More shots of a wedding and a young bride frightened out of her mind. The fourth page showed a baby in a wicker bassinet wrapped in a pale blue blanket. Under the photo, a name—Darius Michael Alistair. She touched the photo, smiling at it. Four more pages showed different stages of Darius life, then the fifth had another baby. This one the name of Sara Ann Alistair. Had to be Darius’s sister! There were a few other photos of the two of them together. Darius holding his sister, helping her with a cake, then a present on a birthday. Later on, it was around a Christmas tree, then him with her on a bike. Different ages passed by, and then it all stopped. There were no more pictures.
She closed the book and started to put it back, only to stop when an old yellowish piece of paper fell out from the back to the floor. Picking it up she read the small print:
Sara Ann Alistair died at the age of fourteen. She was found face down floating in a local stream, her wrists had been cut.
There had been more to the story, but it had been ripped away. Makayla put it back along with the book. Leaving the office, she headed down to the first floor.
She ate a small bowl of cereal, then tried to find something to do until he came home. It wasn’t until almost three in the afternoon before Darius walked through the front door wearing the same clothing he had on the night before. She saw right off he had a ragged look to him, like someone that had been beaten down and somehow managed to get back up on his feet.
“Darius?” She slowly walked towards him, not sure what to say or do.
He looked around the house, down at the floor, ran a hand through his hair, wouldn’t look at her.
“Um—I—um, I’m going to take a shower.” He headed for the spiral stairs, leaving her in the hallway.
Her anger began to surface. For so long she had been put on a back burner growing up. Once Samara married, Makayla thought she might have a somewhat normal life, but that didn’t happen either. Dane had shipped her out of town to school, leaving her alone once more. After sleeping on it and talking to him, she thought they had come to some kind of truce. Seemed she was mistaken.
With a nod, she also turned and headed up to the television room. Halfway through a movie, Darius showed up, his composure once more in place.
“Hey,” he said.
She turned the television off, stood up and faced him. “We need to talk.”
“I know,” he nodded.
“No, you don’t know.” With both hands on her hips, she released her anger. “You know, I thought we had a truce of some kind, but I can see that was all bullshit.”
“Makayla....”
“I was looking forward to having a normal life,” she went on, ignoring him. “But you just have to do the same shit that my father did, and Dane.”
“Makayla ...”
“I don’t like being left in the dark with the hopes that I might catch up with whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Can I talk?”
“No, you can’t!” she yelled at him. “You walked out of here without a word to me and didn’t come back. What made you think I’d be here when you returned? I mean, we’ve only been playing this married fucking game here for what, two days now. Maybe I should pack my shit up and go to my sister’s and say fuck you!”
“Are you finished yet?” he yelled back.
She was breathing hard and fast. “No. I’m not.”
“Too bad. I have responsibilities that you can’t imagine, and as much as I would love to lock myself in this house with you, I can’t.”
“That is the most bullshit reason I’ve ever heard.” She turned and stormed out of the room, reached the stairs and tore down them.
“Makayla!” he yelled right behind her.
“You know the one and only reason a man stays out all night, when he has a woman at home, is he’s fucking another. Guess that shouldn’t be a shock to me. I mean, why wouldn’t you screw around like others do?”
“I’m not screwing around on you.”
“Well then what the hell is going on?” She stopped halfway down the stairs and turned on him, looking up. “You were just fine until you had that strange phone call. After that you became a man I don’t even know, not that I knew you well to begin with.” He just stood there in silence and it fueled her anger. “Yeah, right.”
“What do you want to know?”
She opened her mouth to answer him, stopped when the doorbell rang. Makayla closed her eyes and groaned. “Great.”
Darius shook his head and went towards the front door. Makayla stood in the middle of the hallway, watching him.
“Darius Alistair?” a man standing at the door asked.
“Yes,” Darius answered.
The man handed over an envelope. “You’ve been served. Have a nice evening.”
“Yeah, right,” Darius mumbled, closing the door.
“What’s going on?” Makayla asked.
He turned and held the envelope up in the air. “I was trying to tell you that the reason I’ve been gone is because I’ve been having it out with my Uncle and now he’s suing me.”
She watched as he left her then, headed up the stairs, most likely to his office.
“Great, Makayla,” she sighed, running both hands over her face and into her hair.
She waited about ten minutes before heading up to his office also. Now she felt like shit, mostly because she accused him of something he didn’t do, but then again she told herself he hadn’t given even a hint that he still had family either.
They needed to talk, yet she had this strange feeling the mood he was in right now wouldn’t be a talking one. Instead of heading to the office, she detoured back to the bedroom with the hopes of getting some sleep and improving her mood. Come morning, they were going to have it out.
Chapter Seven
Darius sat behind his desk, staring at the legal forms, his anger boiling over. The balls this bastard had was beyond him! What made his Uncle think that by suing him, Darius would do what he wanted and give him the support? Bullshit! No fucking way his Uncle would get his way, not after all the shit the family had put Darius through. Nope! Not going to happen. If only that man had known what his sister tried to do!
