Part 23
Being with Monique’s family made Chelsea begin to rethink her decision to keep her family at a distance. The fact that she had no one now…well, she had AJ, Kevin, and the other guys…was a cold reality driven home every time she looked in the direction of the room where Monique’s body lay. She wanted her mother, her brothers, her grandparents, and especially her father back in her life and Annie’s so Annie could know her uncles and grandparents the way she’d known hers. This wasn’t a new feeling though. She’d felt this way for years after her father had kicked her out but with every returned letter and every hang up when she called, the feeling had been killed…until now…now it was resurrected and strong, as strong as the day she’d left.
AJ had taken her crutches and wrapped his arms around her waist allowing her to lean against his chest to prevent her arms from getting too tired. They were temporarily alone and she’d grown extremely quiet prompting his concern. Leaning closer to her ear, he whispered, “Are you okay?”
She shook her head ‘no’.
“Want me to take you home?”
“I need to speak to Aunt ‘Bet’ and Uncle Mark,” she whispered.
“Let’s go then. I’ll be with you and then we’ll go. I don’t want you to wear yourself out.”
“Where’s Kevin?” asked Chelsea looking around the crowd.
As AJ handed her crutches to her, he nodded in the direction of the others, “Over there…waiting for us.”
The couple worked their way towards the room where they joined the group. Chelsea stopped in the doorway to look around to see that it was far less crowded. At the far end of the room was the casket and it was open. Just off to the side stood Monique’s parents and they were talking to her mother. One group in the middle of the room, directly in front of her caught her attention and she couldn’t help staring.
“I recognize your father,” said Kevin softly seeing where Chelsea’s attention was. “I take it those are your brothers.”
“The one next to Daddy facing us is Adam. Brett has his back to us.”
AJ heard the tremble in her voice. “Chels, what’s wrong?”
All five guys looked at her now as she said, “I want to put an end to this…I want my family back.”
“We’re with you, baby,” reassured Kevin as he brushed her hair back.
“I guess I should start with the easiest and apologize to my mom. Come on, Annie, let’s go talk to your grandmother.”
Chelsea took a deep breath and with AJ’s hand on her lower back, she followed Annie and Kevin to where her mother was talking to the Wrenns.
Seeing Annie first, Mrs. Whitlock extended her arms and Annie skipped happily into them giving her grandmother a hug. “Hi, Annie! I see you have your daddy with you.”
“Mama too and all my uncles,” smiled Annie as she looked up the guys.
Looking up and seeing Chelsea, Mrs. Whitlock said to her daughter, “I’ll give you time to talk to Uncle Mark and Aunt ‘Bet’.”
As she started to leave, Chelsea spoke up, “Mama, please…don’t go. I…uh…I want to apologize for the way I acted the other day.”
Tears sprang to her eyes as Mrs. Whitlock moved to hug her daughter. “Baby, there’s no need to apologize.”
As Chelsea’s own tears rolled down her cheeks and she clung to her mother, she asked, “Will you wait for me…so we can talk?”
“Of course, sweetheart. I’ll be right here.”
Releasing her mother and wiping her tears, she turned to the Wrenns. “Aunt ‘Bet’, Uncle Mark…thank you for everything you’ve done for me and Annie. You’ve been so wonderful.”
“It’s been our pleasure, Chelsea,” replied Mr. Wrenn as he hugged her.
Mrs. Wrenn took her hand. “I’m so glad you’re going home.”
“I hope everyone is as happy as you,” sighed Chelsea as she glanced over at her brothers and father who were watching. Turning back, she said, “Alex and the guys are going to help me pack this weekend. I’ll be out of the house by Tuesday.”
“There’s no need to rush, Chels,” assured Mr. Wrenn. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”
“Are you still planning to move to LA?” asked Mrs. Wrenn.
AJ’s heart stopped. If Chelsea wanted to work things out with her family, did that mean she wanted to stay in Virginia? That brief second between the question and Chelsea’s answer was agonizingly long.
“Yes ma’am. I’ve found a good man that I want to be with.” Chelsea looked up at AJ with a smile and he gave her a quick kiss. “And Annie needs to be with her father. I don’t want her to ever have to go through what my father is putting me through.”
AJ’s arm slipped around her waist. “Beautiful, your mom is waiting and you’re tired.”
“Chelsea, we expect to hear from you….FREQUENTLY. We want to know all about your new life in LA and how Annie is doing,” urged Mrs. Wrenn as she hugged Chelsea.
