I didn’t just fall in love with this man; I walked safely into his welcoming arms.
And I don’t want to leave.
***
He spun me, stared longingly, admired me with sweet words, and held me close to his chest like I was a princess, his princess. If someone told me I would feel such strong, affectionate feelings for the new preppy guy the day I met him, I would have knocked that person on their ass and watched them be shipped off to a hospital in a damn ambulance.
I never thought I could fall in love someone like him, or with anyone in general. Not to be fucking cliché, but I thought I was a fucking goner, unworthy of any type of infatuation that wasn’t phony and meant to seduce me into screwing thoughtlessly. But then I met him and, even though it was under the worst pretense…I actually fell for the bastard. Fell for his charm, his humor, his face, his dimples—everything about him, really.
And now as he tucks the tall mahogany cushioned seat under me as I sit behind this grand table fit for at least fifty people, I feel utterly grateful. Not because he bought this ridiculously uncomfortable dress or we just danced in the most beautiful place I’ve ever laid eyes on, but because he chose to stick by me. He stuck through every snide word, every cruel move I made, and he kept pushing on, gunning for my heart and soul, and boy does he have them now. They’re his.
“I would first like to thank everyone for coming tonight; it was a real treat to reconnect with so many old buddies,” Noah’s father announces. He’s wearing a black suit, facial hair trimmed, and a bubbling champagne flute in his hand. His smile makes me gag a little.
As he goes on and on about some business deal that’ll flourish and blah, blah, blah, I look around the massive table. I spot Noah’s mother who looks as bored as me, Ellis, the dude’s son who made the business deal with Noah’s dad, the dude himself, and his wife.
In front of me is Ophelia and Grey. While Ophelia wears a polite smile and gives the man her full attention, Grey is rolling his eyes with every syllable. I watch with amusement as Grey smirks and Ophelia’s cheeks burn bright red, her hand slipping underneath the table. I chuckle and cover it by sipping on my champagne.
They’re so naughty.
“Your father’s boring me to death…”
“And I’ve had to endure countless speeches growing up.”
“I pity you.”
He chuckles, nearly choking on his champagne. Which rightfully makes me laugh myself.
His father finally finishes his speech with, “…and I have no one but my sons to thank!”
Everyone claps and then almost immediately stops as his words register over in their minds. Noah ever so slowly looks at his father, who is quite literally a statue as he stares at Ellis, who’s blinking rapidly and looking at his father. Ellis’s father grumbles a deafening curse, and his mother screams incoherently and lunges across the table at Noah’s father.
And it’s chaos and screaming and security rushing in and a frozen Noah.
“Noah.” I hold his face, but he’s pale, star struck—gone.
Chapter Forty-Six
Noah
My father flees—being the coward he is—he fucking flees!
I don’t know whether to dart for my hysterical mother or the enraged Mr. Archer who is being held back by his son…or my…brother? I don’t know—my head hurts. I just know I have to jump into action, do something, calm everyone down before things get way out of control.
I look to my side for Red, but she’s gone. What? Where did she go? I glance at the cracked open door that’s settling after being pushed open. Did she leave to get security? I take one step to go after her, but I’m yanked in the other direction. I swivel around to Liv. Her face is flushed, blue eyes frantically glancing over at the now-wrestling men on the floor.
“Noah, help—one of them is bleeding,” she cries, and I nod quickly, following her around the ridiculously long table. By the time we round the table, Ellis is trying desperately to hold his father down. But his father is too strong and throws his fist into his son’s chin.
“Mr. Archer, stop! You’re going to break his nose! Stop! He’s your son!” I command and grab his bloody hand, staring at Ellis’s bloody nose. I begin to scream for security when he whirls his head around and glares at me with wide, beady eyes.
“He is not my son!” he snaps with as much poison as a viper. With that, he turns back around and continues throttling his fist into his son’s face. I grab his hand again. Son or not, he doesn’t have the right to hurt Ellis. It’s not like he had any say in what his parents…what my father did.
