Thorns and Forgiveness : Twisted Legacy Duet

by Coralee June

“You just what? Thought we could talk about our feelings?”

  I squeezed my eyes to force the tears from falling. Why did he sound so angry? I was the one that got hurt. “I just wanted to—”

  “You just want my dick, baby? Is that it?”

  “I just wanted to talk,” I repeated. “I thought maybe—”

  “You thought maybe you meant something to me? You thought maybe I wanted to talk to you? Sorry, but if you wanted to hear me apologize so we could fuck and make up, then you’re wasting your time.”

  I looked at Jack, who was scowling. Good. This needed to happen. Even if it broke me. Even if Hamilton took what little hope I had left and stomped on it. “I was mistaken. I apologize.”

  “Fuck yeah, you’re mistaken. Don’t call me again. I don’t want your forgiveness. I don’t need your used-up pussy, either.”

  “I’m sorry,” I croaked.

  “Say it out loud, Vera. Say Hamilton doesn’t want my used-up pussy. It’ll help it sink. In. Go on.”

  “I’m not saying that,” I whispered, ferocious anguish boiling to the surface.

  “Aw, you almost sound convincing. You do whatever I ask, don’t you, Vera? You’re so easy to manipulate.”

  “Hamilton!” Jack interrupted. “Stop that right now. The poor girl just wanted to chat.”

  My cheeks were stained with tears. My heart pounded with a pain so achingly haunting that I had to catch my breath. I knew that Jack speaking would send Hamilton further into a rage that there was no coming back from. A few beats of time passed. “What are you doing with my father?” Hamilton asked, his voice terrifyingly calm.

  “My mother is staying at Jack’s house for a little while. I’m here helping her get settled.” Hamilton went silent. “I’m sorry for calling, Hamilton. I won’t do it again.”

  “Let me be very clear, baby,” Hamilton said in a sinister tone. “I don’t like you. I barely even wanted you. I used you up, little rose. Now there’s nothing left but the stem, and I’ve got no use for thorns. But hey,” he added as I nearly crumbled from the pain, “thanks for the pussy. It was fun while it lasted.”

  “You’re disgusting,” I barked, the outburst surprising me. “Let me make myself clear then, Hamilton. You hurt me. You should be groveling right now, begging for my forgiveness. You’re lucky I even called, you bastard!”

  “Then why did you call, hmm?”

  My throat closed up. “I—I don’t…”

  “Exactly. I’m not begging for something I don’t want, Petal,” he whispered. The endearing nickname caught me by surprise.

  “Goodbye,” I replied, then hung up the phone before he could hurt me anymore. My hands trembled from the confrontation. This was why I’d been putting it off. I didn’t want further proof that Hamilton didn’t give two shits about me. “Happy?” I asked Jack on a broken sob. I’d never felt so used in my life.

  Jack, seemingly undeterred, grabbed his plate and waltzed over to the kitchen table. “He’s just hurting. He’ll come around.”

  “Did you not hear him?” I asked with a scoff. “He’s not going to come around. He wants nothing to do with me, Jack.”

  Jack sat down and started picking at his food. “He’s just lashing out. He didn’t mean it. Be a good girl and wipe your eyes. Painful words aren’t meant to hurt if they’re lies.” I ignored my plate with my mouth gaped open incredulously. Jack wanted me to keep trying? After that? “Oh, don’t look at me like that. Sticks and stones, Vera. The boy loves you.”

  “The Beauregards don’t do love,” I snapped.

  “I know my son.”

  “You don’t know him at all,” I argued.

  “I know that we have a deal, and you’re going to try your best, or I’ll make things very difficult for your mother and you. I promised to take care of everything if you help me with Hamilton. We both have jobs to do, and you can’t do yours if you’re sobbing at my table. Maybe you need a makeover…”

  I shook my head and closed my eyes, more tears streaming down my cheeks. I couldn’t believe this. I knew trusting Jack was a bad decision. “You’ll make me do this? Even though Hamilton has made it clear that he hates me?” I asked.

