Chapter 3

Keesha waited until her daughter returned downstairs before asking about the earlier phone call.

"It was the wrong number," Julianna said, as she handed her mother a glass of water and two pills.

After swallowing her medication, Keesha asked what she had planned for the evening.

"Nothing. I made vegetable soup and a green salad with Jell-O for dessert. I'll bring you a tray, and then I'll eat."

"Julianna," Keesha said, reaching out to hold her daughter's hand, "I don't want you to spend all your time taking care of me. I can walk to the kitchen, and I can eat dinner at the table."

"No. After your last trip to the Emergency Room, Dr. Williams said you have to have absolute bed rest. I don't mind taking care of you."

For a split second, Keesha saw something flash in her daughter's eyes. The look so reminded her of A.J. She also sensed the tension in her daughter as she held her hand. Julianna was hiding something. Keesha always knew when her daughter was distressed.

"Okay," she agreed. "I'll eat my dinner here, provided you join me. Let's not eat alone."

Julianna's sweet smile never failed to make her mother smile, no matter how badly she felt.

"I'll bring dinner soon," she promised. "You rest."

"When you come back," Keesha called out because her daughter had already left the room, "bring the cordless phone with you so we can answer it in here. I may even be up for a game of Scrabble."

Julianna pretended not to hear the part about the phone. There was no way she was giving her mother direct access to A.J. Quartermaine, should he dare try to call again.

*~*

As A.J. ate dinner alone in his hotel room with the TV turned on for background noise, he let his mind wander back to May 1998. That was the last time he had seen or spoken to Keesha. They had resumed their romantic relationship and had been together for a few months when an urgent call about her father's failing health had sent her to Philadelphia. They'd promised to keep in touch, but his life got complicated as soon as she left.

Believing he was the biological father of Michael, the son of the late Carly Corinthos, A.J. had done everything in his power to try to find out for sure. He was also reeling from the fact that Carly had drugged him, left him in an alley, and tried to make it seem as though he had started drinking again. Things really became tangled when his brother, Jason Morgan, got involved. Carly claimed Jason was the boy's father. A.J. had been stunned.

When the truth, or what A.J. thought was the truth at the time, finally came out, there wasn't time to think about Keesha. A.J. wanted his son with him. He and Carly tried marriage, but as with most everything in his life back then, it ended in disaster.

While A.J. continued to struggle with his very real problem of alcoholism, his ex-wife had taken up with the resident mobster, Sonny Corinthos. Sonny blackmailed A.J. into giving up total custody of his child. He spent the next few years hell bent on revenge, which ended up costing him dearly and making his life more miserable than it already was. Again, Keesha did not enter his mind.

Thinking he had found the ultimate revenge on his nemesis, A.J. became romantically involved with Sonny's half-sister, Courtney Mathews-Morgan. Somewhere along the line, he actually developed deep feelings for the young blonde, but once again, his brother Jason, who could do no wrong in his family's eyes, ended up with his ex-wife.

The next few years saw A.J. trying to come to grips with what had become of his life. He'd finally made strides by getting the help he knew he needed, and his life had meaning once again. He'd been about to hire a high-priced New York lawyer to fight Carly and Sonny for joint custody of a much older and more aware Michael when tragedy struck. The limousine Carly and Sonny had been riding in exploded. Sonny was killed instantly; Carly managed to hang on for a few days before her ultimate demise. The bedside confession she made to her mother changed a lot of people's lives forever, especially her son's. Michael Corinthos was really Tony Jones' son. Once Jason knew that Carly had signed a written confession, he told the affected parties, excluding Michael, how he had switched the test results at Carly's urging.

If A.J. hadn't been in a good place in his life, he knew her confession would've sent him into a tailspin. Even on her deathbed, she made sure A.J. knew the only reason she said he was the boy's father was because she knew she would always win against him since he was such a pathetic loser.

Once Sonny and Carly were gone, Jason and Courtney began to receive more and more death threats. They finally went into hiding. To this day, A.J. didn't know where they were. He had to admit they were becoming nothing more than a faded memory.

He finally managed, with a lot of help from some good people, to put much of the past with all its hurts and disappointments behind him and had moved on with his life.

Now, as he sat in the darkening room with a half-eaten steak on his plate, he wondered how different these past years might have been if, somewhere along the way, he had thought to contact Keesha. He also wondered what had caused her to be silent all these years if, indeed, the young lady he'd had contact with was his daughter.

*~*

After they'd each won a game of Scrabble, Julianna could tell her mother wanted to sleep.

"I'm going to say goodnight," she said to Keesha. "I'll be in the living room watching TV. I won't have it loud."

She kissed her mother's cheek and started to turn off her bedside lamp when Keesha stopped her.

"I want to read for a little bit. I'll turn out the light later."

Julianna nodded and after wishing her mother a restful sleep, she left the room.

Once Keesha knew she was alone, she opened her nightstand drawer and pulled out the first draft of the letter she had written to A.J. She looked at the date and realized that he'd had plenty of time to receive it. The unexpected visitor at the door and the mysterious phone call Julianna had briskly taken care of made Keesha suspicious. While she knew she hadn't given A.J. her phone number, she had no doubt he could've found it in the directory or by calling information. She knew her daughter did not want to talk about her biological father, but Keesha needed and wanted to see him. After reading the letter one more time, she returned it to the drawer for safekeeping.

With some difficulty, she managed to lay on her right side. She reached up and turned off the light. As she tried to get comfortable to go to sleep, only one thought occupied her mind.

My time is running out, A.J., and it's imperative that I talk to you.