Enlightened End

by Audrey Carlan

  “I was married, and I never went there with him physically. Not really.” Her voice shook. “Your father, he couldn’t see reason. He was gone all the time, barely ever home, always working, and I was lonely. So lonely.”

  “And…” I prompt when it doesn’t seem like she’s going to continue.

  “One day he came home early from a business trip. He found us having a play date. Chris and I were on the couch. You kids were playing in your room, and I don’t know what happened, but Chris kissed me. It was only ever the one kiss, and your father walked in and saw us kissing and lost his mind.” Tears fill her eyes. “A week later, I found out I was pregnant. Told Grant Senior this was our second chance to find happiness. All he could see was Chris. He believed the child was Chris’s because he was gone all the time. I tried for four months to get him to believe otherwise. Tried to be the perfect wife. I never saw Chris again, but it wasn’t enough.”

  “He asked you to leave,” I surmised.

  She shook her head. “No. He cast me out. Said I needed to leave and take my bastard child with me but to leave you behind. If I didn’t, he’d ruin Chris’s life, mine, as well as that of my unborn child. I was young and scared. I had nothing but your father and you. I believed him. He was very powerful. Had a lot of money and contacts. He’d do as he threatened. So I sat you down, said goodbye, and left. It was the worst day of my entire life. There hasn’t been a day that goes by that I don’t wish I could have found a way to take you with me or to get your father to believe me. But you know him. Once he gets something in his mind…”

  “There’s no changing it,” I add flatly.

  She nods.

  “Then why did you tell me my father was from an infidelity from your first husband? You lied to me all these years, Mother?” Greta’s voice is filled with heartache.

  My mother closes her eyes, more tears falling. “Because I couldn’t bear to have you think your own father didn’t want you. It was better that you thought I was the one in the wrong.”

  Jesus, what a clusterfuck. The end result being my father is the biggest prick in the universe and my mother another one of his victims.

  “I loved you every day, Grant. Missed you every second. And I wrote you like I promised.”

  I scowl. “I didn’t get a single letter.”

  My heart pounds against my chest as my body temperature rises, and she takes a step closer to me. I take one back in return, making it clear I do not want her near me. Not right now.

  “No. Each one was returned unopened and labeled Return to Sender. Still, every week until you went off to college, I wrote to you. Told you about our lives, wondered about yours. Wished for your happiness. Hoped maybe one day you’d get the mail and open it yourself. Still, we went to your sports games, watched you graduate both high school and college. Those were very proud moments for me,” she whispers and wipes at her soggy eyes.

  Shivers ripple up my spine, and tears prick against my eyes, but I don’t let them fall. Not here. Not now. I focus on the fire in my gut, the tornado of anger building up my chest.

  There are too many conflicting emotions battering me. I swallow and reach for Luna’s hand. “I need to go check in with the hematologist and find out what the next steps are. Greta, let’s focus on getting you well, yeah?”

  She nods.

  “The rest we will deal with in time.” It’s the only promise I can offer her right now.

  “Okay, Grant.” She sniffles, and it sends an icepick into my gut.

  “Luna, let’s go.” I grip her hand.

  Without waiting for goodbyes, I drag Luna out of the room.

  “Grant, wait, just stop.” She tugs on my hand until I stop and spin around.

  “What? What do you want to talk about? How fucked up that scene in there was? How my father is the world’s most giant prick! Maybe about the fact that my sister just found she has a father, and he’s the same one everybody hates!” I roar, not caring about the people bustling around me.

  Luna grabs my hand and walks me to the stairwell, where we escape inside.

  “Look, I know it was messed up…”

  “You think?” I respond, my tone dripping with sarcasm.

  Luna scrunches up her nose and glares at me. “Your anger is not helping the situation. You need to calm down and think all of this through. A lot just happened. You have seen your mother for the first time in thirty years. Let’s start with that.”

  I shake my head. “What about it?”

  “Well, what are you feeling?”

  I groan. “Numb. I’m feeling numb.”

  She purses her lips. “Okay, I can understand the feeling. It’s got to be hard, knowing what she went through. Losing her the way you did.”

  I swallow around the sudden lump in my throat. “Yeah.”