  “He doesn’t hate you. Toughen up a bit. And eat your dinner, it’s getting cold.”

  I couldn’t imagine how I could eat. My stomach was twisted in knots. How could Hamilton treat me so poorly when it was me who was hurt? It was me who was betrayed. The whole situation with Saint was still a bitter pill to swallow, and now I had his brutal words to pile on top of it.

  I was still processing the Saint dynamic. There was something that had been bugging me about it, and I knew Jack would be able to explain it to me. I cleared my throat, forcing my emotions to settle so I could get some answers. “Can I ask you something?”

  “You can ask whatever you’d like.”

  “Did you know that Saint is Hamilton’s brother?”

  “No. I didn’t,” he answered instantly. “I knew Hamilton had a half brother somewhere out there, but I didn’t realize the paparazzi hounding us was him.” Jack took a slow bite, chewing his food meticulously before continuing in a calm voice, unaffected by any of this. “Saint’s mother isn’t a bad person. Her name is Gabby. She interned at my campaign office. We had a quick affair during a moment of weakness. A couple years after Hamilton was born, she married well, had a son, and moved on with her life. She didn’t think about Hamilton. She didn’t care. I didn’t bother to keep tabs on her because it didn’t matter. She didn’t matter. She wanted to keep everything a secret. Gabby had aspirations to pioneer across the political landscape. She didn’t want her bastard son with a politician to be public information, because it affected her credibility. Her husband didn’t even know. When Joseph went to the press with that story, it ruined her career before it truly started.”

  “Such a fucking double standard,” I gritted.

  “I agree. Women have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. They labeled her as some wide-eyed coed so willing to do anything to get ahead, who abandoned her child. I won’t pretend to know Saint’s story, but I’m assuming that his vendetta stemmed from watching his mother’s career go down the toilet. I heard a rumor that she ended up getting a divorce. In the beginning, I tried to help, but she wanted nothing to do with me. Hell, I haven’t seen her in years. We ruined her life, Hamilton and I.”

  “Hamilton didn’t ask to be born. And it was Joseph that leaked the story,” I argued. Perhaps I was sensitive about blaming unwanted children for existing, but I didn’t like how Jack worded that.

  “You’re correct, Vera.”

  I looked down at my feet. “Are you a bad guy, Jack?” I tentatively asked, already knowing the answer, but needing to hear it out loud so I could know for sure.

  “Yes,” he replied simply.

  Suddenly losing my appetite, I walked out of the kitchen, out the door, and away from the family that broke me.

  3

  Hamilton

  I’m pretty sure I no longer had a job.

  I was supposed to be on a flight headed to the rig this morning, but instead, I’d gotten on my motorcycle and headed toward Jack’s house.

  Considering my father’s net worth was 13.7 billion dollars and I would inherit half of it upon his death, it felt ridiculous to mourn the loss of seventy thousand a year doing grueling work while isolated in the ocean.

  But it was the loss of freedom I grieved.

  It was still worth it. She was still worth it.

  I’d spent the last nine years of my life on that rig. I made sure to work three times as hard as the next guy to prove that I was worthy. I didn’t want to be known as the trust fund motherfucker with too much cashflow to have a lick of sense. I had something to prove, and over time, everyone grew to respect me and my work ethic. I never missed a day, never was late. I wasn’t really friends with any of my coworkers, but we got along fine because there was a mutual respect shared between us.

  We sweat. We clocked in, we
clocked out, we spent weeks at a time secluded from the rest of the world, and we brought home a check once a month. It was honest work—the complete opposite of what my father expected of me—the complete opposite of what every Beauregard in history had done. I earned something. I did something. I didn’t have to scheme for my job and for the six thousand dollars a month I earned. No, I just worked. Something my fucking brother knew nothing about.

  And all of that was gone now.

  Because Vera Garner called me, and I was fucked up in the head about it.

  There was a lot of shit in my life that I didn’t take seriously. I drank too much. I’d fucked enough women in various public places. I ruined people. I ruined relationships. My job was one of the few things I’d done right. And now? I’d do right by Vera, too.

  From a distance.

