110 E. Park Ave, The Park Cafe Outskirts, Baltiney, New York...
Malcolm Reeves found himself once more at the park Cafe and awaiting the arrival of yet another guest for a personal meeting. This time he had not been watching the clock in search of Ryker Kennison as a very angry and baffled EvelynTowers briskly made her way toward him. She had not looked to have been in the mood for lunch as she glared rather murderously at Malcolm Reeves the moment she reached his outside table. The wind had been blowing quite fierce blowing her wild-looking long brown locks and blazer respectively. She'd always been a formidable force of nature, even Malcolm had thought so when he first met her, Sera's best friend and fellow waitress while she put herself through the numerous bills that law school provided.
"Have you and that old man Coleman lost your ever-loving minds?" she hissed with indignation. "What the hell possessed you to suspend Ryker from the company and then throw Sera's death in his face like we don't all know that only leads to his more volatile self-destructive behaviors....could you two be any more dense?"
"Well hello to you too, Evelyn," said Malcolm gathering himself in the wake of her verbal sparring. "Long time no see."
Evelyn Towers narrowed her eyes at the man who had formerly been best man at Ryker Kennison's wedding to her best friend.
"Pressuring him is not going to work," she said after a heavy sigh as she took a seat in the chair opposite a very composed and casual Malcolm.
"I am well aware of that, but sometimes...I can't stand to look at him, not like that," admitted Malcolm with a good deal of sadness behind his tone.
"It's a miracle he's survived at all," remarked Evelyn rather snidely. "Why don't you and Coleman ever be grateful for that?"
"It's not that, it's...he's so different so unruly and vulgar these days I can hardly stand the sight of him but this...getting that girl pregnant is just a bridge too far," said Malcolm seemingly coming undone in the wake of his fury.
"What girl?" asked Evelyn now curious as to what had been happening while she'd been out of the loop.
"You remember the twelve-year-old we rescued from the plane at the crash site?" asked Malcolm with an arched brow.
"Yes, well vaguely," replied Evelyn sifting through her memory banks for the name of the girl, "Valeria Rom something."
"Valencia Ramos." Malcolm corrected her with a bit of annoyance.
"What about her?" asked Evelyn not at all in the loop as far as what Ken had been up to since she last parted ways with him until their meeting at his office.
"Ryker's gone and knocked her up," growled Malcolm further illustrating his annoyance through gritted teeth. "She's three months pregnant from the looks of it and he doesn't want anything to do with it, the whole thing stinks to high heaven if you ask me, the bloody idiot should never have gotten involved with her sexually in the first place."
Evelyn took a moment to let what Malcolm had told her sink in.
"He must be going out of his mind," she said understanding the plight of the ailing man more so than what he'd done to the girl.
"What else is new?" asked Malcolm a bit bitterly. "He's a big boy, he stuck his cock in her without regard for the consequences then he can handle fatherhood and the responsibility of stealing the girl's virtue."
This time Evelyn rolled her eyes.
"Need I remind you that Ryker is suffering from a mental disorder and had the loss of his wife and previous children, that girl you are so hellbent on remaining blameless in this equation was well aware of this when she as a grown woman went out of her way to spread her legs for him," said Evelyn in Ken's defense.
Malcolm took note of how testy she sounded when mentioning Valencia's part in her pregnancy. He had been shocked to discover that he had not picked up on her attachment a lot sooner.
"Evelyn..." he began as she met his bewildered gaze. "Evelyn you didn't."
"I didn't come here to be judged Malcolm, I came here to say my piece about what you and Coleman are doing to Ryker, he's already anxious and out of sorts as it is taking the one thing that offered him stability had not done him any favors nor yourselves for all the worry you caused each other," she replied.
"Evie..you didn't," said Malcolm not willing to let it go. "How could you, to Sera no less."
"Sera was alive and well at the time and on vacation," replied Evelyn admitting her faults concerning her relationship with Ryker Kennison in the past. "Kevin was five at the time and Carter was not yet born, Sera asked me to check in on Ryker being home alone and taking on so much at work that it left him exhausted beyond belief."
Malcolm sighed as he listened to his old friend speak.
"Ryker is not to blame, he never once betrayed Sera of his own free will, I merely took advantage of the situation and there is not a day that goes by that I don't regret what I did, especially after Sera's death....she had no clue and neither had Ryker as they stood godmother and godfather to my firstborn child." Evelyn finished her explanation. "It had not been personal, I was in a bad way after a series of disappointing relationships and wanted a child of my own, so I did what I did to ensure that I got my child, I'm not proud of the way I got her but I won't say that I regret her at all."
Malcolm's eyes widened and his mouth had been agape as he realized the implication in her tale.
