ANGEL

Three.

"Be careful love," He advised, "Call me when you land."

We said our final farewells and I was then exiting my home to meet with the security team. "Good morning," I greeted nicely, "I'm ready."

_______________

I had landed the Vice President and his team safely to D.C. ten minutes before the set arrival time. Because he didn't plan on staying long, I was held on standby until he was ready to leave. While I waited, they were able to book me a presidential suite at a five star hotel near The White House.

After checking into my room, I began to undress into something much more comfortable when my cell phone began to ring.

"Ugh, forgot to call him." I mumbled to myself. I figured Josh had looked at my current location and saw I had landed safely, but I was mistaken when I saw an unknown number.

I rolled my eyes and continued to let the phone ring. There were only a few short seconds of silence until the unknown number called again. I usually didn't answer unknown callers, but the sense of urgency they had to repeatedly keep calling had me interested.

"Yes?" I answered.

"Hi, is this Beyoncé?" I elected to not say anything and instead pulled the phone away from my ear to stare at the number. It was still unrecognizable and when I heard the woman on the other line speaking, I put the phone back to my ear, "I'm sorry to be randomly calling you at this time and I'm sorry to be evading your privacy right now. I'm Charlotte, and I got your number from your mother."

"Charlotte?" I asked with a confused expression. I have never heard of the name and unsure why my mother was giving out my personal information. This is the main reason I will continue to keep my distance.

"Yes! I know it's been quite some years. I told myself I wouldn't reach out to you since that's what you and your family wanted, but I'm in dire need of your help. I—I need your help. It's about Angel."

Hearing that familiar name instantly brought tears to my eyes and I was able to connect the dots. Charlotte was the woman my parents had given my baby boy to. I, of course had no idea of this exchange since they kept the entire adoption process away from me. To know that they told Charlotte to never reach out to me made me even more upset than I were 19 years ago.

I had named my baby Angel, because that's exactly what he was to me. In my eyes, I was never going to see him again but Lord knows I never stopped thinking about him. Just imagine going through 16 hours of labor and indescribable pain and not being able to see the child you gave birth to. I've been in the military and have been through many occurrences that could've taken my life or scarred me forever, but having my baby taken from me by people I called my parents was the most traumatizing thing I've ever experienced.

"Wh—What's wrong with Angel?"

I could hear Charlotte take a deep sigh, "He was in a terrible car accident and had to be airlifted to the nearest hospital. He's in need of blood, and because I'm not his biological parent, I'm not a match. If you can come to New Orleans that'll be awesome. It'll save his life, and I really need my son to live."

"I'll be there in a few hours. Can you please send the hospital info to my—"

"Ochsner Medical Center," She interrupted, "You don't even have to stay. You could just help with the blood transfusion and get back to your life."