"Low what're you doing here?"
She was annoyed. Good. I was devastated.
"I need to talk to you," I turned to look back at Jefferson,
"and him."
Jefferson and Tawny exchanged looks while I waited.
"Okay, well Tawny why don't you get Larissa and come on down here. She'll be thrilled to see Will ow." This man was playing house so easily. As if he hadn't just abandoned another family. The one he'd had for more years than Tawny had been alive.
"follow me," Jefferson said smiling at me and then turned to lead us down a hallway and then into a large living room already furnished with several large leather chairs big enough for two and a huge sectional sofa. The largest flatscreen I'd ever seen hung on the wall and a gas fire crackled in the fire place. Wasn't this just cozy.
"Can I offer you something to drink?" Jefferson asked.
I shook my head.
"No," was Cage's only reply. I felt like he was my silent bodyguard. It helped knowing he was here.
"My Lowlow," Larissa squealed in obvious delight when Tawny walked into the room carrying Larissa on her hip.
Her hair was damp from a bath and she was in a pair of pajamas I'd never seen before. They looked soft, frilly and expensive. Seeing Larissa in something so nice just added to the mass of emotions swirling around inside me. I wanted the best for Larissa. I wanted her to have a daddy who loved her and was there for her. But what about the other little girl this man had. The teenage one who was falling apart from his betrayal. I wanted to scream in frustration.
Tawny put Larissa down and she ran to me her arms up in the air. I bent down and picked her up and nuzzled her sweet neck. She smelled so good. Like a baby should smell. A healthy, loved baby.
"Hey my favorite princess," I whispered in her ear.
"Lowlow," she smiled up at me.
"I missed you," I told her and she clapped happily and then planted a wet kiss on my cheek.
"CAY!" she squealed when her eyes found Cage and she wiggled in my arms to get to him.
"Hey gorgeous," he replied taking her from my arms.
I turned to look back at my sister and Jefferson.
"I didn't know until today who you were, exactly." I said, staring straight at Jefferson.
"It wasn't your business Low," Tawny snapped coming to stand beside him wrapping her arm around his.
"That's where you're wrong. It unfortunately is my business"
"Larissa is mine and Jefferson's. Just because we---"
"Tawny shut up. You have no idea what I came here to say.
So just let me talk. For once." I watched as my sister's eyes glowed with anger. Jefferson patted her hand soothingly.
"Let's hear her out sweetheart."
I closed my eyes wishing with everything I had that I could reverse this. I could stop this. That Larissa could belong to another man. An unmarried man who would love her and take care of her. Not this one.
"Cage, can you and Larissa go exploring please?" I asked not looking back at him.
"Yep."
I saw Jefferson's displeasure.
"He's taken care of your daughter more times than you have, I can assure you. She's in very good hands." I hadn't won a fan with that comment but it was a fact.
"Today when I got that check, I saw Jefferson's last name for the first time. You had never mentioned it to me before.
And you always refused to tell me where you worked. I figured it was because the affair you were having was with someone at work."
"I didn't tell you because it wasn't your business," Tawny snarled.
"Again, that's where you're wrong. You see something has happened that makes this a very real issue for me. I hated knowing you were tearing a family apart. I hated knowing you were destroying another marriage."
"My marriage has been over a long time Will ow," Jefferson began and I glared up at him.
"Really? Because when you didn't show up to the family dinner your wife had so lovingly prepared and your daughter and son had shown up expecting to see their father it destroyed them. I watched it. I witnessed your wife put on a smile that didn't match the heartbreak in her eyes. I watched your son's hatred for you grow even stronger and I watched your daughter, the other one who still needs her daddy especially right now, while her world is falling apart, do everything she could to make her mother and brother smile. I had a front row seat, Mr. Hardy."
"What in the hell are you ranting about Low?" Tawny yelled over me.
"I met a guy. For the first time in my life I fell in love. I let down my walls. I found someone who makes me laugh.
Who gives me hope. I love him with everything I have in me.
But he's dealing with a mother who's completely shattered.
A little sister who is scared and he's doing all he can to fix it for them. While his father is off playing house with you."
"Marcus," Jefferson said with a heavy sigh. He understood.
He got it.
"Yes, Marcus," I replied still glaring at my sister.
"So you see the predicament I'm in. I love Marcus Hardy so much that I'd give up anything for him. Anything. Anything but Larissa. I can't see a way out of this. He won't have anything to do with me when he finds this out. My sister is the reason his family is destroyed. The reason he got a call today from his frantic sister because something was wrong with his mother."
I let out a hard laugh and then screamed throwing my hands up in the air.
"You're in love with Jeff's son?"
I swung around and shot daggers at Tawny.
"Yes."
"Just leave Low. Your dramatic performance has ruined my evening. I'm sorry you're so worked up about this but it isn't our problem."
"Tawny, don't be so call ous," Jefferson said looking down at her.
"Call ous? Jeff this is utterly ridiculous. She thinks she loves your son and she thinks coming over her and ranting about us is going to make a difference she's sadly mistaken." A chime went through the house and I paused.
"Who else is here? My God we just moved in." Tawny stormed off to answer the door and I stood staring blankly into the fire. She was right. What good was this doing? I wasn't going to get an answer by sharing with them how royally they'd screwed up so many lives. They simply didn't care. And even if they did what did I expect them to do about it?
"Low," Marcus voice broke into my thoughts and I jerked my gaze from the fire to find Tawny standing in the living room entrance with her arms crossed over her chest scowling.
"Look who else is here," Tawny spat walking back to Jefferson and staking her claim by slipping her arm around his.
"Marcus." I didn't know what else to say. I just stood there and watched the whole awful scene unfold. His eyes shifted from Tawny to me. I knew the moment he saw it. The resemblance. It was unmistakable. Especially with us standing in the same room. The emotions on his face went from shock to pain to despair to fury within seconds.
