I mock pouted by sticking my plump lower lip out further. “I know that. I’ve just been busy working, then with the apprenticeship, school, and my general shitty attitude it all tends to keep me away.”
He grinned, and then gave me a knowing smile. “Let’s not forget the major game of avoidance you like to play with a certain someone. You ever going to actually forgive him?”
I just offered up a shrug of my shoulders, because what could I say? I wasn’t sure there was enough forgiveness in my heart for all the shit Jay had cost me. When I didn’t offer a verbal response to that one Trunk tipped his head toward the back door of the clubhouse. “Pretty much everyone’s out back already. You should head on out.”
That was when I realized Trunk was stuck on guard duty. “Why are you on the door, anyway?”
“Fucking new prospect was a no-show. He apparently had ‘real life’ obligations and couldn’t be here today. He thinks he’s coming back in tomorrow like nothing happened.”
“Oh damn, that’s going to suck for him tomorrow, I guess.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what the prospecting period is for to see if your priorities are in line with the club’s interests or not. I’ll pull one of the others off a shit duty once my old lady gets here.”
“How is Theresa?”
“She’s doing good, just started her second trimester last week, and thankful for it, because the puke fest seems to be behind us now. I don’t know how women make it through one pregnancy and choose to do it again, but I ain’t complaining. This time, I’m hoping for a boy.”
“Well, good luck with that. I’ll be sure to say hi if I’m still around when she gets here.”
“Not planning on staying long?”
“Long enough to say hello to the man of the hour since he requested my presence. Other than that I’m out.”
“Man of the hour?” Trunk asked, and I started to feel slightly uncomfortable about being here suddenly.
“I saw Declan the other day. This is like his coming home thing, right?”
Something flashed in Trunk’s eyes, and then a wide smile split his face. “Sure. Sorry, kid, you took me off guard a bit, because I thought that whole family was off limits to you since J-Bird’s big screw up.” His mood darkened his face just as quickly as it brightened. “Tiger-Lily says you don’t even speak to her anymore.”
“I don’t blame her, Trunk. She’s just always around all of them…” I stated while throwing my hand in the air.
“All my brothers, you mean?” There was no judgment in his tone at that. Trunk had gone away to prison for an assault charge after nearly killing a man in a bar fight. The man had touched his woman, so it was justified in his eyes, but the ATF Agent who had witnessed the altercation testified otherwise. That was the time period when my life went to shit, and Trunk had come out of the big house in time to see that I no longer went to school, came to the club, or spoke to any of his brothers. His woman, Tessa filled him in on the whys and hows of it all.
He shook his head. “I wish I had been here to knock some sense into these thick skulls for you darlin’. Still can’t believe they all behaved that way.”
“You joke about me being ‘the other princess,’ Trunk. The others never have. It’s real to them, and it isn’t a nice name. I’ve always just been the daughter of a conniving whore, and they were waiting for me to turn out the same. Jay gave them all the excuse they needed.”
He got ready to deny my words, but something stopped him as he glanced up behind my shoulder. A chill ran through my body as I stood there waiting to see who had entered the clubhouse behind us.
“That how you really feel about the brothers here?” Merc asked. Merc was the club president and the father to Jay and Declan.
I shrugged without turning around. “That’s how they feel about me.” When I turned I noticed Merc wasn’t alone. Damn, the entire family was silent as the grave. Tiger Lily stood behind her old man with sadness filling her eyes. Jay’s were downcast to avoid looking at me, and Declan looked ready to spit fire with his flared nostrils and clenched fists.
“You should go ahead on back home since your opinion of the brothers is so damn low still, even after everyone made amends to you.”
