Black Mark Series Book 3: Black Mark's Heart

by Ebony Olson

  I knocked his hand away. "What do you want?"

  His hand caressed my jaw. "You, as my mistress. Secretly, of course. I know you are very good at keeping your secrets, Mora." His eyes looked to Jacob. "The look on Darius's face when I knew who the father was and he didn't." Brooks tsked at me.

  "I'm pregnant. You can't expect to sleep with me now." I pulled my chin from his hand.

  Brooks chuckled. "Why not? According to the Greens, you are quite randy while pregnant. Plus, there is no chance of me getting you pregnant right now."

  I grimaced at just the idea. "You are old enough to be my father," I sneered.

  "I'm not that old," Brooks dismissed. He looked at Jacob again. "Obviously now isn't a good time. I hear Darius has the child on Sundays. That works for me."

  "It doesn't work for me," I hissed.

  Brooks just laughed at me. "Unless you want everything you and Darius have been through to be for nothing, Mora, you will make Sundays work for you." He forced a kiss to my lips and sauntered down the stairs.

  I thought I was going to be sick. I went inside, set Jacob to play, and then remembered that my cello was unstrung. Much like me. I collapsed on the floor crying. I cried my heart out until I curled into a ball and wished I'd never come to England.

  It took an hour for me to stop feeling sorry for myself and decide to do something to fix the problem. Rolling over on the floor, I fished out my phone.

  "Mora, to what do I owe the pleasure so early in the week?" Alex asked.

  "Dad said you bought me out of my share of the business. What sort of money do I have access to?" I asked.

  Alex stopped whatever he was doing. "What's happened?"

  "I'm done, Alex. I'm going somewhere the Fehu can't hurt me or the people I care about anymore," I sobbed.

  "I'm coming over," Alex promptly hung up.

  Twenty minutes later, we were sitting on my lounge with coffee, Alex digesting my decision to move.

  "What happened to the cello?" Alex asked, eyeing it in the corner.

  "Jacob really enjoys its deconstruction," I grumbled. "Third time in the last few months he's got to it while I wasn't watching."

  We sat there for a few more moments in silence, Jacob's baby talk filling the background.

  "I don't want you to move," Alex finally confessed. "I'd miss you, I'd miss Jacob, and with number two on the way, you need your family, Mora."

  "I wasn't asking your permission, Alex," I reminded him.

  Alex swallowed. "Where will you go?"

  "I don't know."

  "When?"

  Again, I shook my head. "I don't know." Tomorrow.

  "What about Darius?" Alex looked at me through his brows. "You've just let him into Jacob's life, and now you want to leave the country and take Jacob away from him again."

  "We have no formal parenting agreement," I muttered. I could still feel Brooks’s lips on mine. "He can't stop me from going."

  "That's the shittiest thing I've ever heard you say," Alex grumbled.

  "Fuck you."

  Alex's eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. "What's going on with you?"

  "Just go," I whispered.

  "Mora..."

  Rage bubbled through me like a volcano erupting. "Get out, Alex!" I stood yelling at him. "Be like everyone else in my life and leave!"

  Alex stood, shocked. "Where is this coming from?"

  "You'd know if you ever bothered to see me anymore," I accused. As it came out of my mouth, I knew it wasn't right. Alex was always there for me. I just barely saw him alone anymore, not since he and Tabitha became serious.

  "Look, I get that you're hormonal, but you need to settle down."

  I picked up the vase next to me and threw it at him. Alex ducked as the glass shattered on the wall next to him. Jacob started crying. I stared at the shattered vase, wide-eyed. I'd never thrown anything at anyone in my life. Alex was looking at me, just as shocked. I walked over, carefully avoiding the broken glass, and collected Jacob from the floor.

  "Just go, Alex." I walked up to my room and shut the door. I placed Jacob on the bed, pulled out a suitcase, and started packing. If anything indicated I'd reached my tipping point, it was the throwing of the vase. I couldn't stay. I wouldn't let Brooks force himself on me, and I wasn't going to let him ruin Darius out of jealousy.

  I had Jacob and me packed with the essentials within an hour. I booked flights and ordered a car to come and pick us up. It was time to find a new home, create a new life, and move on. There were only two people I called as we drove to the airport. Grandma Blake was an essential. We'd connected the moment we met and we spoke weekly, a lesson learned from Nan dying and me not knowing.