  Luna pulls me into a hug, and I curl my arms around her. Her warmth, energy, and love fill up all the emptiness I had before her entry into my life.

  “Are you going to be okay? This was a lot to take in, and you’re planning to go through the harvesting process, which is a whole other big task ahead.”

  I sigh and inhale the scent of her strawberry shampoo. “As long as I have you, I can face anything. Just don’t ever leave me.”

  She leans back and cups my cheeks. “Grant. You’re never getting rid of me.” She stands on tiptoe to kiss me. I take her mouth, and I take it deep. I drink from her lips, sucking in all of her goodness and light, allowing her essence to blanket me for the challenges ahead. And my lamb gives it freely.

  I rub my forehead against hers. “I love you.”

  She hums and kisses my lips briefly. “I love you too.”

  We stand there for a long time in the empty hospital stairwell, embracing one another and reinforcing our connection.

  Luna runs her fingers through my hair. “What’s next?”

  “We go to Hematology and find out what we need to do.”

  “And then?”

  “Then I pay a visit to my father.”

  * * *

  The process for a bone marrow donation is unbelievably easy and the hospital top notch. They wasted zero time in getting me scheduled for the next morning. It would be an in-and-out, same-day procedure. I’d go in at eight o’clock and then be released late that afternoon. I’d be asleep for the procedure. The doctors would begin preparing Greta for transplant, and we’d know in the coming weeks if the transplant worked.

  I was eager to get the show on the road and restless as Luna held me in her arms in our bed.

  “I’m glad you decided to wait to see your father.” Luna runs her hand up and down my bare abs.

  “Me too. I need to be clearheaded for the procedure tomorrow, and there’s too much to say to him. My thoughts and feelings are too raw and disjointed to make any sense. Plus, I’m more worried about getting this done for my sister than anything else. She needs to be my focus right now.”

  Luna nods. “What you’re doing for Greta is amazing. You know that, right?”

  I sigh and place my hand on her arm. “I’m doing what anyone in my situation would do.”

  Luna shifts up onto her elbow so I can see her face in the moonlight shining into our loft.

  “That simply isn’t true. Not every man would step up, especially for someone he barely knows.”

  I run my fingers through her silky hair. “She’s my sister,” I say, as if that answers all.

  She frowns. “Yes, but you didn’t know until recently. And with everything going on… I just… I think you need to realize what you are doing is commendable. Honorable. And I, for one, am proud of you.”

  I grip her around the waist and tug her up and on top of my body so she’s plastered to my chest. “Thank you for being here with me. For being you. For not leaving my side. You’re my rock, Luna. I could never have maintained my sanity without you in my life.”

  She dips her head forward and kisses me before speaking. “And you’re never going to be without me.” She moves to kiss me
again, but I cup her cheeks, stopping her forward progress.

  “Do you mean it?”

  Her nose scrunches up in the cute way I adore. “Mean what?”

  “That I’m never going to be without you?”

  She smiles wide. “Of course. I love you with my whole heart, with my entire being. You’re my one, Grant Winters.”

  “Then let’s make it official.” My heart speeds up, and butterflies take flight in my stomach as I wait for her to answer.

  She sits up, and I move my hands to her waist as she rests her palms flat against my chest. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I want you with me forever. As my woman. As my one and only. As my wife.”

  She gasps. “Grant…”

  “I’m serious. I want to marry you. When all of this blows over and we have some breathing room, I want to make you my wife.” The decision was so easy it just came out.

  I want Luna as my wife.

  “You’re not kidding?” She shakes her head, her curls falling over her bare breasts, her nipples poking through the fiery strands like a carnal game of hide and seek.

  I shake my head. “No. When I know what I want, I chase after it until I get it, make it mine.”

  Her voice is low when she replies. “You don’t have to chase me. I’m already yours.”

  I lick my lips. “Prove it. Marry me.”

  “It’s too soon. We’ve only been together a couple months.”

  “Luna, you can’t put a time stamp on love. I want you with me until the day I take my last breath. I want you to bear my children. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.”

  “Sweet Shiva. Now you’re planning to get me pregnant!” She gasps and puts a hand to her heart.

