Chapter 50: Chapter 50
“Carol, please.” Her father begged, beginning to cry himself.
“Just answer my questions. If you piss me off sufficiently, I swear I will cut off from you for life… oh, wait. You won’t give a flying fuck, and neither will your beloved wife.”
“I’m your birth father. I’m your father, and I love you more than life itself. You know that Carol.”
Carol heaved a sigh of relief. Somehow, she did not care if Belinda was her mother or not, but she did not want it to be that Donald was not her father too. Her whole life could not be based on lies.
“Okay. So what the hell happened? Who is my birth mother and where the hell is she? Why did she just dump me with you guys and forget all about me?”
“She’s dead, Carol. She’s long dead. She died soon after giving birth to you.” Donald told her solemnly, and she could sense the pain in those words.
“Oh,” Carol said, the fight going out of her instantly.
“Yeah. I loved Miranda... that's your mother so much and knew that she was my soulmate…if such a thing exists. She loved me just as much, if not even more. When she got pregnant with you, we were overjoyed because, before then, we had been trying unsuccessfully to have a child, all to no avail. She did get pregnant several times but always miscarried the pregnancy early. The only one she did manage to carry to birth was a stillbirth, a boy. We did not hold out much hope for you at first too, especially as the pregnancy was filled with problems. Miranda was always angry and thought that I blamed her for our failure to have children, something that heaven bear me witness, I never did. We fought constantly throughout the pregnancy, and I began to resent her too, even though I still loved her very much. It seemed that my very presence irritated her because she moved out of the house one day when I was not around. I only came back to meet her gone. She left a note telling me that she had gone to her mother’s place and I should not bother looking for her. That must have been when she was about eight months pregnant. I can’t remember now.” He said, standing up to get a glass of water for himself. He drank it and came back to continue his story, not meeting her eyes.
“I remember picking up my phone and calling her number, but she refused to pick up, so I called her mother, who forced her to talk to me. We engaged in a yelling contest which ended with her telling me that she never wanted to see me again and that she hoped I died. Miranda had a fiery temper.” He laughed a little at that. “Anyway, I was so angry that that night, I went out and got drunker than I ever have in my life. I figured that I would give her a few days to calm down and then I would go and bring her back from her mother’s place. The next morning, however, I woke up in my bed and Belinda was there, bringing me coffee and kissing me good morning. To say I was shocked was an understatement. I did not know who the hell she was, why she was in my house, or why she was wearing my favorite shirt. I quickly tried to get rid of her and let her know that I had a wife, a pregnant one at that, but she was not having any of it. It was while we were still on this that Miranda walked into the room, apparently having calmed down and decided to come back.” He stopped talking, his eyes filling with tears and a faraway look in his eyes as he remembered events from what seemed like ages ago. Carol could see in his eyes that if he could go back and change the hands of time, he would gladly undo everything.
“What happened next, dad?” Carol asked. She felt sorry for him and even felt his pain, but she had to know what happened next.
“Well, I would never forget or regret what happened next in my lifetime. Miranda walked in and you could see the shock on her face. Her eyes were begging me to tell her that what she was seeing was only a mirage, after all, we have had worse fights, but none of us had ever cheated on the other throughout our marriage. I could not speak too as I was too terrified to do so and did not even for the life of me know where to start. So she asked Belinda who she was and what she was doing there. Belinda asked her if she was blind and could not see that we had just finished having sex. I told you already that Miranda had a hot temper. She gave Belinda a resounding slap and began to beat her up. At first, Belinda did not retaliate and made Miranda know that it was only because she was heavily pregnant that she was not hitting her back. I got up to intervene, but that only pissed your mother off the more and she launched herself at me, while I was still some distance away and trying to explain that I had no memory of what had happened and will never willingly cheat on her. I tried my best to catch her, but my efforts were futile as she tripped, fell, and hit her head really hard. I still hear that horrible sound in my dreams sometimes.”
He paused again and stood to walk around a bit before he came back to sit down and continue the story. Carol waited patiently for him.
“She seemed fine at first, and we did not think anything of it because she got right up and continued to try to fight Belinda, who was taunting her and seemed amused by the whole thing. I finally got Belinda to leave and tried my best to get Miranda to forgive me. Even after then, she still did not want to have her head checked, claiming that she was fine, except for a headache which she used ibuprofen for and it went away. She did not even have a concussion. We lived together peacefully until about two weeks later when I came back from work and found her rolling on the floor in agony and disoriented. Apparently, she had a brain bleed, which started on the day that she fell. They tried to treat it, but I guess it was already too bad. Anyway, she died a little over a week after giving birth to you.”