“Baby.”
There was a knock on the door. “Brax, man. Your parents are about to make an announcement.”
I pulled the phone away from my mouth. “Fuck them,” I called through the door. “This is more important.”
“Shit,” Nevaeh muttered. “I’m interrupting your thing with your parents. You should go. Can you call me back later?”
“No. I don’t care about them and their big announcement.” Nothing they had to say mattered more than finding out what was wrong with my girl. “Talk to me, Nev. What news did you get?”
“It’s my dad,” she said, and a sob escaped her. I listened as she told me how sick her dad was and that he needed a new liver. I could hear the fear and heartbreak in her voice, and I felt like I was suffocating because there was nothing I could do to take her pain away.
There was another knock on the door I was leaning against. “Dude, you seriously need to get out here and stop this before your parents fuck up your life.”
“Y-you should go,” Nevaeh said, having heard my cousin. “I need to go talk to my brother and sisters anyway.”
“I wish there was something I could do, Kitten.”
“Just hearing your voice was enough,” she whispered. “Now, get back to your party. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Baby—”
“Go,” she commanded softly.
“Brax!” Barrick growled from the other side of the door. “Seriously. Get out here now.”
Muttering a curse, I told Nevaeh I’d talk to her tomorrow and jerked the door open. Barrick’s jaw was set, and he grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me out of the library. After he turned me to face the stairs, it took me a second to understand what I was looking at.
My mother, clad in a dress that probably cost the equivalent of a compact car, dripping in diamonds, and with her hair and makeup her idea of perfection, stood beside my father with a glass of champagne in hand. His tux was tailored to his lanky frame, his wire-rimmed glasses perched on his nose as he lifted his own glass of expensive French champagne toward the woman standing to his left.
I narrowed my eyes on the woman. Dressed in a simple floor-length black dress, she had her blond hair pulled into a delicate twist at the right side of her head. It took me a second to realize who she was because I hadn’t seen her in… Fuck, I couldn’t even remember how long it had been.
“Is that—?”
“Yup,” Barrick growled.
“What the hell is she doing here?” I bit out.
“Officially announcing your engagement.”
“Fuck.”
“There he is,” my father said with a chuckle, his eyes falling on me. He waved me forward, as if he expected me to fall in line with their newest scheme to try to run my life.
My eyes landed back on Darcy Hamilton, and I cursed my own past idiocies. Darcy was my high school girlfriend. And like most guys that age, I’d thought more with my dick than my brain. I thought because the sex was good and she pretended to love me, we would be together forever. I proposed on her eighteenth birthday, and even though we were young, both her parents and mine had actually endorsed our marriage.
Then I’d enlisted in the Marines. Darcy changed, and I realized she was trying to manipulate me just as much as my parents were. But it wasn’t until I lost my leg that I saw how shallow she really was. She dumped me, saying she wasn’t the type of woman who could spend her life caring for an invalid husband because she didn’t think I would walk again.
To be honest, she hadn’t broken my heart when she gave me back the ring. If anything, I’d been relieved I was able to get rid of her so easily. I’d spent the months of my deployment trying to figure out how to break off our engagement without stirring up more shit with my parents.
I walked through the crowd, all eyes on me. People I hadn’t seen in years and whose names I couldn’t remember for the life of me grinned, and a few patted me on the back, offering me congratulations. Climbing the stairs, I turned my full focus on my father.
“What the hell is going on?” I demanded in a voice low enough that only the three other people on the stairs could hear me.
Darcy linked her arm through mine and laid her head on my shoulder, her blue eyes gazing up at me adoringly. I knew it was an act she was putting on for the crowd, and it irritated the hell out of me. All I could think was that my beautiful little kitten was thousands of miles away, hurting because she was scared she was going to lose her father, and these people had kept me from being with her because they wanted to announce my marriage to this spoiled little bitch?
Fuck that.