“Stay out of it, boy!” I bend and move to grab his balled fist. Mr. Archer shouts and thrusts his elbow back, connecting with my eye. I hear a loud gasp from Liv as I stumble back into a chair. I grunt loudly as hair-splitting pain shoots behind my right eye. Holy fuck that hurt!
“Noah!” Liv screams in horror. “Fucking do something, Grey!” Liv pushes her boyfriend before running over to me. I hear a vague “but it’s funny” before she kneels in front of me, one hand on my shoulder, the other gently caressing my face. I shake my head. There are more important matters—like the man beating his son to death.
“Tell Grey to stop them,” I say breathlessly as I try to sit up. The pain gripping around my muscles yanks me back down. I need to stop him or he’ll fucking kill him!
“You’re right.” She nods and closes her eyes, as if holding herself back from fighting her own boyfriend twice as hard. “Grey!” she snaps loud enough for fighter-boy to snap out of just watching the horrendous fight.
“Ughhhh! Fine.” Grey rolls his eyes before taking three long strides to Mr. Archer and Ellis’s barely moving body. He doesn’t even try to grab the man’s hand to stop him—he just kicks him in the face with so much ease it should be illegal. He is so violent without even trying. How Liv was ever able to keep him from kicking people in the face all the time is beyond me.
“Grey!” Liv cries in disappointment.
“I stopped him, didn’t I?” He rolls his eyes again and nudges Ellis with his shiny loafer. Whistling, he asks in a sing-song, “You alive?”
Security finally bursts in after all that went down, and Liv helps me stand. I try to stand on my own, but the pain is too significant to do so. I hope it isn’t too severe. The man just has the elbow of a freaking machete.
“Stay here. I’m getting ice for that,” Liv promises, helping me in one of the tall-backed chairs.
“No.” I grab her wrist, stopping her from running off, and nod at Ellis. My stomach rumbles at his busted and bloody face. “Help him until the ambulance comes.” When I look over again, muscular guys wearing black from head to toe with clear earpieces are restraining Mr. Archer while slapping handcuffs on his wrists.
“Are you sure? I can have Grey get the ice…” she suggests, and even I don’t believe her, and I’m a pretty naïve guy. Grey felt too bothered to help break up the assault. What makes her think he’ll fetch an ice pack for me?
“Yes, I’m sure. Just please go help him.” I flick my eyes over to him and his mother kneeling next to his head. One of the maids is holding up his head, and I have to look away to avoid vomiting.
This is so freaking sick. What man assaults his own son like this? The boy he fathered for all of his life? No matter if he’s biologically his or not? How in the hell is it his fault?
Liv’s eyes roam my face, no doubt trying to read my sickened thoughts, but she nods anyway and promises to come back to help me. I smile softly. She’s so kind and runs over to Ellis. Grey is leaning against the wall, assessing his fingernails with a chilling calm air surrounding him, which I get since he is a professional fighter, but still.
I’m looking around the room, trying to get a sense of everyone and my own feelings, when I find my mother slipping out of the room. Trying to sneak away, to cry her eyes out or find and stake my father, I don’t know, but I’ll join her in whatever she chooses to do—I’m just as hurt and confused. How the hell did
this even happen?
“Mother!” I call out, and she stops. The dinner was just supposed to last for an hour, mostly for my parents to chat with their close friends and business partners. What a shit-show it quickly turned into. One second I was touching Red, gauging her struggle to appear calm and cool, and the next I’m watching chaos like it just transported from hell.
“Yes, Noah?” Her voice is cheery as she faces me. Her wispy brown locks are falling into tendrils, curling around her rosy cheeks. She tries to blink away the tears from her dark-brown eyes, but the more she tries, the more they fall.
I pull her into my chest, and she sobs. “You didn’t know, did you?” I hate to ask when she is so distraught and looked as stunned as me, puzzled.
