Baby Love (Baby #2)(86)

"What can you tell me about him Aunt Maggie?"

I threw the 'aunt' in there hoping that in some way she would feel some connection to me that might warrant her telling me the truth.

"I suppose you have a right to know the truth. Maybe I even owe you the truth after all I have done. I know this is it for me Tylar. You and your handsome hubby grab a chair and sit down here so that I can see you without straining to look up and I'll tell you all about it."

Trey pulled a chair over and sat down, pulling me onto his lap. Maggie took another sip of water and settled back against her pillows.

"I was three years older than your mama; our half-brother, Matthew was seven years older than me. My mama had bore him out of wedlock when she was just seventeen. Then she had met Carson Renaud and married him; he adopted Matthew as his own."

"Mama had me five years after they married and then Marla came along. They were good parents to all of us. Matthew though, he had a wild streak in him."

She paused as a nurse came in to check her I.V.

"When I was fifteen and your mama was just twelve our parents were killed in an automobile accident in Meridian, Mississippi about an hour from where we lived." "Matthew was twenty-two years old so he became our legal guardian. He pretty much blew through the inheritance that our parents had left within a couple of years. I was able to finish high school and started working as a secretary in an insurance office in the little town where we lived. Matthew worked nights at a cocktail lounge. We were struggling. Matthew started drinking pretty heavily and got ideas on how we could make a lot more money. He set out to train me in the ways of pleasing men. I was a very willing student."

(Was she saying what I thought she was saying?)

"Oh don't look so shocked Tylar. It wasn't like we were totally brother and sister - only half. Matthew taught me the art of f*cking and promised me that we would earn a whole lot more money with the proper clientele. He explained that this type of clientele wasn't in Mississippi. We moved to New Orleans. It was just like Matthew had promised. He found me wealthy gentlemen in prestigious positions who wanted dates. They would wine and dine me; we would go to a fancy hotel room and spend the night. There were weeks that I was bringing in more than $2000. I always practiced safe sex too."

She paused to take a long drink of water. The look in her eyes told me that she was reflecting back to a time that didn't appear to hold bad memories for her.

"I was in love with Matthew; at least I thought that I was. We would still sleep together and make love. He needed to make sure that I was in top performance for my natural calling as he put it. Your mama was seventeen by this time. She had just graduated from high school."

"She was na?ve just like you - she hadn't a clue about me and Matthew; or about me and all of the other men. She thought I worked nights. She always had her head buried in a book it seemed."

Maggie laughed and started coughing again.

A nurse came back into her room and administered some codeine to her for the cough. She said it may make her drowsy. I was determined to get the rest of the story before that happened.

"Matthew was determined to get Marla into the business of pleasing men. He said that he needed to start personally training her real soon. I didn't want him to touch her. I would like to say that it was because I was protective of her but the truth was I was jealous. I was jealous at the thought of Matthew f*cking her - or any other woman for that matter. He was mine."

She gazed over at me as if she was really seeing me for the very first time ever.

"You look just like Marla you know? Well except that she had green eyes," she stated out of the blue staring at me.

"I was able to stall Matthew on the training bit with Marla. I told him that I wanted better for her. I promised him that I would service more clients if only he would spare her. I then went off of my birth control pill on purpose. I wanted him to get me pregnant. I figured if Matthew knew that I was having his child he would forget about wanting to f*ck Marla and love me like the wife that I practically was to him."

"He knew that I always used condoms with my clients. That was our golden rule. So when I got pregnant he would know that the baby was mine and his. It would be our love child."

I laid my head against Trey's shoulder listening to her. I felt pity for what she had endured; I was sickened by the relationship she had endured with her half-brother. I couldn't fathom the reality of that type of a life. How could Maggie have possibly thought it was natural to have sex with a blood relative? Yet she had done that and more. She had fallen in love with him and wanted to be his wife?

"It didn't take me long to get pregnant. Matthew and I generally f*cked on a daily basis. I hid it from him for as long as I could because I didn't want him to make me get an abortion. He finally noticed that I had a baby bump one night when he was going down on me."

"I had to tell him the truth. He was furious with me. He claimed that because we were related the baby would be born a Mongoloid idiot. The next day he went to a bayou gypsy and got some roots and herbs and made a nasty brew. He forced me to drink it. Within hours I was in excruciating pain. I delivered a dead baby girl. She looked perfectly formed. There wouldn't have been anything wrong with her," she sobbed.

Maggie was crying now and they were real tears. It was the first time that I had ever seen her genuinely sad. I wanted to reach out to her but I couldn't bring myself to move. Trey stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head.