Family Secrets

~~INTRO~~

How long can one keep a secret? What about an entire family? Most say they can keep a secret and even claim to be able to “take it to their grave.” I must admit keeping a secret for 17 years is quite impressive especially one that was so juicy. One, mind you, that involved an affair that lasted for some time.

~~PART 1~~

Let us go back to the year 1983. Somewhere between late summer and early fall. The days were still quite hot in the blistering Georgia sun. The nights had begun to cool, and the local kids were gearing up for the upcoming school year. A love (or lust as I preferred to call it) was unfolding and taking bloom. A love that was so forbidden that even decades later it had the ability to rock a family to its core. This love that we speak of would eventually produce a life. A life that would inevitably become an adult filled with many what ifs and whys. Some of those questions would be answered while many were not. Most would be ignored and remain unanswered.

The couple had potential to be something great but there was one not so minor problem. You see the woman, who was named Leah, was married, and had just given birth to a daughter. A daughter by the name Nicole. This marriage, as it would so be discovered, was not one that was full of love, happiness, or even contentment. Things, however, would so come to a head. A very heated very lasting head.

The man in our story, appropriately named Prince, was new in town and had at once befriended Leah’s husband, Damien. The trio soon became inseparable. As time would pass Damien’s usually very calm nature was starting to shift in the opposite directi9on. Leah did not see this change was quite blindsided when a secretive personality and quick temper took over the husband, she knew to be the exact opposite. The worse Damien got the more Leah and Damien fought, the closer Leah and Prince were becoming. Neither of them could imagine the world without the other. Nor did they think that anything romantic was a possibility. The pair were equally surprised that the realization of what they had done and were doing,

Soon after the birth of baby Nicki, Damien began to accuse Prince and Leah of having an affair. Up to this point, an affair was nonexistent in the minds of both Leah and Prince. I guess you could say that it was Damien who planted that very idea in their heads.

Soon after, Prince began to fall in love with Leah. Damien, though he accused, still had no clue of the growing affair between his wife and the man he called his best friend. However, he was soon to find out.

Little baby Nicole was growing and thriving as intended. She was a happy, healthy, vivacious chunk of a baby. Both Damien and Leah loved and doted on their little girl. They had even spoken of the possibility of making baby Nicki a big sister. They had come to the decision of letting Nicki get to be a little bit older before doing so. Which is why, when Nicki was around four 5 months old, it came as a complete shock to both Leah and Damien to find out that Leah was pregnant for the second time.

Leah’s pregnancy was smooth and problem free. Despite the stress that Leah’s complicated situation was adding to her. Two questions were on her mind every day, and she could not produce any answer that satisfied her racing thoughts. Who fathered this baby and should, no would she have the courage to reveal to Damien the potentially devastating news?

With her due date of July, the 28th rapidly approaching, she was running short on time to figure out those answers. Unbeknownst to her the time she thought she had was going to be drastically cut short. She was going to have to face the proverbial music much sooner than she had originally anticipated.

On May 24th, 1984, Leah woke around 11:30 pm to terrible abdominal pains that were all too familiar. Immediately she knew that the time had come for the new baby to make its grand entrance. Around midnight, she woke Damien to inform him that the time had come for them to head to the hospital, Damien woke from his peaceful slumber and rushed Leah to the hospital. Both parents were quite worried as this baby was coming incredibly early. It would seem as if time would stand still causing the already nervous couple to become a bit panicked.

On May 25th, 1984, at around 7:46 am, Leah and Damien welcomed another daughter to the family. The delivery was intense but despite being quite early and tiny weighing in at only four pounds twelve ounces, the baby girl who they named Cadence Rose was healthy. Leah decided that they would call this bundle of joy Cade for short. The excitement that had come to the couple was soon extinguished as Leah gazed up the beautiful features of Cade. The Baby’s stunning features caused a sudden and scary realization within Leah. Baby Cade shared no physical features with Damien nor any of his family. Time was up. It was to happen now but how would Damien react once he knew the betrayal from Prince and Leah?

Prince who had been waiting patiently in the waiting room. As he waited, he kept asking himself if he was ready to infact take on the role of father to this child. Suddenly Damien walked through the door, letting all that could hear that they now have a second daughter. Leah, still in the bed trying to recover from birth, felt as is time had come to a screeching halt. The time was here. The time was now. Prince was entering the room as Leah called to Damien requesting him to join her at her bedside.

“Prince,” Leah calls out, “you should stay.” Weary and tired, Leah takes a deep breath and shifts so that she is now facing Damien.

“Damien,” she begins, “I know things have been rather rocky for us, even more so now that the new baby here and Nicki still needing our attention around the clock.”” I want you to know that I love you and you are a damn good father to baby Nicki.”

Damien, who at this point was smiling with pride, responds, “And I love you Leah, but what is all….” Leah interrupts him, as she often did, “There is something I think you should know.”

“What?” Damien’s smile has been replaced with a look of worry and confusion. Leah began searching for a focal point on the smaller more cramped room so that she could gain once again the courage to tell him her secret. As her eyes landed on Prince, she could see as the realization hit him like a punch to the gut. His expression told her that he knew what she was about to do, and he made no attempt to mask his worry.

“Damien, Prince and I have been having an affair for a little while now and Cadence may not be your biological daughter,” blurts Leah.

Prince at this point started to make his way over to where the devastated husband and emotionally spent wife were staring silently at the empty bassinet that would be baby Cade’s bed for the next 24 hours. “Leah… Leah why would you tell…” As Damien’s voice trailed off, a sudden heart stopping awareness flooded over Prince and he knew in that instant that if he could make hos way to the nursery, he himself could answer Damien’s unnecessary question. All he had to do was lay eyes upon the new baby and as he suspected the baby looked identical to himself. At that moment Prince became sure, more sure than anything else in his life, of two things. The first being that nothing from this this day forward would be the same. The second being that the friendship, the bond he once shared with Damien was ending. His only comfort was knowing that on this day he became a father to a beautiful 4-pound blonde haired baby girl. And for once on Princes 27 years of life, he finally found something he loved more than himself. She was his and her name was Cadence Rose.