  The second, well, that would never have occurred to anyone.

  "Bex?" I murmured.

  "Mora? Is everything alright?" Darius's sister asked.

  "No," I answered with certainty. "It's far from alright."

  Chapter Twelve

  "Hello?" I answered the phone.

  "We spent nearly twelve months planning this wonderful joint first birthday party, and you don't even show up," Cassandra whined. "Where are you?"

  "Cass, what are you doing with my phone number?" I exhaled as I collapsed onto the lounge.

  I'd changed my mobile and only given the new number to Jasper and Jeremy, and only because I still worked with him. I wasn't recording as much anymore, but I was being booked for performances here in Scotland, Ireland, France, and Denmark. Jacob and I had become real jetsetters over the last month, but managed to settle into living at my new house in Archer Field, North Berwick.

  "My husband is your agent. How the hell do you think I got it? And what's with that? You just up and disappear without telling anyone?" Cassandra continued.

  "Does Jeremy know you have my number, Cass?" I asked.

  "No!" Cassandra answered unhappily. "He's in the shower, and it's the first time I managed to get his mobile unattended," Cassandra pouted through the phone. "What happened, Mora?"

  I sighed, "I know the brotherhood tried to drag Jeremy over the coals about our close friendship."

  "How?" Cassandra yelled, then quickly lowered her voice. "I told Jeremy not to tell you."

  "Darius told me while subtly calling me a slut," I answered. "I'd had enough, Cass. I started to feel like every time I found some happiness in my life, the brotherhood would try and squash it. I just didn't want anything to do with any of it - and by it, I mean them - anymore."

  "Why did I get cut out?" Cassandra mourned.

  "The only reason Jeremy has my number is because I still need to work," I reminded her. "I was going to leave Green's Recording too, but Jeremy promised not to give my number to anyone or tell anyone I was working for him, if I stayed on book."

  "I miss you," Cassandra sighed. "You missed a beautiful party. What did you do for Jacob?"

  "We had a little party here with some friends." Also known as Jasper, his girlfriend, Rebecca, her husband, and their kids. Rebecca's youngest boy was a few weeks younger than Jacob, and they played well together. I took a breath. "How is everyone?"

  "Well," Cassandra cleared her throat. "Only Marshall and Darius came to the party. Both are still very somber about your disappearance, and they pretty much stood shoulder to shoulder the entire day, probably wondering where Jacob is and what he was doing."

  I cringed, feeling guilt twist in my stomach. "I'm sorry, Cass. I should have left straight after the wedding. Jeremy convinced me to stay in England when I should have listened to my gut." My gut had told me to move to Scotland then, but I'd let Jeremy talk me around. "I couldn't let the brotherhood keep ruining my life, or holding me over Darius. I needed to make a clean break." This time I didn't give anyone the chance.

  Cassandra took a breath. "Mora, did something happen other than Jeremy getting a rap across the knuckles?"

  I cringed. "It doesn't matter now. I needed to leave, and I did. I'm happy here where they can't touch me." I shivered, still remembering my encounter
with Brooks.

  "What's the new place like?" Cassandra asked after a moment, relenting and not pushing the subject.

  "Big." I sold my place in Clerkenwell and still had some left over after buying the new house. "It's a five-bedroom house with a detached staff quarters that is probably nice enough for a guest house. It's on an acre of land, so plenty of room for Jacob to run and play, and there's a heated pool out the back, so I've been teaching Jacob to swim."

  "You sound happy," Cassandra said.

  I took a breath. "For the most part, I am."

  "Who you talking to, Cass?" Jeremy asked in the background. "Is that my phone?"

  "Gotta go," Cassandra squeaked and hung up.

  I looked up. Rebecca stood there looking at me. "You okay?" she asked gently. I'd cried on her shoulder about Brooks’s attempt to blackmail me. She was going to tell Darius where I was and what happened until I told her Brooks threatened to ruin him. We both worried if Darius confronted Brooks, he would reveal our secret and condemn himself.

  "Should we try and get the kids into bed?" Rebecca inquired when I failed to answer.