I stood my ground, toe-to-toe with the man. He didn’t need to know I was shaking on the inside. “I just came to welcome Deck home, and planned to leave anyway. But just so we’re clear, Merc, my opinion hasn’t even factored in yet. What I spoke was the damn truth and you and everyone else here knows it. The men of this club have always treated me differently. Look out there,” I pointed to the large windows on the back half of the clubhouse wall where you could see straight out into the courtyard. My little sister was already out there, and the guys were all smiles around her and tossing out hugs as she breezed past. “My little sister gets smiles and hugs as she passes through. I’ve always gotten the cold shoulder, and that shit started long before your son’s bullshit ruined the rest of my life. You want me to leave because you think my opinion should have changed about everyone, but none of you have bothered to make things any different either. Even after your amends ceremony, the few times I have been around I’ve still been treated like a pariah, no matter if I come in with a smile full of sunshine or wearing my heartache on my sleeve. It’s all the same to the men here. I’ve always been “the other” in everyone’s eyes. I was okay with that at first, because at least I had my blood family in my corner, but that got shot to shit too, so now, I don’t bother even worrying over it anymore. Like I said, I’m here to welcome Deck home, then I’m gone, and everyone here can carry on as usual like I don’t actually exist.”
As I had been speaking our audience grew. My family had wandered back in along with several of the other guys that were guilty of treating me like shit. My little sister looked ashen, clearly having heard how she’s treated so differently than I am. It was something I had sort of sheltered her from knowing, because I didn’t want her great experience tainted by my own shitty one.
“You made them make amends to me for going the extra mile towards ignoring me, hating on me, and downright being disrespectful at times to me. You made them make amends for failing to protect a daughter of the club, but you missed the part where you had to make them do it, because it’s what my father wanted to happen.” I flung my hand out again, indicating the brothers – some who wore faces full of shame right now. “None of them have ever understood what it feels like to be called “the other kid,” “Double-Ds extra kid,” or “the other princess,” as if I’m somehow less than Toby or Annalise because I had a different mom for the first eight years of my life. I’ve had Momma-Luce longer, but that doesn’t matter. You all decided I was some tainted, not good enough version when I got here and their opinions of me never changed.
“I’ve been a good kid. I always did what I was told. I never spoke out. I got good grades. I always tried to go out of my way to be nice to everyone even when they didn’t deserve it, and what did it get me? Nothing. It got me easily dismissed and disbelieved by everyone including most of my own family. All of your brothers got to say words to me during your little ceremony. Not one, besides Jay, tried to expand on what was absolutely required of them. Not one. It was a formality to placate you. It was done to make them feel better about being called out for being assholes to a member’s kid. None of your ceremony was for me. I didn’t get to say words, remember? You and my dad made that perfectly clear before it went down. I wasn’t allowed to speak, except at the end to accept your fucking bullshit amends. So, no I didn’t take any of that to heart, and it certainly didn’t help to make my opinions of any of you turn from dark clouds to fluffy rainbows. My opinions and the truths I live are one and the same, and I dare any of you to tell me different.” I turned to glance at the woman who had become my mother when I lost my own. “I can’t do this anymore.”
She knew what that meant. I’d been saving since I was 16 and got my first job since online school didn’t take up near as much time a
s the normal stuff. I had already been looking for my own place. I had been attempting to hold out until my apprenticeship was officially done in three more weeks so I could earn more by tattooing, but I was officially done with my MC family. I took out my phone, ordered an Uber to come and get me, and put my phone back away in my pocket. When I glanced back up no one had moved. They all sort of looked shell shocked, except the women. All of them had tears in their eyes. I couldn’t see that. It would break me, and I refused to break again in front of these men who had done nothing to try to help put me back to together the two times in my life I really needed them to.
Instead, I turned to Deck who was standing beside an equally angered Trunk. Neither of them was angry with me. They were both staring at Merc like he had just killed a kid in front of them. “Sorry to bring down the party. I told you I didn’t come to these things anymore. I had real enough reasons for that. I am truly glad you’re back, Deck, and I wish you nothing but happiness, success, love, and light from here on out.” I patted his shoulder and moved to walk out before his hand reached out and grabbed hold of my elbow.
“Don’t go. You don’t have to go, Ever,” his words were a quiet plea. “I thought I’d come home and fix what my brother broke, but I didn’t realize it was already so deep before he…” Deck shook his head back and forth.