  I’d arrived at my father’s home late in the evening almost exactly twenty-four hours after talking to Vera.

  My girl.

  My fucking girl. Mine to protect. Mine to fuck. Mine to love. Mine to keep away from all the bullshit of the Beauregard name. My possessiveness needed to take the back seat, but I refused to let this family ruin her like it did me.

  When she called last night, I thought she was trying to get back together with me. But when I figured out she was with Jack? I knew shit wasn’t right. She wasn’t offering forgiveness, she was choking on her words and wrapped up with puppet strings. Even if I couldn’t have her, there was no way in hell I’d let her be used.

  I let myself into the front door, and a wave of toxic familiarity washed over me. I both loved and hated this home.

  It was the place mom loved most.

  It was the place I saw Vera for the first time.

  It was the place where Joseph abused me.

  It was the place I found my mother’s dead body.

  “Jack?” I called out. “Where are you?” I took a few steps into the living room, my eyes trained on every inch I could see as I waited for someone to answer. “Jack!”

  A small hand wrapped around my forearm, jerking me around. I spun to face who’d grabbed me. I was on a warpath. Getting that call from Vera had flipped me upside down. Why was she with Jack? What kind of fucked up arrangement did they have?

  And why did I feel betrayed?

  I needed to push her away, but first, I’d make sure she was okay.

  But I couldn’t do any of those things, because it wasn’t Vera who grabbed me. It was her mother, Lilah. “Where is Vera?” I asked, my voice a growl.

  “Away from here,” she hissed before dragging me down the hall and away from the living room. She was so tiny, her grip so weak, but I allowed her to pull me away because I had a ton of fucking questions. I didn’t like Lilah, and after witnessing firsthand how narcissistic she was toward her daughter, I didn’t feel bad for hating the bitch.

  “Where is Vera?” I asked again once we were in the hallway. I pulled out of her grip and took in the bags under her eyes and her hollowed cheeks. Why did she look so frail? Was that what I looked like every time Joseph had beaten the shit out of me?

  “At her apartment, hopefully,” she whispered while looking around, as if her husband would jump out of the shadows and attack her at any moment. Seeing Lilah so scared, so fragile, just emboldened my resolve to save Vera. I couldn’t imagine seeing my girl as broken as her mother. I just had to do this delicately.

  “Why are you acting shady as fuck right now?” I asked. I didn’t have time to play her games.

  “Because I overheard your little call last night,” she spat in a low whisper. “I heard what you said to my daughter, you bastard.”

  I should have been ashamed, but I didn’t give a fuck. I did what I had to do. Vera needed to move on. It was for her own good, even if it was the most fucking painful thing I’d ever done.

  “What do you care?” I asked.

  “I overheard Jack saying something about a deal they made to keep me safe. I don’t like it.”

  That caught my attention. “What kind of deal?”

  “I don’t know, but Jack is up to something, okay? Maybe if you talk to him and end this, I can go back to my husband and Vera can be left alone. You don’t want my daughter bothering you. I don’t want her interfering in my marriage. Maybe if you figure out what Jack wants…”

  My shoulders dropped. Of fucking course, she was only worried about herself and Joseph. “You don’t care about your daughter, you just want to go back to DC,” I said while looking her up and down.

  “My daughter just doesn’t understand…”

  “I think she understands more than you know,” I snapped.

  Lilah’s eyes widened. “I’ll do anything, you know,” she said before placing a hand on my chest. Her eyes became hooded with lust, and I nearly puked all over her. It was obvious just what she was insinuating. Bitch.

  “Yeah, if I don’t wanna fuck your daughter, I sure as fuck don’t wanna fuck you. Back off.” I moved out of her reach and considered my options.

  “Hamilton? What are you doing here?” Jack interrupted. Lilah and I both spun around to face him, my stomach dropping at the sight of my father in a suit with his arms crossed over his chest. “The front guards said you’d arrived. I wasn’t expecting to find you chatting with your sister-in-law. I was under the impression that the two of you didn’t get along.”

  “We have a common interest,” I growled.

