Eastern Lights

by Brittainy Cherry

  “Now you’re catching on. You didn’t truly think that I believed in your little dreams, did you? You had a charming face and personality that I knew people would eat up. You were the puppet and thank you for making it so easy to pull your strings. Come on, Connor. You didn’t truly think that low income luxury properties would be a thing did you? That’s a joke of a concept. No one would touch that with an eight-foot pole.”

  “I looked up to you. You were like a father figure to me,” I confessed, feeling idiotic.

  “Ding, ding, ding! There is it, folks! The secret to this whole game. The moment you told me about how your father walked out on you, I knew that was my way in. Sorry if you took it personal, kid. It’s just business.”

  Every part of me felt defeated.

  Everything that man had done for me in the past was simply to stuff his own pockets. I felt abused, used, and he had no problem destroying my life.

  Everything I’d built, everything I’d hoped to build, was coming crashing down around me. And there was nothing I could do about it because I signed my soul away to the devil who appeared as my guardian angel.

  “He can’t legally do that, right? There’s no way that’s legal,” Aaliyah said as we sat on her couch. I went straight to her place after my conversation with Walter. I felt like a damn idiot. How had I been so blind to the truth that was right in front of me? I spent so much time thinking Walter was a saint, someone who saw a young kid and believed in them and their stupid dreams. In reality, all he saw was a way for him to make profit.

  “Even if it wasn’t legal, I have a feeling he’d get away with it. This is what he does—he gets away with shit and profits from it. I doubt I’m the first person he’d done that with, and I doubt I’d be the last.”

  “I hate him,” she sighed, moving in closer to me. She rested her head on my shoulder.

  “Me too,” I replied. “I can’t believe he tricked me for this long. If only I would’ve had Damian look into him sooner…”

  “This isn’t your fault, Connor. Walter Rollsfield is pathological liar. There is no way you could’ve known. I didn’t know about Marie, either. They both presented themselves as something they weren’t to get what they wanted. Honestly, I think their whole relationship is built on lies. They can’t be honest with each other, because they are far from honest with themselves. It’s actually sad the lives they live. We should count our blessings that we found out at all. I’m sure there are still people who think very highly of the assholes.”

  I sighed and rested my head on top of hers. “What am I going to do now? I can’t with good conscious stay in business with him. I’ll have to hand Roe Real Estate over to him.”

  “Well.” She laced her fingers with mine and held me close. “If it comes down to starting over, we’ll start over together. You’re not in this alone, Connor. You built yourself a name over the past year from the ground up. We’ll do it again. But no matter what, I’m here to build with you.”

  “Thank you, Red,” I whispered, moving to brush my lips against hers.

  “Always, Cap.”

  Later on, we moved to the bedroom, and she fell asleep before me. I rested my head against her chest, listening to her heartbeats. My favorite song, my favorite lullaby. I had no clue how everything was going to be okay, but as long her heart kept beating, I knew no matter what, we’d figure out how to face the world together.

  46

  Aaliyah

  “Aaliyah, what are you doing here?” Marie asked as I stood on her front steps. “Are you okay? Is it your heart…?”

  I hadn’t seen her since I confronted her about her being my biological mother. I haven’t digested that information completely, but I wasn’t standing in front of her for me. I was standing there for Connor.

  “I’m fine,” I coldly stand, wrapping my arms around my body. “Can I come in?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  She stepped to the side, allowing a pathway for me, and I walked into her home. Over the past few years, I’d spent a lot of time inside those walls. I dreamed of all of the family gatherings we’d share together in said home. I thought about all the holidays we’d have together. Funny how it was best sometimes when dreams didn’t come true.

  If I would’ve ended up marrying Jason, my world would’ve ended up being a true tragedy.

  “Can I get you something to drink? Water? Tea?” she offered. Her hands were shaking, clearly her nerves were eating at her. A part of me felt a flash of guilt, but I couldn’t feel bad about her being uncomfortable. I needed her to be uncomfortable for what I was about to request of her.

  “No. I’m fine.”

  She fiddled with her fingers and pushed out a smile. “I didn’t know if I’d be able to speak to you again, after the last time. And when you were rushed to the hospital, I wasn’t able to get in contact with you.”

  “Of course, you weren’t. Only friends and family were allowed.”

  That stung her.

  “Well, what did you want to speak about? Do you want to continue our conversation?” she asked.

  “No. Not now. I’m not here for me. I’m here for Connor.”

  “Connor? What does he have to do with anything?”

  “He has everything to do with this. Walter is threatening to take over Roe Real Estate, and I need you to stop him.”

  “What?

  “Don’t play dumb, Marie. We know everything. Walter told Connor about how he was planning on taking over the company and buying Connor out down the line. I need you to tell him not to do it.”

  “I’m sorry, Aaliyah, I have no clue—”

  “I never asked you for anything,” I cut in. “I never asked for anything, and you used me to get what you wanted these past few years. So you owe me. I need you to do this for me, Marie.”

  “Wait. How would Walter be able to take his company? None of this makes sense to me.”

