Marcus (Heartbreakers & Troublemakers Book 5)

by Hope Hitchens

  “You can’t make the trip home to see your mother?”

  “I’ve been busy. I got a job,” I said. “Catering. Can you believe it?”

  “Oh, come on, Marc. That’s not the only reason you’ve been busy,” Jon said.

  “What does he mean, Marcus?”

  “He has a girlfriend,” Jon said, smirking. I rolled my eyes looking over at him.

  “Shut up, Jon.”

  “Oh, shit. Is it over already? It was the kid, right?”

  “Marcus?” Our mother looked between us waiting for an explanation.

  “Lay off, Jon,” I said. “Did you at least give Mom something to drink?” I asked walking to the kitchen. Mom followed me. I heard her behind me as I leaned into the fridge. “Orange juice?” I asked, looking at her over my shoulder.

  “Congratulations on the new job,” she said, smirking. I felt like Henry and Kevin looked the most like her out of all of us. Her first and last kids. Black hair and round, brown eyes. Jaden had black hair, I thought absently. She was my mother, but the parenting ship had sailed. She was like my least fun friend. The one who still told me what to do sometimes and had known me all my life, so you know, she could, if she wanted to.

  “Thank you,” I said, pulling the juice out of the fridge and pouring it into a glass. “You look well,” I said.

  “Mm-hmm. Staying out of trouble?”

  “Of course,” I said smiling.

  “I’ll just ask Jonny if you don’t want to say anything,” she said.

  “He doesn’t know her,” I said, pouring a glass for myself.

  “Why? Are you hiding her?”

  “Yup. Are you hungry?” I asked, trying to change the subject. I looked in the fridge again. So maybe Jonny had a point; it was almost totally bare. I hadn’t taken anything from Adina’s because I was heading back later that night; we’d eat together.

  “Jonny said she has a child.”

  “Jonathan also hasn’t met her. He isn’t the best source if you’re looking for dirt, Mom.”

  “Then tell me,” she said, leaning in like I was going to tell her a secret.

  “All we’ve got is leftover pizza and Chinese food,” I said, ignoring what she asked. “Want to order in?”

  “Does she have a child, Marcus? Tell me.” She looked serious then. What was I waiting for? Adina wasn’t my dirty little secret. I wasn’t ashamed of her. I didn’t want to examine whether she was ashamed of me; you didn’t ask questions you didn’t want the answers to.

  I wanted to say something, but fuck, what if I jinxed it? What if I told her, told my mother about this girl, and then the next time we talked she was gone? She would have come to her senses, or I would have done something to fuck it up. Thinking about it made me feel like shit. I wasn’t going anywhere. I was hooked from the start. I wanted so much more of her.

  “Yeah. She does. A little boy. Almost five months old.” She smiled.

  “What’s her name?”

  I hesitated, but I wanted to tell her. I met someone Mom, she’s beautiful, and her name’s Adina. She’s my girlfriend. I wanted to tell everyone. She was something I could be proud of. I’d been fucking up since day one, and she was perfect. It had to mean something that we were together. She could have chosen literally anybody else, but she didn’t. I was her boyfriend. Me.

  “Adina,” I said. “Adina Kelly. She’s a chef at the catering company I work for. She’s gorgeous, Mom.”

  “You like her?”

  “She’s my girlfriend,” I said.

  “Marcus, look at you,” she said, squeezing my cheek; the only person who I would ever let do that to me. “When do we get to meet her?”

  “We just started dating, Mom. I don’t want to scare her away.” Jon yelled from the living area that we weren’t loud enough; he couldn’t hear us. We went back to sit with him. It was different, having someone like Adina to tell my family about. It wasn’t something fucked up for once, and it was actually something that I wanted to share with them. I’d done something right.

  Next, of course, was having her meet them. It felt sort of weird but in a good way. It was new. Scary. Out of my whole family, I was probably the worst and Adina had met me already. The rest would be fine. She wanted to meet them. She wanted to come here. She wanted to be as much a part of my life as I wanted to be in hers. The feeling was fantastic.

