Always in My Heart

Nigel had planned not to tell Marshall about Callie’s revelation until after he met his son. But it didn’t take long after they started their evening shift for Marshall to realize that he was completely distracted and ask him what was going on.

So he told him. Told him about the surprise visit from Callie and what she’d said.

Marshall stared at him with the same dumbfounded expression Nigel was sure he’d worn this morning when Callie had stunned him with her news.

“What?” Marshall asked. “What did you just say?”

Nigel expelled a huff of air. He’d spent the day trying to get a handle on his emotions. He kept alternating between being confused, surprised and angry.

Right now, after having relayed the story to Marshall, he was back to being livid. “She said that I’m a father.”

“No way.”

“That’s what she says.”

“So the kid she was with… About eight, right?”

“He’s nine,” Nigel said. “The timing fits. The date of his birth is six months after we broke up.”

“I can’t believe it, man. What are you going to do?”

“It’s all just sinking in,” Nigel told him. “The reality of it. I didn’t wake up expecting to learn that I’m a father. The situation is so surreal. But that said, if the kid is mine—”

Nigel didn’t finish what he was saying. A part of him never wanted to see Callie again, not after her revelation. He had loved her, but clearly she hadn’t loved him at all. For her to leave him, while carrying his child, and wait ten years to tell him about this… If that wasn’t the lowest of the low, then what was?

“You believe her?”

“Yeah, I do.” And that was the problem. Because considering he believed her, then he had no choice but to get to know his child. Which meant he had to see Callie again, even if that was the last thing he wanted to do.

“I wish I could throw her in jail for this,” Nigel went on. “Lock her up and throw away the key.” But even as he said the words, he knew he was lying. He was speaking the language of an angry man. One who had been deceived. “But if Kwame is my son…” He paused, once again feeling the gravity of the situation.

He was a father.

“Then you’re gonna accept him,” Marshall supplied.

“Yeah.”

“Of course. I knew that for you there would be no other choice. You’re not the type to turn your back on your child, even under these circumstances.” Marshall paused, his eyes widening as he shook his head. “But it’s gonna be hard, man. To not have been in the kid’s life all this time… He might reject you.”

Marshall knew him too well. He’d been a friend of Nigel’s for twelve years, ever since they’d met at college. They’d both gone on to become police officers, following a similar path within the police force. Nigel had become a sergeant in six years, Marshall in seven. Nigel became a detective three years ago, and Marshall followed him a year later. The best friends were now partners.

So Marshall knew there was no way that Nigel could walk away from his son, whether or not he’d known he existed. Nigel was the kind of man who, if he had fathered a child during a one-night stand, would’ve been in the child’s life as a full-time father.

This child, however, had been born out of love.

Love, he thought sourly. He had loved Callie, but how did a woman who had claimed to love him lie to him for all these years?

“No matter how hard it will be, I have to be in his life,” Nigel said. “Take it slow. Day by day.”