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The Surrogacy Secret

By the time she got to the diner she was a certifiable wreck.

Prince and Mindy were dead. Precious was the child she’d carried. Royal Robinson had known who she was before even coming to the gas station, of it she was certain, which meant it was highly probable so did Keshaun. Had it all been an elaborate ruse to fuck with her?

And what was the craziness about Prince leaving a letter declaring his love? It had to be a misunderstanding. She forced herself to forget the one time he’d kissed her out of the emotions of finding out they were having a girl. He’d wanted a girl desperately and Mindy had been feeling under the weather. She hadn’t attended the ultrasound. When the technician had told them it was a girl and had left them alone, he’d been so excited, he’d kissed her full on the mouth. It had been less than a second in length and he’d been startled by his actions when he’d jumped back.

She had laughed and waved it off and warned him if his wife caught him kissing other women, she’d have his balls and her head. Now though she was second guessing every action and movement he’d made with her. She had crushed a bit on him but had always chalked it up to pregnancy hormones. She had told herself too many times to count it was simply the emotional response to carrying his child and not based on anything more. Her physical attraction had never grown into anything more than what she thought was a deep friendship for either of them. Royal had to be confused.

Royal had thrown her for a loop. Precious needed a mother.

She scoffed as she donned her apron and punched in. Who was he to say she was supposed to step up and be a mother to a child she had given up? He didn’t know anything about her. What if she’d been a drug addict or an alcoholic? Would he have still insisted she be a mother? She was also flat broke and raising a teenager. She couldn’t afford to take on a kid. She fought her anger as she made her way to the front of the restaurant.

“Hey Famke,” her coworker Alina smiled. “It’s been pretty quiet so far.” She frowned, “are you okay? You look like you’ve been crying.”

“Ugh,” she shook her head, “my boss at my other job had friends who stopped in from out-of-town rand the guy got juice on his shirt. I was helping get it off and his girlfriend came in and called me a man-stealing slut.” She left out the part where the family she had once been a surrogate for had sought her out and tried to pin a kid on her.

“Shit,” her lips rounded in surprise. “You?”

“Right? I don’t even date and she had the gall to tell my boss’ wife to keep an eye on me because I would try to steal her husband like some kind of floozy. I told her off. It seems I’ll have lost two jobs in a month.”

“Oh no,” she frowned, “I’m sorry. I’m sure you can pick up more hours here.”

“Yes, but it’s such a hassle to get here and back without a car, I’d be spending more on taxi fare for the ride home than I’d be making for my shift.” She frowned. “It sucks because his friend isn’t even from here. Had I shut my mouth, they would have gone back to New York, and it would be a non-issue. Note to self to not offer laundry soap to a man with a grape juice stain.”

“Well, it’s not like you to shut your mouth,” Alina said and snapped a tea towel in her direction.

She chuckled and sighed. “There is truth to your statement.” She looked up as a couple came in, “take a seat anywhere. One of us will be right with you.”

Alina looked to her, “left or right tonight?”

“I’m feeling way out in left field right now so let’s keep it going,” she said with a smirk.

By the time breaktime had come around, the dinner rush had been well handled and she was packing meatloaf and mashed potatoes into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in days. Her phone rang and she noted the out of state area code and considered not answering but she had a fear he’d simply show up at the diner and leave the kid with her.

“Hello?”

“Famke, it’s Royal. Please don’t hang up.”

“What do you want?”

“To apologize. Everything happened today not in the way I wanted it to.”

“Oh, and how did you want it to happen?” She shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes in praying it kept her from losing her cool.

“Before I say anything more, Keshaun gave me strict orders when he gave me your number to beg you not to quit on him. He needs you. He said you’ve been a Godsend, and he doesn’t want to lose you.”

Relief washed over her, and she swallowed the creaminess in her mouth. “You can let him know I’ll be there on time in the morning.”

“Thank God. I was sure he was going to murder me.”

She wanted to laugh at his comment, but she was too angry.

“Look, I apologize for how things went down today. All I wanted today was to get a glimpse of you with Precious and to see if there was any kind of bond there. I sure as hell didn’t think I’d be spilling my guts or coming at you hard like I did.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked as she pushed her plate away frustratedly.

“Because I don’t know what happened and everything, I believed to be true about my brother is jumbled now with characteristics I don’t want to believe. I thought they had the perfect marriage, and nothing could ever come between them and then I find out he had an affair and took the kid from you.”

“He didn’t,” she shot back frustratedly. “Look, I don’t know why they didn’t want anyone to know but he didn’t cheat. He was a good, decent man with a heart of gold and Mindy.” She tried to stem the tears which started to come back, “Mindy was a great wife. She would have done anything for him. Anything. Do you know how much pressure your family put on them to have kids? Do you know? He told me he came from a huge family and at every gathering, get-together, birthday party, funeral, wedding, and phone call they were asking Mindy when she was going to make him a daddy. Do you know the kind of pressure that puts on a person?”

He was quiet. “I get it. They’re at me all the time to get married and settled down.”

She thought of his current girlfriend, “really?”

“Not with Ambrosia. In fact, my mother has been very vocal about me dumping her ass and finding a good, kind woman to marry.”

“Your parents are bold.”

“They are. They are always in our business and my mother is a very proud woman. She speaks her mind.”

“Mindy felt attacked all the time by them. All the time. She felt she never measured up. She told me herself.”

“You knew her,” he said suddenly as her past words caught up to him. “You knew her well.”

“Yes. I knew her. I spent months with her here. I met them when my brother had just undergone brain cancer surgery and was starting chemo. The hospital was chasing me for payments, and I was an emotional wreck. She and I bonded over failure to be the people our families needed us to be.”

“We loved Mindy.”

“Really? According to her, nobody ever paid her any attention. She described the situation to me as a meek white woman surrounded by a strong Black family. If Prince didn’t stand up for her, she’d have been railroaded constantly. The only way she was ever going to be accepted by them was if she gave him a baby. She tried so damn hard. So many miscarriages. So many failed IVF treatments.”

“That’s not true. I would have known. My brother would have told me, Famke, if they were having issues. He told me everything.”

“Did he? Did he really? I’m living proof he didn’t tell you everything. He once told me he felt he was less of a man for not being able to stop his family from the pressure they put Mindy under, but he also admitted he put as much pressure on her as they did. Before they got married, he had told her how much he wanted children. He wanted a family. He wanted a child and to him it didn’t matter the cost so he kept throwing money at the problem thinking the doctors would find some kind of way to make the eggs which weren’t viable to work. He loved her. There is no doubt in my mind how much he loved her.” She wiped an angry tear off her cheek, “he loved her so much, when she put the bug in his ear for me to have his kid, he was all in.”

She had stunned him into silence. “I didn’t have an affair with your brother, Royal. I was a surrogate. They used me and my womb as a host and the moment the doctor put the baby in their arms, they walked away and forgot I existed. Your sister-in-law did what it took to get your family off her back and your brother was so hellbent on getting what he wanted, he would have done it through any means possible. I was the means.”

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