~~~to view the previous chapters please see my very first posts~~~
“No way. Absolutely not. Impossible.” Ali flipped a pancake on the grill. He had finished his workout, had a shower and come to make breakfast. Fatima, Masuma, Laila and Batool were all waiting patiently for him to finish so they could eat.
“Why not?” Fatima sat on one side of the booth while the three girls faced her across the table. They were drinking orange juice, and quietly colouring pictures while they waited for their food.
Ali kept his focus on the grill. “I am not going to let you drive with Rachel more than an hour out of town to spend days alone in a deserted area in an unfinished house where the closest neighbour, let alone any kind or convenience is a mile away. Did I forget to mention that you are due next week; which means now? God knows where the hospital is. And what about the lake? There’s been a lot of rain recently. What if there’s flooding or some other problem? And no phone service yet? There’s no way you’re going.” Ali put a plate of pancakes on the table. Batool was the first to dive in.
“Thank-you Daddy.”
“You’re welcome sweetheart. Eat up.”
Fatima smiled. “That’s like telling rain to be wet.” Ali smiled and smoothed Batool’s hair.
Fatima continued her protest. “Anyway, we won’t be alone. The work men are still there.” She forked a pancake and placed it on her plate.
“Hmm. And I’m going to send you for one minute to stay with a group of strange men?” Ali shook his head incredulously.
“They’re not strange men. Hamza is in charge and will be there the entire time.” Hamza was a close family friend and in charge of construction and development of the property. Fatima took the first bite of her pancake.
“Fatima, he’s not responsible for you. I am. Anyway, he would think, no he would know, I’m crazy to let you go up there.”
Masuma and Laila started a competition to see who could put the most syrup on their plates. Batool just focussed on finishing her food so she could have more.
Ali took the syrup from the girls and started to pour for Fatima.
“No thanks. I’ll just have some fruit.” Fatima put her hand up.
“Counting calories?” Ali raised an eyebrow. Both he and Fatima were health conscious. It was one of the many things that they had in common. Fatima wanted to make sure they were healthy, fit and together for a long time.
“Why not?” Fatima lifted her head and smiled.
“You only have a few more days left. Live a little.” Ali said as he passed her a bowl of mixed berries.
Fatima couldn’t let this opportunity to get a punch in pass her by. “I am trying to but my over-protective husband is cramping my style.”
Ali took his seat in the bench across from her. “Fatima if you need time to yourself, I understand and support that 100%. I can’t let you go to the house. There are so many hotels around town that have spas. Why not do that? You can even go downtown if you want.” He put another pancake on Batool’s plate. “Why don’t you check it out and pick whatever you want. I’ll go for that. You’ll be close to the family, your doctor and the hospital.” Ali nodded. “I’m comfortable with that.”
“Nothing can compare to being in nature.” Fatima pushed the point.
“True.” Ali looked at Fatima. She was pretending to be stubborn but he knew she wouldn’t go if he didn’t agree. For that reason he really wanted to find a compromise that would suit her. “How about this, after the baby is born and you two get the ‘all clear’, we can go up there and you can relax, in nature, for as long as you want?”
“We?” Fatima wore a playfully surprised look.
“It’s a big house, you won’t even see me if you don’t want to.” He downed his orange juice.
“Going with a new baby is not the same as going by myself,” Fatima pointed out.
Ali shrugged. “True.”
Fatima finally gave in. “Ok, I won’t go. And I’ll think about the spa.”
Ali smiled and quietly finished his breakfast.
As he started to clear the plates he said, “Listen, Shawn is going to be here soon. We should get the kids ready.”
Fatima’s mood immediately changed. “Ok, I’ll go get them dressed. Your mom should be here in about 30 minutes.” The girls had swimming lessons and were then going to visit another family with their grandmother. That would allow Ali and Fatima to have some uninterrupted time to speak to Shawn about the paternity suit.
“Mommy, when can I be on Auntie Rachel’s swim team?” Masuma asked.
