A Knock From The Past: (The Phoenix Series Book 1)

by Emma Vikes

  I could only nod my head. I stayed by Lily’s side for a while until Lucas came back. When the doctor came in, I stood up and told Lily I needed to head to the station. “You’ll come by later tonight, right?”

  I glanced at Lucas who had his eyes focused on his sister, his arms crossed on his chest and, even with the distance that separated us, I could feel the anger radiating off him. But I couldn’t tell Lily the truth that this would be the last time that she’d see me. I didn’t want to fire her from Interzone, but if Lucas was taking her back to Australia, I doubted that her family would allow her to come back to America.

  “Sure thing,” I whispered and then kissed her forehead and left.

  I’d had a driver take me to the station, and we’d been outside for fifteen minutes, yet I still couldn’t find the courage I needed to go inside. “Mr. Waters, are you going to go inside?”

  I stared at Garrett and then slowly nodded. “Yes. I am. I’m going to talk to my brother.”

  To be honest, I didn’t know where I was going to find the guts to talk to my brother. I was waiting for him to arrive and then an officer finally brought him in and placed him at his side of the room. Aidan had a smirk on his face when he saw me like he was unfazed with the fact that he was already in police custody and he was facing heavy charges.

  “Artie,” Aidan said through the telephone. He looked at me with a smug expression on his face. I wasn’t sure why he looked satisfied. I’d managed to beat him.

  “Addie.”

  The nickname didn’t trigger any reaction. He must’ve grown out of it. “How’s your girlfriend, Artie?”

  His dark eyes looked at me evenly, the smugness clear in his voice as he asked the question. “Is she going back to Australia?”

  For a moment, I wondered if he knew that this would be the outcome of my relationship with Lily. “How do you know about that?”

  He shrugged. “She’s not the only one who’s good at digging things up. I’m sure her family wasn’t thrilled when they found out what had happened, well, at least that was what Margaux assumed. It’s just a pity that we didn’t kill you but I guess the pain of separation should be enough.”

  “You just want to hurt me?”

  Aidan looked at me with narrowed dark eyes. “No, I really do want to kill you, Artie. But now I have to figure out how to get out of here first and then kill you. I was stupid to let Margaux tell me to play games with you. I realized that she just wanted to see you emotionally hurt over your company and over Lily. She didn’t think you had the heart to feel anything for someone of the opposite sex given how you’d never felt anything for her.”

  “What?”

  Aidan chuckled. “Of course you don’t remember her. I’m sure you don’t remember the girls you’ve fucked in the past two years before Lily came along. She came to you one time at a bar, Artie, told you how much she wanted to be a part of the creative staff and you told her she needed to prove herself in bed first. And then you didn’t hire her. It took her another year to get into your company.”

  My head was spinning. So even Margaux had an agenda against me? “But what about you? Aidan, you told me to leave. You…”

  “I made you promise to come back for me, and you never did,” Aidan said, his entire aura changing. This time I could see the anger in his face. “I was stupid to tell you to go. I thought…I thought dad killed her. I saw.”

  My heart sank. I wasn’t the only one scarred with the memory of the murder of our mother. Aidan had seen it too. “He did.”

  “No!” Aidan shouted, his eyes suddenly wild as he stood up, his face pressed against the glass that separated us. “You killed her. Dad said you killed her.” He raised his shirt, undressing his torso in front of me. That was when I saw how scarred his skin was. Our father had abused him until he was convinced that I was the one who had murdered our mother. “You killed mom, Artie. An eye for an eye.”

  I could see his eyes glistening with tears. There was a part of him that didn’t believe it. If I could get through to that side of him, maybe, just maybe, I could save my brother this time. He was going to be sentenced to death…maybe I could do something about it if I could get through to him.

  “Addie,” I whispered on the phone as I watched him cling onto his, tears falling down his cheeks, “I didn’t kill her. For what it’s worth, I didn’t kill her.”

