Page 68 of Leave It to Us
The first tears fell, and then it was like the release of a dam. Her chest heaved, and Isaac’s face collapsed as he walked toward her.
“I’m so sorry, Lana. But I promise you this won’t touch you. I promise they won’t get near you.” He’d just reached for her when she took another step back.
“What about our baby?” She wasn’t even sure if she’d said those words aloud, hadn’t muttered that last word to another soul since she’d taken her fifth pregnancy test last weekend.
Isaac’s eyes widened. “Did you just say ... our ... baby?”
“She sure the hell did.” Tami spoke up from where she stood in the doorway to the kitchen before Yvonne clamped a hand over her mouth.
Chapter 24
LANA
With his arm wrapped securely around her waist, Isaac led Lana into the kitchen. The new table-and-chair set hadn’t arrived, so they’d been using an old card table and folding chairs that had been stored in the blue house. He pulled out a chair, and she sat down slowly, afraid that any sudden movement might somehow trigger another unwanted surprise tonight.
Her head was throbbing. She hadn’t had a headache in days now, but a call to her GYN back in the city on Monday had confirmed it was a normal early-pregnancy symptom. Her doctor had referred her to an obstetrician, but Lana hadn’t made that call yet. She hadn’t even decided how or when she was going to tell her husband or her family. Well, that was taken care of now.
She propped her elbows on the table and then rested her head in her hands. Her arms and legs were still trembling as Isaac’s words played back in her mind.
“They know who you are.” “I won’t let them touch you.”
“Who are they, Isaac?” she asked without looking up.
She could hear a chair sliding across the floor and felt Isaac next to her when he put one hand at her back and the other on her knee. “Baby—”
She shook her head. “Tell me. I have a right to know.” And she probably should’ve asked before. At this moment, she felt like there were so many things she should’ve done before now, so many things she should’ve said.
In the distance she heard movement, and then, “I’m going to put on some water for some tea. You’ll feel better after tea.”
That was Yvonne. She’d shifted into her caretaker role, and for the first time in her life, Lana welcomed it. Grandma Betty used to think tea was a cure-all. She used to boil water and fix herself a cup of chamomile tea every night before she went to bed. Of course, they all knew she also put a generous helping of brandy into that tea as well, but Lana was certain Yvonne wasn’t going to do that to hers. Not after the announcement she’d inadvertently made.
“Thanks,” Lana murmured to her sister, but didn’t speak again to Isaac.
He cleared his throat. “His name is Jimmy, and he works for an, uh ...” He paused, but she still didn’t look at him. “He owns the bar where we play the private poker games in the back. And he also makes loans.”
Her chest hurt, and she shook her head again, tears dropping from her eyes onto the table. Isaac’s hand moved to her back as he leaned in, his mouth close to her ear. “I can’t begin to apologize enough, Lana. It’s a problem, I know that now, and I remember every word you said when we talked about it before. I just need you to know that I love—”
“Stop!” She lifted her head and turned until her face was aligned with his. “Just stop it! Don’t tell me you love me when you knew what you were doing was wrong and that it could hurt our marriage. Our ... family.” That last word had her gasping, and a sob broke free.
Isaac dropped his head and waited a beat before looking up at her again. “I know,” was all he said next. “I know.”
“Then why the hell did you do it? Why, Isaac? You make good money. I make good money, between the résumé writing and my photography. We’re not wanting for anything. Except ...” She sighed and slid an arm from the table so she could touch her palm to her still-flat stomach.
Isaac covered her hand, his gaze focused on them, on her stomach. “I know. I know, baby.”
“Then tell me what we’re supposed to do now. You came here, breaking through windows, thrusting paperwork in my face, because what? You think they’ll hurt me if you don’t pay your debt?”
“No. I’d never let them hurt you,” he said. “I told you that.”
“It doesn’t matter what you tell me, Isaac. None of that shit matters anymore! All that matters to me is this baby.” She shrugged. “That’s all.”
He nodded. “That’s what matters to me too. You, us, our family—that’s what we always talked about.”
“But you’re fucking it up,” she said, her voice shaking. “And I don’t understand why.”
“I don’t understand it, either, Lana,” he replied, his voice raised, tone frustrated. “I don’t know why I keep doing it when I know the consequences. I hated every time you gave me money to cover debts. I don’t even know how you knew I owed. I felt like such a loser—and not just when I got up from the poker table, but every night I lay beside you, knowing what I was doing, I felt like a loser.”
“Then why didn’t you stop?” Lana asked, again because she was still waiting for his answer to that question.