  “I assume you’re talking about Vera, yes? She is lovely. I was thinking of ordering dinner. Should we invite her over?”

  “Absolutely not. What’s going on?” No wasting time, no dancing around the truth with games and bullshit.

  Jack looked at me, then at Lilah. I didn’t care about her. I didn’t give two fucks that she wanted to go back to her husband and pretend like she wasn’t getting the shit beat out of her. I was done with the games. I was exhausted and wanted to hop back on my bike and go to wherever Vera was. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

  “What agreement do you have with Vera?” I asked, making my father smile.

  “So you do care about her,” he replied.

  “I don’t want anyone making deals involving me.”

  “Let’s sit down and chat, shall we? I think all of this is a misunderstanding.”

  I took a step closer to my father. “I think you’re the one misunderstanding. I want answers, now. I don’t appreciate you using Vera to get to me.”

  Jack frowned. “Fine. Let’s talk. I actually have a proposition for you.”

  “Unless that proposition involves shoving a boot up my brother’s ass and leaving this family for good, I’m not interested.” I crossed my arms over my chest, feigning cool indifference.

  Jack’s lip twitched. “It involves your brother and protecting Vera,” he said easily. I should have known this was coming. All this time, we worried that the Beauregard reputation was the biggest threat to a relationship between us. I never imagined that Jack would use Vera to get whatever he wanted from me. And that was the fucked-up part about all of this: I would do anything. Anyfuckingthing. I would sell my soul to the devil and sit alongside Jack if it meant keeping her safe.

  “Let’s talk,” I agreed.

  Jack didn’t smile, but I saw how his eyes danced playfully; he was like a card shark with a superior hand. “If you’ll excuse us, Lilah. This is a private conversation.”

  Lilah licked her lips before meekly nodding and walking away. Coward. If someone was fucking with my daughter, I’d do everything in my power to protect her. Lilah didn’t deserve Vera.

  I followed my father into his study. Jack found his recliner and a glass of whiskey. I leaned against the wall, eager to flee.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be on the rig?” Jack asked, opening up the conversation. It pissed me off that he knew my work schedule. “I’m assuming you no longer work there?”

  “Don’t bother making assumptions about my life. What do you want?”

  “I was hoping we could have a pleas
ant conversation, but it seems you’re eager to cut to the chase. I want you to work at Beauregard Industries. We have a unique cash flow problem I need investigated, but I don’t necessarily trust anyone outside of this room to look into it.”

  Figures. Looking into cash flow problems was just a polite way of saying there were possibly some illegal activities. “What kind of problem?”

  “A laundering problem.”

  “You’re laundering money?” I asked. It seemed on brand. My father was corrupt. The only reason he got into politics was to create laws that made it easier for him to make more money.

  “No. Of course not. But I think Joseph is.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I doubt you have nothing to do with this. But I’ll play along. How do you figure?”

  “You of all people know what he’s capable of. This could be very bad.”

  I gritted my teeth before responding. “You also know what he’s capable of, you just choose to turn a blind eye to it. What the fuck does this have to do with me? You know the ins and outs. I don’t even have a college degree. Hell, I don’t even know how many corporations you have your greedy fingers in these days.”

  “You know I like to keep my investments diverse,” Jack replied before slowly taking a sip of his drink. I watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed, and I had to fight the urge to stab him in the jugular. “And no one else can handle this. We have to keep this under lock and key, Hamilton. If I start digging around, Joseph will get suspicious, and I’m worried his reaction won’t be good. If I tell him you decided to stop working on the rig and join the family business, it’ll be less obvious. He knows I’ve been trying to get you more involved. Joseph underestimates you. He’d expect me to give you some bullshit job with a cushy role.”

  “Even if I did this, he wouldn’t buy it. I’ve never shown an interest in your work. The politics, the fortune. All of it.”

  “Well, I suppose we’ll have to convince him otherwise. Perhaps you have a reason to want to climb the corporate ladder now? A certain girl you want to take care of? I’m sure we could find a reasonable explanation for your sudden interest in Beauregard Industries. I’m trying to keep this family from going to prison.”