  For a moment, the silence made me think I had broken through whatever lies that our father had built in his head. But it was only for a moment because Aidan laughed, cynical and cold. “You’re a liar.”

  I couldn’t save him.

  CHAPTER 14

  Lily

  Lucas took me back home, and I hadn’t talked to him since. Lucas and I never fought, not even when we were kids. It was so surprising to come back home and not talk to my favorite brother. What made matters more annoying was the fact that I was met by a lecture from my parents and other brothers. I hated how Lucas had told them everything. I get that he was concerned, but it didn’t give him the right.

  “Lily?”

  I looked up and saw my mother peeking around my door. I hadn’t left my room except to bathe, go to the toilet, and eat. I’d practically finished every Netflix movie available, and I’d been recently watching reruns of Friends to keep my mind occupied. Sometimes I still searched for news about Art though, and the only thing I knew was that they had put the trial on halt at Art’s request. He wanted to have Aidan checked by a psychiatrist first.

  I couldn’t understand why Art would have wanted his brother to plead insanity. It would lift whatever sentence he had been charged with.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  She moved further inside my room. I didn’t bother to set my laptop aside. I didn’t want my mom to think that I was interested in a long conversation. She had been trying, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to talk about anything. They’d had their time sharing their views and opinions about Art - who they hadn’t even met and based their judgment on what Lucas had told them - and had rendered mine completely irrelevant. There was no point in talking if they did not want to listen to what I wanted to say.

  Mom sat on my bed and looked at me. “Lily, you really need to get out more. Your friends have been calling and asking if you’re home since Leon mentioned it to some of your friends he works with. They want to see you. Don’t you want to go and have fun? Do you have issues with them?”

  I didn’t leave Australia because I was running away from something or because I had issues with anyone. I left because I’d wanted to pursue my passion and spread my wings, so it wasn’t surprising how annoyed I was at my mother’s assumption.

  But then, it wasn’t that I was mad at my mother. Who I was really pissed at was my brother and not her.

  “No. I just don’t feel like going out.”

  “You’ve been in your room for nearly five days straight, Lily. How long are you planning to hole yourself here?”

  I stared at my mother, wondering if the question was rhetorical or if she was waiting for a response. It took me a minute to realize it was the latter. “For as long as it takes until you and dad allow me to get back to work.”

  Mom sighed and then looked at me with pleading eyes. “Lucas isn’t sure if he had gotten rid of every ally that Aidan Collins had. If you want to go back, you have to promise us that you won’t go back to Art Waters.”

  That was unbelievable. I set my laptop on the side of the bed and stood up. “I’m not a kid anymore, mom! You can’t tell me what and who I’m supposed to work for!”

  Mom sighed and then rubbed her temples as if she didn’t want this argument to happen. Yeah right, what did she expect when she came inside my room? That I would agree with what she said like I did when I was five?

  “Lily, we just want to make sure that you’re safe! Getting tangled up with Art Waters almost had you killed! He didn’t even put you in the job that you were supposed to be in because of what? Did he want to have sex with you? Is that how low you want
to paint yourself?”

  My fists clenched in frustration. I missed Art. I missed talking with him and laughing with him and just simply being with him. It wasn’t just the sex. He made me feel wanted in a way that wasn’t just lust-induced. He made me feel desirable and beautiful and like I had so much to offer in this world. He made me believe in myself even more. “Mom, I’m in love with him.”

  I hated how I was in this situation and had to confess to anyone my feelings for Art. I couldn’t even tell him when we were together. I had allowed my fear of judgment to overtake me. And now it felt like it was too late. I knew that when my family put their foot down, there was no way of moving it. No matter how long I stayed in my room and didn’t talk to any one of them, it would never change their mind.

  Mom shook her head. “You’re twenty-three. At that age, everything feels like love.”