  She looked completely stunned by the situation at hand, but I couldn’t tell if she were just acting surprised. That was the thing about catching people in lies—once they told the truth, you’d always doubt it.

  “Is he here right now?” I asked.

  “Yes. He’s in his office. I can’t believe that he’d do that to Connor, though. Even with everything that happened between you and Connor and Jason, I can’t believe that Walter would do this.”

  “How well do you know your husband?” I asked.

  There was a hesitation in her eyes as I asked her the question. She parted her lips to speak and paused for a moment before she cleared her throat and hollered, “Walter. Can you meet me in the living room?”

  “Woman, you know I don’t like you hollering in the house like that. What is this about?” Walter grumbled, walking into the living room. The moment he saw me, his eyes narrowed. “Aaliyah. What are you doing here?”

  “Trying to settle an issue,” I explained.

  Marie turned to Walter and stared at him, seemingly baffled. “Is it true you are trying to take over Connor’s business?”

  Walter’s thick eyebrows furrowed. “You called me in for this nonsense? I don’t have time for this, Marie.”

  Her mouth dropped, stunned. “Why would you do that? Why would you try to take something that boy created?”

  “I created him. Anything he has is because of me, which gives me the right to take it away, too.”

  “You didn’t create him,” I snapped toward him. “Connor created everything about Roe Real Estate. You simply profited from him being good at what he did.”

  “He might have been good, but I’m better, little girl. And honestly, I don’t even know why you are here having this conversation, seeing how it has nothing to do with you.”

  “It has everything to do with me. I love him, and I am here to fight for him.”

  Walter rolled his eyes. “You love him for now. Wait until I take everything from him. You think I don’t know what kind of woman you are? You’re a poor girl who falls for rich men to find an easy way out
of life.”

  “That’s not true, Walter. You know Aaliyah’s a good woman,” Marie said, backing me up.

  “I thought that before she was so quick to jump into bed with another man after my son,” he spat out.

  “He stood me up on my wedding day! After cheating on me God knows how many times. And somehow you are making me the bad person for falling in love with a man who treated me right?”

  “He couldn’t have treated you that well if he only wanted you after you had a new heart,” he said coldly.

  “Walter!” Marie cried, but I didn’t let his words anywhere near my emotions. I knew he was simply a cruel man who did and said cruel things.

  He waved her off. “Oh, save the hysterics, Marie. You don’t need to keep acting shocked by anything I’m saying. You knew who I was when you married me. Which is why you thought you had to keep the fact that Aaliyah was your daughter a secret.”

  Just like that, the air was knocked out of Marie’s lungs as she stumbled backward. “You knew?”

  “You really think I’m an idiot and couldn’t put two and two together? I allowed it, because I figured it could’ve been good to show our knucklehead son in a good light and marrying Aaliyah would’ve done that. I weighed the pros and cons of the situation and came to realize that it was the right business move to make.”

  “You’re an evil man,” I said as my hatred built for him each passing second.

  “Yes, well, at least I didn’t leave my daughter at a fire station in order to stay rich,” he said, rolling his sleeves up. “Are we done here?”

  Marie had tears of horror rolling down her cheeks, and a part of me wanted to comfort her. But then again, she knew who she married. She knew who she crawled into bed beside each night. She made her bed, and now she had to decide for herself if she was going to sleep in it or move along on her own.

  “We aren’t exactly done yet.” I pulled out my cell phone. I made a quick call and when the person on the other line picked up, I said, “Hey, yeah. It didn’t work out, so you can come in.”

  Within seconds, Damian walked into the house, without knocking and came over to me holding a stack of paperwork in his hands.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Walter asked, his brows lowered. If there was anyone in the world he should’ve been intimidated by, it was Damian. Connor bathed in kindness and love. But Damian? He could kill a person solely with a look.

  “Just a bit of good cop, bad cop,” I explained. “You should’ve really worked with me—I was the good cop.”

  “And I’m the bad,” Damian said, dropping the packet on the coffee table.

  “You really think I should be afraid of you and your tough guy act? You’re a child. Nothing you can do…” Walter picked up the files, and when he opened them, he paused his words. “Where the hell did you get this?”

  “I’m the grave digger,” Damian calmly stated. “I dig shit up.”

  “We are going to need you to do is sign all of Roe Real Estate over to Connor. You’re going to give him total control over it all, and you aren’t going to try to cheat him out of anything,” I told him.

  “Otherwise, I’m sure the FBI would be interested in your whole money laundering issue,” Damian said.

  “Money laundering?!” Marie gasped. It was becoming clearer and clearer that she knew nothing about what was going on with Walter and the life he seemed to be living behind her back.

  Walter looked devastated by the fact that Damian caught him in a handful of scandals, some that would’ve easily landed him in prison for a very long time. Luckily, we didn’t want to destroy him, all we wanted was for Connor to have everything he worked so hard for.

  Walter grumbled a bit and paced as he flipped through the pages. Then, he looked over to me. “I’ll have my team draw up the contracts to have everything transferred over to Connor.”

  “Including the Queens property,” I said, knowing that Connor deserved the location that he’d fell in love with for his dream to come true.

  “Fine,” Walter muttered, unamused.

