Book Read Free

That Christmas Eve: A Brother’s Best Friend Baby Romance

Page 23

by Ford, Mia


  “Fuck you!” he yells, probably too loudly. I don’t look around but I’m sure there are lights flickering on from the nosy neighbors interested to see what the hell is happening right now. “Fuck you, Josiah. You are such a fucking liar. Why don’t you just tell me already? You think I don’t know, or something? You think I’m stupid?”

  “I don’t think anything about you. I don’t want this to become a thing. I just want my answers.”

  “I am not giving you any answers until you give me mine, and since you are so keen to avoid it if I don’t ask directly, then I’m going to just do it. Were you fucking my sister back then? Did you betray my friendship in the worst way possible and screw my little sister? Is there any chance in the world that you are my nephew’s father?”

  “I don’t know!” The words explode from me like a volcano. I shouldn’t admit this but it’s too late now, it’s out there. Adam is right, he isn’t stupid. I have always known that he knows a little. “I don’t know and that is why I’m asking you. I have tried asking Paisley, but she freaked out and ran away and to be honest I just want to know. Is that little boy mine or not? I don’t think I have done anything wrong. I don’t think I deserve to be kept out of the way. I could be a good father given the chance. I think you know that too.”

  “So, you were fucking my sister?” His hands curl up threateningly. “You are admitting that now?”

  “You knew that, didn’t you? I mean, I always assumed that you knew.” I nod determinedly. “You are the one who could have told me what was going on. She was taken away from me, wasn’t she? She wasn’t allowed to communicate with me, but as my best friend, you could have told me. You owed me that much.”

  “I should have told you? I should have been a good friend? Do you hear yourself?”

  “Adam, this isn’t about me and you! This is about a young child who deserves to know the truth…”

  “A child that could connect me and you.” Adam begins to circle around me, I can feel the threat evident in his tone. “A child that could remind me that you are a shitty person, that I shouldn’t ever trust you?”

  “If I were a shitty person, would I be here right now? Trying to get answers?”

  “You wouldn’t have fucked my sister.” Adam is not going to let this go. “You certainly wouldn’t have done it without coming to me first. But of course, you wouldn’t do that because you already know that I would have told you to keep away. I did tell you to keep away. Because you have always been a male whore, fucking about with any woman who comes your way. I got it, because I know you didn’t have the easiest life and when you got your money it was nice to have everything that came with that, but I would never let you near my sister because I knew that you would be the sort of asshole to impregnate her and leave her.”

  “I didn’t leave her!” I toss my hands in the air, completely gutted. Frustrated too, Adam won’t listen to me. “She left me. I don’t think she wanted to, but she did. If I had known that she was pregnant then everything would have been different. I’m shocked that you didn’t even give me a chance. You hid this from me!”

  I expect this to get through to Adam, I want him to hear what he has to say to this. I kind of want him to realize that he hasn’t been perfect in this situation either. There are things that he has done wrong.

  But it doesn’t happen that way. Instead, my words seem to infuriate him further. His anger hits a ceiling.

  “Fuck you, you don’t deserve the choice. You don’t deserve anything from me.”

  I feel the weight of him behind me, his breath on my neck. It’s supposed to be threatening, I’m sure of it, but I don’t feel that way. I mean this is Adam, he is my best friend, he isn’t going to act on this. He just wants me to worry, which I understand, I have done him wrong, but he has done me wrong too. Mistakes have been made.

  “Let’s just move past this, Adam, let’s not continue to argue. Let’s just talk like adults.”

  He slowly moves around to the front of me, so I can really see him. Yes, I get that he’s still mad, I don’t need to witness his face for that one, right now it’s like he’s being childish. I part my lips, about to let that opinion run free, but I don’t get the chance to. That’s because three things happen all at once. Adam’s face turns the oddest shade of red that I have ever seen in my life, a shrill scream comes from God knows where, and a hot pain blasts from the right side of my face. A pain that pretty much knocks me to the ground under the sheer weight of it.