“Deck, have a good time at the party. I never planned to stay longer than to welcome you home anyway. This place isn’t for me. The people aren’t either. They never have been, and they’ve never attempted to hide that from me either. I’m just finally old enough to do something about it now.” I reached out and hugged him, patted Trunk on the arm, and left through the front doors of the clubhouse for what I fully intended to be the last time in my life.
Chapter 3
~ Declan ~
What in the hell did you all manage to do to the sweetest girl I’ve ever known? She is a shell of the person I knew before I left. Sadness oozes out of her pores every time I see her, and you’re all here throwing parties and carrying on like you all aren’t responsible for completely breaking a member of this family.” I roared at everyone standing around me.
“Settle the fuck down, Deck. You weren’t here, and you don’t know what the hell went down,” my father snorted out as if what I’d just said was a joke.
“Oh, no you don’t!” My mom yelled at him. “I lost a daughter when you assholes pulled your bullshit, and all over some skank ass cheerleading slut – no better than a club whore in training – who lied about our girl!” My mom, who was normally a mild-mannered woman, laid into all of them without holding back. “You will stop downplaying this like it was nothing. That girl’s entire life got turned upside down because our son was thinking with his dick and the rest of you went right the hell along with it. Not once did any of you, besides Lucy, attempt to get her side of things. Not one single person here stood up for her, gave her support, or trusted in her. She didn’t do a damn thing to earn your distrust or your disloyalty over the years. Her mother’s mistakes are not hers. She is not her mother, and I don’t know how many more ways that child has to prove that fact to every person here. She shouldn’t have to prove anything. She was a child when she was brought here, and she was still a child when you all played a part in destroying everything good and sweet about her.” My mom was in full on tear mode now as she swiped angrily at her wet cheeks to brush them aside. “I’ve lost years with that precious girl, because she won’t come around anymore.”
“That’s on her!” My dad grumbled stubbornly.
“Really? Is it? Would you come around where you weren’t wanted? Hell, the first goddamn words out of your mouth were to tell her to leave if she had a low opinion of your brothers.” My mom huffed out a sarcastic laugh. “As if she could have anything else? As if that opinion ever had a hope in hell of being changed when none of you have bothered to live up to the amends you supposedly offered her? She was right. That whole ceremony was a sham to make all of you feel better about yourselves. The whole purpose of it was supposed to be to make the wronged person feel safe, comfortable, and loved in the brotherhood again. It’s to let them know YOU FAILED THEM, and that it will never happen again. But look around. You all have been failing that girl since she got here. You made your amends only to turn around and continue to fail her.
“You assholes have your own tattoo shop. Where is that girl apprenticing to be an artist? It certainly isn’t at Aces Ink. Why is that?” Both my father and hers cringed a bit at that. They certainly couldn’t deny the oversight. “Any other person affiliated with this club would have been given first priority at a spot there. Spotter’s cousin, Jared, is working there and he’s half the artist Ever is. Have any of you even seen her work? Did you even know she was an artist?”
There were a whole lot of guilty and confused faces looking back at my mom. These bastards didn’t even know basic things about the girl who should have been family to every one of them. How fucking sad was that? Jesus, how had I not known that things had gotten this bad? When I left Ever had been best friends with Jay, along with her brother Toby. I figured Jay and Ever would end up married one day, actually, and I think she did too. When the family had mentioned there had been a falling out with Jay and Ever I figured it had been over another girl, and my brother’s stupidity, but never in a million years did I think it was this bad. It wasn’t just a falling out between my brother and Ever, it had destroyed any link that girl had to this club and all its members, including her own blood family.
That brought my attention to T-Bone, or Toby as I’d known him most of his life, and I still didn’t understand his part in all of this. “You swore to her on the day she got here that you would always protect her. How the hell did you end up on the wrong side of this? Of everyone here you were the closest to her all those years before I left.”
