Anton’s lips pull into a tight line and the slight shake of his head is the only indication that I get confirming what I already know. “When your mother left me, she took your DNA results with her. I knew there was a baby and I knew there was a possibility that you could have been mine, but at that stage, I was focusing more on getting the three of you back. By the time I’d found Gina, you were gone, and I’d had no way of discovering the truth.”
“What do you mean? You could have had the DNA test redone or gotten them to send you a copy.”
“That was my first thought,” he says with a darkness in his eye, clearly still pissed off about everything that went down all those years ago. “When I contacted the lab, I found that the files had been deleted and the DNA contaminated. I don’t know how, but I know Gina was the one who did it. Since that day I’ve always done my own in-house DNA testing.”
“Ok, so…what happened then? Something tells me you’re not exactly the kind to just give up.”
Anton smirks proudly. “I’m not. I didn’t have the resources back then as I do now, but I searched for you for a very long time. I knew the second those DNA tests had gone missing that you were mine. I’ve always known that. I just didn’t know where to find you. Gina had told me that your name was Meadow Mathers and all these years, that’s the name I’ve been searching.”
I shake my head. “Meadow is my middle name.”
“Yes,” he says. “I know that now. You wouldn’t have believed my shock when I found you all these years later living right under my nose, in my town, roaming my streets, and befriending your own brother.”
I square my jaw and try to put my emotions to the back of my mind. “When did you work it out? Was it when you tried to shoot Noah or when you had Rocko kidnap me?”
“Neither,” he says, sitting up in his chair. “It was just after last summer in that burger joint down by Haven Falls beach. I’ll never forget it. I walked in right behind you and watched you place your order. The second I laid eyes on you I just knew.”
“Because I look just like Gina.”
“Exactly.”
“You destroyed her life,” I say, a little unsure why I’m even bringing up the topic. “And Samuel’s. The three of us could have had a happy life living together as a family. I never would have gone my whole life not knowing them, but you destroyed that.”
“No. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Your mother took you away from me and I’m not about to apologize for that. She got what she had coming for her.”
“So, you admit it then? Gina was telling the truth. You made her do it all and then put her behind bars just for the fun of it.”
Anton looks away with the slightest hint of regret in his dark eyes. “I did what I had to do.”
I suck in a breath, unable to believe what I’m hearing. I thought maybe Gina had been exaggerating about her involvement with the prostitution ring, but she wasn’t. She’s an innocent victim in Anton’s web just as me and Noah were.
“You’re a monster.”
Anton shrugs. “So be it. You’ll understand it one day.”
“I’ll never understand putting the mother of your children in prison.”
“I’ve told you what you need to know and now it’s your turn to do something for me,” he says.
“That wasn’t part of the deal, remember? I recall you saying something about not being able to hand out favors. Why should I be doing one for you?”
“Because you owe me,” he says, “and because I’m your father.”
I narrow my eyes on him and wait patiently, but the very next words out of his moth have me nearly falling off my chair in shock. “This changes nothing. You’re going to stick to your original deal and you’re going to take your place in the family business. With me stuck in here, it’s going to be hard, but you need to save everything I’ve built or at least hold the fort until I get out of here, and I promise you, Henley, I will be getting out of here.”
All I can do is stare. “Are you serious, right now? Or are you just delusional? I won’t be doing anything for you. All your people are incarcerated. Money. Gone, Assets. Gone, House. Swarming with cops, And Your Warehouse. Ashes. When are you going to understand that you have nothing left? You’re done. Anton Mathers is no longer the name people fear in Haven Falls because all he is, is a washed-up gangster who crossed the wrong person and lost it all. With no money in your pocket, who’s going to support you? People are only out to save themselves and now that you're locked up, you’re no one worth saving.”
I get to my feet with the phone still glued to my ear. “You’re nothing, Anton, and you’re never getting out of here. Your empire burned right along with you and all that’s left are ruins.”
I’ve gotten every last thing I could possibly need from this visit and with those final words, I hang up the phone and turn on my heel, walking out of the room without daring to ever look back, the sounds of Anton’s screams following behind me.
I smile at the guard, walk my ass out of there, and get myself home, ready to finally put this shit behind me.
Anton Mathers? Who the hell is that?
Chapter 18
There’s only a week left of my summer and I let out a sigh as the lightest shade of cream paint I’ve ever seen rolls effortlessly onto the walls. Rivers is going to love this and if he doesn’t, I’m going to kick his ass.
Tully, Ari, and I have been working our ass off on this place over the past few weeks. Though, we can’t take all the credit. Noah has been helping out where he can, but he’s been working heaps. Spencer’s here a bit but feels like he’s intruding so never really stays long, and Aiden helps out until he gets frustrated with the way we do things. Apparently, we’re a little unconventional in our methods of fixing up a home. Who would have known?
Today we were lucky because we have Spencer and Noah up on the roof trying to fix the leaks and have Lacey in the bathroom, giving it a good scrub and preparing it for a lick of paint while replacing the old, torn shower curtain.