  My mouth dropped at her statement. She really went there. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  Mom sighed again and stood up. She towered over me. I tried to read the emotions in her eyes but I couldn’t. All I got was disappointment, and that was what I didn’t want to receive. They had never really been happy that I’d pursued a different career, so far off the bat from my family’s legacy. It took me an entire year to convince them to let me move to America.

  “When we allowed you to work in America, Lily, we had a condition, and that was for you to be safe. We just wanted you to be safe and look what happened to you. You were held hostage! You suffered a concussion. All for what? Because of who? The man who satisfies your sexual appetite?”

  I wished she’d slapped me instead because the physical pain would have been better than the emotional wound she’d just inflicted. “This isn’t about the sex, mom.”

  She stared at me with cold, calculating blue eyes. “You don’t know what love is, Lily. Every time you claim it’s love, they leave you bruised and shattered and your brothers have to pick up the pieces. Do yourself a favor and get yourself together. Stones don’t break, Lily.”

  She left my room without saying anything more, and all I wanted to do was just trash my room, but I wasn’t a teenager and didn’t have enough angst to do that. I just sank to my knees and allowed my tears to fall. I hated how they just painted Art as an enemy when they’d never even met him.

  But…

  I hated how there was a ‘but’.

  But what I hated most was disappointing them time and time again. After my last heartbreak, I swore to myself that the last guy I was going to give my heart to would be the right one. No matter how much I felt that Art was the right one, my family didn’t. They saw him as the guy who’d placed me in danger because of his sexual desires and no matter what I did or whatever reason I gave them, they would never see him as anything more than that.

  Even if I tried to fight for him, I couldn’t win the battle against my family.

  Maybe by some kind of miracle, things would turn to my favor.

  Maybe…

  I could only wish.

  CHAPTER 15

  Art

  I was in Australia.

  It took me a week to get there, but I was finally there. I had to make an appeal for Aidan to be checked by a psychologist. The trial was currently on hold, and I knew that I was getting a lot of hate because of what I’d done. And I knew that it was only a matter of time until I shared my story to everyone so that they could shut their mouths and understand what my brother had been through.

  But to do that, I needed to have Lily by my side, hence why I was in Australia. I had her files with me so I knew her home address and I could only pray that she was there. Maybe they moved or something. Maybe her brothers thought ahead of me and placed her in a different house. But I could only hope that fate was on my side.

  I got an Uber to drive me to Lily’s house. During the drive, I tried to figure out what I should say to her family but couldn’t come up with anything. One of the things that Julian had taught me as key to being a good entrepreneur was to be good at spontaneity and speech. I wasn’t good with either. I always had to write down whatever speech I needed to deliver beforehand because sometimes I would clam up and end up ruining it.

  “We’re here.”

  I stared at the house in front of us. It was a typical white-fenced house in a nice neighborhood. I paid the driver but didn’t get out of the car yet. I didn’t need to get a suitcase out of the trunk because all I had with me was a backpack. All I wanted was to explain myself to Lily’s family. I wanted to tell them what I felt for their daughter was real.

  I wasn’t good with confessions; I couldn’t even confess my feelings to Lily when everything had been as fine as they could possibly have been. “Mate, are you getting out of the car?”

  I looked at the driver who was staring at me expectantly. “Have you ever confessed your feelings to someone before?”

  The driver looked at me as if I’d lost my mind, but after a moment, his eyes softened like he understood why I had to ask the question. “You know I asked my father the same question when I was a kid.”

  “So, what did he tell you?”

  He chuckled and shook his head at me. “That you only ask that question when you know that the girl you’re with is the right one.”

  “So, what did he tell you?”

  This one got him laughing, and then he stopped and looked at me seriously. “Did you come down all the way here to Australia so you could confess your feelings to your girl?”

  “Yes, because I chickened out every time when we were together, and now it seems too late to do so.”

  He exhaled and then turned off the car. “I feel like it isn’t just a confession that you’re bothered by, mate.”