“No, of course not! How could I have known he slept with that—that—that whore!” she screams and wails in my ear. I cringe but hold her closer, tighter, rub her back. My heart pounds as I nod and listen to her scream and curse after Ellis’s mother. I normally would try to hush her, to calm her until she’s sedated, but she has every right to be furious—her husband cheated on her, had a son.
Ellis Archer is my brother.
I still can’t believe it. I never would have known if he hadn’t drunk so much champagne and wine tonight. He always had a tendency to appear tizzy and electric, fun to be around while interacting with his peers and business partners. Who would have known they would act as a truth serum?
Sons…The word bounces around my head like an audiobook with just the one word as I sit her down in one of the bedrooms in this corridor. I promise to get her some water and ask her to chill out, to avoid blowing up and exhausting herself beyond her health. The woman may be a cold tyrant most of the time, but she is and will always be my mother.
But instead of going straight to the kitchen, I find myself storming in the direction of my father’s study. If there’s any place he would escape to, it would be his study. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the most corrupt man in the world, if he managed to keep a secret this massive, this harmful that when unfurled into the world, it exploded like a nuclear bomb.
My head tingles with questions upon questions and swelling rage. How could he do this to my mother, to me? Keep this impossible secret from us? He has another fucking child with a whole other woman and he doesn’t think to tell us? He had however twenty-odd years to even utter the truth. Yet he decided it’d be smarter to keep it under wraps.
Is that why Ellis has been training beside me at the company? Because he’s thinking of passing it on to him if I won’t? Or was it because I just simply wasn’t enough of a son to him, so he had his secret son slowly take over my place? Would he have given me money and thrown me on a random plane, get me out of the way? How long did he plan on keeping him a secret?
The questions begin to hurt, so I wave them to the back of my mind and turn the corner to his study. I think of what I want to yell at him as I get closer. I might even punch him, put him in a freaking chokehold, since father and son fights are suddenly the big trend. I have never wanted to hurt my own father before. Not as much as I want to right now, anyway.
The door is unlocked, and I twist it open. It’s heavy and quiet, so they don’t hear me when I push it open. My mouth is hung open, the rage pounding against the inside of my throat, until I realize what I’m seeing.
Red is shouting at my father with tears streaming down her red cheeks. He’s screaming back and punches his desk.
“Would you shut the fuck up? You’re giving me a fucking headache!” He pinches his nose bridge, but she doesn’t stop for a second.
“No, you fucking idiot! You told everyone that Ellis is your son!” She sounds like she’s two seconds from smashing his face in the desk, and a smile floats onto my face. She’s angry at how he ruined the night, possibly my whole life with such a shell-shock revelation. I’m about to burst in and join her in bashing my father when she adds, “That was not the plan, Robert. You were supposed to take care of one thing—one—and you couldn’t even do that! I should have just let Link go ahead and ruin your sorry ass.”
And my heart bursts and liquifies at the same time. Tears fill my throat and threaten to drown me. This isn’t…no…she wouldn’t—she would have told me. Why? I can’t even finish a fucking thought!
My head is swimming, and I push the door open all the way. Their heads snap to my frozen state, and she gasps and he groans, as if this is what’ll pound the nail in his coffin—not the conspiring with my girlfriend or keeping a secret brother away from me.
“Noah…I…Noah,” Red stammers and takes slow steps toward me.
“No,” I choke and hold up my hand, and the raw pain that’s destroying me from inside out is evident as I say, “You knew? This whole—this whole time? And you’ve been making more deals with Link, threatening to—to ruin my father?”
I can’t even breathe; I stumble for footing and nearly collapse from the familiar sting of betrayal and heartache, and she tries to run over and help, but I hold up my hands with a firm expression. The hurt flashing across her wide eyes is undeniable, glossy, and filled with disgust…for herself, I can imagine.
“And you.” I turn to my father; the tears are running freely now—I let them go. “You kept Ellis a secret from Mother and me for—for twenty fucking years—and you said nothing! You just kept him—you lied to us!”
“I didn’t lie,” he says, and I lose it.