“You need to be nine and a very good swimmer. So you better go and get ready for your lessons.” Fatima cupped Masuma’s chin in her hand.
Fatima helped the girls dress while Ali cleaned the kitchen. When Mama arrived they happily ran outside, fully excited about the day ahead of them. After they had left Ali turned to Fatima. “Are you ok?” he asked.
Fatima stood in front of him. “Sure.”
“Shawn will be here soon. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
“Are you kidding me right now? I can’t function if I don’t know what’s going on.” Fatima put her hands on her hips. She wore blue and white waffle-knit hooded maternity top and matching pants.
“I just don’t want you to be stressed out about this. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to stay. Just let me handle it,” Ali said.
“Ali, I am not going to be in the dark about this. I’ll go crazy if I don’t know what’s going on. Come on.” Her eyes were intense as she looked up at him.
Ali reluctantly agreed. “Ok, fine.”
When Shawn rang the door bell Ali was right there to open it.
“Hey, big guy.” Shawn Thomson was a high school friend. He and Ali had forged a friendship that had last over 12 years. Ali trusted him completely.
“Thanks for coming by so quickly Shawn.” Ali closed the door behind his friend and led him into the foyer.
“No problem. No problem. I understand the urgency. This definitely needs our immediate attention.” Shawn stepped forward and stopped when he saw Fatima standing in the hallway. “What’s up, Mommy?” Shawn also knew Fatima well and had great affection for her.
“Hey, Shawn. How are you?”
“Good, good. You look like you need to take a seat,” he joked with her.
“Funny, you are. I’ve been waiting for you.” Fatima turned and walked towards the family room.
Shawn turned back to Ali and lowered his voice. “You sure you want to do this here?”
“Yes, definitely. Fatima insisted. Come on lets go sit down.” They walked to the family room at the rear of the house.
The room was painted a soft green and decorated in green and cream. Fatima had already taken a seat in the corner of the cream coloured leather couch at the far end of the room when the two men arrived. Shawn sat in the couch closest to the door. He removed his suit jacket and put it over the arm of the chair. Ali pulled up a chair facing Shawn. A coral stone coffee table separated them. “So what do you have?” Ali asked.
“Alright, so I contacted the office today and received some information.” Shawn looked across the room at Fatima.
Ali encouraged him to continue. “Please Shawn, go ahead. It’s ok.”
Shawn opened his bag. “The woman in question, Leanne Roy, claims she met you about 18 months ago in Toronto. She says she saw you for about six months. She has documented all the dates. Shawn pulled out a sheet of paper. Ali took the paper from Shawn’s hand.
“Does anything look familiar?” Shawn asked him.
“These look like dates that I would have been away, but I would have to double check to be sure.” Ali returned the paper to the table keeping his eyes straight ahead.
Fatima sat silently with her two hands rolled together into a ball. She leaned with one elbow on the arm of the chair and pressed her doubled fist to her mouth.
“Ok guy, talk to me.” Shawn sat back and waited.
“I don’t know anything,” Ali replied while shrugging his shoulders.
Shawn shook his head. “Listen, you have to give me more than that. I need something to work with here.”
“I don’t have anything. I don’t know this woman, never even heard her name.”
“Ok, well there’s more.” Shawn reached into his bag again. “Pictures.”
Shawn placed pictures on the coffee table. Ali picked them up and flipped through. “Ok, a pretty good Photoshop job.”
“Is that you?” Shawn pointed to the man in the pictures posing beside the woman filing the lawsuit.
“Of course it’s me, but I never posed with her.” Shawn looked from Ali to Fatima.
“Maybe it was a fan who wanted a picture with you?” Shawn suggested.
“No. I would never have put my arm around them.” Ali rubbed his hand across the back of his neck.
Fatima opened her hands and rubbed her arms.
Shawn reached into his bag again. “Receipts.”
Ali picked up the receipts that were placed on the table.
“Is that your signature?” Shawn continued.
Ali studied the receipts in his hand. “Looks like it.” Shawn tightened his lips. “Come on Shawn, I’m in hotels all the time. Anybody could have found these, or forged my signature on a new receipt.”