We had to convince Aria that Rivers wasn’t going to like the shower curtain with the bright pink love hearts and made her settle for a plain, white one. I don’t know how we got through that argument. The one where we had to choose the wall color was almost more than I could handle. I threw back a few drinks that night.
Dad’s been loving all this time I’ve been spending here with Aria because it frees up his time to see Jackie. He’s so freaking smitten by her, it’s the cutest thing. It’s been just over a month and so far, they’ve been joined at the hip, falling for each other almost quicker than Noah and I had.
Jared was weird about it at first and demanded to meet dad like he was her father inspecting her date for the high school prom. He even gave them a curfew and set a few boundaries. Jared’s going to make a great father one day. He even came over with his little brother and the four of us sat on the couch, eating pizza waiting anxiously for our parents to return home. It was great fun, though something tells me we were anxious for very different reasons.
All I seem to know is that so far, it’s going really well, and I hope to whoever is above that it stays that way. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million more times; dad deserves someone special in his life who’s going to treat him with love and respect. He deserves to be happy, and he deserves to put himself first for a change.
The roller glides up and down the wall as Aria does a great job of rolling up the old, damp carpet. I had to deck her out in old clothes with big gardening gloves and one of those disposable face masks. She absolutely loves it and it makes me feel so much better about her touching all the crap found in this home.
We all chipped in and bought some new carpet for the living room and bedrooms. It’s basically the cheapest one we could find, but it looks good and doesn’t smell and that’s all that matters.
It’s going to look so fresh when we’re done. The boys are eventually going to get around to fixing the front yard and adding a lit
tle landscaping. When they’re done, it’s finally going to feel like a home. Hell, I’ll even get them to fix up the mailbox.
It has me wondering if Rivers is even aware that this is his home now. I’m sure if he did, he would have made these changes himself years ago. He’s not the kind of guy to disrespect the things he’s worked for. This home though, it probably just reminds him of the bad times growing up, but not anymore. It will be like coming home to a brand new house that will welcome him in and have him proud to call it home.
Tully helps Aria roll up the old carpet before she takes a step back and instantly drops her foot into my tray of paint. “Oh, shit!”
I groan as I look at my best friend. “Really?” I say, putting down the roller and searching out the old towel that was tossed down on the floor earlier. “That’s the third time in two hours. What the hell is so important going through your head that you can’t remember not to stand in the tray of fucking paint?”
“Sorry,” she laughs, jumping around on one foot while trying not to get paint everywhere. She eventually falls to her ass with her foot in the air and I toss the towel at her, though, it doesn’t do much good because it’s already covered in paint. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
I raise a smug brow. “Could it have anything to do with the murmured conversation we can hear coming from above us?”
“No…yes. I don’t know. I just know Noah’s giving him a hard time and it doesn’t help that they’re on a roof. I keep checking out the window, waiting to see Spencer ‘accidentally’ tumble off of it.”
“Come on,” I laugh, helping her back up once her foot is clean. “Noah’s not that bad. He’ll give him a hard time, but he’d be respectful of the fact that you’re still trying to work it out and he won’t overstep until you decide that you actually like him.”
“What do you mean until I decide?”
I shrug my shoulders and get back to painting. “Just that the second you want to make it official; he’ll probably make Spencer want to run away and never come back. Until then, he’ll be satisfied just playing with him.”
In the next moment, we hear a muffled grumble coming from above followed by the loud banging sounds of the hammer. “Yeah, he’s definitely going to have some fun with this.”
We get back to work and before I know it, the living room is completely painted and Tully has finally finished putting up some curtains so the world can no longer see inside. The floors are bare and we’re hoping that the new carpet will go in over the next few days. Then I’m assuming we’ll even get him some furniture to make this place a little homier.
I take my paint tray and walk down to the laundry room to start washing everything up and soon have Lacey right by my side, waiting for me to finish so she can use the paint tray in the bathroom.
The hammer sounds again on the roof and I let out a dreamy sigh. “Damn, that boy sure loves to use his hammer.”
A soft chuckle sounds behind me and I whip myself around, taking in the overdramatic smirk on Noah’s face. “Really, now? You like what Spencer can do with his hammer?”
My eyes bulge out of my head as a gasp comes sailing out. “I thought that was you up there.”
“Nope.”
I walk into him, leaving the tray behind in the running water, though Lacey quickly picks up where I left off. I wrap my arms around him and he holds up his dirty hands, not wanting to get crap all over me. “You know, maybe I am interested in a little hammering by Spencer. He’s managed to keep Tully clinging on so maybe he’s got something going on that I should be looking into.”
Noah suddenly has no issue putting his dirty hands on me as I end up with a perfectly, dusty handprint on my ass. “Sometimes I forget how funny you are, and then you go and say something like that…Wait. No…no, I was right. You’re not funny at all.”
I’m two seconds from cursing him out when Tully’s loud, booming voice shoots down the hallway, pulling my attention away from the man I’m madly in love with. “What’s the holdup?" she demands, looking to her brother. “If you’re finished with the roof then I need you to help me get all this old carpet out.”
