Chapter 3: The Night Nobody Wanted to Remember
For several seconds, I couldn't understand the words Jaylen had spoken.
I was there the night everything happened.
I stared at my cousin, waiting for him to explain. Waiting for him to laugh nervously and tell me there had been some misunderstanding.
He did neither.
He stood beside the couch with his phone clenched in his hand, his shoulders tense beneath his football jersey.
“What night?”” I asked.
Jaylen swallowed.
“The night you called me after the party.””
My stomach dropped.
The party.
Seven months earlier, my coworker had celebrated her promotion at a restaurant downtown. I had invited Charles, but he canceled at the last minute, saying Letreya had arranged a family dinner he couldn't get out of.
I remembered being disappointed.
I remembered drinking two glasses of wine, laughing with friends, and leaving around ten.
I remembered calling Jaylen because my car wouldn't start.
He had picked me up.
Or at least, that was what I thought had happened.
“I don't understand,” I said.
Jaylen rubbed the back of his neck.
“You were upset. You said you didn't want to go home because you were tired of being alone.””
“That doesn't explain anything.””
“I took you to my apartment.””
The room went silent.
Tiana looked from Jaylen to me.
“You took your cousin to your apartment?””
“To let her sleep,” he said quickly.
“She was crying, and she didn't want to call Charles because she thought he'd be with his wife.””
I remembered sitting in a passenger seat beneath the glow of streetlights. I remembered the smell of rain on the pavement and my head aching from exhaustion.
But I didn't remember entering Jaylen's apartment.
I didn't remember sleeping there.
I didn't remember much after arriving at the curb outside my building.
“What happened after you took me there?”” I asked.
Jaylen looked at the floor.
“I put you on the couch. You fell asleep almost immediately.””
“Then what?””
“Nothing.””
Charles let out a bitter laugh.
“Nothing? That's what you're going with?””
Jaylen turned on him.
“You said you wanted the truth.””
“I do.””
“Then stop twisting it!””
Charles took a step forward.
“I'm not twisting anything. You told me you couldn't remember what happened after she fell asleep.””
“Because I couldn't!””
I looked between them.
“Remember what?””
Jaylen's breathing grew uneven.
“I woke up the next morning, and you were gone. Your purse was still on the chair. Your shoes were by the door. I called you, but you didn't answer.””
I shook my head.
“You never told me any of this.””
“I know.””
“Why?””
“Because I didn't think it mattered.””
“Then why does it matter now?””
He pressed his lips together.
Charles answered for him.
“Because Jaylen told me he thinks something happened that night.””
My fingers tightened around my son's blanket.
“What something?””
Charles's eyes settled on Jaylen.
“Tell her.””
Jaylen's face twisted.
“I woke up in the middle of the night,” he said.
“I heard someone at the door.””
“Who?””
“I don't know. I didn't see his face.””
My heart began to pound.
“Someone came into your apartment?””
“I think so.””
“You think so?””
“I'd been drinking. I was half asleep. I heard the door open, then I heard you talking.””
“What was I saying?””
“I couldn't make out everything. You were upset. You kept saying someone had promised you something.””
I felt cold.
“Who?””
Jaylen shook his head.
“I don't know.””
Charles stepped closer to me.
“But you see the problem, don't you? There's a period of time neither of you can account for. Then you turn up pregnant, and you expect me to accept that I'm the father without asking questions.””
I stared at him.
“You told me you loved me.””
“I did love you.””
“Then why didn't you ask me what happened? Why didn't you talk to me like a person instead of sending Jaylen after my baby?””
Charles's face tightened.
“Because I was afraid you would lie.””
The words left him before he could soften them.
For a moment, even he seemed surprised by his own honesty.
Letreya slowly lowered herself onto the armchair.
“Charles,” she whispered, “what have you been doing?””
He turned toward her.
“I'm trying to protect our family.””
“By taking a newborn away from his mother?””
“By making sure we know what we're dealing with.””
Letreya looked at me, then at the baby.
I saw confusion, anger, and something else in her expression.
Fear.
Not fear of me.
Fear of what her husband might have done.
Tiana moved beside me and placed a protective hand against my back.
“Jamiya, you don't have to answer any of this right now.””
“Yes, I do,” I said.
I looked at Jaylen.
“You said you heard someone come into your apartment. Did you tell the police that when I called them this morning?””
His face crumpled.
“No.””
“Why not?””
“Because I didn't want them asking questions about that night.””
“Why?””
He stared at me.
Then he whispered, “Because I was scared of what they might find.””
Charles closed his eyes.
Letreya rose so quickly that her chair rocked backward.