  I ran a hand through my hair. “Well, before I confess my feelings to her, I think I have to confess my intentions and feelings to her family first. We got off on the wrong foot hence why she’s back here and not with me in America.”

  He nodded, and it seemed to me like he was slowly piecing my story together. “Seems to me like you have this whole ‘you and me against the world thing’, Romeo and Juliet?”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle and shrug. “I wouldn’t think of it like that, but her family practically detests me and brought her back here, so you’re not entirely wrong.”

  “Okay, I’ll tell you what, mate. You go in there and tell them, honestly, what you feel for their daughter and how much you love her and how much you’ll protect her. If I was the parent of the girl and there was a guy who came from across the world just to tell me that, I’d welcome him with a huge hug.”

  I wasn’t sure if he would say the same thing if he knew the real reason behind why they hated me but I was going to take any advice that I could get. I handed him extra cash for the advice and then got out of his car, trying to muster whatever courage I could after his advice.

  I rang the doorbell three times and waited for someone to open it. I hoped it would be Lily who did so. I just wanted to see her face. I just wanted to tell her I loved her.

  “I love you,” I blurted out the moment the door opened. I heard a honk behind me and the driver peeling away in laughter. I wanted to slam my head against the door because it wasn’t Lily who’d opened it.

  It was Lucas.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Lucas exclaimed and didn’t hesitate to punch me. I fell down on the concrete because of the impact and held my jaw, and I knew that I would be sporting another bruise courtesy of Lucas Stone.

  “What’s going on here?” Two guys appeared on the doorway along with a female figure. She wasn’t Lily though so she must have been her mother. She stood beside Lucas with her hands on her hips. “Well, Lucas?”

  Lucas pointed at me. “That’s Art Waters.”

  The moment he said my name, the other two guys were ready to lunge at me had a voice behind them not stopped them. “Wait. What did you just say, Luke?”

  They gave the person some space and in front of me stood a man who was probably in his
late fifties. His hair had a lot more white than black, and his blue eyes were as striking as Lily’s. I stood up from the ground and brushed off any dirt that had gotten onto my shirt. I wanted to look presentable despite the fact that I knew a bruise was forming on my face where Lucas had punched me.

  “Mr. Stone,” I said his name with a formal voice, the one I used whenever I was meeting a new investor. “I’m Art Waters.”

  “I know,” he replied curtly. “What I want to know is why you’re here.”

  I licked my lips and tried to act like I was confident. “I’m here for Lily.”

  “For me?”

  Her voice made my heart beat like crazy. They didn’t part like they had when Mr. Stone came out, instead, Lily had to push her way through. I wanted to hug her the moment I saw her but knew I couldn’t.

  “Why are you here for her?” her mother asked, and I could feel the weight of the question pressing me to the ground. I could come up with the most heartfelt response, the kind that would win parents over but, as smooth as I was with ladies, I wasn’t with family.

  “Because I’m in love with her.”

  One of her brothers whistled lowly, and I could see the surprise in Lily’s eyes. Well, I’d already said it, and I wasn’t going to take it back. I’d already dived, so I should just swim deeper. “I know that we didn’t get off on the right foot. And I know that I shouldn’t have changed Lily’s position in the company to my assistant. I was acting like a total ass and taking advantage of my power.”

  “Damn right you were,” one of her brothers commented only to be shushed by their mom.

  “Lily is incredibly talented with her work, and I’m not talking about her being my assistant. I’ve gone through her project proposals, every single one of them when she was busy answering my emails and calls.” I saw Lily’s reaction, and I knew that she never thought I’d looked at the proposals I’d teased her to give to me. “You might think that I was only after her because of the sex - and I will take every punch and kick that you want to give me because of that comment - but it’s not, okay? I’ve never met anyone like her. I’ve never felt this way with anyone. I wouldn’t have come from across the world if I didn’t.”