Chapter 4

Jim sat in the little club thinking. Why did Sylvie wish to speak to him after nearly nineteen years? She said when she called it was about a promise she had made to herself a long time ago. -- Older, much more mature and still attractive, she came up to the booth behind him. He stood and greeted her and when they sat down she said, "It has been a long time, Jim. I asked you to meet me here to give you some information. You know when I left that time so long ago I was falling in love with you. I could see you still loved Bobbi and you wanted to be back with her. I left knowing you two belonged together. I made a promise to myself that one day we would have this conversation. I would let you know we had a child that came about when we were both troubled.

"It was a good decision on my part. I straightened Wakefield out and we have three children together. Wakefield loves them all equally and is proud of my first born, although James wasn't sired by him. You did not know it, but James is your biological son. He has just turned eighteen and is the finest of young men. You can be very proud.

"I have kept a scrapbook of James all of these years with pictures, etc. I thought you might like to have it to look at. Cindy and I speak over the phone occasionally and I know most everything about you and Bobbi. I'm glad I made the choices I did those few short days when we were together. Both our lives have turned out well. Bobbi has made a fine and faithful wife for you. I'm glad you gave her a second chance, just as I have done with Wakefield.

"Say hi to Cindy for me. Odd that all three of us that came together with so much pain and each have three children to love and to make our lives complete."

Jim did not have a chance to say anything. Sylvie slid out of the booth. Before Jim could rise, she leaned down kissed him on the cheek and was gone. He watched her walk away. The waitress came by the booth. "Need another beer?"

"Yeah, I think I do."

"The pretty lady didn't stay long. Someone you knew?"

"Yeah, a long time ago." I said nothing and the waitress waited for me to add something. When I didn't, she finally went and brought me back a beer. I sat there with the scrapbook under my hand. I didn't open it. I didn't need to. I knew that Sylvie had a son James and that he was sired by me. Hell, Bobbi also knew it too and we had discussed it.

I headed home and when I arrived, Bobbi met me. "What did she want?"

"Sylvie, confirmed that her son James was sired by me, just as we suspected."

"Did Sylvie discuss him with you?"

"No, there was no discussion. I hardly said three words. After she explained why she was there, she handed me this book, kissed me on the cheek and left."

"What was her explanation?"

"She said she had made a promise to herself that someday she would let me know I made her pregnant and waited until the boy was an adult to tell me. I guess you can say she fulfilled the promise. I don't see that it affects me or us that much. I believe the involvement at the time between all of us did have positive results."

"How so? Anything besides bringing you and me together?"

"Yes, of course. When she came to me telling about you being unfaithful, I asked her why she didn't stop it. She had the facts in the tapes and the video before coming to me because Wakefield had done this before. I suspect she didn't care about us so much, but was looking for away she could control Wakefield. And she did find a way. Now that her father is dead, it is she who controls her father's firm. Cindy has said that Sylvie's mother was treated the same way by her father."

"That has nothing to do with us."

"It did at the time. I suspect she was a softer person back then than she is now. She saw that what she was doing and by holding off telling me she had wrecked our lives. She did a lot to minimize the damage to us. She found me a lawyer, she found me a job and she put me with a wonderful friend, meaning Cindy. She did a lot for you too. It was at her suggestion the Cindy employ you and she made sure we were recompensed monetarily for harassment and the other suit."