Jayda,
I haven’t been the best father, I know that. But know that I love you, and am so proud of you. I gave this to you, this house, this company. Everything. Because I believe in you.
But I haven’t always been honest with you.
I wanted to tell you when the time was right, but I guess if you look at something that way, no time is ever the right time. And now, you’re probably reading this as you go through my house, as a way to stave off your mother’s nagging, if I know the two of you.
So let me be to the point. You have a brother. Your mother and I were not always together, and before I knew her, I was with someone else. That person had a child, and after I was married to your mother, I found out I had a son.
I am sure, as you know by now, that we stayed married for you. My greatest regret is not telling you sooner.
Now that you know, I expect you want to know who. His name is Mark James and he has been waiting for decades to know you. Find him. Get to know him.
You can trust him. He is a whole lot tougher than he looks. I know you’ll work it all out.
Don’t take any wooden nickels,
Dad
P.S. Please do me one last favor and deliver these letters.
Jayda stood there, with her mouth open and a small stack of letters in her hand, each one addressed to a different person, the next being Mark James.
Jayda grabbed her phone and dialed Luke.
“Hey, you busy?”
“Just up at the facility doing some physical therapy, why?” Luke’s voice was playful, “you need me to come get you, maybe take you back to my place and practice there?”
She couldn’t let the thoughts that were clouding her mind distract her, as much as she wanted to go back to his place and do… whatever it was he wanted, she needed to stay focused.
“I need your help, I need to find Mark. I think I’ve figured everything out.”
“Where are you?”
“Dad’s”
“Stay right there, I’ll come get you.”
***
“Mark, Did you know?” She barely waited for the door of his house to open before the words flew out of her mouth. It was a small place, nothing befitting the child of a business woman, but it didn’t surprise her. He seemed like the type who wanted make his own way.
“Did I know what?” He stared at her, in a pair of pants, his eyes groggy as he looked her over. “What the hell did you come all the way out here for?”
He wasn’t angry, more like amused.
“Who you are?” Shit. That sounded stupid. “Did you know we were… who your father was?”
“Are you asking me if I was aware of our common lineage?”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it wasn’t for me to tell. He didn’t want me to, it would have been too complicated.”
“So all this time you have been pretending to be my friend. To care about me.”
“I do care about you, Jayda. You didn’t ask for this, any of it, and neither did I. You didn’t even know me. I may have gotten to live near him, to know him. But, I was his secret child. His secret life. I wanted to hate you, the spoiled little brat that my father got to claim. The legitimate one, but you were earnest. And you were kind.”
“Luke, did he know?” She glanced over to the truck that had him in it. Waiting for her. He drove her out to Mark’s place, all without saying a word.
“Of course not, I mean, maybe he suspected, but he never asked. It wasn’t like I was the only fatherless kid tagging along after your dad. Do you think he would have kept something like that secret, from you? The only people that knew were me, your dad, and my mom. Oh, and Thomas.”
“Fucking hell. Why wouldn’t he tell me?” Jayda shook her head and looked down. “I would have liked to know I had a… brother.”
“She asked him to keep it secret, from everyone. I guess that meant you, or maybe he meant to…”
“Who? Who asked to keep it a secret?”
“My mom. She was… embarrassed. Ashamed.” The look on his face fell when he said it. It dawned on her that he was the product of that kind of shame. “Hell, he didn’t even know about me until I was in elementary school. It was part of the reason why he gave her a share in the…”
“Partnership. Your mom is Sarah?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No, I mean I knew you were my brother, but you, you have a different last name.”
She tried over and over again to calm down. Breathe in and out. This was too surreal. How could she have a brother? Her father had an entire life here, one she didn’t even know about. It didn’t make sense. Any of it.
“Shit. I am so sorry you had to find out this way, Jayda.”
“Don’t. Do not treat me like a child. I want the truth, and I want it now. Sarah is behind all this… sabotage, isn’t she? Edward said as much. Why? Because of you? Because of me?”
“Sabotage? You aren’t making much sense.”
Her mind spun with the repercussions. She was trying to bring her down, trying to frame her. Make the business look unstable. Get her to sell her shares. All because of something that happened almost thirty years ago? Why? She was given a partnership. She had money, it wasn’t like she was hurting for it.
“Someone has been sabotaging the company. Here. It is easier to show than to tell.” She pulled out all the documents from a manilla envelope and handed them over, all the evidence that she had that someone was trying to frame her and spread it out, explaining as she showed, each piece of paper more damning than the last. The red herrings, Edward, she told Mark the entire thing, because she trusted him. He would never be involved in a plot to ruin her father’s company. Their father’s company. It was a feeling she had. . In her gut. And the words of her father, he told her she could trust him.
Finally she handed him the letter, the one that her father wrote for her eyes. And when he was done reading it, she handed him another letter from the stack. This one had his name on it. He just looked at her with a cocked eyebrow.
“I didn’t open it, because, well, it is for you.”
He opened it, read it, and then put it in his pocket.