  That clean, beautiful, warm thing she had about her; she had it for me. I answered as many of their questions as I thought were general enough to answer without Adina present. I’d ask her when I went back to her house; whether she wanted to meet them.

  I felt my phone vibrate against my leg. It was Adina. “Hey, honey,” I said, picking up. I stood and walked to the kitchen area, so Jon and our mother didn’t have to stop talking because of me.

  “Marcus?” she said. I felt like all my blood stopped in my veins. Suddenly, I was freezing. She was sniffing, and her voice was hollow.

  “Adina? What happened?” I quietly left the room, going into my bedroom, shutting the door behind me.

  “It’s been hours, and Jared hasn’t come to drop Jaden off,” she said. “I’ve been calling him, but he isn’t picking up.”

  “Are you still at home?”

  “When he didn’t pick up, I went to his house,” she said, “I’m here now. I’ve been ringing the bell, but there’s no answer. His doorman says neither of them is home. Marcus, he has Jaden.”

  She hadn’t told me much, but I could be creative. She wouldn’t call me unless she was panicking. She had been crying; I could hear it. I could see it. I knew what she looked like; miserable, thinking the thing she loved most in the world was going to be taken from her. My whole body was buzzing. What was I still doing there?

  “Tell me the address,” I told her, “stay where you are, I’m coming to get you.” She paused for a second, and I waited for her to tell me something ridiculous like she didn’t want me to come. She didn’t. She told me the address on the Upper West Side where Jared lived and where she used to live. That was where she still was.

  The little family reunion had been nice and all, but this was an emergency. I didn’t even think twice about going to get her. I could see them when I got back, Adina’s ex may or may not have kidnapped her son.

  “I’m really sorry, Mom. I have to go,” I said, coming back into the living space. The sun had gone down already, and she’d probably be leaving soon, anyway. I wondered for a second where Kevin was but figured it was under control if Mom was here, anyway.

  “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “Something came up. I can’t explain it now.”

  “When are you getting back?” That question came from Jonny.

  “Tomorrow, maybe.”

  “You aren’t going to buy anything before you disappear again?” I sighed. I wasn’t going to stop for this.

  “Mom, could you help me out? I’ll pay you back whatever you spend. He just needs some stuff while I’m gone,” I said quickly.

  “Well where are you going?” she asked. I think that was what she asked. Might not have been, but I was out the door already.

  I called Adina when I got to the building. She came down and met me by her car. Pink face, red eyes; she’d been crying. She walked into my outstretched arms, letting me hold her. She was quiet, like the worst of it was over, not shaking in my arms like she had before. Like she could shatter at any second.

  “Where is he?” I asked, stroking her hair.

  “He isn’t picking up his phone. His doorman hasn’t seen any of them—Jared, Janice or Jaden. They left together on Saturday morning.”

  “Let me take you home.”

  “I need to call the cops. It’s been two days,” she said, looking up at me.

  “Do you think he’s taken him?”

  “If he didn’t, then what else?”

  “You and he share custody, traveling with Jaden most likely wouldn’t be an offense if you did call the cops. Is there anyone else you can call? People Ja
red would tell where he went? Think. There has to be someone.” She shook her head, frowning. Suddenly she froze.

  “Oh my god,” she said quietly, “what if something happened? What if they were in an accident or something? What if my son-”

  “Shh, no, Adina. Calm down. Slow down, honey,” I said, holding her. She was getting worked up. She was panicking. We couldn’t do anything when she was that upset. She was talking, but I couldn’t make her words out because she was crying at the same time.

  I wished I could empathize with her. I’d never lost anything that precious. No. Jaden wasn’t lost. Chances were, he was with his dad. We just needed to find out where he was.

  “Let me take you home,” I said to her again. I had taken the train because I knew she had driven there. She let me take her keys and drive us back to her house, sniffing quietly in the passenger seat, not saying anything.