He pushed away from the desk, stood up and walked over to the window, mind wandering to a past he would rather forget than remember.
“This family will burn for what you’ve done!” Darius yelled at his father.
Elliot Alistair faced off with his son, and in that one moment, Darius wanted the man dead. He knew about his father’s lustful behavior, but had never imaged he’d bring those lusts home. Yet, standing in his father’s office, looking at the man that he thought he knew, he also understood why his mother was the way she was. The rumors that he heard weren’t really rumors but the truth.
Elliot Alistair saw a fortune that he could take from Mary Breck, and the whispers from the town that he had indeed done so. The man that called himself his father had to have raped his mother. After all, why would she marry him knowing deep down what kind of monster he was. The only answer was she wouldn’t so that meant only one thing—he had to have forced her.
“You know nothing,” Elliot snapped back at Darius. “As usual.”
“Oh I know plenty,” Darius sneered. “Now I understand why mother hates me so much and why she would turn her back on Sara. It’s all because of you.” He pointed his finger at him, no longer having any respect for the man. “You forced her to get pregnant with me, so her family would make her marry you. That part we both know is true. Just like we all know how sick you are, going to brothels for your little underage fun, but what I don’t understand is how the hell you could do it here!”
“Shut your mouth!”
“You raped her, didn’t you?” The question made him want to vomit on the floor. Just the idea alone had him shaking in his anger.
“Of course he did.” Darius turned around at the sound of his mother’s voice; she stood in the doorway with her Bible in her hand. “Just like me,” she
said.
“And you stood by and let him,” he said to his mother, narrowing his eyes. “You just stood back, letting it all happen. How could you be so cold hearted to your own daughter?”
She moved fast, raced up to him, slapping him hard across the face. “The spawn of Satan will not speak to me in such a manner.”
Darius chuckled, rubbed his cheek and met her hate-filled eyes. “The spawn that you brought into the world, Mother.”
“And one I shall take out.”
He didn’t see the knife in her hand and have time to react. She stabbed him in the thigh. He figured she’d been—and from the spot it went in—aiming for other things.
His father yelled. Darius dropped to the ground and his mother went flying across the room after his father pushed her away from him. He didn’t know what happened after that, only that he woke up in the hospital with the doctors telling him he was very lucky. Only a mere fraction to the left and the main artery would’ve been cut and he would’ve bled to death.
His mother had tried to kill him and his Uncle now wanted his financial support for her. It had him hitting the wall with his fist, busting a hole in the plaster. Turning away from the window, he left his office and headed for the bedroom.
Trust was a thing he never truly felt with anyone, not even with his friends. They never knew what happened to him, or why he just up and left. After he got out of the hospital, he learned his father had committed his mother to a mental institution, his sister laid to rest, and Darius enrolled in boarding school. All of Elliot Alistair’s secrets were buried with the shame of it all, and Darius kept them as well. Now it was time to open the door and let them out. Get some of the burden off his shoulders.
Makayla was in bed, the television on. He knew she was aware of him, but she kept all of her attention on television. He sat down on the side of the bed, took the remote and shut it off.
“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching out and touching her face. “I’ve never had anyone really care about me before. It’s new for me.”
She looked at him. “What’s going on? I know we just did this thing here, but I feel like I can help if you’d let me.”
“And I think you might be right,” he sighed. “Makayla, I’ve got so much shit on my shoulders from my family its kept me at arms’ distance with everyone, even the guys.” He stood back up, putting some distance between them. “My mother isn’t dead, like everyone thinks. She’s in a mental hospital and has been for over ten years.”
“Why does everyone think she’s dead then?”
“Because I let them all think that.” He went to the window, staring out at the night. Man, he knew it would be hard to talk about this, however at the same time he found it easy to talk to Makayla.
“What did she do?”
“She tried to kill me.” He heard Makayla gasp, which had him turning around to her. “I found out all the secrets that my parents had been hiding, and I confronted my father about it all. First off, I’ll admit I was one hell of a wild kid, but that tends to happen when your parents don’t give a fuck about you, or what you do, and I did a lot of shit, mind you. Shit that sort of haunts me and had Dane wanting to kill me for even being interested in you.”
“Like what?” she whispered.
“Like following in my father’s footsteps.” He rubbed his face before going back to the bed, sitting down and taking her hands. “I went to the places he went and had my way with barely legal-aged girls. The night I stopped was the day they brought me a girl that looked just like my sister and about the same age. It was like cold water had been poured right over my lust that day, and the way she looked at me, oh God, it was the same way Sara had looked at me. That girl was begging for help without saying a damn word.”
“Okay, I think you’ve lost me.”