“Darling, we know you’ve been dragging your feet about setting a date for the wedding,” my mother said with a beaming smile for the crowd below. “So, we thought we would just take all the stress away and do it for you.”
“Darcy and I aren’t even together,” I gritted out. “I forgot all about her until just now.”
Darcy made a pained noise and pouted up at me. “Brax, don’t be mean.”
I shrugged her off and took two steps away from her. “I’m not in the mood to play any of your games. Tell these people the truth, and leave me the hell alone.”
My father clenched his jaw. “You will marry Darcy. It’s part of the merger her father and I agreed to. Your marriage will only solidify our new joint corporation.”
“Fuck your new corporation,” I told him. “I won’t be a pawn you can use to make more money with Hamilton. Tell everyone you were joking. Now.”
“Darling—” my mother started to scold me, but I turned to face the crowd to do it myself.
“Everyone, I’m sorry, but my parents have it wrong. Darcy and I are not getting married—”
“Until after Christmas,” Darcy interrupted, and for the first time in my life, I actually wanted to cause a woman bodily harm. “Because we want to move in to our new house and get the nursery decorated before the big wedding.”
Collective gasps and cheers went up at her basically announcing her pregnancy. What the actual fuck?
But as I opened my mouth to tell everyone it was all a misunderstanding, I saw cameras flashing in our direction and knew the story of Braxton Collins and Darcy Hamilton’s upcoming wedding and parenthood was going to be on all the trashy gossip sites by morning.
Barrick was right.
My parents were going to ruin my life.
Chapter 7
Nevaeh
My head was foggy when I woke up the next morning.
After talking to Braxton the night before, I felt like I could breathe a little easier again and was able to talk to my sisters and brother rationally. As rationally as I could while being pissed at each and every one of them for keeping Daddy’s illness from me.
Arella hadn’t wanted to put more stress on our parents, I got that, but they still should have told me. Having the entire country between us shouldn’t mean that our loyalty to each other disappeared. We were close, and yeah, we fought like crazy at times—especially Arella and me—but we’d always promised we would have each other’s backs.
Once I stopped bitching at them and they apologized contritely and promised it wouldn’t happen again, I’d gone back to my room and done some research. I found out that it wouldn’t matter if it were a child or a sibling that matched as long as the genetic match was a good one. According to Mom, Daddy and Uncle Shane were as good as it got from what the doctors told them. That was a relief at least.
Once I learned all I could on what to expect, and what Daddy should and shouldn’t be doing to prepare for surgery, I finally passed out in bed. That had been close to three in the morning.
Blurry-eyed, I glanced at my clock and saw it was almost noon. Groaning, I got out of bed and walked half blind into the bathroom to shower.
By the time I got downstairs in search of something to eat, the rest of the house had been up for hours, and it seemed we had guests.
Aunt Lucy and Aunt Layla were sitting in the kitchen with Mom,
both of them drinking tea. Both of them were Mom’s biological sisters, but Aunt Layla and Uncle Jesse had adopted Aunt Lucy when she was a little girl and raised her as their own. We had a weird family, but I loved it that way. Normal just seemed boring to me, and boring was unacceptable.
“Happy birthday!” Aunt Lucy greeted as she stood and practically bounced over to wrap her arms around me. Both she and Aunt Layla were shorter than Mom and even more so than me. With her smaller size, Lucy didn’t look like she was a mother of two. She always laughed when people told her she looked like a teenager, and she said it was because her doting husband’s love kept her looking young.
I hugged her back, then accepted one from Aunt Layla.
“We’re going shopping,” Mom informed me with a smile. “I think you need a new outfit for your party tonight, don’t you?”
“I’m not really up to shopping, Mom,” I told her. What I really wanted to do was crawl into my dad’s lap and soak up his love for a few hours while we watched crappy old movies.
“Your dad went golfing with your uncles,” Mom informed me as if she could read my mind. “The younger kids are all over at Shane and Harper’s, and Arella is getting ready to go with us. So, hurry your ass up. We’re leaving in five minutes.”
