A BLACK BACK
1909 Words
A BLACK BACK
*FIONA*
Letting the paper fall to the floor, she sank back to the chair.
"Is anything the matter?" The technician asked.
" No, that would be all. Thank you." Jane dismissed him.
Fiona wasn't hearing them, she was beneath the earth.
In a cocoon where silence birthed and bred.
Fiona didn't say anything for a long time, neither did Jane.
"If I am to be honest with you... sister...I am just trying to help you."
Just trying to help.
Yes, that word, it chased her now like a demon in a nightmare.
Why was she trying to help?
The answer to that question left a bitter taste on her mouth.
Her world has crashed, there was nothing to grab onto now.
She desperately looked for a pillar made of truth, it didn't matter how shaky, unreliable or faulty the pillar was, she would desperately cling to it.
The demon came for her again.
Just trying to help.
She snorted. Of course . It had been this all along.
They had decided to try to help. Her and Mike---had decided to try to help.
And Mike had known, so he ran--like the coward he turned out to be--he ran.
Her gaze was fixed on the back of the driver in front. He remained focused on his phone, making her wonder if at all he was listening in or he wasn't concerned.
No, he wasn't concerned.
Why did she have to be concerned?
The truth ate at her innards and emotions.
The black of his suit blackened her trepidation, like a black hole, sucking, soaking it in.
She didn't have to be concerned at all. Jane wasn't the fool she had to deal with here.
"It was a smart move you made, and now you will suffer for your profound foolishness in think I needed your help..." Fiona stood. " Make sure you find a way to take care of that baby...we will not take responsibility....not Mike.. certainly not me. I will be coming to the house to meet with Dad, make sure you are there. James, let's get out of here."
James dragged his eyes away from his phone immediately, he stood. " Yes ma'am.."
When they had neared the door and Jane still sat there, he turned and asked. "Is your sister not coming?"
Fiona didn't turn. "No she is not...and she is no longer my sister...she has ceased to be."
She had seized what belonged to her, taking advantage of her kindness and wrecked her home.
No sister of hers, would do that. Step or not.
*****
"This is who you made me call sister for the most part of my life?!" Jane spat bitterly."I sacrificed my body so that she can finally have a baby and this is how she pays me back?! Treats me like I am trash, leaves me at that trashy place all alone and tells me to get rid of my baby... She's full of trash!!"
Tears welled up in her eyes, but neither that nor her ranting affected Fiona, the truth was beginning to materialize.
"You shouldn't be talking to your sister that way Jane..." Donald said.
" Maybe Jane has a point..she is hurting." Retorted Maria, Jane's mom.
" Jane is hurting..is very different from Jane has a f*****g point." Donald hollered. " I will not have them go at each other when they are sisters."
"I don't want a sister like her." Jane scoffed.
The plantain sapling close to the glass wall, held Fiona's attention, it was steady and sturdy in it's white porcelain vase.
It wasn't a welcome distraction, because she had seen it countless times, but right now she needed to focus on anything--anything other than the chaos parading the fields of her mind.
Jane's reflection danced off the Wide plasma TV, but it did little to hold her attention.
Her Id caller snatched her attention , revealing Mike on screen .
She declined the call immediately and put the phone down.
Maybe she had to get a new screen, he just wouldn't stop bothering.
"I want to know...are you part of this plan, Dad, or is it just Maria's and Jane's to take my husband away from me?" Fiona cut in, finally taking her eyes off from the distraction and focusing on him.
Her voice was low, deadly.
Donald scratched his snow white beard.
He had donned rich blue jeans to go with a sky blue shirt.
"Fiona dear..I just want you to calm down a bit okay? This isn't much of a catastrophe as--"
" Just answer the goddamm question!" Fiona was trying really hard to wrap a chain around her impatience.
Donald looked taken back. "Actually Jane had told us about it...she wanted to give you a child..we considered, and agreed."
Maria added as if finding her voice. " Yes, she was just trying to help you."
That f*****g word.
" But we just didn't think she'd be stupid enough to do the preposterous thing she did."
Jane shot back" Dad"
" Shut up Jane." Donald said." You have messed up... you shouldn't have done that..what were you thinking? Keeping your panties on their bed? f**k! we hadn't even decided on the proposition and you went ahead to sleep with Mike. "
His words were a sharp knife, slicing at the most vulnerable parts of Fiona.
She clenched her fists, and stilled the raging storm inside her; she wanted to hear more.
"Tell me exactly why y'all thought this was a good plan? where did you guys leave your brains ?"
