by Eris Kelli
Chapter Twelve
I couldn’t sleep when I knew that file was beneath my pillow.
My entire body ached the next morning like I had been in a fight the night before. I sat up feeling stiff and put the file in the pillowcase and took the thing into the bathroom and set it in the corner. I took a shower knowing it was there and started feeling angry with Nicholas for pushing this on me.
I only just found out about having a different mom. I’m not ready for this.
I dressed and was blow drying my hair when I heard the knock on the bathroom door. Grandma Sidney was on the other side. “Good morning, sweetheart.” She was smiling, but it was impossible to miss that she had been crying. “It’s time for me to go,” she said when she saw me, noting the tears on her face.
“I’ll come with you.”
“No, you are working things out with your mom. That’s important.”
I shook my head. “We did last night. I’m prepared to go back.” Hopefully, Nicholas was ready to have us back. “Just wait long enough for me to pack and tell my mom.” She looked down at her own clutched hands and nodded. “Looks like Deception is enjoying the easy life.” She turned, and I saw Adriel sprawled out on my bed. He was drooling on my comforter.
“Thanks, Grandma. I’ll hurry, I promise.” She nodded again and left. I wanted to punch my dad for making her feel bad. Grandma Sidney was nothing but supportive and didn’t deserve to be treated poorly.
I finished drying my hair, added a few things to my bags, and asked the maid to take them to the car. Mom must have heard about it because she was at my door when I was picking up the pillow in my bathroom. “Why are you leaving?”
“I want to go to school at Grandmas. I love you, but I don’t want to be around him anymore.” She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “I had hoped you had changed your mind.” Apparently, Dad told her.
“I haven’t.” I hugged her, and she hugged me back. Trina gave me a quick hug when she heard I was leaving, and I was standing beside the car as my father approached. Grandma and Adriel were already in the car, and I felt a strong sense of déjà vu.
“We have a deal right?” He asked in a low enough voice that only I could hear him.
“I have another request.”
“Just like your mother.” He sneered at me, and I wished that I had the guts to slap him, but I didn’t.
“Grandma needs to be treated better by you. She’s your mother and if you make her cry one more time I’m going to tell the world about your many, many mistresses.” He glanced at the tinted window and then back at me.
“If that old woman has a problem with me, she should stay on the sanctuary. I won’t be told how to act by some bastard child.”
“You’re the only bastard here.”
He reached for my shoulders again, but I raised my hands up to push his away, and he got a hold of my wrists. The pressure was intense, and I met his harsh gaze. “This should leave pretty bruises.” He released me at once and gritted his teeth, seething at me.
“I accept your terms and will add one of my own.”
“What?”
“Don’t come back here unless you’re invited by me. I don’t want to look at your face.”
“Agreed.” If he thought he was punishing me the joke was on him. I had no wish to see his face either. He smiled and waved at my grandma and since I had just opened the door, I got to see the surprise on her face.
I closed the door and hugged the pillow I was still carrying around.
“What did you say to him?”
“Just goodbye.” It was a forever goodbye as far as I was concerned, but I didn’t want to upset Grandma Sidney, so I didn’t tell her that. She smiled, and we both tried to get comfortable for the drive. That was impossible because I was so wound up about what we would find when we got there. Adriel was having a hard time holding still, and I’m pretty sure he was feeling the same way I was.
Adriel was pushing and moving my pillow around, and every time I reached for it he would growl at me. I didn’t realize what he was doing until he was already changing into his human shape. He had the pillow situated purposefully to cover his nudity. “Are you crazy?” I hissed at him in a whisper.
“I needed to stretch out. She’s asleep.” He tapped the pillow making a thumping noise on the folder beneath the pillowcase. “You read this yet?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Read it now.”
“No.” He was pulling out the folder. “What is the big deal?”
“I can’t say, but there must be a reason this is being given to you. Yes?”
I ripped the file from him but didn’t look at it. “What do you mean you can’t say? You’d better say.”
“Read it.” His brow was drawing together and had his head tilted downward so he was looking up at me. “You need to read it, Piper.”
“I don’t want to know about her. Okay?” His face was starting to turn red. “I’m not going to be forced into this, Adriel.” He snatched the file away from me.
I felt my mouth stretch open to yell at him when he opened the file and then I remembered my grandma asleep at my side. “Her English name is Jaqline Andrina Frasier-”I kicked him as hard as I could, and he didn’t even move. “She was born and raised partly in Ardmore, Scotland. She came to America in-”
“Stop it.” I grabbed the file, and we started fighting over it.
“Just read it.” He let go so that I wouldn’t rip it. I hit him with the folder, and he looked at me as though I had slapped him. You would think the kicking would have upset him more than a tap with a folder. “I went to a lot of trouble to get that information for you.”
“No, you got it for Nicholas. Is he your alpha? Do you do whatever he says?”
“He is the alpha of our pack. He is risking his life for you and all he asked of you was that you learn of your birth mother.” He was talking really loud, and I kicked him to shut him up. He was in wolf form by the time my foot connected with him.
“Piper Claire LeVine, what are you doing?” I froze, but it was too late. My grandma already saw me kick Adriel but to her I had just kicked a helpless dog. “How could you do that? Haven’t you seen what violence against animals has done? You’ve seen the dogs that come in half starved. I just can’t believe my eyes.”