  I took her straight to her room when we got to the house to lie on the bed. I wasn’t sure what I had to do, but I had to do something. I wanted to make sure she was okay. What did you do for people when they were upset?

  Did she want me to make her tea? Maybe she wanted to stand under the shower or something. Take a bath. I didn’t want to ask her because I felt like I should know already. She was on the bed, on her side. I didn’t think she’d want to go to sleep though. She probably wasn’t tired.

  I stood because I wasn’t doing anything sitting there next to her wondering what to do. She moved on the bed suddenly, sitting up.

  “Don’t go,” she whispered.

  “Do you want me to get you anything?”

  “No. Just don’t leave. Stay here with me,” she said. I sat on the bed, and she pressed herself into me, her face in my chest. I leaned back against the headboard and pulled her onto my lap. I stroked her hair and her back. I wanted to do something else. I wanted to know where Jared was so I could kill him. She’d totally let me at him now. Had to.

  “I’m sorry for calling you the way I did,” she apologized.

  “I’m glad you called. I want to help.”

  “You were the first person I thought of.” Good, I thought. I wanted to be.

  “Let me help you,” I whispered. “Stay here. I’ll get you something to drink,” I said. We were supposed to have dinner together, but I wasn’t that hungry anymore. I doubted she was thinking about food either. I walked into her kitchen, opening the fridge and cabinets. I could make tea. I didn’t drink it, but she did. Just add hot water.

  I turned the kettle on looking for the open box of tea bags. She had boxes and boxes of the shit. She drank some green one that tasted like grass every day. I was looking for a mug when I heard her walk into the room.

  “Hey, I was just coming back,” I said.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m trying to make you tea. Go back to bed; I’ll bring it to you.” She smiled, coming up to me and kissing me softly.

  “You don’t need to do that, Marc.”

  “I want to. The other thing I want to do is beat your ex up, but you won’t let me do that, so let me do this.” She hugged me, tight.

  “Thank you for being here for me.”

  “Are you feeling better?” I asked.

  “I am. I found Jaden.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Jared took him to his parents’ house. They’re there now, all of them. They didn’t know he hadn’t told me he was taking him out of state.”

  “Where do they live?”

  “Connecticut. I want to go get him.”

  I was going with her. I wasn’t going to ask her whether she wanted me to.

  “I’ll drive. Tomorrow morning.”

  “I want to go now.” I shook my head.

  “No. Stay here and rest tonight. We can go early tomorrow. We know he’s safe. You can relax.”

  “Are you going home?”

  “No, I’ll stay with you. Go to bed. I’m coming,” I told her. She kissed me before finally going. I remembered the tea I was making and poured the cooling water over the tea bag in the mug, just one last thing to pretend I was busy with before I called Jonas. It was the least I could do, but fuck. Connecticut? Why couldn’t he have taken Jaden to Queens or something?

  Jonas was a forty-year-old guy with a wife and kids. He probably went to bed at a nice, reasonable time every night. He was off work. He wasn’t expecting me till Friday. This was a terrible idea, but not telling him and getting found out would be worse.

  I’d be on probation till I was forty, I thought. I sighed and waited for him to pick the phone up. At least he wasn’t one of those people who turned their phones off at night.

  “Hello?” he said, finally picking up. He didn’t sound groggy, so maybe he hadn’t been sleeping. That didn’t make it better, just made me feel a little less bad for doing what I was doing.

  “Jonas?”

  “Marcus? What’s going on?” he asked. I wasn’t calling him collect; he could calm down. Maybe he’d gotten calls like this before. He was waiting for me to tell him I’d been arrested and all his hard work had been for nothing. It wasn’t that bad. I hadn’t made a mistake and gotten caught. I knew exactly what I was doing.

  “I wanted to tell you this so you can get a jump on the violation report.” Jonas was quiet for a few seconds.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m heading out of state. I’ll be back by tomorrow. It violates my probation, and I know that, but I have to go. This is an emergency.” He was quiet again. I wasn’t waiting for his permission to do what I was doing; I just wanted him to know because I figured surprising him would make him less likely to speak favorably of me in front of the judge at my hearing.

