me. I had tried so hard to be there for you and to make things work—like I did with my parents and my ex-husband.

“Our relationship was always wrapped up in my past hurts and I’m sorry for that. And I’m sorry that I let my brokenness ruin us, but I’ve been working hard to fix my problems and with God’s help, I’m doing better. I still have a ways to go, though.”

Chris wiped the tears from my cheek. “I’m glad you’re doing better, baby. Look, I’m sorry for the things your parents and your ex did and said to you, and I’m sorry for what those things did to your self-esteem. But
I love you
, Marlena Meadows. I love you with all my heart. I love and want you because you are beautiful inside and out. You’re what I’ve been looking for my entire life—the answer to my prayers.”

“You still want me as jacked up as I am?”

Chris reached for my hand and gripped it tightly. “You are not jacked up, baby. You’re just human. So am I. Look, I miss you, Marli. It’s like I’ve been missing a piece of myself without you.”

“I really mean that much to you?”

“You mean
everything
to me. You
are
everything to me. Can’t you see that?”

“You’re everything to me, too, Chris. You really are, but there’s something I need to tell you, and I hope you’ll still wanna be with me after you hear it.”

A concerned look spread across his face. “What is it? Is there someone else?”

I shook my head. “No, there’s no one else. Only you. I couldn’t have found another you even if I’d tried. Have… have
you
been with someone else?”

“No, baby.
No one
.”

“Okay, um…” I released a nervous sigh. I felt nauseated as I stood from my chair and pulled my dress tightly against my stomach. “I’m pregnant.”

Twenty-Six

“Paradise”

“
Baby, you awake?”

I smiled and shook my head. “Unh-uh. It’s your turn. That sounds like Greta, and if you don’t hurry up, she’s gonna wake Clark up and then you’re really gonna have a problem on your hands. You know you can’t handle both of them. ”

“Aw, you gonna leave me hanging like that? Come on, Mean Marli. We’re supposed to be in this together,” he whispered.

“Mm-hmm, where were you four hours ago, Cool Chris?”

“You were up with them four hours ago?” he asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Mm-hmm, with
both
of them, and you slept right through it.”

He scooted closer to me and kissed the back of my neck. “I’m sorry, baby. You shoulda woke me up.”

“It’s okay. I knew your turn would come. You better go get your daughter before she wakes your son up.”

He kissed my shoulder and then headed across the hall to our twins’ bedroom.

I sat up in the bed and switched on the bedside lamp. I knew it’d only be a matter of time before Clark followed his older sister’s example. I smiled as I listened to Chris talking to Greta. He was a good father, the best I’d ever seen, and I was happy to have been able to give him not one, but two children at the same time. I thought about what Rev. King said on the day the twins were born: “God sure gave Chris double for his trouble.”  It was true. Chris lost a son but gained a son
and
a daughter.

To say that we were happy together would be an understatement. I was so thankful that instead of being angry with me for keeping it from him, Chris was overjoyed about my pregnancy. In short order, we’d gotten married, bought a house, and become the parents of fraternal twins, Greta Monroe King and Clark Spencer King. Of course, Chris’s mom named them.

My relationship with my parents was okay. I’d forgiven them, but no miracle had occurred to make us the close-knit family I once wished for. However, I was now a part of an absolutely wonderful family. I was truly blessed to be a King.

I left our bedroom and walked across the hall to find Chris sitting in a rocking chair, feeding Greta a bottle. I stood in the doorway and watched as he kissed her little forehead. She opened her eyes and gazed up at her daddy as he began to softly sing to her.

After a few minutes, he finally noticed me. He smiled up at me and said, “You came to help me after all, huh? You felt sorry for me?”

I walked over to Clark’s crib. “No, I just figured that if I helped you, the two of us could get them back to sleep pretty quickly, and then
we
could go back to bed.”

“Ready to get back to sleep? You tired?”

I shook my head. “I said I wanted to go back to bed.
Not
back to sleep, if you know what I mean.”

Chris’s smile widened as he nodded. “Oh, yeah. I definitely know what you mean, and I’m definitely down with that.”

I smiled and shook my head. “You are so crazy, Chris.”

“Crazy about you, baby.”                     

I picked Clark up and placed him on my shoulder. “I’m crazy about you, too.”

Divorce and/or marital separation hurt everyone involved. If you are currently going through a divorce, or you know of a friend or a child suffering from the effects of divorce, visit:

http://www.divorcecare.org/dc4k

To learn more about Theophostic Prayer, visit:

http://theophostic.com/page12414933.aspx

For information about missing kids, visit:

http://www.missingkids.com/home

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Excerpt from “Epiphany” from

Just Between Us (Inspiring Stories by Women)

I was at a point in my life where I was walking around with the weight of the world on my shoulders. My job was stressing me, my man was stressing me, and my bills were stretching me. I was struggling to hold things together for my three kids. I was fighting what felt like a losing battle against poverty and depression. I had a good job, but with that good job, I had accumulated a pile of bills as I tried my hardest to do with one income what could better be done with two. My head hurt and my back ached from the twelve hours I’d busted my behind working at the hospital and I was more than disgusted with my former husband/baby daddy and his sporadic child-support payments.

This man had already left me with a five week old, two other children, and no job. It had taken time, sheer will, and much help from the good Lord to make it from the pit of depression I fell into after he left, to deal with the heartache and disappointment and humiliation that comes along with a failed marriage, but I had managed to make it through all of that only to land in a new space full of new stressors—single motherhood.

At least I had a decent job and a decent home and my smart, beautiful children were pretty easy to raise, but still there were three of them and only one of me. I was one person dealing with three separate personalities, moods, and quirks. It took two to make them, there definitely should've been two of us there to raise them, but no, I was it. There was just me and the pressure of having to teach my girls to be women and my son to be a man was staggering. It felt like I was carrying a boulder of parenthood around with me day in and day out and my knees were buckling beneath the pressure and the mere weight of the load.

That's where he came in with his looks and his swagger. He wasn't Denzel handsome, but he possessed the strong facial features that had always appealed to me, and he had a way about him that made him stand out in a crowd. He wasn't tall or the best dressed man I'd ever seen. He was just magnetic, and so cool you would've sworn he was Billy Dee's twin brother. The confidence he exuded was almost palpable…