  “What the fuck?” I grab on to my face, a heat forming, probably a bruise as well. “Did you just hit me?”

  “What are you doing, Adam?” I turn to see a hysterical Sian standing in the door way. “Stop!”

  But he doesn’t. The next hit comes, followed by another. They seem to come from everywhere, I can barely keep track of anything, I don’t know where the next one is going to come from until it comes.

  “Adam, stop,” I try to yell out, but I can’t get the words out. My mouth is filling with blood and if I don’t stop him soon I might end up in an ambulance or in a police cell. “Stop this.”

  But he isn’t going to, which doesn’t leave me with much choice at all. All I can do is fight back. I don’t want to hurt Adam, but I don’t want to get any more injured myself. This is all self-defense. I lash out, sometimes connecting with him, sometimes not so much, but this only infuriates him more. He hits harder and faster, coming at me with everything that he has which means I’m forced to up my games as well. I have to hit harder, to get him off me, and with each swing more and more blood plasters over my fingers.

  “Stop this!” Sian screams. She tries to come between us, to push us apart. “Stop this now.”

  “I will not stop!” Adam yells while staggering backward. “He needs this; he needs to know how I feel.”

  “Just answer my question,” I reply while wiping the blood from my nose. “Answer my question and I will go. I will be out of here and you will never have to see me again.”

  “So, you will just go? You will get the fuck out of Paisley’s life too?” I don’t answer, I can’t be honest with him. “Because, much as she has pissed me off with all of this too, she deserves better than you.”

  “Wow.” My hand clutches to my chest. “That’s insane, Adam. I thought we were friends. I thought you were better than that. I am shocked to the core that you would be like this about me. I am really starting to see that our friendship meant nothing to you. If you can see me in such a negative way…”

  “Oh, fuck you, Josiah. Fuck you! You have turned yourself into that.”

  “Because I fell in love? I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

  “Love?” For a moment I think that this word might have gotten to Adam. I think that I might have shocked him. This is a bit of a shock for both of us, I know I shouldn’t have fallen in love with Paisley, but it’s what happened. You can’t help who you fall in love with and that’s why we’re here. But his lip twists up in to a nasty looking curl and I can see this isn’t going to end well. “You don’t know what love means. How can a man who has always treated girls like shit know love? I mean, it’s hardly surprising, is it? You have grown up without any family, without any love. You are one fucked up dude, I want that away from my sister.”

  A red mist descends. It completely covers me and clouds my judgment. The fact that Adam went after my childhood, that he cut me in the deepest way possible, hurts more than anything else in the world. This time it’s me who flies at him and as I hit, I want to cause damage. I want to feel his blood on my hands.

  Fuck this. This whole fucking family have screwed me over in the worst way possible. First Paisley, who I thought I was in love with, and now Adam who is supposed to be my best friend. Next thing it will be Dax screwing me over leaving me with absolutely no one. I take out all the anger that I have in the world out on this man. All the frustration, all the rage, all the sadness.

  I honestly don’t know what the hell will happen tomorrow, my whole lif
e is about to be up ended, and I think I need to go out with a bang. I need to let all of these fuckers know what I think of them just in case I don’t ever get a chance again.

  28

  Paisley

  Ring, ring… Ring, ring… Ring, ring…

  “Huh?” I grumble as I force my eyes open. I wipe a trail of drool from my chin and I try to work out where I am. My eyes are stuck together with tears, from all the tears that I have wept for hours with Kate over Josiah. I guess that’s how I ended up falling asleep on the couch. “Is that my cell phone?”

  I glance at the clock, seeing the time is coming on for midnight, which bolts me upright. No call comes at this time of night without it being a disaster, so this gets my heart pounding wildly.

  “Sian?” I murmur, as I stare at the screen, trying to work this out. “What the hell?”