“I promise, Aunt ‘Bet’.”
“And we expect an invitation to the wedding,” teased Mr. Wrenn making AJ and Chelsea both blush. Extending his hand to AJ, he said, “I owe you an apology, Alex. My first impression of you was dead wrong.”
Taking the older man’s hand, AJ said, “No need to apologize, Mr. Wrenn.”
“I know you’re going to take good care of our girl. She’s pretty special to us.”
“I promise,” smiled AJ as Chelsea leaned her head against his shoulder.
The others spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Wrenn as AJ and Chelsea moved to where Mrs. Whitlock waited for them.
“Mama, did you really mean it when you said I could come home?”
“With all my heart, Chelsea. You and Annie belong with us.”
“What about Daddy?’
“Chelsea, your father loves you a great deal.”
“He sure has a funny way of showing it,” sneered Chelsea.
“He was disappointed because he thought you were going to have to give up your dreams. He wanted so much for you, baby.”
“If he had just been supportive...I wasn’t going to give up my education. If I come home, is he going to accept me or is he going to continue to shut me out?”
“He’s going to have to accept it or leave. That is my house and I will not have him treating you as an outsider. Tomorrow, after the funeral, I want you and Annie to come home with me. The boys are welcome to come with you too.”
Chelsea looked up at AJ, “Do you mind? I’d like to spend the weekend.”
“No, it’s no problem but what about your stuff?”
“I really don’t have that much.”
“I can send ‘Hammie’ and Mabel to pack your things,” offered Mrs. Whitlock. “Before you leave for the funeral, you can show them what needs to be done and they can bring it to the house.”
“My stuff needs to be packed to be sent to LA, Mama. Annie and I are moving out there…to be closer to Kevin.”
“Oh!” was Mrs. Whitlock’s disappointed reply. “I thought….”
“Mama, I’ve already taken six years from Kevin. I can’t continue to keep them apart and with his life about to become hectic again, I want to give him as much of a chance as I can to be with her.”
“Chelsea also has an appointment with one of the best orthopedic men in the nation to have her ankle fixed,” added AJ.
“When are you leaving?”
“Our flight is Tuesday…out of Richmond.”
“But Kevin is headed to Kentucky tomorrow afternoon so he can tell his mother,” finished Chelsea.
“Well, if you’re moving to LA, we have other things to take care of…like giving you your trust fund. I also want to take care of your college and hospital bills.”
“Mama, that’s not necessary.”
“Yeah, Mama…that’s not necessary,” came Adam from behind Chelsea. “I’m sure all her bills are paid off.”
“Adam, Brett,” greeted Mrs. Whitlock as Chelsea’s brothers joined the little group.
“So, Chelsea, moved on to someone knew to support you? I guess now that you’re on crutches, it’s gonna be kind of hard to continue working,” said Brett.
Chelsea was stunned that her brothers were being so hateful to her as she said, “Alex is NOT supporting me.”
Howie sensed that this was about to get ugly and took Annie by the hand. “We’ll be outside, Kevin.”
Kevin shook his head to acknowledge Howie as he said, “Chelsea has supported herself over the last seven years. She’s told you that.”
“But has she told you how?” asked Adam.
“She said she worked,” replied AJ.
Adam gave his sister an evil smirk, “So, Chels, you haven’t told anyone that you really are the two-bit whore that Daddy said you were. What’s wrong? Are you afraid that you won’t be able to hold on to your new man if he found out the truth about you…about how you made ends meet?”
Chelsea’s blood turned to ice. How could Adam know?
“What’s wrong, Chelsea?” taunted Brett. “From the looks of it, I don’t think your new boyfriend will have any problems with what you do.”
AJ had his arm around Chelsea but now he tightened his hold on her, trying to protect her.
Kevin spoke up, “I don’t know what you are talking about but this is not the place for this.”
“Kevin’s right. This isn’t the place for you to be doing whatever your father has put you up to. You’re clearly angry and this is disrespectful of Monique’s memory and to Mark and Betty,” agreed Mrs. Whitlock. “Let’s take this outside.”
“Daddy hasn’t put us up to anything and I’m not going anywhere. Uncle Mark and Aunt ‘Bet’ need to know exactly what Chelsea has been doing while they’ve ‘supported’ her,” snarled Adam. Turning to Chelsea again, he growled, “Go ahead, tell everyone how you let men grab at you as you STRIPPED for them! Tell them exactly how you made ends meet.”