T-Bone hung his head. “I’ve tried to make it right,” he mumbled. “She won’t let me.”
“Why the fuck weren’t you on her side from the beginning? Hell, even I’m smart enough to know that girl would have never purposely sabotaged anyone’s bullshit high school relationship. She was biding her time for my dumb ass brother to pull his head out of his ass and notice her as more than a friend,” I said turning my attention to my own little brother. “But she sure as fuck isn’t the kind of person who would force that to happen. If she had been, I’m pretty sure she would have done it a lot sooner. Think about the trail of skanks you paraded in front of her. Even I knew about the amounts of shit she put up with from your girlfriends who were threatened by her friendship with you. Hell, I’m surprised she even still wanted you back then considering some of the absolutely cringe-worthy shit she wrote me about. I’m not just talking about the bitches who were in her face saying worse things than what your ex-girlfriend accused her of either. I’m talking about her having to see you balls deep in bitches too.”
Jay snapped his head up, eyes meeting mine for the first time then, as if we hadn’t just discussed this the other day, but it occurred to me then that he hadn’t really been paying attention at the time. He’d been lost in his own thoughts, and trying to validate his actions instead of really listening to what I was saying. I laughed, and not a bit of that sound came from a good or happy place. “Seriously? You were that oblivious? I told you she used to write me letters? Hell, I think she used the letters to me as her own personal diary for a while there until they stopped coming completely. She’d let it slip that one of your bitches had been harassing her, but that she was staying strong and being your friend, because you had stood up for her in the very beginning when everyone else here made her feel unwanted and unwelcome.”
Jay’s eyes bulged a bit, nostrils flared, and I knew he was bulking up trying to get angry instead of feeling what he should have felt. Shame. Embarrassment. Guilt. “I still have the letters she sent me. Maybe you should read them and see for yourself what you put that girl through before you actually took the time to consciously break her. There’s a whole
year’s worth from when I first left to when you fucked up, and in every single one there’s a tiny little complaint about how your bitches treated her horribly, and you did nothing. Granted, she said she didn’t think you knew, but really you can’t be that fucking blind, brother.” I glanced around at the assholes I shared a patch with since I’d turned 18, and I was actually ashamed to be associated with them today. “Then again, maybe you are that blind. Seems all of you are if no one here even knew where the girl worked, that she’s the most loyal person I know, and an amazing artist.” I pushed my forearm out in front of them.
The tattoo situated there was of an eagle mid-flight with an Ace of Hearts in its mouth and a rifle in its claws. She had sent it to me with a quick note to stay safe and to carry our family’s heart with me so I knew I had a reason to make it back. It’s so realistic. The tattoo artist wished he could take credit for it, but the details were in her drawing, he just inked over them.
“This tat that everyone’s admired so much since I got back? I couldn’t have her ink it, but I had a buddy of mine do it. She sent this to me on a piece of paper the year I joined the Army. I was blown away by it, still am. Every single one of you has been. This is Ever’s work. Her art. And I’m finding out you fuckers have been oblivious to the one thing she’s so passionate about? What the fuck happened to this family while I was away?” I took a moment to explain what her note had said, and how the Ace of Hearts encompassed all of them.
Honestly, I think a few of those fuckers choked up a bit when they realized how deep that girl’s loyalty ran and how horribly they’d all fucked up. “Every single time you look upon my ink, I want you all to remember the beautiful girl you ran out of here. Inside and out, she is stunning, and you all did your level best to ruin it while she was sending me your hearts to wear on my sleeve in the hopes that this family would bring me home safely. You assholes enjoy your fuckin’ party. I hope like hell it lifts your spirits so you can forget how goddamn disloyal you’ve been to your own family while accusing her of your own sins.” With that I left. There really wasn’t anything more to say to the bastards who couldn’t be trusted to be family when it was needed most. I pulled up just short of throwing my own patch down. I wouldn’t make a decision like that in the middle of a heated moment, but I would definitely be putting serious thought into it.
The Other Princess Page 5