  I forced a smile, standing up. "How many red frogs did they eat?"

  "Too many!" Rebecca laughed. "Tim is trying to herd them into bed, but I think they defeated him."

  I smiled. While Henry, their near one year old, was staying in the guest bedroom on the ground floor with them, Nigel and Sienna, their older kids, were staying on the second floor, effectively unsupervised. The master bedroom was on the first floor, along with two other spacious bedrooms, which I'd set up for Jacob and number two.

  Nigel and Sienna were upstairs next to the rumpus room and my music room, which was perfectly situated over my bedroom, so I wouldn't wake the kids while practicing. Unfortunately, this separation made it hard to get all four kids down to bed at once.

  We walked up to the second floor where Timothy was sprawled on the floor, Henry and Jacob roughhousing with him, while Sienna and Nigel were having a pillow fight on the sofa.

  "Enough!" Rebecca yelled. The kids all stopped instantly. "Sienna and Nigel, clean your teeth and go to bed now. Tim, go settle Henry to sleep," Rebecca directed. I smirked, picking up Jacob, who tried to run and hide. He was lightning fast when he got his speed up. Both he and Henry were of a size, Tim being just a little bit shorter but probably broader than Darius.

  "You heard the boss," Tim laughed. "Let's go, Henry."

  Once the kids were settled and confirmed asleep, not just pretending, the three of us retired to the lounge room. "So, what are you doing for your birthday next week, Mora?" Rebecca asked.

  I gave her a sad smile. "I was supposed to be attending the Halloween Ball my father throws," I informed them. "However, since I've sort of run away, and it would be the official deadline for the ultimatum I gave your brother, I'm thinking I'll stay home and drown myself in a bottle of wine instead."

  "You're pregnant," Rebecca reminded me.

  "Yeah, I know. I was thinking of adding it to the bath water and bathing in it," I laughed.

  "What was the ultimatum?" Timothy asked.

  "To choose me," I muttered. My hand automatically drifted to my prominent belly. "To choose us."

  Rebecca teared up. Tim shrugged, "He might still. You should go to the ball."

  Rebecca elbowed her husband. "Get off it, Tim. He will always choose Lynwood. You know that. Don't give her false hope."

  Tim rubbed his ribs. "I'm just saying. Dare has no way to contact her. If he did choose her, and she doesn't go to the ball, how will he tell her?"

  "He could find her if he wanted to," Rebecca grumbled.

  "How?" Tim asked. "Even her family don't know where she is."

  Rebecca rolled her eyes. "She's been performing still. It wouldn't take much to search her name and find where she'll be performing. He pays child support, he could follow where the payments are being withdrawn..."

  "I closed the account," I cut in. "So he can't do that."

  "What?" Rebecca frowned. "Why did you do that?"

  "I took Jacob and left. He shouldn't be paying for a child he can't see. I closed the account and opened a new one so his money couldn't go in."

  "Would he know that yet?" Rebecca asked astounded.

  "He was paying on the first of each month. The bank would have notified him three weeks ago that my account no longer existed."

  "Why are you turning down his money?" Rebecca was gobsmacked.

  "I just explained..."

  "I know what you said. Mora, he chose that money over you. You should damn well take a piece of it," Rebecca looked appalled.

  "Bex," Timothy warned. "She's trying to be nice, and the guilt of taking Jacob away is probably worse if she still takes the money."

  Well, at least someone understood.

  "She got nothing out of that marriage except heartache and his brats to take care of." Rebecca smacked Timothy's leg. "Not that Jacob is a brat," she quickly excused. "You should at least get something after all this."

  "I have Jacob and I'll have number two," I tried to reassure her. "That's enough for me."

  "Relax, Bex," Timothy crooned. "He'll just put it in trust like he did for our kids."

  Rebecca huffed, "That doesn't help her now."

  "Bex, look around you, I'm not hard up for money," I reminded. Jesus, once Dad passed away, my half of his fortune alone would probably rank me higher than Darius. I looked to Timothy. "Dare set up a trust for your kids?"

  "Yeah, on their first birthdays," Tim smiled. "It's only a hundred thousand, but it will pay for university and such by the time they are eighteen. He's busy organizing Henry's trust now, so he'll probably set up Jacob's at the same time."