Chelsea was fighting hard to maintain control but her immediate thoughts were of AJ’s reaction to this. Her body was trembling, the blood drained from her face, and she couldn’t speak. Would she lose him? Why were her brothers doing this and how did they know?
AJ felt Chelsea react and he gave her a gentle squeeze to let her know he was there for her.
Seeing his sister’s reaction, Brett pushed on, “I bet that’s not all you did either. How many ‘private’ parties did you give when you walked off that stage? Was that just your way of getting customers?”
Mrs. Wrenn and Mrs. Whitlock gasped in astonishment while the men bristled.
Marcus had had enough and he grabbed Adam by the arm to get him away from Chelsea. “That’s MORE than enough from BOTH of you! No one wants to hear your lies so let me show you the way OUT.”
“We don’t need YOU showing us the way out. We’ve had enough of Chelsea’s little ‘innocent’ act and making it look like its Daddy who’s lying!!” responded Adam pulling out of Marcus’ grasp. Glaring at his sister, he continued, “You can’t blame Daddy for telling the truth. He gave you several choices but you didn’t want to hear any of them. Instead, you chose to leave your family…to be the slut Daddy knew you were.”
Chelsea turned into AJ’s chest as her tears began to fall harder as Kevin took a menacing step towards Adam getting in his face. “I’ve heard you call Chelsea a slut too many times. I don’t know what she did in the seven years she’s been on her own but I know without a doubt that Chelsea did NOT do the things you’re accusing her of. What happened between her and me was out of love….NOT some cheap one-night stand and if I’d known she was pregnant, things would have been VASTLY different!”
“You clearly don’t know her as well as you think you do,” smirked Adam not backing down from Kevin. “Have you heard her deny ANY of it?”
“We’ve seen first hand her stripping. You might want to take a trip to ‘Snappers’…it’s right on the beach. They’ve got a really good shot of Chelsea as you walk in the door,” added Brett.
Marcus stepped between Adam and Kevin pushing Adam back. “You need to get out NOW!”
“No need to escort us out, Marcus. We’re leaving.” Looking at the Wrenns, he said, “Uncle Mark, Aunt ‘Bet’, we apologize for all this but the truth about Chelsea needed to be told.”
“Your father is my best friend but the only truth that needed to be told was what really happened that night Chelsea went to him for help. You should have shared the options he gave her,” said Mr. Wrenn. “Chelsea has been through enough and what she did to support herself and Annie was what she had to do. Please leave and don’t bother to come to the funeral tomorrow.”
For the first time, a voice spoke up from behind the group. “Mark, you have NO idea what happened that night. Chelsea HAD my support but she chose to throw it away.”
“Support? You call demanding that she have an abortion or give up her baby SUPPORT? How could you ask your daughter to do something that YOU couldn’t do? Tom, you were wrong to ask that of her and you were wrong to kick her out. I’ve told you that and if you want to continue shunning her, then that’s your choice but Chelsea has made something of herself DESPITE you. I’m going to ask you and your boys to leave and don’t bother coming to the funeral tomorrow. Monique wouldn’t want you there because of this.”
“That’s fine. Hillary, are you….”
“Don’t, Tom. My place is with my daughter and granddaughter. I thought I knew you after all these years but I was wrong. I will be returning home tomorrow with Alex and Chelsea. Please have your things out of my house.”
“My pleasure. My biggest mistake was marrying you in the first place. Mark, you and Betty have my deepest sympathies. Speaking from experience, it’s tragic to lose a daughter. Boys, let’s go,” and the three men were gone.
Chelsea’s sobs were the only thing that could be heard as AJ held her close. His own tears were falling into her hair, his heart breaking for her.
Mark spoke gently now, “Alex, take her home. She’s been through enough.”
Marcus took Chelsea’s crutches as AJ easily scooped her up in his arms. With her face buried in the crook of his neck, AJ made his way out of the funeral home followed by the rest of the guys.
As they disappeared through the door, Mrs. Wrenn put her arm around Mrs. Whitlock as said, “If you need anything, just let us know.”
“Betty, you have enough on you with Monique’s death. I’ll be okay and so will Chelsea. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
The Wrenns watched as Hillary Whitlock followed her daughter out of the funeral home. Two deaths to mourn.
