Chapter 536 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“They are not going to say any such thing. And even if they do, you should ignore them. We have never been this late to work before now, have we? It’s not like this was planned,” Benne explained as patiently as he could.

“That doesn’t mean I should be comfortable with the situation! Maybe if we hadn’t spent so much time in bed this morning we wouldn’t be running late,” Celsie said sounding very upset, and Benne raised a brow as he turned to look at her.

“Really? You are going to bring that into this?” Benne asked angrily, surprising Celsie, and causing Jamal who was sleeping in the backseat to wake up.

“How is your worrying going to help the situation right now? Do you have any idea the number of meetings I have on my schedule for this morning? Do you think I spend my time with you because I don’t have work to do?” Benne asked unable to keep calm anymore, and Jamal who was seated in the backseat immediately raised a hand to cover his ears.

Benne caught the movement in the rearview mirror, and turned to look at him, “Are you okay?”

Jamal shook his head, “You are fighting. I don’t want to hear you,” Jamal said in a fearful voice, and immediately, Celsie turned around in her seat when she realized that he was awake.

“We are not fighting, Jam,” Celsie said, flashing him a smile as she reached out to pat his hair.

“We are not fighting. We were just talking,” Benne said, but Jamal looked at him with teary eyes.

“You raised your voice. You yelled,” Jamal said, and Benne sighed.

“I was upset. I raised my voice because I was upset,” Benne explained with a sigh and he reached out to touch Jamal but he flinched and suddenly started crying.

“Please don’t hit me,” Jamal cried, making Benne frown as he exchanged a confused look with Celsie.

“I wasn’t going to hit you,” Benne said, wondering why he would think he was going to hit him.

Jero opened his eyes slowly and was surprised when he saw Candace sitting by his bedside.

He removed the oxygen mask on his nose, “You came back?” He asked weakly, and Candace who had been reading a on her phone looked at him before glancing at her wristwatch.

“You have been sleeping for about eighteen hours now. How are you feeling? Should I get the doctor?” Candace asked as she stood up and dropped her phone on the chair.

“Eighteen hours? Have you been here for that long?” Jero asked in a weak but surprised voice.

“Don’t sound so surprised. I’m not here because I care about you,” she said in a flat tone.

“Then why are you here? To kill me?” Jero asked, and Candace scoffed.

“If I wanted to kill you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation by now. You’d be on your way to hell by now,” Candace assured him, and Jero looked at her with apologetic eyes.

“I’m sorry for everything…”

“I don’t need your apology, Jero. There is nothing you are going to say that is going to make me forgive you. Your apology won’t fix anything. It won’t change anything you did to Andy or Jamal or me. So save your last few breaths,” Candace advised before heading for the door to inform the guards that Jero was awake and they could get the doctor.

After doing that, she returned to her seat and picked up her phone while Jero watched her, “I wanted you to myself,” Jero said, and Candace looked at him as he held the oxygen mask away from his face.

“All my life I never had anyone who loved me or cared about me until I met you. My family never cared about me because I wasn’t as smart as my siblings. When I saw how you loved me, I wanted to have all your love to myself. I didn’t want to share your love with anyone else. Not Andy. Not Jamal either,” Jero said, making Candace look at him like he was crazy.

“Love? I don’t think that was what you wanted from me. You didn’t love me or want my love. If you did, you wouldn’t have done any of those things you did. Andy is my sister. Jamal is your own son. They were not in any competition with you! How could you treat them that way?” she asked him incredulously.

“I wanted your undivided attention. You were the only one I cared about. I never cared about Andy. I never really cared about Jamal either. I didn’t want him. I never wanted to be a father…”

“You didn’t want to be a father? Why did you get me pregnant if you didn’t want him? Why did you let me keep him if you were going to treat him like that?” Candace yelled as tears dropped from her eyes and she stood from her seat.

Jero closed his eyes as he tried to breathe before speaking again, “You wanted a child. You said you wanted one. All I wanted was to be loved by you. I wanted you to be happy, so I let you keep him. But when he came you barely gave me your attention…”

“You are sick! So disgustingly sick! And listening to you right now is making me sick!” Candace hissed at him as the door and the two guards at the door walked in.

From the look on their faces, she could tell that they had heard some parts of their conversation if not all, and had come in to make sure she doesn’t hurt Jero.

“I know. I realized it when I was in prison. And seeing Jamal’s picture made me realize how terrible I was as a father, and that’s why I’m begging you,” Jero pleaded weakly.

“It took you long enough. Terrible? You think you were terrible? If there is a word worse than that, then that is what you are. You were not only terrible as a father. You were terrible as a human being. Do you have any idea how traumatized they both were because of you? Do you have any idea how many times Andy cried herself to sleep because of you? Do you know the number of times Jamal suffered from nightmares because of you? Or how hard it was for him at school because he was always scared of his male teachers? Do you know how hard it was for me to watch them both suffer because of you?” Candace yelled angrily not concerned about the fact that they had audience.

She watched as tears of regret dropped from Jero’s eyes and his ECG heart monitor began to beep, “I’m sorry…” Jero said with a gasp.

“Sorry? Who is the apology meant for? Me? Jamal? Andy?” Candace asked with a shake of her head as she picked up her bag, wondering what had possessed her to think she could stay by his side or care for him in the first place.

“Please tell them I’m sorry,” Jero said weakly as his ECG monitor continued to beep loudly, and Candace turned to the door when it opened and the doctor hurried to his bedside with two nurses following him.

“I’m done here. Please let me know when he dies,” Candace said as she headed for the door, but before she could walk through the door, the sound of the monitor changed and she looked back when she saw the flatlines displayed on the monitor.

“Time of death, 08:15 AM,” the doctor announced before turning to look at Candace.

Away from there, seeing Jamal’s reaction, Celsie quickly opened the door and got out of the passenger seat, and went to join Jamal in the backseat, “No one is going to hit you,” Celsie said as she embraced him.

“He is going to hit me,” Jamal cried as he hid his face from Celsie.

“Benne would never hit you. You know that, don’t you?” Celsie asked as she held him close and kissed his forehead while patting his back.

Benne said nothing as he looked away from both Celsie and Jamal, directing his attention to the cars in front of them.

Why did he feel like Jamal was reacting to something someone had done to him? Was it possible he had been physically abused? Benne wondered with a frown, not wanting to believe that his father could have done something like that to such a little boy. He hoped not else he was going to make the bastard pay.

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