“My wanted to be with Daddy. Mommy is getting Vinny to sleep. Then you came, my papaw.” I smile at my son as he hugs Red. My boy loves his grandfather.
“Daniel Vital, what do you think you're doing sneaking out of bed?”
I take my wife's hand and pull her onto my lap. She giggles and kisses me. There are no words to describe how much I love this woman. She may be a Mafia Princess, but she's a Snakes woman also. I stroke the back of my hand down her soft cheek. Avery saved me. The night I met her, the slut in me, the man who would sleep with any, and all women who crossed his path was no more. Avery is all I saw, the only woman I ever wanted to see for as long as I lived. I have been faithful to this woman since the day I met her. Shit, this woman is the only woman I ever had a relationship with. I'll die loving this woman, and I'll die knowing I was the luckiest man on earth to hold her heart.
“Mommy, not be cross with me,” Daniel speaks so well for a two-year-old, but so like a toddler at the same time. Avery has spent so much time teaching both boys the art of speech. The two of them listen to her with smiles on their faces, giggles from their chests when she praises them for getting a word right. Of course, Vinny is only a year old and can't say much, but what he does say amazes me. “Mommy get Vinny to sleep. So my came to see Daddy, and my Papaw came. My promise will go bed now.”
“Daniel, Mommy isn't cross with you. Mommy is never cross with you, but now it's time to say goodnight.”
“Okay,” He happily hugs Red, climbs off his lap, and hugs me before taking his mother's hand. Avery leans down and kisses me, tells Red she'll see him later, then leads Daniel inside.
I hand Red a beer from beside my chair. Lucky I brought a couple out here with me. “Wanna tell me what you're doing here this time of the day?” Like I don't already know.
“You know why I'm here, Ghost. You can't keep putting this off. It isn't fair to either of you.”
I roll my neck, and the crack of my neck bone rings in my ears. “I don't want anything to do with her, Red. It's all bullshit! Am I suddenly supposed to believe I have a twin sister? That we were separated at birth? She got adopted into a rich family, and I got shit?”
Some woman turns up at the clubhouse a week ago, wanting to see me. Roman let her in, and I stood there listening to her bullshit. She was claiming to be my twin sister. Said she was in the car with me when it skidded off the road and killed my parents. If she was my twin sister, why the fuck didn’t I know about her? Why the fuck wasn't we adopted together? Why was I dumped like old trash? How the fuck did she end up adopted by rich people, who took her to live in England where she had the best of everything? Moreover, why the fuck did it take thirty years for her to come looking for me?
“Don't do the jealous kid thing, Danny. It's not Cordelia's fault that she was adopted and you weren't. She didn't even know about you until six months ago. For her to have found you in such a short space of time, and with little to no information to go on is amazing.”
Like I give a shit about any of that.
I never went looking for any member of my birth family. Sure, I was told there were none, and I am so fucking pissed off that this woman was kept a secret from me.
“She's a nice woman, Ghost. I know you say you don't believe she's your sister, but I think deep down you know that she is. Shit,” He laughs. “She looks just like you. Poor girl.” Even I chuckle at that. I haven't looked at her close enough to see if she looks like me. I'm not saying I'm the best looking guy in the world, but I know I'm not as bad as men like me go. If she does look like me, then I pity her.
“I don't know how I'm supposed to do this, Red.” I rub my hand over my face. “I've never had a sister, man. What the fuck, am I supposed to do?” I look at him.
“Listen to me, son, you just have to be there. Tammy and I spent an hour with her this afternoon.” I narrow my eyes at him. Why the hell would he do that? “Don't look at me like that, boy. Cordelia was upset. Tammy saw her in town. She looked lost, so Tammy asked her if she needed someone to talk to, and she brought the girl back to our house. Anyway, she spoke to us about the day her parents told her about you, about how they'd wanted both of you,”
I think I'm a little numb. Her parents wanted both of us? What the hell would my life have been like if that had happened? If I start thinking like that, I'd have to think about the fact I wouldn't have met Avery, and I wouldn't have my boys. Never want to think about that. Ever.