“I’m not ready to share it. Not yet.” He looked up at her. “That okay?”
“Yeah, but what about…”
“My mom? I fucking hate admit this, but I think you are right. She… hasn’t been herself since he got sick. Even before that, anger, resentment. It’s been there for a long time.” Mark shook his head. “I love her, I mean, she raised me, but… things aren’t right with her, Jayda.”
“Were they close?”
“On and off, honestly. Dad wasn’t much of a one woman kind of guy. I know that isn’t something you want to hear, but he had his faults.”
“He didn’t live with my mom, I thought as much.” Still, it was a blow to her psyche. That was her father. The honorable man that everyone liked. The one that created an entire empire to help house a bunch of lost boys. She wanted to rage against it, but she couldn’t.
Because she knew it was the truth.
“What are we going to do?”
“About my mom? The only thing we can do. Confront her.”
“Together?”
“Together.”
“Mom, mom, are you home?” Mark used his key to unlock the door to the rather large rustic home, a common choice of living for the wealthy in the area, it seemed.
She clearly was not hurting for money, so why she would be stealing from the company made little sense to her. Jayda was starting to second guess coming here in the first place.
“Are you sure we have to do this now?” She hissed a whisper to him. They drove over right from his house, not bothering to wait until actual daylight.
Luke didn’t even bat an eyelash as they explained the entire thing to him. It was like he knew this was happening all along. She stored that little bit of dissonance away for later.
“Why wait? Give her t
ime to find out that we know? You didn’t grow up around her Jayda. She is my mom but… she isn’t always a good person. No, this has to be done now. It has to.” Mark’s eyes narrowed as he looked back, towards Luke’s truck. “She can’t be allowed to continue doing these things to you because she is jealous or mad or something. It affects too many people.”
She nodded, he was angry enough that she had no choice but to believe him. He knew the woman better than she did, she didn’t know her at all, other than those few words she spoke to her. None of which were kind.
They walked into the dimly lit hallway, and he called out again. “Mom, it’s Mark. I need to talk to you. You home?”
“Yeah, give me a minute, I’m upstairs.” She all but barked it before a light at the top of the stairs came on. “I didn’t expect you, Mark. Why not call?”
Sarah appeared as she took each step at a time, a dark robe tightly wrapped around her body. Jayda wasn’t one to judge, but the woman looked surprisingly good for her age, though the severe look on her face appeared to be a permanent fixture.
“Well, mom. We had something we needed to talk to you about. Something that needed to be addressed now.”
“But it is almost midnight, and who is this ‘we’ you keep referring to?” Her expression changed immediately when she realized that Mark was not here alone. It transformed into something sourer than the previous face.
“I see you have brought my boss into my home. Why would you do that, Mark?”
“I think you know why. I think you know a whole hell of a lot more than you are letting on.” Mark’s tone wasn’t kind as the words flew out of his mouth, and that surprised Jayda. There was an anger in his voice that she had never heard before, one that shifted her confidence to fear, and she realized she was frightened of him.
“So you told her, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t tell her anything. She found out all on her own, but I wasn’t going to lie to her about it when she came to me with it.”
“Great, so what do you expect us to be now? One big happy family? Because that ship sailed a long time ago. We could have been happy, until your mother came along and stole what was mine. My future, my fortune.”
“So you are angry at me?” Jayda asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be? You have everything, and we had to act like beggars. Alwyas seeking handouts. Always asking for more. Sure, John gave it to me, and then some, but it should have been my empire.”
“Then why didn’t you tell him? About Mark?”
“Oh, you don’t know John, honey. He may have been your father, but he wasn’t the kind man everyone keeps sanctifying. He was cold, calculating, and after he was done with me, the first time, I knew I was on my own.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, why would he give you a partnership, if he was so cruel?”
“To shut me up. Keep me from ruining his perfect image. I didn’t know it then, I thought he was being kind, but as the years went by, of him using me, leaving me, staying with her, I realized it. He never cared about me. Never cared about Mark. All he wanted was to keep his little indiscretions hush hush.”
“So you thought stealing from his business was the best way to do it?”
“Hurt you, and make my move to own it, why not?”
There it was. The confession she needed. Sarah had become angry enough that she didn’t care what she divulged. “He didn’t even give Mark a share in it.”
Mark’s rage grew. “Because I fucking asked him not to, mom. I didn’t want any part of it, not if I couldn’t earn it myself.”
“Sarah? What are you doing down there? Who are you talking to?”
Another voice. Shit. They weren’t as alone as they thought.
“Fucking hell, mom. Him?” Mark asked, he seemed to recognize the voice right away. “Dad hated-“
“I don’t give a shit about who your father liked and hated. They are all snakes in the grass, all of them.” This woman apparently loved her clichés, which made it that much harder for Jayda to take her seriously.
“That’s it, I’m coming down,” Chad Hayworth bounded down Sarah’s stares, a glare on his face as he assessed the situation. “What the hell is going on?”
