Black Temptation

Chapter 54

*MCKENZIE*

Everyone's running to the huddle like school-kids when the adventurous aggressor takes his shirt off signaling "he ready to go." Yet even though chaos is good, it's short lived; I need to find Susan. She's my priority but I can't stop myself from feeling guilty. Harry's probably pissed and looking for me.

"What happened?" I ask some lady, draped in black pearls.

"Oh you don't know? Darling, I saw this coming from a mile away. Mack brought his lover Leo to meet his family, this was his decision on how he was going to out to his parents. But his dad is a god fearing, gun toting, traditional hill billy police officer and when he believes something he achieves something, like his boy. He wanted him to grow up just like he did, simple and tasteful. But when Mack moved closer to the city, their relationship suffered. It beats me on why now he found it apt to disclose all information about his sexuality, thinking he had it all planned out."

"So there was a mix up, a misunderstanding..."

"But it was not of Leo, Mack and his father. What Mack didn't expect was to be ratted out by his own guests of honor, let alone his friends...Charles and Susan."

Really? Why would they even? To cause a stir, to distract people?

"Where are they now?"

"I couldn't tell you sweetie, by far the most inimical set of people I have ever met. But it wouldn't hurt to check a more open area, Susan said she needed some air after the fight erupted."

Evaluating the middle of the huddle, I spy, ah, there's Marie and Mack. They're screaming "Dad Stop!" and "Uncle Jesse stop!" as if their lives depended on it. Mack's eyes water with anger and panic.

The blonde one, that must be Mack's lover. He's aggressive but not in intent of hurting Uncle, just protecting himself. They continue to lock their arms in a brawl of horns as would bulls do. An outdated...we're getting off track. What are we here for? Yes, Susan. An open area? As outside? Harry approaches the scuffle with a stack of buff men ready to break up the fight.

Drifting from the crowd, I scout for Susan. I spurt to the balcony, there's no Susan on the ground level. In returning to the empty den, food platters and extinguished clouds of smoke fill my lungs. But then I smell her. Her distinct fragrance she wears, nightly, daily.

Following the odor as it gets too much to bear leads me to a mini observatory. Walls made of mirrors stand judging. She walks around, holding her stomach, stroking it as she nurses a life inside.

And I halt.

As happy as I should be for her, I am not. I cannot bring myself to that conclusion. But she's going to have to bring herself to mine.

"Susan! We need to talk!" I blurt with almost unrecognizable grit.

"I can't talk to you right now. I'm not in the best place." She holds her hand out, stepping near one of the many lamp posts here.

"Susan! You need to know something about Harry!"

"That demon beast. He was the reason I didn't have children. There's a special place in hell for people like him."

"Didn't have children? That's ludicrously inaccurate. Susan you're pregnant! You're having a child of your own. What are you saying? You're pregnant aren't you?"

Just like the soap operas we used to watch together, she looks away...oh the diva. My heart doesn't cease to break into tiny fractions of itself.

"Aren't you?"

And if looks could kill, the look she gives me just stabbed me in a thousand places.

"I have ovarian cancer, McKenzie. I can't have children. It was a false positive and I can't have children."