“Those people were told that you already had a family coming to collect you. They never lied to Cordelia about being adopted, but they didn't tell her about you until recently because they thought she'd pine for you. Separating twins is a shitty thing to do.” Figures. More like they wanted to wipe me out of her memory for good.
Can newborns even have memories?
Fuck knows, but whatever.
“She has a lot to tell you, Ghost.”
“You mean she wants to gloat about her perfect life.”
“What makes you think her life has been perfect?” I guess I just assumed she would have had the best life. “How do you know her life wasn't filled with pain and terror?”
My eyes widen. I may not want this woman in my life, but even I know she is my sister, and thinking about her in pain...
“From the look on your face, I know you already love her, Danny. Believe me, she loves you and has since the moment she found out about you. Her parents didn't want her to come here looking for you, but she followed her heart. She doesn't give a damn that you're a biker. Although she is naive to the world we live in, she knows bikers can be dangerous. You know, she told Tammy and me how proud she is of you.”
I stare at him. The woman doesn't even know anything about me, how the fuck can she be proud of me?
“She saw how you were with Daniel and Vinny that day at the club. She might not have met them officially, but she knew they were yours just by looking at them. I told her a little of the man you were, and the man you are now. The whole time she had a smile on her face. She has a little girl of her own, Danny, your niece.”
I didn't know that. Shit, I didn't know anything about her. Probably because the second I met her and she told me who she was, I pushed her away. I'll never forget the smile on her face when she realized who I was. She was so happy to see me. She had tears in her eyes like she couldn't believe I was in front of her.
It's hard for me to let people in, I had the worst childhood anyone could imagine. However, I can't sit here and say my whole life has been terrible. It hasn't. I have a family, a big family, my chosen family. I have the man beside me as my surrogate father, brothers, uncles, even a mother of sorts. I have my beautiful wife, and now I have a sister and a niece — two more people who share my blood.
“What if I'm a disappointment, Red?” I think that's what I'm most scared of. If I allow this woman and her child into my heart, I know I'll never be able to let them go. I'll protect them as much as I do Avery and the boys. If I let them into my heart, my family, I know, in my mind, they'll belong to me. I can be an overprotective prick at times, and I know that can be overbearing. Avery only manages because she knows me inside and out, she knows how to handle me. I couldn't handle getting attached for Cordelia for her to end up feeling claustrophobic, and then for her to run from me.
Red clasps my shoulder. “You have never, and will never be a disappointment to anyone, least of all your sister. You are possibly the strongest man I have ever known. You fight for what you believe in, for those you love, and you have the respect of everyone around you. So many people love you, Danny, me included. You may not have grown up in a loving home with a caring family, but you have one now. You have Tammy, the boys and me, and you have never been a disappointment to any of us.”
I turn in my seat and let Red hug me. No one else would get away with even trying to embrace me like this. I've done some bad shit since I met this man. Hell, he taught me everything I know about the life of a biker. I would honestly be lost without him. “I love you, to
o, Dad.” It's not often I call him Dad, but I do more than I realize.
“Talk to her. You might find you like her.”
We'll see.
Chapter Thirteen
Brooke
In a corner on her own.”
“And she was singing to herself?”
Maria and I are talking about Willow, and what happened at the school she works for this week. Apparently, it's been all go. Willow is a teacher, she teaches second grade, and the kids in her care love her. However, she does tend to get a little involved when she thinks one of those kids is having a rough time. I imagine, though, that most teachers do.
I remember when I first met Willow, she was so lovely to me. She sat with me and told me stories about Hawk when he was a little boy. She told me how he was obsessed with archery, and how he used to tell people if he could be any bird it would be a hawk. I'd heard the story from Jack, but I listened because I loved to hear stories about the man I love. Willow told me how Hawk was the kind of kid who liked to be alone. He liked to visit with his grandparents along with Roman, and how Roman, Hawk, and pops would go fishing in the lake. I knew that too, but it was one of those time where I would have heard the same stories ten times over. I would have because I felt happy.