“What does that mean?””
Jaylen shook his head.
“I didn't hurt Jamiya. I swear I didn't.””
I stepped away from him.
“Then why are you talking like you did?””
“I don't know what happened that night!””
“You said you were there!””
“I was there, but I don't remember everything!””
His voice cracked.
My son began to fuss again. I rocked him, pressing my cheek against his warm head while my mind raced through fragments of a night I could barely remember.
A ringing phone.
Rain against glass.
A man's voice saying my name.
And a promise.
I'll take care of everything.
I had always assumed that voice belonged to Charles.
Now I wasn't sure.
“Jaylen,” I said slowly, “did you tell Charles that you might be the baby's father?””
Jaylen's eyes widened.
“No!””
Charles looked away.
But the movement was too quick.
I turned toward him.
“Did you accuse Jaylen of being my baby's father?””
Charles rubbed his jaw.
“I asked him whether anything could have happened.””
“Anything?””
“You were at his apartment. You were both drinking. Neither of you remembers the entire night.””
“So you decided my baby couldn't be yours?””
“I decided I needed answers.””
“You decided to humiliate me.””
“I never asked Jaylen to take the child permanently.””
“You told him to keep my son away from me!””
“I told him to prevent a confrontation.””
Jaylen gave a disbelieving laugh.
“You told me she was dangerous. You said she was going to use the baby to destroy your marriage.””
Charles turned sharply.
“Because you said she was talking about coming here!””
“She said she wanted to tell the truth!””
“And you agreed to help her!””
“I agreed to help her because she's family!””
The room erupted into overlapping voices.
Tiana demanded that Charles explain himself. Letreya accused him of hiding something. Jaylen insisted he had only wanted to protect everyone.
I heard none of it clearly.
I was looking at my son.
His tiny fingers had curled around the edge of my blouse. His face was peaceful now, unaware that the adults surrounding him were trying to turn his existence into evidence.
Whatever happened that night, he deserved better than this.
And so did I.
“Everybody stop,” I said.
My voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the room.
They fell silent.
“I don't know what happened that night. I don't know why Jaylen is afraid to tell the police what he remembers. And I don't know why Charles is so determined to convince everybody that my son isn't his.””
I looked directly at Charles.
“But I know what you promised me. I know you held my baby. I know you told me you wanted to be his father.””
Charles's expression shifted.
For a moment, I thought he might finally tell me the truth.
Instead, he reached into his pocket.
“I didn't want to do this here,” he said.
He took out his phone, opened a file, and held the screen toward Letreya.
She looked down.
Then the color drained from her face.
“What is that?”” Tiana asked.
Letreya didn't answer.
She stared at the screen as though the words were moving beneath her eyes.
“Charles,” she whispered, “you told me this was impossible.””
He said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“Letreya, what are you looking at?””
She raised her eyes toward me.
For the first time since I had entered the house, she wasn't looking at me with suspicion.
She was looking at me as if she had just realized I might have been telling the truth all along.
“Jamiya,” she said, her voice trembling, “this isn't a message about the dates.””
She turned the phone toward me.
On the screen was a photograph of a document from a medical laboratory. Most of the text was too small to read from where I stood, but one line had been enlarged.
*PATERNITY TEST — PRELIMINARY RESULTS.*
My breath caught.
“Whose test is that?””
Charles reached for the phone.
Letreya pulled it away.
“Don't you dare,” she said.
Then she looked at the final line on the screen.
And whispered a name that made Jaylen stumble backward.
“Marcus.””
I had not heard that name spoken in months.
Marcus was my former fiancé.
The man who had disappeared from my life before I ever met Charles.
The man who had called me once, six weeks before my baby was born, leaving a voicemail I had never returned.
And according to the document in Letreya's shaking hands, someone had submitted a DNA sample for comparison.
But the name beside the result wasn't Charles's.
It was Jaylen's.
And beneath it, in bold black letters, was a finding none of us had expected.
*INCONCLUSIVE — ADDITIONAL TESTING REQUIRED.*
Charles reached for the phone again.
This time, Jaylen stepped between them.
“Don't,” he said.
Charles stared at him.
“You have no idea what you're doing.””
Jaylen's hands shook, but he didn't move.
“No,” he replied.
“I think I'm finally starting to.””
Then he turned toward me.
“Jamiya, there's something else you need to know about Marcus.””
My stomach tightened.
“What?””
Jaylen glanced at Charles, whose face had gone completely still.
Then he looked back at me and said, “Marcus didn't disappear because he stopped loving you.””
May you like
He paused.
“He disappeared because Charles paid him to leave.””
