Thank you for your continued interest and support. I appreciate it. I do not own Glee or the characters, neither do I own Stuck-Up Suit.
MERCEDES
What the hell was taking Sam so long?
The line was moving faster than anticipated, and he had yet to return from the bathroom.
It was now possible to see the open casket. Loads of white floral bouquets surrounded it with banners that read, Son, Friend, Husband.
There were also long, cream-colored candles lit. It was a beautiful setup. The best that money could buy.
But it was very upsetting to witness such a young guy in the prime of his life, lying there dead.
I could see that he had black hair and a handsome face. He looked so peaceful. I truly hoped he was in a better place.
I knew he had wronged Sam, but Callum didn't deserve this.
No one deserves this...yet, it's a part of life.
I looked behind me. Still no sign of Sam.
Then my eyes then landed on her...Jennifer, looking stoic, she was sitting in the seat closest to the casket.
My body went rigid, an unexpected surge of possessiveness running through me.
Like Callum, she also had black hair...my boyfriend had been fucked over by Lois and Clark. And I was more like the Bratz doll rebound.
My boyfriend. I guess he was, wasn't he?
Anyway, Jennifer was physically the opposite of me, petite with almost a ballerina's body. She was beautiful.
And while I hadn't expected anything less, I had hoped that maybe, by some chance, she would just be average-looking.
Not the case.
But it wasn't just her looks that gave me an upset stomach. It was more so coming face to face with someone whom Sam had given his heart to.
He'd loved her. And I wasn't sure that he'd ever feel the same about me.
Perhaps, I never realized how much I wanted or needed that until this moment.
As she spoke to the people giving their condolences, I looked at her eyes. Those were the eyes that used to gaze into Sam's.
I looked at her mouth. That was the mouth that kissed his lips...and did other things to his fine body.
I then looked down at her modest breasts hidden beneath a black sheath dress. My boobs were way bigger.
That made me feel good for about a millisecond until my eyes traveled down to her thin legs. Those had been wrapped around Sam's back at one time.
'Jesus, Mercedes. Stop torturing yourself.'
So THIS was what full-blown jealousy felt like. Suddenly, I could hear Sam's voice clearly in my head...
"Come on baby, a flower never thinks about competing with the one next to it. It just blooms. Besides, jealousy is a form of hatred built on insecurity. And you have nothing to be insecure about. Don't ever count someone else's blessings instead of yours."
And just like that, I felt better and some of the tension in my body disappeared.
When I looked behind me again, the woman in back of me smiled.
"How did you know Callum?" she asked.
"Um…I didn't. I'm actually with Sam Evans."
"Jennifer's former fiancé?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
"Fiancé?
"If it's Sam Evans of Evans Financial Holdings, yes. They were engaged to be married before she and Callum got together."
My stomach sank.
He'd asked her to marry him?
"Right. Of course. Yes. I'm with that Sam Evans. And you are?"
"Heather Anderson. I'm a neighbor of Jennifer and Callum's. And sometimes I babysit Madison."
"That's their daughter?"
"Yes. She's four. Beautiful, blonde hair, unlike her parents."
I shrugged.
"Well, that happens sometimes."
Before our conversation could continue, my attention shifted towards the sight of Sam wading through the crowd towards me.
He was staring blankly ahead, looking completely dazed. This whole experience was apparently even tougher on him than I thought.
"Are you okay?" I asked as he approached me.
He nodded silently, but my gut told me that something was terribly wrong.
It was finally our turn to kneel at Callum's casket and offer a prayer. Clasping my hands together, I closed my eyes and said one Our Father and one Hail Mary.
But my heart dropped when I heard the words that came out of Sam's mouth.
"You bastard!" he whispered under his breath.
His eyes were watery, but he didn't full-on cry. And his lower lip trembled. But I just continued to look at him, confused at his sudden anger.
We both stood up in unison, slowly heading towards the not-so-grieving widow, who looked strangely okay for someone who'd just lost her husband.
Her eyes seemed to brighten when she saw Sam. But his body went stiff as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close.
'You bitch!' I thought.
"Thank you so much for coming, Sam."
He didn't answer. Not one single syllable. He just stood there, staring at her.
Had he gone mute from shock?
She went on,
"I appreciate it more than you know. I'll see you Friday for our meeting."
Meeting?
She was going to see him?
We were holding up the line, and he hadn't even introduced me. But she finally peeled her eyes away from him long enough to notice me standing to his right.
She flashed a fake smile.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Mercedes...Sam's..." I hesitated.
He finally spoke.
"Girlfriend," he said firmly as he placed his arm around my waist.
"Girlfriend…" she repeated.
And Sam tightened his hold on me.
"Yes," he replied.
"Oh, yeah. Adrienne told me you were seeing someone new, but I didn't realize it was serious."
"It is. Very serious."
Well, okay then. Good to know.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Mercedes."
"Likewise. I'm so sorry for your loss."
And by that I mean…Sam.
I looked up at him. He was giving her what looked like a death stare.
What the hell was going on?
Why was he so angry all of a sudden?
He abruptly moved along to the next family member in line. And we mechanically shook hands with every person in the lineup before reaching the end.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I said,
"Well, that was painful. What do we do now?"
Sam looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.
"Mercedes..."
"Yes, Sam. What's going on? Talk to me."
"I can't right now. I'll lose it on someone. And this is not the right time or place."
I nodded.
But it wasn't long before I got the answer to my question.
All eyes in the room turned to a beautiful, blonde-haired little girl appearing at Callum's coffin.
Madison.
She'd been MIA all night. I'd actually assumed she was kept away intentionally. And didn't think she was here at all.