  “And one hundred million dollars for him to invest into said property,” Damian stated.

  I tried not to react to such a high demand as Walter’s eyes bugged out.

  “That’s ridiculous!” he shouted.

  “Page five. Do you really want that coming out, Walty-Walt?” Damian dryly asked.

  Walter flipped to page five. The look of shock hit him hard as he closed the packet. “Fine. Deal.”

  Damian smiled. He actually smiled a big, bold grin. “It was great doing business with you, Rollsfield. I hope you have a good, fucked up life. Come on, Aaliyah, let’s hit it.”

  As we turned to leave, my eyes locked with Marie’s for a moment. I saw the sadness in her eyes. My heart tugged a bit, but I wasn’t ready to deal with what that tugging sensation stood for. I wasn’t ready to deal with her hurts while I was still licking the wounds of mine.

  Damian and I stepped outside, and I looked at him, a bit confused. “What was on page five?”

  “Let’s just say it involved his pool boy in the Hamptons and plastic hot dogs.”

  Well then. I’d rather not know any more details.

  47

  Connor

  “Holy shit. I stared at my laptop as Aaliyah sat beside me with hers in her lap. We’d both spent our Saturday in pajamas, playing catch up on all of the work we’d been falling behind on. When a certain email landed in my inbox, I felt as if I were seeing things.

  “What is it?”

  “Walter Rollsfield… He’s giving me his shares of the company. He’s also taking the west coast property back from Jason and shifting it to my name.”

  “Oh? Wow. That’s amazing,” Aaliyah said, shutting her laptop and moving in toward me. “Is that all he said?”

  “No, actually. He’s also leaving me the Queens property and giving me one hundred million dollars to invest in it.”

  “Whoa! That’s wild!” Aaliyah said a bit too excitedly.

  I narrowed my eyes. “What did you do?”

  “Who me?”

  “Yes, you. Why do I get the feeling you’re keeping something from me? Spill it.”

  “Damian and I might’ve went ahead and shook Walter up a bit and threatened him.”

  “Shook him up? What are you two? Leaders of the mafia?”

  “No silly. I was the good cop and Damian was the bad cop. We ruffled some feathers and got what we needed—what you deserved.”

  I sat there a bit stunned by what she and Damian had done for me. I placed my laptop down before reaching around her waist and pulling her into my lap. I loved how she fit against me, as if she was always meant to be there.

  “You’re too good for me,” I whispered, resting my forehead against hers.

  “I think I’m just right,” she disagreed.

  “This means more to me than you’ll ever know, Aaliyah. You’ve saved my career. But more than that, you saved me from a lonely existence.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you more.” I kissed her lightly, grazing my teeth against her bottom lip. “Though, I am kind of upset that you played cops without me.”

  “I even bought handcuffs in case Walter would’ve acted out,” she joked. “If you want, you and me can play good cop bad cop tonight.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.” She pointed her fingers toward me as a pretend gun. “Stick them up!” I slightly grind my hips against hers and I watched as bashfulness hit her cheeks. “That’s not exactly what I thought you’d be sticking up.”

  “Can you blame me? I miss feeling myself inside of you,” I muttered. I understood how important it was for Aaliyah to fully heal, and how she couldn’t partake in any intense activities for a while. Which meant our sex life had been put on hold. But I missed tasting her, pushing myself deep inside of her, listening to her moan my name.

  She bit her bottom lip and slowly began to grind against my cock. “How much do you miss me?”
<
br />   I groaned in pleasure. Damn, that felt good. “So much.”

  She leaned in and slowly trailed her tongue across my bottom lip before sucking it gently. “How much do you want me?”

  Shit… “So much.”

  “How slow can you take it with me? To make sure I don’t overexert myself?”

  “Baby…trust me, I’ll do all the work. All you have to do is let me have my way with you. All you have to do is say go.”

  She wrapped her fingers around her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. Her beautiful bare breasts sat in front of my face, making my cock throb even more. My eyes fell to the beautiful scar developing against her skin. That scar meant everything to me. It meant more moments like the one we currently shared. It meant more moments of love. More moments of laughter. More favorite memories to collect.

  More time.

  Time was such an odd concept, how it came and went. Each second passing, each minute evaporating. If I had any magic, I’d love to be able to freeze time, so I could enjoy my favorite moments a little bit more.

  But that wasn’t how time worked. It kept ticking by, but I learned that that was okay. Every moment that passed was a blessing, because many never had the chance to witness them. I was thankful for being given a few extra moments of time to spend with Aaliyah. Each second mattered. I wouldn’t waste a single one.

  I led her to the bedroom that night, and lay her down. I undressed her bottom half as my hands roamed against her breasts. I kissed every inch of her, going slowly, being gentle every step of the way.

  I made love with my best friend that night.

  And I wasn’t afraid to take my time.

  We rose the next morning before the sun, and did what we’d grown accustomed to doing on Sunday mornings. We packed a picnic and headed off to go visit Grant. Every Sunday since Aaliyah and I came back together, we’d enjoy our Sundays with Grant. We’d sit and laugh and read the comics as the sun kissed our skin.