"Evelyn you can't have done that...not to Ryker and Sera, not to yourself," he said not at all wishing to believe it despite hearing it from her mouth with his own ears.
"He didn't even know I was in the house with him, he'd been so exhausted and drunk lying in bed, so the idea came to me after recalling how wonderful he'd been as a father to little Kevin," admitted Evelyn rather candidly. "I climbed into bed with him and he assumed I was Sera, I didn't stop him nor did I give myself away, needless to say, once it was done I couldn't very well look at myself in the mirror...especially not when both had been so supportive of me when I found out about the pregnancy, so believe me when I tell you Ryker Kennison isn't the one at fault for this little pregnancy development, this Valencia is no less an opportunist than I was at her age and beyond."
Malcolm considered this for a few moments and sighed.
"Either way, this is yet another fine mess he finds himself in," he remarked. "And as for, Esmerelda, he still doesn't have a clue that he's her biological father does he?"
"Nope," replied Evelyn casually. "And she doesn't know anything about him other than being "Uncle Ryker" and occasional "Uncle Ken" whenever the mood soots her, I had wanted to tell him but the aspect of betrayal and the fact that it happened while Sera was still alive would do more harm than good."
Malcolm sighed once more.
"So all this time, Esmerellda was Ryker's only living child until Valencia's pregnancy that is," he said flabbergasted.
"Yep," replied Evelyn rather sorrowfully, before you, I had never told another living soul about it, especially not The Elder Kennisons, who knows what they'll do if they ever find out and I am gonna appeal to your better nature, and insist that they don't, neither of them nor Ken can know the truth about Esme and it's better for everyone involved that they don't."
"I'm not in the habit of keeping secrets." Malcolm countered.
"I'm not asking you to keep a secret, it's not yours to keep, I'm asking you to stay out of it, I only told you so that you could take off your rose-colored glasses as far as this younger woman is concerned, she got pregnant on purpose and why not he's a catch financially and a rather good man when not plagued with guilt and mental illness," said Evelyn with something of a wistful expression filed across her lovely face. "She's obviously in love with him to put up with him this long and it's clear that the baby is coming whether everyone is appalled about how it got here or not."
Malcolm could see her point and nodded in agreement. There was already enough grief going around, he didn't need to add to the ongoing troubles by telling The Kennisons that Esmerelda had been one of them at this time anyway. He'd still been highly disappointed in Evelyn, her being Sera's best friend and taking advantage of Ryker while he'd been out of it wasn't something he saw coming when she agreed to meet him at the cafe.
"She's sixteen now isn't she?" asked Malcolm with an arched brow. "Your daughter I mean."
Evelyn nodded and sighed as she looked out over the horizon.
"Despite what you may think of me, Esme is the best thing that ever happened to me and I cannot thank Ryker for it," she replied. "He occasionally shares in her life despite not having a clue that she's his biological child but it's more than enough, she downright idolizes him."
"You mean she's fixated on the old Ryker, this Ken leaves a lot to be desired in terms of being a role model," remarked Malcolm rather bitterly.
"He isn't all that bad, not to Esme and not to me," replied Evelyn. "He's just out of place and filled with more pain than any man should be allowed to bear of course I knew that when he awoke in the hospital no memory whatsoever of his life and confusion on his face to last a lifetime."
Malcolm considered this for a few moments.
"I suppose you are right, perhaps I was rash in judgment of him," he admitted. "But you see the Ryker I knew was nothing like this man and seeing him in Ryker's place...it just made it all the more real that my best friend was really and truly gone."
Evelyn sighed this time around as sorrowful tears began to swell up in the wells of her eyes.
"No Malcolm, your best friend isn't truly gone, but mine is and I think about her and what I did to her every second of every day even when I look at my own daughter I will always know how badly I betrayed her and she will never know it but I do," replied Evelyn in a somber tone. "This is my burden to bear and one I elected for myself at least, with you and Ryker there is still a chance for you two to reconcile and get back to being more brothers than friends, he's still breathing even that little spat with you laying the blame for Sera and the kids dying at his feet won't get in the way of it if you desired it not to."
Malcolm considered her words carefully and nodded in acknowledgment of the wisdom in them. Evelyn dried her eyes and climbed to her feet.
"If there's nothing else, I've gotta be getting back to the office before I'm the one burning the midnight oil," she said before taking her leave of Malcolm who had still been sitting in contemplation.
He waved goodbye to her then turned to the cup of coffee he had ordered before her arrival and took a long slow sip from it.
She'd been right of course, Ryker Kennison unlike Sera Kennison had still been alive despite his shift in personality and unseemly antics.