“You piece of shit!” I race over to him, pushing past Red’s frantic hands. I push her hands away, and she stumbles a bit, and I feel instantly bad, but my father continues spouting bullshit about technicalities, how he just didn’t tell us, and I punch him. I do what I’ve never wanted to do. He flies to the ground, and I find myself punching him over and over.
“Noah!” Red grabs my hand, and I let her pull me off of him. Her hands pat my chest, and she’s begging me to calm down, to breathe. I ignore her now-rotten voice as I watch my father writhe on the ground. “Noah, you have to calm down,” she says, and I finally listen to her.
I grab her hands and look into her fearful eyes. “Do. Not. Touch me,” I sneer in a low voice and push her hands from me. She stumbles back and bursts into tears and blubbers about me listening to her. I shake my hands in the air breathlessly and blink away my tears as I turn on my heels and run out of the room.
I run out of the house and into the rain; it’s picked up now and makes the grass surrounding the water fountain slippery. I stumble onto my face and push to my knees, but I don’t get up, don’t run away. I sit against the marble fixture spouting out water and burst into a fit of tears. My eyes blur and my heart squeezes like a fist; it’s hard to get a breath out. I feel like I’m choking on hot lava, my throat is dry, and the heartache is unbearable.
“Noah!” I hear her scream over a crack of thunder.
I don’t even hesitate; I jump to my feet and sprint to my car. I slip a few times, and she cries out behind me, begging for me to stop, wait, listen. I don’t listen and finally reach my car. I need to get out of here, need to get away from here.
“You are not driving angry,” she says as she finally closes in on me.
“You don’t get to tell me anything, Red!” I snap, and I don’t hold back. “I trusted you. After the BS you pulled, every single time, I stuck around, loved you…and you do this to me? You fucking lie to my face and keep something like this from me?” I pause and look away before the tears start up again. I don’t want her to see me cry, to see what she did to me. “I wish I’d never met you,” I lie breathlessly.
She gasps and blinks, but I don’t retract anything. I just get into my car and drive away, and I don’t stop until I have to. I punch the wheel over and over as the anger and confusion and regret and guilt are too much. I can’t breathe until my knuckles are bleeding and my body is shaking with rage.
Chapter Forty-Seven
I don’t go straight home because I knew she’d come right after me and try to explain herself, but there is no explanation f
or what she’s done. Once again, I let her in without any real consequences. Once again, she hurt me, broke me in a million freaking pieces. And once again, I’m left trying to pick them up like the idiot I am.
Anyway, I drive to my old fraternity like I’m seeking asylum. But I don’t go right in. I stay inside the running car and run through my hectic thoughts, picking at all the subtle hints and those weird half-smiles she’d give. I comb through every single detail and possible reason why she did this. I want the truth, I do…but a part of me feels like she’d just tell me BS again, treat me like a damn fool.
A sound between a choked sob and a groan leaves my lips, and I drop my head into my bloody hands. How could I let her seep through my cracks again? Didn’t I freaking learn the first few hundred times?
She is a fire, and I once admired her and the dangerous vibes surrounding her…now I hate it, I want to put her out…extinguish the scolding flames that burned me one too many times to count.
I finally get out of the car and stand in the cool, refreshing rain. It pounds against my skin and clothes, acting as a purifying agent; at least, that’s what it’s supposed to do. Rain nourishes plants on the verge of dying. It rejuvenates and reminds you that you’re alive. But I feel anything but life. I am a cactus on the cusp of death, shaded in a red hell, and she won’t let me fucking breathe. She’s killing me. She did with every whisper behind my back, every deal she plotted.
I stagger, and my knees buckle. I lean heavily against the car door. If I knew love could hurt me this badly, I don’t think I would have paid her any mind when I bumped into her inside of the house. The idea literally makes me sick on the road. I vomit and vomit until my throat is stripped raw and my eyes are bulging painfully. I finally push to my feet and stagger to the front door.
Red: Fiery Finale (Spectrum Series Book 8) Page 33