King's Reign (Sydney Storm MC 6)

“Just trying to help the people who need it. That’s all.”

She slowly shook her head. “No, that’s not all, King. I may have hated you for a long time, and been angrier with you than with anyone else in my entire life, but even I can acknowledge when you do something nice. I’ve met the two women staying here at the moment. Their lives were unimaginable, worse than mine with Tony, and what you’ve given them is hope.”

My chest squeezed with heaviness. This place may have helped numerous women, but the one woman I should never have turned my back on sat in front of me broken because of my actions. “I should have kept an eye on you after you married Tony.”

“No, that wasn’t your burden to carry.”

“Fuck, Ivy, if I hadn’t—”

Her shoulders slumped and she sagged in her chair as she cut me off. “Don’t blame yourself for the choices I made in my life once you were no longer part of it. Sure, while we were together we both made some shitty decisions, but after that”—she shrugged—“my choices were all mine. And some days, like today, when I’m honest with myself, I can see I’m a fucked-up mess. Maybe if you stop by tomorrow, I’ll be back to thinking you’re an asshole and hating you for the part you played in it. But today, I just think you’re an asshole who tries to help people and sometimes gets it right.”

As I listened to her, a rolling movie of memories filled my head. All the years we’d spent loving each other and fucking each other up. We’d never had a chance. Not with the shit we’d each been through before we even met.

When a puzzle was missing pieces, it would never be complete. It would always be lacking. Ivy and I never had a shot at making that damn puzzle come together because we were missing pieces all over the place and the pieces we did have didn’t slot together in the right ways.

Sometimes two people just weren’t meant to be together.

Sometimes there was more hate than love, more war than peace.

Sometimes love wasn’t enough.

I stood. “You’ve got my number. Use it if you need something.”

There was one more thing I could do to help her, and as much as doing it would put me back in front of someone I wanted to forget, I would do it. Because even though Ivy and I would never be together again, I would never stop wanting the best for her.

“You shouldn’t have come here, King,” Bethany said to me through her screen door an hour later.

I’d left Ivy and taken my sweet fucking time coming here. It was unlike me to hesitate to do the shit I needed to do, but just thinking about this woman threw up all kinds of red flags.

I squared my shoulders. “We need to talk about Ivy.”

“What about her?”

“Fuck, Bethany, what the fuck do you mean, what about her? You say that like you don’t even fucking care about her—”

Her lips pursed. “I’m not interested in standing here listening to you swear. If you have something to say, say it, but do not use that language with me.”

If her appearance was anything to go by, the years hadn’t been kind. She stood hunched over, her frail hand gripping the door to steady her. Lines wrinkled her face, grey hair sat in a mess of a bun on her head, and breaths wheezed out of her. Mostly, though, she looked defeated by life. And the way her face pinched, she appeared to be full of resentment and bitterness.

“Open the door and let me in,” I demanded. “Your daughter needs you, so you need to hear me out.”

She debated about allowing me in for another good minute before finally unlocking the door and swinging it open.

I entered the house and walked into the kitchen, doing my best to ignore the onslaught of memories. Fuck, they were like a hundred motherfuckers coming at me all at once. Fucking stabbing me all over.

“Tony Romano is dead,” I said, facing her.

I would have expected a reaction to that statement, but all she gave me was an arch of her eyebrows.

Fucking stunned, I said, “That’s all you have to say when I tell you your daughter’s husband is dead? You’re a fucking piece of work, Bethany.”

“Watch your mouth,” she snapped.

“You care more about a fuck coming out of my mouth than the fact your daughter is alone in this world?” This woman made my fucking blood boil, and I regretted coming here. Ivy was better off without her.

“I care more about being subjected to your presence than the words out of your mouth. As for Ivy, she made her bed years ago. In fact, she made it the

first time with you, and I should have known she was incapable of making better decisions, but I fell under her spell again for a while there.”