  They got back from their honeymoon today, but I haven’t heard anything from Sian or Adam. Why is she suddenly calling me now at this time of the night? It isn’t good, I know it. All the possibilities fly through my mind, every one of them bad. Thank goodness Kate is here in case I need to get to the hospital quickly. I haven’t ever been in the position where I need to rush out of the house in the middle of the night since Freddie has been born, so I haven’t ever had to wonder what I would do if that happened. Well, until now anyway.

  “Hello?” I say quietly in t the hand set, trying not to wake anyone up. “You okay, Sian?”

  “Paisley, I need you here.” Immediately I’m struck by the sheer terror in her voice. This is exactly what I feared would happen. “I need you. You have to come and stop this already. They won’t listen to me.”

  “Woah, calm down, Sian.” I move into the kitchen, so I don’t disturb Kate who is sleeping on the other couch to me with a blanket pulled all the way up to her chin. “Who is hurt? What’s happened? What can I do?”

  “Adam and Josiah.” My blood runs ice cold. Did she just say, Josiah? “They are fighting.”

  “Wait, Josiah? Are you serious? He’s there? But he was just here with me…”

  Oops, I probably shouldn’t have said that. God, it’s getting so hard to keep track of these damn lies!

  “I know, that’s why they are fighting because of you. Adam doesn’t like whatever the hell has been happening between you and he’s gone mad at Josiah. They are both saying just the most awful things to each other. I think your mom might even have called the police… God, I just don’t know what to do.”

  “They are at Mom’s house?” This is too much for words. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “I know this is a lot, but can you get here? I don’t know where else to turn.”

  “I do have a babysitter… I suppose I could.” I don’t know why I’m being so hesitant. Of course, I’m going to go. One to stop this fight over me before too many things get out, and also to find out what the hell is going on. Did Josiah jump into a cab the moment I ran away from him? Does he think that they will have the answers for him? There isn’t a chance in hell that any of them know a damn thing… unless Adam’s suspicions have bubbled in to knowledge somehow. “Yeah, you know what, I’m coming over. I will be there as soon as I can.”

  I hang up the phone and race into the front room. There I grab Kate on the shoulders and I shake her gently. She wakes up much quicker than I expected which is either because she’s a really light sleeper or because she is in a strange environment. She does look very confused as her eyes pop open.

  “Kate, I’m so sorry, are you okay if I go? I won’t be too long. I promise.”

  “Has something happened?” She rubs her eyes, trying to focus.

  “Josiah went to my parent’s house. He is in some kind of fight with my brother. I don’t know the full details, only that things are getting out of hand. I need to get there as soon as possible.”

  “Yep, sure you go. I will be here looking after Freddie; you don’t need to worry.”

  I lean down and kiss her on the top of head. “Thank you so much.”

  I rush upstairs and grab some leggings and a jumper to throw on. I don’t need to look good right now, just presentable. While I pull the material on my body I call myself a cab to take me over. I do not know what I’m going to find when I get there, but it won’t be pretty. I have never in all the years that they have been friends known my brother and Josiah to fight. The fact that it’s about me just brings home how wrong this is. All of it. How did I not guess how this was going end up this way?

  Now, everyone who already probably wasn’t very keen on me is going to hate me. As all of my secrets come spilling out for me in the worst way possible, the world that I have been tentatively balancing on for far too long is about to shatter and fall apart. I’m going to lose everything.

  I check in on Freddie just before the cab arrives, trying to give myself a moment of perspective, but the end result is that I just feel so much worse. This boy is going to be the only real loser in all of this and he hasn’t done anything to deserve it. Tears ball up behind my eyes as I see his little chest rise and fall.

  “I am going to sort this out,” I tell him in a whisper. “For you, I promise.”

  I head down the stairs quickly and say goodbye to Kate at the door. I’m so damn grateful for her, I am going to have to find a way to thank her for this at some point. She has saved my life tonight… or at least Josiah’s and Adam’s depending on what I find when I get there.