I wanted to absorb into the seat I was sitting on and disappear. There was nothing I could say to her besides the truth that would make her accept what I had just done. I guess I should be grateful she didn’t wake up when I had been trying to shut him up earlier. I kicked him much harder.
“If I ever see you do something like that again you will lose your dog. He deserves better than that.” She turned away from me and began to comfort Adriel.
“Sorry.” She didn’t respond. I shoved the stupid folder back into the pillow case and glared at Adriel. He poked the pillow with his nose, and I shook my head at him. Nicholas was asking more from me than just finding out about Jaqline.
Great, now I had a name for my abandoner. He was also getting shelter in the sanctuary. He was risking his life for me?
We sat in silence for most of the ride and I couldn’t take it anymore. She was still mad at me for kicking Adriel, but I realized that she was the only one that I would be able to accept the truth from about my birth mother. She wouldn’t lie to me so anything that she said I would take in and know that it was the truth.
“Grandma Sidney?”
“I’m not quite ready to talk to you.” She glared at me. “I never thought I’d see your father’s mean streak in you.”
“Speaking of parents….” The scowl on her face faltered. “Can you tell me about Jaqline?”
“What do you know about Jaqline?”
The breath I was holding came out in a big rush. “Why didn’t you tell me that Katrine wasn’t my mother?” Her eyes rounded.
“Did you hear your father and me arguing? It is that how you found out?”
“No, I heard my
parents talking right before I came back.” The understanding of all my tears was visible on her face, which relaxed. “You’ve known for all this time? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I promised I wouldn’t.” A long pause spaced between us before she said, “I have wanted to tell you about her, dear. I will tell you all about her when we get home.” Adriel’s tail was wagging, and I smiled weakly at him. It was hard to wait since I had finally gotten the nerve up to ask about my birth mom, but we were almost home.
I popped my knuckles and chewed my bottom lip. I re-situated in the seat. I retied my shoes and checked my lipstick, and we still weren’t home.
“Okay,” she said, sensing that I couldn’t wait. “Your father told me about the affair and that this woman Jaqline was pregnant with my grandchild.” She was smiling, and it made me smile too. “I was so excited for you to come and Katrine had taken him back, and at first I was worried that Jaqline wasn’t going to let me see you.”
“Why?”
She took my hand with both of hers and held it firmly. “Well, I didn’t get to see her at all when she was pregnant and Harold said that she was refusing to see him again to discuss terms. Finally, you were born and well…” she sighed. “I don’t know how honest my son is, but he said she agreed to sell you to him and keep the story quiet.”
I cleared my throat and told myself to stop being a pansy. “For how much?”
“Piper.” She frowned at me.
“Well?” She knew what I was asking.
How much was enough for my birth mother to hand me over?
Knowing my father like I did, I couldn’t come up with a number that was realistic and enough at the same time.
“He never told me an exact amount, and that isn’t the important part anyway.”
I got control of my tears and didn’t let any fall. “It’s not?” There was no hiding the bitterness in my voice.
“No, it’s not. The important part was that she hated Harold so much that she didn’t want to see him again. Jaqline would only meet Katrine to hand you over.”
I swallowed and tried to keep my face void of emotion. My birth mother was going to make Katrine have to see her? The woman he betrayed her with? That was malicious and cruel.
“Well, Katrine and I drove over to the park where we were to meet. When we got there Katrine couldn’t get out of the car.” She nodded at me when my eyes widened. “I pleaded with her to go and get you, but she just couldn’t bring herself to see Jaqline. I was terrified. I just couldn’t go through the rest of my life and not see my grandbaby.” She was looking right past me, and I knew she was seeing the events of that day.
“This was my only chance, so I got out of the car myself and headed to the meeting place. I see the gazebo and it’s crowded with people, and I’m thinking I’m too late. I had to make sure. The closer I got the more I realized all of those people weren’t doing anything, just standing around waiting. The men were big and aggressive acting, but I wasn’t turning back.
“When I climbed the stairs, I found her standing in the center of the gazebo. She was holding you.” Grandma sighed with a smile, and her shoulders relaxed a bit. “I told her that I had come for you, and she became angry that Katrine had not come. I made many promises to Jaqline that day. I would have promised her anything to get you.” Her features softened, and she smoothed my hair back again.
“I promised her I wouldn’t tell you about her until you were sixteen.”
“But I’m seventeen.”
Her nose scrunched up at the bridge. “Your father begged me to wait, and I didn’t want you to run away looking for her. I should have told you.”
“Do you, I mean, did you like her?”
Grandma chuckled with tears in her eyes and squeezed both my hands. “Like her? I love her. She gave us you.” That did not answer my question, but I was too afraid to push it.
I swallowed the lump beginning to swell in my throat. “What else did you promise her?”
“To keep you safe and to care for you. She wanted me to tell you that she loved you very much, but she had no other choice.” I pulled my hands back and noticed that the car had stopped. I opened the door and got out.
No Nicholas in sight. The house was still standing, and I spotted both Johnny and Tony working.
Where is he?
Adriel got out and seemed to be thinking the same thing I was.
I took my own luggage into the house and changed into my work jeans and a light pink graphic tee. Adriel was with me. I had planned on joining the guys to work off the feeling I got when Grandma Sidney told me that Jaqline loved me. It made me want to run as hard and as fast as I could. As soon as I was outside, I headed for the mountain.
I had to find Nicholas.