  I jumped as number two kicked me hard in the ribs. "Ouch, yeah, you'll probably get one too. Jeez."

  Timothy and Rebecca laughed. "Already not wanting to be left out of everything." Rebecca smiled. "Are you going to let him know when ‘Two’ is born?"

  "Wouldn't that just be mean?"

  "It's better than leaving him wondering, isn't it?" Timothy asked. "He knows when you are due. Just send him a picture and name."

  I took a deep breath. "I've got three months. I'll consider it."

  Rebecca took a deep breath. "How is Bill working out?"

  William, or Bill as he liked to be called, was Jacob's nanny. He lived in the staff cottage across the driveway. He was my age, so we'd built a sort of friendship over the last month, but most importantly, he adored Jacob, and Jacob didn't mind him.

  He basically was there to take care of Jacob when I needed to rehearse, record, or perform. The rest of the time he got to himself. Since he was studying his masters at university, occupational therapy majoring in pediatrics, he liked the arrangement.

  "Bill is working out well. He's enjoying getting to travel a bit too," I replied. "Jacob already has him figured out and is playing him beautifully."

  Rebecca laughed, "I imagine he is."

  ***

  "Mrs. Rafal," a man in his early thirties walked out, holding out his hand. "I'm Jack Carter. Please come into my office."

  I followed the well-groomed man in his expensive suit down the long-glassed corridor of the very prestigious law firm. Once inside his office, he shut the glass door and sat down at his desk.

  "How can I help you, Mrs. Rafal?" he asked with a smile. Not many people wouldn't know the Rafal name, even here in Edinburgh.

  "It's Blake. Mora Blake. I never took Darius's name," I corrected.

  Jack Carter's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "I'm sorry, I assumed you were Darius's sister-in-law or another relative, not his wife."

  "You know Darius personally?"

  "We were at college together," he confirmed.

  I stood up. "I'm sorry, Mr. Carter. Please don't take offense, but I asked for the best because I'm sure Darius's lawyers are going to go for the neck once we file for divorce. I can't have someone who has personal ties with Darius representing me."

  "Whoa!" Jack s
tood, walking to block my path. "You asked for the best, you got me. As for personal ties, there are none. We knew each other. That's all."

  I stood there biting my lip, unsure.

  Jack's eyes dropped to my obviously pregnant belly. "Is that his, or is that the reason for the divorce?"

  "His. There is another who just turned one at home," I informed him.

  "Okay. Let's talk." Jack gestured to the client chair and I sat back down. "You are seeking a divorce. How long were you married?"

  "One hour," I answered honestly. Jack looked at me, unsure. I cleared my throat. "I'm Marshall Blake's illegitimate daughter."

  Jack's eyes grew bigger. "As in Blake Industries, Blake?"

  I nodded. "I met Darius when I was seventeen and we..."

  "Became acquainted," Jack filled in for me.

  Again, I nodded. "I didn't know who he was, he didn't know whose daughter I was. It stayed that way for six years. Last January, we got married. My father was caught in Paris at a meeting and ran late for the ceremony. When he arrived and Darius realized I was the daughter of his mentor, he ended the relationship." I frowned, "Rather brutally." I took a breath. "Two weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant. I never told him about it."

  Jack was listening carefully, writing notes.

  "Darius applied for annulment. I never signed the forms. I burned them, actually." I fidgeted with the manila envelope in my lap. "Yet again, I never told him."

  "Why didn't you take the annulment?" Jack queried.

  "I wouldn't have sex with Darius until the ceremony. He claimed me as his wife between the ceremony and the reception. Our son was conceived at that time, but Darius applied for the annulment stating the wedding was never consummated," I explained.

  "You didn't want to perjure yourself?" Jack asked. I nodded. "So how did we get the second child?"

  "We ran across each other earlier this year, as our industries cross paths occasionally," I clarified, seeing the next question. Jack nodded. "We had a moment. A few weeks later..." I pointed to my stomach.

  Jack wrote it down. "Has Darius found out about the children?"

  "Yes," I sighed. "Our son is legally registered as his. The fact we are still married all came to light when his tax agent went to submit his tax claim earlier this year. He confronted me, I confessed, he walked away from me for a second time." I swiped at the tear on my cheek.