The crowd seemed to still upon the heartbreaking sight of the girl weeping over her father's body. And somehow, it made me feel guilty because my father was still alive, and I chose to have nothing to do with him.
Hers was dead, and she would never have the option to see him again.
"That's so sad," I whispered to Sam.
He took a deep breath in and slowly let it out.
Almost at the same moment, the little girl turned around, allowing me the first look at her face.
I literally gasped.
Out loud.
And the wheels in my head started turning.
When I looked over at Sam, he was staring at her with a look of disbelief.
"Have you never seen her before, Sam?"
His eyes were still planted on the child when he shook his head and simply said,
"No."
Suddenly, his strange behavior made total sense. Because this little girl looked just like her father.
Her father, Sam.
There was no doubt in my mind. He was Madison's biological father.
My mind was racing.
How could this have happened?
How could they have not told him?
Was it even possible that this could've been a coincidence?
That she looked just like Sam, even though she was Callum's?
In my heart, I knew the answer.
And suddenly, I didn't know if I wanted to cry or punch someone out.
Sam tugged at my arm.
"We need to leave before I do something here I'm going to regret."
I looked over at Jennifer...who was oblivious to Sam's impending nervous breakdown...as she chatted and flashed her perfect white teeth at the people in line.
"Okay. Okay, let's go," I said.
Back in the town car, Sam stared blankly out the window for the first ten minutes of the ride.
Presumably still in shock, he didn't seem ready to talk about what we'd just witnessed. And I didn't want to push it.
He finally turned to me.
"Tell me that was just my imagination."
"No. It wasn't. That little girl looked just like you."
He blinked repeatedly, still trying to process.
"If she's my daughter, how could Jennifer have known all this time and not told me?"
"I wish I had an answer, but I don't. I guess you're gonna have to ask her."
Rubbing his temples, he said,
"I have to think this through."
"I understand if you want to be alone tonight."
"No!" he said emphatically. "I need you with me!"
"Okay."
That evening, there was no sex. Instead, Sam just held me, the enormous weight of his worry evident with each and every breath he took as he stayed awake, unable to sleep most of the night.
It seemed like the fun, carefree days of our relationship had come to an abrupt end tonight.
Things were going to change in a very drastic way.
And as much as I wanted to be there for him, I couldn't help the fact, that part of me was secretly putting on an imaginary suit of armor to protect myself.
Sam had decided that he wouldn't confront Jennifer until their meeting on Friday. He figured he'd give her time to properly bury Callum, before going on the attack about Madison.
I think he also needed the time to prepare for the inevitable truth as well as to determine what his legal rights were.
He was also bogged down with work, still trying to strategize on the takeover of Callum's company.
After a long internal debate, I decided that a couple of nights off from each other would be a good idea under the circumstances.
Much to Sam's dismay, I intentionally made plans with Noah and Quinn two nights in a row and told him I'd be sleeping at my own apartment.
Truthfully, there were no plans, other than just hanging out at the tattoo parlor. But I really needed my friends' opinion on this situation.
They couldn't believe the story.
Quinn was organizing her disposable piercing needles as she spoke.
"This sounds like something out of General Hospital."
I had to bite my tongue. They had no clue of the irony in that statement. Because, I had never mentioned that Sam watched it.
Noah had his feet up as he put his cigarette out and cracked,
"More like All My Children...if you get what I mean."
"Thanks a lot." I rolled my eyes.
He continued,
"What I don't get is how this guy never considered the possibility that that kid was his."
"He'd never seen her."
"But he'd heard about the pregnancy, right? Couldn't he have done the math? It didn't dawn on him that it was, at least, possible?"
Feeling the need to defend Sam, I said,
"They had stopped speaking. He didn't know the exact timing. He just assumed it was Callum's."
Noah lit another cigarette.
"That's some crazy shit. You wake up one day and boom…instant family."
His words made me shudder. He didn't even know it, but he had just articulated my absolute worst fear.
Quinn knew I was upset when she turned to her husband and said,
"Don't say that. He's not with that chick. They're not his family."
"Believe me, it's not like I haven't thought that very same thing," I said. "Not only was he once in love with her, but there's no other man in the picture anymore, and she's likely the mother of his child. Where exactly do I fit into this?"
Quinn tried her best to talk me off the ledge.
"You're jumping way ahead of things. He's not gonna want to be with her, especially after knowing she's lied to him for years."
I sighed.
"This woman is beautiful and cunning. I bet she's already trying to figure out how to make this situation work to her benefit. She'd scheduled a meeting with him to talk business even before he found out about Madison at the funeral. She wants to merge Callum's company with Sam's."
"I bet she wants to merge a lot more than that," Noah said.
Quinn walked over to Noah and shook him playfully.
"Will you stop?" She looked at me. "Sam seems to really care about you, Merce. I have a hard time believing he's gonna fall for her crap."
Noah interjected.
"I have a hard time picturing Merce acting all Mary Poppins and shit with this kid. You have to look at the big picture here. Even if Mr. Big Prick doesn't end up with the girl's mother, you still have to deal with raising someone else's kid if you stay with this guy. That alone is something to consider."
He was right. There were so many different layers to this problem.
"Mercedes would be a good stepmother. We could dye the little girl's tips and pierce her ears."
Quinn smiled.
But Noah blew out a huge waft of smoke.
"You know what I think? I think you should bid Daddy Warbucks and Little Orphan Annie adieu. That's just my opinion."
That night, I finally changed the color of my tips again.
They'd been green since the night of the gala. But there was only one color that seemed to fit the current situation.
Code red.
Stay safe!