Noah groans. "Really? How did I get roped into this? Who’s to say that Rivers is even going to want this? He’s a complicated kind of guy, you know. Fuck, he’ll probably come back here and have the shits that you changed his home around.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it,” she throws back at him. “He’s going to love it. You’re just too tired to care because you’ve been working so much. Besides, doesn’t it make you feel all tingly inside knowing you’re doing something special for your best friend?”
Noah grins and I shake my head, knowing perfectly well what’s coming now. “Do you really want to know what makes me feel all tingly inside?”
Tully groans and stomps her foot before spinning on her heel and stalking away. “Geez, maybe I should ease up on Spencer. If he ends up with her then he’s already in for a lifetime of pain as it is. I really shouldn’t be making life harder for the poor guy.”
“Nah,” I laugh. "Keep hounding him. It’ll make him stronger and therefore more capable of keeping up with your sister. If you think about it, you’re really doing him a favor.”
Tully’s voice rings out from the living room. “NOAH! STOP BEING A PANSY ASS BITCH AND COME REMOVE THIS OLD CARPET!”
Noah lets out a deep sigh. “Do you think she’d come looking for me if I slipped out the laundry room window?”
“I think she’d force everyone else to stop what they’re doing and go looking for you with pitchforks and flames, only to make you come back here and do it all by yourself.”
“Shit, you’re probably right.”
I wink. “Haven’t you learned by now that I’m always right?”
“Haven’t you learned by now that you couldn’t be more wrong?”
I grin up at him, loving the way his eyes sparkle with mirth. “Well, I agreed to be with you, didn’t I?”
“No, no,” he says. “That’s on me. I got that one right.”
“Bullshit. You were running away to be Monica’s fake baby daddy. I was the one who came to you with the truth.”
“Yeah, but I was the one who got drenched in spaghetti sauce and forced you to take me home and clean me up. I don’t recall ever letting you out of my sight from that point on, even though you tried your damn hardest.”
“Trust me,” I say, rolling my eyes and stepping around him. “There were plenty of times. You’re not going to win this one, Noah. I was all in from the start, you were the one who had shit to deal with first.”
“Hey,” he says, hurrying up the hallway to catch me. “I was in from the start even during all that Monica bullshit. You were still mine. I knew it and you knew it too. Even that fucker up on the roof knew it and he still tried his luck.”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “That wasn’t the best night for me.”
“Trust me, it wasn’t the best night for my bathroom either.”
“You know, I’ve always wondered. That night…when you made me sleep in your bed. Was it really because you didn’t want me throwing up and choking on my own vomit or was it because you just wanted me to sleep in your bed so you could touch me all night long?”
Noah chuckles as a wide grin spreads across his face. He walks past me, leaving me in the kitchen before looking back over his shoulder with a devilish smirk that has my heart racing and my thighs clenching. “You’ll never know.”
He walks into the living room and just as he’s getting there, Spencer walks through the front door and makes his way towards the old carpet. Tully gives Spencer a beaming smile that has him startled for a moment before he rights himself and gets on with it.
She turns towards her brother. “Would you look at that?” she laughs. “A guy who comes and helps without needing to be asked a million times.”
“Yeah,” Noah scoffs. “Take away the possibility of getting in your pants and watch how helpful he is then.”
; Silence claims Tully and Spencer while Noah and I get overwhelmed by our own smothered laughs.
The boys get busy and I make sure to remind them not to ruin my freshly painted walls and before I know it, they’re hauling shit out of the house, and the second the old carpet is removed, the smell seems to go with it.
With the boys busy and Ari happily bossing them around, I find myself walking down to the room at the end of the hallway. I’ve been dreading coming in here, but I know this job is never going to get finished if I don’t do something with it. Rivers’ scars will never fade if he comes home to see this reminder every single day.
I stand in the open doorway looking in at the mess of papers, torn mattress and knocked over shelves and tables, wondering what the hell I’m going to do. A part of me wants to just leave it, but then a part of me is telling me that it’s the least I could do for the woman who gave me a better life.
Two warm arms circle my waist before a hard body presses up against my back. “What’s wrong?”
I shrug and lean into him as a deep sigh is pulled from within me. “I don’t know. I’m thinking of cleaning this up for her and burning anything that links her to the prostitution bullshit.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“It’s not like they can get her for it again. I just…one day she’s going to get out of there and she’s going to have nowhere to go but here and when that day comes, I don’t want her coming back to the reminder of how shitty things were. She deserves a fresh start.”
"You’re too good for me.”
I turn in his arms and look up at him. “I’ve kind of been thinking the last few days…”
“Why do I feel like I need to prepare myself.”
“Because I think you do.”
“Go on,” he says slowly.
“I think…I’m going to get Gina out.”
Noah studies me for a moment before pulling me in tight and pressing his lips against mine. “No matter what you want to do, Spitfire, I’ve got your back. If you want to get her out, then I’m behind you all the way.”
Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6) Page 17