  “Marcus, you’re a model probationer, all you had to do was ask me, and the court would process the request if you wanted to take a trip.”

  “If I could have done that, I would. Given you the contacts of the people I was going to see and everything, but I can’t. Something came up.”

  “What came up?” It was my turn to pause. What did I tell him? It was best during times like this, to be honest.

  “Family emergency,” I said shortly. “I wouldn’t even think of doing this if I didn’t have to. I wanted to call so you couldn’t say you didn’t know what I had done.”

  “Marcus, we’ve been over what happens when you violate the terms of your probation.”

  “I know.”

  I hung up after that because he wasn’t going to talk me out of it.

  21

  Adina

  They lived in Connecticut, in the greenest, leafiest suburb you could imagine. A lawn and woods in the back, with semi-tame deer that came up and took strawberries right out of your hand. Idyllic. The sort of place you wished your in-laws lived because you wanted your kid to have summers there. I would playfully refer to Cheryl and Greg as my in-laws in my head when I thought Jared and I still had a chance.

  One particularly pathetic crying fit during the pregnancy was caused by me thinking that Jaden had lost his paternal grandparents because of me. The hormones and isolation after the breakup had had me feeling really upset about Jaden possibly never getting to see what a starry night looked like because both his parents lived in New York City.

  My phone reported that I’d made close to twenty-five calls to Jared. He had answered none of them. Calling Janice was the ultimate last resort. I hadn’t saved her phone number, but it was in there if I looked back far enough. She’d have had no reason to talk to me, but luckily I wasn’t pushed that far.

  Mrs. Tomko—Cheryl—had always been nice to me. She was a stay-at-home mom and housewife and the fact that I could cook probably appealed to her. Jared’s father, Greg, was nice too, but neither had stayed in contact with me once Jared and I started having trouble. Almost like Janice had entered the picture a lot sooner than I realized.

  Cheryl had hushed me gently over the phone after she had confirmed Jaden’s whereabouts and I had cried hysterically. Mostly from relief, but also frustrati
on. My mind had gone to the darkest places imaginable. Parents were driven to madness when they were kept from their kids. The thought that Jared would hurt Jaden wasn’t one that would even cross my mind in the past, but now, I wasn’t so sure. I had apparently not known him as well as I thought.

  It was early in the morning when we left. The confirmation that my son was safe helped me; at least managed to get me to stay in bed for the entire night even though I was awake most of it. Marcus had stayed with me. He did a lot of shushing and comforting; stroking my hair and telling me everything would be fine—the sort of companionship and support I would want from someone in the position that he filled.

  My boyfriend. It felt juvenile to call him that because there wasn’t much that was boyish about him. He was being so good to me. I’d almost forgotten what that felt like with Jared’s cold rejection. It was nice. I really liked it. Yeah, liked it a lot, but I didn’t love it because it was too soon for that.

  He didn’t have to go by his house for a change of clothes because he had some at my place since he stayed over so often. He drove the two-hour trip, and I directed him to the house. They lived in New Canaan.

  Jared and Janice had been there all weekend. According to Cheryl, the trip was supposed to end on Wednesday, when they would be returning to the city. They had no idea about the arrangement that Jared and I had when it came to custody. In fact, since they had not heard of or from me in such a long time, their ideas of the nature of my relationship with their son were extremely queer.

  Like, they thought I knew that Jared and Janice had him and my frantic phone call had made them both quite worried. And they believed it was big of me to accept Janice as my son’s stepmother. The best was when Cheryl had apologized to me about her son and me growing apart, and when she reassured me that I’d find someone. Growing apart. She thought Jared and I had grown apart.

  I hadn’t had the energy to set the facts straight for her. I’d embarrass her son another time. Whatever he told her was his business; I didn’t care enough right then. I was getting Jaden back and going the fuck home. He could forget about taking him again that weekend.