"You're her sister. This is," he stopped and looked at his dad.
"Oh god no," he started shaking his head.
"Larissa. She's not. She can't be."
He was shattered. I could see the moment it happened. I knew the feeling. I'd just experienced it myself.
"Martus pay," Larissa squealed when Cage walked into the room holding her.
Marcus looked back at Larissa with horror in his eyes. Then he looked at me and I could see the betrayal there. He thought I'd known all along. I could see it as he just stared at me. Larissa continued to try and get his attention by chanting his name and demanding he play.
Marcus stared at me as his anger turned to numbness. The tick in his jaw and his rigid stance only grew more severe the longer we stood there staring at each other. I could feel him slipping away with each second but there was nothing I could say. I didn't know how to stop this. How to explain.
"You. Are. Dead. To. Me." He said in a hard emotionless voice. Then he turned and left. Those short clipped words woke me up from my trance. I ran after him.
"Marcus, wait! Please wait!" I called out and he didn't stop.
He didn't look back.
"MARCUS PLEASE," I screamed as he opened the front door. This time he paused and turned slowly around. The hatred in his eyes directed at me was crippling.
"Do you know where I've been Will ow? Of course you don't.
You've been here with your sister and my father playing house. While I've been by my mother's hospital bed. As she recovered from an overdose of painkil ers that she took after receiving the divorce papers my father so thoughtfully brought to the house today to inform her he was leaving her for another woman. That's where I've been all day. So please don't say one more word. I never want to see you or even hear your name again. I'll be completely moved out of the apartment in a matter of hours. Stay away until I'm gone.
If you ever felt anything for me at all. Stay. Away. From. Me."
Chapter Twenty-One
Two Months Later
Marcus
"A sober Marcus Hardy, I do believe my eyes deceive me," Dewayne drawled as I pulled out a chair and sat down beside Rock at the table they'd taken over at Live Bay to hear Jackdown perform.
"He just got here. It's early yet. Give him time," Preston chimed in as he plopped back down with a girl apparently attached to him. She wiggled on his lap and he licked her ear. Usual Preston behavior. The tourists were piling in and there was fresh meat everywhere. Preston would screw his way through the best looking ones for the next three months.
"I'm not drinking tonight. I dropped out of all my classes this semester before I failed them. So I figure it's time I sober up and play makeup with a few summer courses." Rock patted me on the back, "There's the old Marcus we know and love. Knew you were in there somewhere. Glad you're back."
I didn't look over at him. Because I wasn't back. I was just as dead inside sober as I was drunk. The old Marcus had been completely destroyed. Never to return.
"Smile brother, there are hot barely clothed girls crawling all over this place. And all they want are one night stands. It's freaking heaven on earth," Preston said grinning like a little boy in a candy store.
"Screwing faceless girls is getting old. I need a break from them too," I said and turned down the beer a waitress offered me. I had a bottled water. It was going to take a lot of water to cleanse me of all the alcohol I'd forced on myself.
"Break from pu**y? Whatever man," Dewayne replied with disbelief in his tone.
"I thought you were going on that road trip with uh," Rock paused and glanced at me.
"You can say his name. I'm not an idiot and I don't care.
How many times do I have to tell you that it doesn't matter to me."
"Okay, um, so that road trip you were talking about with Cage. You decided to pass it up?"
Preston shrugged, "I don't know. Cage seems to be backing out of it. He's kind of changed lately." He trailed off and I could feel the tension at the table. They were so worried that one mention of Will ow would send me into a blind rage. I was past that. Sure I'd gone a little mental at the mention of her name or anything that reminded me of her for a while but I was over it. Completely numb where she was concerned.
I leaned back in my chair and watched as the sea of people danced. No one caught my attention. No one stood out to me. I was numb to more than just Will ow. I was numb to life.
She'd completely messed me up. But I survived. I was better now. I wasn't a brainless sap anymore and no female would ever have that much control over me again.
"Uh, Marcus man you sure you're all good with Will ow and stuff now?" Dewayne asked.
I glared at him. Why'd he have to keep saying her name and bringing it up?
"Yes."
He nodded, "Good 'cause she just walked in lookin' like a damn goddess."
I hadn't seen her since the night I'd left her standing in my father's new home. I'd avoided her at all costs and she'd done the same. Not once had she stepped foot into this place. I tried not to look for her. I told myself I didn't give a shit. But I was weak and I turned my head toward the door.
She'd lost weight.
Her hair was longer.
She had on a new dress that clung to every curve.
She was breathtaking.
And she was wrapped up in Cage York's arms.
I'd heard he didn't go out much anymore. I knew it was because of Will ow. I'd told myself he was just being her friend. That he was still sleeping around just not as much.
But the possessive gleam in his eyes as he kept her pulled up against his side told me something else. I wanted to look away. And damn I wanted not to care. She was a liar.
Cut from the same cloth as her whore sister. That's what I'd tried to convince myself over the past weeks. It never sounded believable. Even though I'd caught her there.
There were so many things about her that screamed she was nothing like her sister. Watching her as she looked nervously up at Cage as he spoke to her. He was her safety net. Just like he'd predicted. I'd left her and she'd had Cage to run back to. But she hadn't stood by and lied to Cage either. She hadn't watched as her sister tore his family apart. NO. She'd done all that to me. She'd claimed to love me then let her sister almost destroy my mother. My sister.
Me. Cage bent down and whispered in her ear and a small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. Then her head turned and her eyes locked with mine. The smile vanished and she froze. Her hand flew up to grab Cage's arm as if she needed his protection and rage ignited in me. She wasn't going to destroy me again. It was my turn. I stood up and grabbed the tipsy brunette in Preston's lap.