" Fiona--" Maria was cut short by Donald's raised hand.
"Let her be...we are very much at fault in this, and it's going to ruin me if it turns out that I ended up causing my own daughter pain." Donald turned to Fiona." Micheal loves you.. and he wouldn't want to do anything that'll hurt you.. at least not in front of you. "
Fiona's eyes shot up at that." What the hell are you talking about?"
"How long do you think before another woman makes way into the house? Takes your place? Becomes his woman and pushes you away because she has given him a child? Micheal is a billionaire...he definitely needs an heir..no matter that he tells you he doesn't."
She shook her head. " It's in times like this I wonder how you even became my father...mom died and you couldn't even wait to let her memory be honored, and the next week you are bringing in a new woman. I am really disappointed in you."
She stood.
" Fiona." Donald said.
" I have told Jane everything I have to say already....so I am here to implore that you guys help her through the period, ...I hear it gets really complicated sometimes...I have to go now...there's no reason I should be here. This is clearly not my family "
" I am not removing the baby..." Jane hissed. " I am going to have it... you are welcome to celebrate with me, or become my enemy."
" I became your enemy already, from the first day you had that hideous plan etched into your wretched mind." Fiona turned her back on them and walked out of the door.
*****
Fiona was on the lighter colored sofa, going through the interior decorations of a couple of bedrooms and kitchens, when her phone buzzed.
--pick up my damn calls for crying out loud!-- Said the message from Mike.
She ignored it, and then a few minutes later the door beeped.
-Welcome back Mike- Alexa chirped.
Fiona acted like she hadn't seen him, he could have been a ghost.
He had the look of a tired hungry stray dog as he let his bag drop to the cushion.
"I don't know what the f**k is wrong with you! Is this how it's going to be!? This is what is going to become of our marriage? Because a girl as immature as Jane came up with an accusation and now our life is a wreck?!"
" I get you had business to attend to...that is why you couldn't care to ask how the lab test went" Fiona didn't bother looking up." Even now you haven't asked."
"I don't care about no f*****g paternity test!"
" Really!? That's a serious thing to say. Because the test turned out to be positive..."
Mike seemed to stiffen, and the color wavered from his face. " No, that's not true...Fiona, I don't know how...I am telling you the truth.. please you have to believe me...I didn't sleep with her. That result can't be true."
" She bribed the lab guys then...they doctored the report..I have been trying hard to believe that is the case." She finally looked at him, her eyes were a crystal shade of the tears that wouldn't come.
Mike took a seat, he seemed stunned, deep in thought. "How the f**k did this happen? I mean, how could I have had s*x with her and I don't even--"
" Just stop it Mike, please... just stop. The more you do this the more I burn with pain inside...you shouldn't be doing this to your wife.I will feel relieved, even if just a little, if you tell me the truth already...if you still have any atom of respect left for me, admit to what you did. "
Mike's face hardened. " I didn't do anything with Jane."
"Oh goodness" Fiona whispered, almost inaudibly.
" I am a man of my word, and when I say something I mean it."
Fiona took a real deep breath. The pain danced on her skin, and in her heart, and in her brain, so much that she wanted to beep death.
"It's fine. It's okay" she said and stood. "I'll go get something for you to eat...I believe you haven't had anything."
" I am not hungry, Fiona "
" You don't want to eat my food?"
" Fiona... you are hurting right now...do you know what that is doing to me?"
She observed him. Could there be truth to his words? Could it possible that he honestly didn't know s**t about this?
But how? How was it that the child in that girl's womb was his?
A clear sign that he had f****d her.
"You don't have to worry about me...Mike. you have a child now to worry about."
" Can I...see the papers?"
" Of course." It was there, on the low, round dark colored coffee table varnished with lacquer.
When she had given it to him, she walked into the kitchen.
Anywhere that didn't reek of his presence and the thoughts of him f*****g Jane.
She put the sauce pan on the gas stove without lighting the fire.
She had placed bacon strips in the pan when Mike came in.
"We need to see Jane." He said solemnly.
" Why?" Her voice was cold, like the sauce pan.
"I...want to know how this happened."
"Is there any need?" She said as she turned the knob and the stove came to life.
"It'll help bring clarity to this mess we have found ourselves in... How did we do it, where... When. All this is like a dream to me."
" I told her to get rid of the child." Came the response.
" What?!" His peaked tone was accompanied by a frown.
Fiona turned, her expression bleak, thick and unsettling. "What? You wouldn't want that?"
- Writer