Sighing, I looked down at my outfit. Skinny jeans with a hole in the left knee and the hoodie I’d stolen from Braxton the first week I’d moved in with him. It was my favorite hoodie, and sometimes I slept in it when it got really cold back in Northern Virginia.
“I’m ready,” I told Mom.
“Really?” Her brown eyes skimmed over my attire, and her lips pressed into a firm line. “Don’t you want to change that hoodie?”
“This is Braxton’s hoodie. I’m not changing it.”
Her eyes softened, and a sly grin teased at her lips. “Of course it is. Okay, then. Get your beautiful butt in the van while I go make your sister hurry up.”
“We’re meeting Emmie and Mia at the mall,” Aunt Layla informed me as we entered the garage and got into Mom’s minivan. It was spacious and always clean, no matter how hard Damien tried to destroy the interior every day.
I climbed into the back with Aunt Lucy, and by the time I had my seat belt on, Mom appeared with Arella. My younger sister was dressed in a skirt I knew our dad would have freaked over and a red sweater with thigh-high black boots. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail, but she’d curled the ends. With the makeup she had on, she looked like she was ready for a date, not a simple day of shopping with her family.
Knowing Arella, though, I imagined she was probably expecting to see friends from school at the mall, and she didn’t like to look anything but perfect around them.
We met Mia and Aunt Emmie in the mall’s garage. Marcus and Rodger, their bodyguards, were with them but thankfully dressed in casual clothes rather than their normal suits.
As soon as she saw me, Aunt Emmie threw her arms around me. “Happy birthday, sweetheart,” she said as she kissed my cheek.
“Thanks, Aunt Em,” I murmured.
As she stepped back, she put her arm around Mia’s waist. “Where to first?”
“Coffee,” Mom spoke. “I need caffeine stat.”
Mia’s face turned green, and she muttered a small oath but put on a bright smile and nodded her head along with the others who agreed that we needed to arm ourselves with drinks before we started shopping.
As we walked into the mall, I dropped back to talk to Mia. “How are you feeling?” I asked quietly.
She only gave me a look that was full of misery. “Kill me now.”
“Is it that bad?”
As soon as we walked through the mall entrance, she groaned and put her hand to her nose. “Worse,” she muttered. “These food smells are killing me.”
“But the food court is on the third floor,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, but it seems like my sense of smell is amplified. Mom told me she had the worst morning sickness when she was pregnant.”
I glanced at the others as they walked ahead of us. “You told her?”
“Just her,” Mia said with a nod. “Not Daddy yet.”
I stopped and turned to face her. “Mia, don’t you think it’s time to finally forgive your dad? It’s been two years, and he’s tried time and again to earn back your trust.”
Her chin trembled for a moment before she shook her head. “I’ve tried. Believe me, I really have. It’s just hard to get over what he did, Nev.”
“I understand, but you forgave Barrick. Why can’t you do the same for Uncle Nik?”
“Because…” She clenched her jaw and swallowed hard. “Because he broke my heart more than Barrick ever could.”
That made a lot of sense to me. Having your heart broken by your father—the man who was your first hero, the first man to ever love you wholeheartedly—that was a million times worse than any other heartbreak. Mia lost a part of herself when Uncle Nik betrayed her, and I didn’t know if she was ever going to get it back.
“Anyway,” Mia said as she put her arm through mine and we started walking again. “I thought maybe Barrick and I could do a cute little baby announcement for Daddy. Maybe a Christmas present or something that announces his impending grandfatherhood.”
“Yeah, that would be nice,” I agreed.
For the next two hours, we shopped and had lunch in the food court. Mia tried to eat a slice of pizza, but two bites in, she had to excuse herself. Thankfully, the bathrooms were close by because she had to make a run for it.