“What is going on, is you are leaving, you piece of shit.” Mark glared at him. “This is between me, my mother, and Jayda.”
“Like hell it is. What is going on, Sarah?”
“They know.” Sarah crossed her arms and stared them down. “They know everything.”
“About?” His eyes registered something, but his voice was what really betrayed him. He was just playing dumb.
“Well, why the hell else would they be here. I knew Edward couldn’t fucking keep his mouth shut. I told you he would do this.”
“Look, if they are here, and the police aren’t, it means they don’t have any proof of anything.”
“No, we have proof, but we want to give you the chance to do the right thing. Pay back the missing money, resign. Admit that you did wrong, and we won’t press charges. All of this could be handled civilly.” Jayda was fair, but kind. She didn’t want this lingering over them anymore than it was.
“Yeah, they say that, Sarah, but they are both the spitting image of their father. Liars, and thieves.”
“I’ve had enough of you talking about my father. He was a good man, not perfect, but good. You need to shut up and get the hell out of here.” Jayda spat each word out into his face, but it only seemed to enrage the man.
“You little bitch, I’ve had enough of your shit.” He reached for her throat, grabbing it with both hands and shoving her against the wall. “I am so sick of seeing your fuckin’ face everywhere. You little fuckin whore.”
The edges of her vision were starting to go black, her airways closing, consciousness waning. There was no way a man like this was going to take her, she fought back, trying hard, and failing, to remove his hands from her flesh. If a fist hadn’t flown from behind her directly into his face, she would have lost consciousness.
Luke. When did he get in here?
“I reckon you think it’s fine to hit a lady, but it ain’t. You son of a bitch.” Luke landed punch after punch, but Mark was there in an instant holding him back.
“It ain’t worth it, man.”
Sarah looked shocked for the first time, her anger finally melting away into worry.
“He, he tried to strangle you?”
“You have eyes.” Mark wasn’t nearly as nice, as he and Luke grabbed Chad, holding him down.
“Chad, why would you do that?”
“Why the fuck do you think? This little bitch is gonna to get away with everything, and now we are the ones who are going to take the fall, Sarah. Think about it.”
“Stop.” Jayda croaked. “I don’t want anyone to go to jail. I just want this to end. I want my business to prosper. Neither one of you are concerned with what is important. The animals. The riders. I’m going to call my lawyers, and if you don’t agree to just give back the money, resign, apologize, I’m going to press charges on everything, Sarah. Do you understand? You will lose everything. Ever scrap of wealth my father gave you, gone.” She stepped forward and handed her a letter, one with her name on it, in her father’s handwriting.
“This is for you. If I can’t convince you, maybe he can. You have a lot to lose, Sarah.”
“Like a son.” Mark finished, his eyes cold. It was clear she had already lost that.
The middle aged woman ripped into the envelope and opened the letter, scanning it, only moments elapsing before tears started falling.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Sarah sunk down in a chair and held her head in her hands. “I never wanted it to go this far. It was just a fucking idea. I didn’t mean to make it happen. Hell.”
“What is your choice?” Luke asked, speaking with complete authority.
“I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt him. Don’t.” Sarah pleaded as she looked up, eyes wide, hair frayed.
&nbs
p; “We wouldn’t ever hurt him. Your resignation. On my desk. Monday. Along with any money you took. If it isn’t exact, you know what happens.” She turned and walked out the door, both men releasing Chad, and following her.
***
“I can’t believe you pulled it off.” Thomas was more amused than concerned.
“Why? All it took was a quick discussion with the accountant about some errors in the forms and files, and the corrections to them, along with a nice pile of money.” Jayda balanced her cellphone in one hand while leaving the small town accounting firm, the one that double checked and officially handled all of Rivers and Fields business.
“Well, yeah, but everything else.”
“Thomas, I understand why you didn’t tell me about Mark, but it could have saved us a lot of time.”
“I honestly never thought she would do that. She loved your father, pretty desperately, I mean, I would be lying to say he didn’t feel something for her too. They were off and on your entire life.”
It was crazy to think of her father as that kind of man, but it was a part of him, and it meant that she got to have a brother. One that she was starting to care about, deeply.
“I don’t know, selling the shares to Mark seemed like the right move, though. He’s made a pretty good partner.”
“Though he asked to remain silent.”
“That is his decision, but it works well, as I am sure you are aware.” He had been watching everything like a hawk since it all went down, double and triple checking each piece of paper that went through the office.
“You hear from your mom?”
“Not since I sent her that letter from my dad. I don’t know if I’ll hear from her any time soon, but I can live with that. I’m building my own family."
“Look, kid. We got lucky this time. We always seem to get lucky.”
She climbed up into the rusty old pickup truck, the one where she first fell in love with Luke Daniels, and looked over to see him staring at her, his eyes deep with emotion.
“I know Thomas. I guess he passed his luck on down to me.”
The Rider's Dangerous Embrace (An Interracial Bad Boy Romance Story) Page 21