“The last time I went to the brothel and saw that girl I knew what was going on at home and why my sister killed herself.” Again, Makayla gasped. “The day before, she left the house and didn’t come back. Someone found her in the damn river. She’d cut her wrists, walked into the water and died.”
He didn’t know he was crying until Makayla moved closer, wiped his face and hugged him tight. “I didn’t take it well and left,” he said against her shoulder. “I went to the brothel, stayed drunk and had sex with any girl they had, until the one that looked like Sara came in. She was so damn young!”
“Hey, you didn’t do anything with her.” She pulled back, holding his face in her hands. “That’s what’s important.”
“No.” he shook his head, closing his eyes. “I didn’t protect Sara, that’s what should’ve been important, not my damn lust.” He wiped his eyes and nose, taking a deep breath. “God, I don’t want to taint you with this shit.”
“You’re not tainting me with anything. Just tell me. Let me help you with this, please.”
He took another deep breath. “My father forced my mother into marriage, because of her family’s connections and the money. My mother and her brother were to get half of everything, which they did once their father died. My uncle, however, has nothing now, and my father turned what little my mother had into billions.” He half chuckled and added, “And now he’s trying to sue me for the financial support of my mother.”
“So he’s been supporting her all this time?”
Darius nodded. “Since my father’s death, yes. I refused to.”
“Because of what she tried to do to you?”
“Right. My mother’s family was very religious, and only because my father got my mother pregnant with me did they support the marriage. Something my uncle likes to toss in my face. I’m a child of rape.”
“That’s not true!” Makayla said which had Darius once more rising to his feet. “Is it?”
“As a matter of fact, it is. That’s how my father managed to marry my mother.”
“Oh my God!” She covered both hands over her mouth and he watched for a sign that she might be disgusted by all of this. He was relieved to see she wasn’t, surprised yes, but not disgusted. “But that’s not it, is it?” she whispered, lowering her hands.
“No. The secrets go deeper.”
“Then tell me it all.”
“You really sure you want to hear it? Might have you packing up and trying to leave, which I won’t allow,” he warned.
She flicked back the covers, rose to her knees and reached for him, bringing him back to the bed. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Okay.” He took a deep breath, this time to get his courage to say what he hadn’t said since the night he confronted his father. “I found out, after I left the brothel, why Sara killed herself. Seems she wrote a note and left it in my car. She told me that our father had been molesting her since she was ten, and once she hit thirteen the touching and oral play turned into full blown sex.”
“Oh no!” she moaned, touching the side of his face gently.
“She went and told our mother, who just turned her back on her, like she did me. I also learned Sara was here, same as me, because of our father forcing himself on our mother.”
“No,” Makayla gasped, her eyes tearing up, just as his did at the memory.
“Yeah, well it gets even better. Sara got pregnant and as soon as she found out, she was dead the next day.”
“Oh, Darius.” The tears fell and her arms went around him, holding him close. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
He held her also, welcoming the strength she gave him, and the freedom he felt from telling the truth. For so long he’d held it all inside, the shame of his family, even from the only family member he had left.
“I confronted my father, and my mother,” he went on. “She tried to kill me so he shipped me off.”
“And now your uncle is trying to squeeze something out of you also,” she added. He nodded in agreement. “What are you going to do?”
He pulled back, sniffing tears back. “I don’t know.”
“Well, I think I have a small idea.”
“
What?”
She seemed to brace herself and that had his heart pounding. “I think one thing we need to do is go together and see for ourselves what kind of shape your mother is in. If she’s, well, out of it, then we can turn her over to the county and they can take over her care.”
He thought about that idea for a moment and couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of it. If he had, then some of this shit that just landed on his shoulders might not have. The hate his Uncle had for Darius he’d felt since the day of his birth. Darius discovered years ago that his grandfather had changed his will, excluding his own son and son-in-law, leaving everything to Darius.
“This hatred of my family goes way back,” he groaned. “Once I was born, my grandfather changed his will, but didn’t tell anyone. He was still alive when Sara killed herself and my mother was sent away. After that, he changed his will again and gave all of his wealth to me, not to his son. I was supposed to have received half, but knew nothing about it. My father did everything he could to keep it from me and continued living the good life.”
“How’d your father die?”
Darius touched her face, taking in her soft features, the softness of her skin, the beauty that he didn’t want to scare off with his past. But he felt the pull from her to get it all off his chest, to share the pain and he couldn’t deny her a thing.
“He was shot at his favorite brothel,” he said low. “One of the young girls’ fathers found her and saw the abuse to her from my father. He killed him and I think got away with it.”
“You weren’t here?”
He shook his head. “I was finishing college when it happened. I didn’t even come back for the funeral,” he finished so low he wasn’t sure if he said it.
“Let me see if I can fill in some of the blanks then,” she stated. “When you did finally come back you tore the house down and rebuilt.”
“Yeah,” he breathed out, looking down at her hands in his. “Got rid of the old and started fresh.”
Forbidden Lust (Tales of the Forbidden) Page 7