  The car ride over is torturous, it seems to take forever. I spend the whole time perched on the edge of my seat just waiting to get there. My heart pounds angrily, it pleads with me to demand when we’re going to get there, but I keep my lips tightly together, so I don’t end up being rude. I can’t imagine too much will happen in between the phone call from Sian and now, but I can’t help but worry all the damn time.

  Finally, we pull up and I instantly see the fight occurring out on the lawn. There is a whole lot of yelling and blood, it seems so much worse than I thought it was going to be. I don’t bother to count out the change I have, I just give it all to the driver and dive out the car. Then I bolt towards them and throw myself in the middle.

  “Stop!” I scream. “What the hell is this? Are you serious? What are you two playing at?”

  They pant either side of me. Staring above my head with pure rage at one another. There is no way that this is only about me, but I was the catalyst that sparked it so it’s up to me to stop it. Sian shrieks my name, sounding about as hysterical as she did on the phone to me, but I ignore her the best I can.

  “What the hell is this?” I demand. “Why are you fighting? You are best friends, why is this happening?”

  “That asshole talked about my dead parents,” Josiah spits out. “How dare he?”

  “This asshole admitted that the two of you hooked up, so now I’m going to kill him.”

  My arms fall away from the pair of them, a weakness over coming me. It’s done, Adam knows now, for sure, there’s no denying it. My worst fears are about to come true. “Oh God,” I murmur. “Oh my God.”

  The boys launch at one another again, fists flying everywhere along with bitter words. I can barely pick out what they are trying to say to one another, but there are a lot of swear words. If I don’t do anything drastic soon then one of them is going to end up in hospital. Or worse… not that I can think about worse.

  “Stop!” I close my eyes and scream again. The neighbors are probably all awake anyway so what the hell does it matter how late it is? I’m surprised my parents aren’t out here trying to take this indoors, so no one sees. I can only assume that they are hiding away inside trying to pretend that they don’t know what’s going on. “Stop this now. This isn’t the way to solve this. We all need to… to talk… to make things right.”

  But they don’t stop. Not for me anyway. It isn’t until blue flashing lights fill the night sky along with sirens. Sian was right, my mother has called the police and now we are all in the shit. I don’t know what my mother thought that s
he would achieve with this, but their reputation will be down the toilet after this.

  “The cops,” I mutter quietly. “The cops are coming. You need to stop this now.” But my quiet voice doesn’t get through, so I need to try a different tactic, so everyone doesn’t end up locked up. “Guys, please!”

  “What the fuck do you want?” Adam snaps, rage spitting off his tongue. “I’m fuming at you as well.”

  I slide my eyes closed, suck in a deep breath, and admit it all. “Adam, me and Josiah were together a while ago. We’ve actually sort of been together now. We can’t seem to keep away from one another because we’re in love. And he is Freddie’s father. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this before, Josiah, but you are.”

  A thick silence fills the air; everyone is in shock. Even though everyone sort of knew this, hearing me say it aloud is obviously the one thing to tip everyone over the edge. The sirens get louder, the lights get closer, time is closing in on us, but no one says a word. The cops skid to a halt before anyone can say anything.

  Fuck. My heart races. My world shatters. We will never resolve this now. Sorry, everyone.

  I sigh and hang my head low as the police dive out of the car and they set about knocking Josiah and Adam to the ground, slapping hand cuffs on the pair of them. My brain buzzes so loudly like a bumble bee which means I don’t really hear anything that’s being said, but it seems like everyone is being arrested for disturbing the peace.

  I should be the one with the hand on my head, pushing me into the car. I caused all of this. I almost want to tell the police that, but I know they won’t listen. I’m not the one who’s been swinging fists.

  “Well, at least they aren’t fighting anymore,” Sian says as the cars leave once more. “You solved that.”

  “I’m so sorry about all of this,” I reply with a head shake. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

  “Josiah is really Freddie’s father?” I nod while chewing down on my bottom lip. “And he didn’t know?” Now I shake my head no. “But he does now. Wow, that’s… that’s crazy, I don’t envy you at all, Paisley.”

 

‹ Prev