All the moms at the table shared a look with Aunt Emmie, who grinned and nodded her head. But no one said anything about it. Not even when Mia returned from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, looking less green but sweaty. They all pretended nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
“Well, we should get going,” Aunt Emmie announced as she got to her feet. “I have a few things to pick up before the party tonight.” She kissed the top of Arella’s head then gave me a hug. “Enjoy the rest of your afternoon, babes.”
Mia gave me a wave, wiping at the perspiration on her upper lip as she walked with her mom and the two bodyguards toward the escalators.
“Mom,” Arella said as she pushed away her plate of half-eaten Japanese. “Palmer is downstairs. Can I go with her? She’ll drop me off, and I promise I’ll be home in time for the party.”
Without hesitating, Mom nodded. “But if you’re late, you’re grounded. I mean it, Arella.”
She made an X on her chest. “I promise.” Jumping up, she kissed Mom’s cheek and skipped off toward the escalators as well.
“That girl is going to get in trouble, Lana,” Aunt Layla said with a laugh.
Mom snorted. “When isn’t she getting in trouble? Drake put an extra tracker on her phone, though. Seeing as she disabled the first one so she could go to some party a few weeks ago.”
I wasn’t surprised by my sister’s antics. She was born to cause trouble. Of the five of us, Arella was the wildest, and I knew the majority of Daddy’s gray hair was because of her.
Half listening to the others talking, I pulled out my phone to see if I had a text from Braxton. There was nothing, and I tried to push down my disappointment. I’d already texted him twice, even snapped a picture of myself in the changing room trying on the new dress I’d picked out for the party in the hope of getting a flirty response. I should have known I wouldn’t; Braxton had never flirted before, but a girl could dream, damn it.
“Four of the most beautiful women I have ever seen are sitting here with no man in sight,” a deep voice I knew well announced, making everyone at the table but me laugh as Jordan Moreitti appeared at the end of the table. “I knew this was my lucky day, but damn, ladies.”
I rolled my eyes so hard, his dark eyes landed on me, and I stuck my tongue out at him before flipping him off. He was Mia’s best friend, so we saw him a lot back in Virginia. Probably more often than his parents did since he spent his time either in Italy working in his father’s company or visit
ing Mia.
“What are you doing in this part of the country?” I asked. “Last time I saw you, you were trying your hardest to avoid this place.”
“Needed to see Mia, and lo and behold, she was in this godforsaken dump.”
“Yeah, California is a cesspool.” Rolling my eyes again, I tossed my napkin at him. “You just missed her.”
He shrugged. “I’ll catch her later. It’s your birthday, right?” I nodded. “Maybe your mom would be okay if I took you shopping for a present.”
“Mom would be fine with that,” she said with a wink as she and my aunts stood and gathered their bags. “Party starts at seven. Don’t be late.” She patted Jordan on the arm. “And you are more than welcome to join us, sweetie.”
“I would love to, Mrs. Stevenson,” he told her before accepting a hug from Aunt Layla.
“Perfect. See you two tonight, then.”
I watched them go until they were on the escalator, then turned back to Jordan. “What are you really doing in California?”
His mouth thinned, and he mumbled, “Hiding out.”
That made me crack up. “Figures. You’re such a manwhore, Moreitti.”
“Hey, can I help it that the ladies want a taste of me?” He smirked then winked down at me. “So, how about that shopping? What would you like? Any store in this joint, price doesn’t matter.”
I was going to get a headache from all the eye-rolling I was doing because of him. “You’re an idiot, you know that, right?”
“Compared to you, Einstein was an idiot too, so your insult can’t really hurt me, sweetheart.” Putting his hand at the small of my back, he guided me away from the food court and toward the third-floor entrance into Nordstrom.
“Why are we going in here?” I complained, digging in my heels.
“Don’t they have a little bit of everything? Figured we couldn’t go wrong in here.”
“Yeah, no.” I grabbed his wrist and tugged him toward the escalators. “Do I look like I normally shop in places like that? No thanks. And besides, I’m not letting you buy something expensive. Not how I work, Moreitti.”
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