Stay the Night

Chapter 34

July 5th, 2003

Rachel stomped up the driveway and rang the doorbell to Shawntae's house. After being with Mariah a few weeks ago, she couldn't help but feel a little dirty keeping such a big secret. The front door swung open and true to Shawntae fashion, the woman was wearing an over-sized jersey, a blunt tucked neatly behind her ear.

"Aye Rach, why didn't you call me before you came through? I was about to head out."  

Rachel didn't answer, but stepped inside and started heading for the kitchen. Shawntae followed her and started rummaging through the refrigerator while Rachel took a seat at the island.

"So what you come over here to talk about? Mariah's baby shower?" Shawntae inquired.

Janet decided that a baby shower would be a good idea to help cheer Mariah up since her pregnancy had been nothing short of miserable and enlisted the help of Rachel and  Shawntae to plan the whole thing so Michael could focus on taking care of his wife and babies.

"Not really. I think Janet's got it from her." As much as Rachel wanted to be excited, she had some reservations about seeing Michael and Mariah together with their happy family act.

"Tae, I can't do this." Rachel sighed, leaning back in her chair.  

"Do what?" Shawntae asked, setting a water bottle on the counter for Rachel and choosing a beer for herself.

Rachel shrugged. "This whole thing with Mimi and Lizzie. Like when Lizzie was born, I'm not gonna lie, I was a little thrown off. It was the eyes, but after a while she just started looking like a little light-bright version of Michael."

"She never looked like either one  of them to me." Shawntae shrugged. "Maybe you're right though. Them eyes get me every time. How two black people have a baby with blue eyes?"

"I thought they were green?" Rachel wondered before shaking her head. "Either way, what if she's not his?"

"Ain't none of my business. That's their marriage." The other woman said, taking a swig of her beer. "All I know is that when he finds out, because he's gonna find out, we better hope that man don't  kill her."

Rachel jumped back in surprise. "Do you think he would hurt her?"

"What would you do if you raised a child for years and then found out it wasn't yours? That the person you love slept with somebody else?" Shawntae asked.

Rachel tapped on the marble table, deep in thought. She couldn't fathom finding out somebody cheating on her, let alone raising the product of some clandestine affair for years in blissful ignorance before finding out some earth shattering secret that would destroy everything she held dear.

She ventured a question. "Do you think anybody else  knows?"

"Somebody know." Shawntae replied. "Whoever Mariah slept with knows-"

"That's the other thing!" Rachel exclaimed. "Who could have slept with her and kept it a secret for this long?  Anybody would be dying to run to the media about sleeping with Michael's wife, especially with all this negative press, but I haven't heard a peep."

"Somebody with something to lose." 

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "But who?"

"There's only a few men that I can think of that Mariah's been around that it could be: Nick Cannon, Tommy, or one of Michael's  brothers. I'm ruling Nick out though because that idiot can't hold water, we  would've known." Shawntae mused. "I'm ruling out all the brothers too, except Marlon and Jermaine. "