“Were you in those hotels on those dates?” Shawn pressed.
“It’s possible. I would have to check.” Ali pressed his fingers against his forehead.
“Email transcripts.” More documents hit the coffee table.
Ali carefully examined the transcripts. “Ok, so I was hacked.” He responded matter-of-factly.
Shawn laughed. “Listen, you know I’m going to do everything you need me to, but I think the best thing for all concerned is to come to some kind of agreement soon. Otherwise this could get very messy pretty fast.”
“Agreement? There’ll be no agreement. They’re liars. A DNA test is going to prove that.” Ali’s eyes were hard and his voice became harsh.
“Yes,” Shawn continued slowly, “we are definitely going to do that.” He glanced at Fatima again, “but the longer this drags on the more publicity it’s going to get, and Ali, you have a family.”
“I know that.” Ali looked at the email transcripts again. “Ok, so what’s the deal?”
“No matter what the DNA results are, every day that this keeps active, it damages you. All people are going to remember is that your name was associated with a paternity suit.” Shawn leaned back in his seat. “It doesn’t look good.”
Shawn folded his arms. “And you know what they say. Where there is smoke there’s fire. People will think that even if this is not your child maybe you did have a relationship with this woman or some other women. Trust me; you don’t want your family to go through this. We can arrange a meeting and squash this whole thing now.”
Ali stood up and walked toward the back window. He looked outside for a few moments. Shawn and Fatima waited for him to be ready. Ali then turned around to face Shawn. “I am not meeting with these people. We are going to prove that they are lying and clear my name. Are you with me or not?” Ali’s voice was starting to develop an edge.
“Of course, I am. Of course. Ok. Let me get back to the office. I have a lot of work to do on this. I’ll check in with you later today.” Shawn rose to his feet.
“Sounds good.” Ali stepped forward.
Fatima remained seated while the two men walked to the door.
Shawn stopped in the hallway and turned to Ali. “Man, I’m sorry Fatima had to hear all that.”
“It’s fine, she wanted to be there. We’ll deal with it.” Ali pushed his hands into the pockets of his track pants.
“Ali listen, we need to get a private investigator on this.” Shawn positioned himself closely to Ali and lowered his voice.
“What do you mean? Why?” Ali questioned.
“If this woman went through all this trouble, she is not simply mistaken about who her child’s father is; and she is not just trying to drag you through the mud. She is set on proving that you are the father of her child. I have a gut feeling there is more going on here than we can see right now. I’m going to research DNA labs. We need to make sure the one we use is tight. We don’t want any mishaps.”
“Is that possible?” Ali was starting to feel a growing sense of apprehension. The feeling was new to him and he definitely did not like it.
Shawn rolled a fist and gently tapped Ali on his chest. “Anything is possible, my friend.”
Ali let Shawn out and turned to see Fatima at the end of the hallway. The sun shone through the back doors and framed her as she stood in the door way of the family room. She had one arm folded across her middle and the opposite hand covering her mouth. “Fatima,” Ali stepped towards her. She held up her hand.
“I’m ok. Really I am.” She tried to smile but her eyes couldn’t lie.
“Fatima, I know it looks bad and I have nothing to offer you except what we’ve built our life on; not just in the years since our marriage, but all the years that you’ve known me. You know who I am.”
Ali continued slowly towards her. She kept her hand steady and closed her eyes. “No. Ali, please don’t.” When she opened them again he was standing directly in front of her. “What do you want me to say? ‘I trust you? I believe in you? I’ll stand by you no matter what?”
Ali pulled his head back and furrowed his brow. “No. I don’t need any of that.” He placed one hand on the wall above her head. “I just need you to be ok.”
Fatima had to swallow her emotion. He always knew just how to get to her. “Everything is going to be fine. I know that.” She cleared her throat. “Now, if you will excuse me.” She slipped past Ali and disappeared up the stairs.
When he heard her bedroom door close Ali turned into the workout room and attacked the punching bag with a ferocity he had not felt in years.