  “Lamb, do you want to be with me forever?” I ask, my heart in my throat, my entire soul open, bared to her, waiting for her to accept the gift.

  “Yes,” she whispers but loud enough so I can hear her perfectly.

  “Then what does the amount of time between us matter? It only matters the amount of time we have left and that we not waste it.”

  She smiles wide. “I can’t believe we’re doing this. My mother is going to freak.”

  I grin. “Does that mean what I think it means? You’re going to marry me?”

  Luna places both of her hands on either side of my head, plasters her chest to mine, and whispers against my lips, “Yes. Yes, I will marry you, Grant Winters.”

  I lock my arms around her and roll us both until I’m hovering over her. “I’m going to make you so happy.” I kiss her lips and pull back, smiling.

  “You already do. Just by being you. Now come here. I want my fiancé to make love to me.” She tugs at my back and neck to bring me closer.

  “Anything you want, lamb. It’s yours.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The crown chakra couple is said to have a spiritual love that spans the afterlife. When they die, they will join one another in the spiritual world to live out their days together, forever.

  GRANT

  “Son. To what do I owe this pleasure?” My father stands from behind his desk in his study and walks over to the sideboard. He pours himself a whiskey neat. “Drink?”

  “Yes.” I’m going to need it.

  When he’s made our drinks and hands me one, he sits down in one of the red velvet, high-backed chairs near the fire he has going. The room is draped in luxury and opulence. Floor-to-ceiling antique eighteenth-century bookcases span half the room, and the expensive art he’s collected over the years covers the rest. He doesn’t even like art. He obtained the pieces to save face with his rich buddies. Those pictures should be in museums for the world to see, not collecting dust in a stuffy old man’s office, rarely to be seen by anyone outside of the one percenters he rolls with.

  I sit in the chair opposite him and try my best to get my immediate anger at even seeing him under control.

  Follow what Luna said. Say your piece. Get your answers, and go back home to her.

  I take a full breath in and let it out before speaking like Luna taught me. “Father, I’ve met Greta Tinsley.”

  My father’s face doesn’t change or reveal even a hint of recognition. “Should I know this name?”

  “Yes. She’s my sister.”

  This time, Grant Senior’s eyes flare, but they do so with anger, not remorse. He moves his drink to the side table and leans forward, a filthy scowl marring his face. “Did that bastard child try to blackmail you by claiming to be your sister and having some kind of right to our fortune?” he growls.

  I shake my head and calmly take a sip of my whiskey, allowing it to burn a fiery trail down my throat and warm my gut. “No. Not at all. Apparently, she’s known of me for a long time. We ran into each other at a restaurant.”

  “Oh, she’d like you to think that. They’ve all got angles, son, and they are never genuine.”

  “You would think so. And at first, I did as well, but I had my team investigate her. And do you know what they found out?”

  He grabs his drink and takes a healthy slug. I wait for him to finish the drink. “Well, don’t sit on it, boy. Spit it out. What did they find?”

  “She is indeed my sister. Gretchen Winters is her mother.”

  On the mention of that name, his face turns red and the scowl deepens. “That cheating slut! She was never supposed to contact you. I warned her. If she did, I’d ruin her and the lives of her manwhore and her bastard child.” He stands up, walks over to the sideboard, and pours himself another drink. This time, he takes a huge glug.

  “Turns out, Greta Tinsley was suffering from a rare disease. One for which she needs a bone marrow transplant.”

  My father grunts. “And now we’re getting somewhere. This being the reason why they contacted you. To get your marrow! Blood-sucking vampires! I hope you told them to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine and to drop dead!” he hollers and paces the room.

  “No, I didn’t. I met with Greta and found her to be a lovely woman.”

  “Of course they’re going to make you think that, son!” He sneers. “They want something from you!”

  I shake my head and sip my drink. “Actually, at first, Greta didn’t even tell me about her disease. Luna found out about it accidentally and informed me.”

  He huffs. “You think that because you’re too soft. You always have been, even as much as I’ve pushed to toughen you up. What you don’t see, son, is that they planned every last second of you coming into contact with them. I’ll bet that bitch Gretchen was the mastermind behind it too.”

  “Again, you’d be wrong. And I was tested to find out if I was a bone marrow match for Greta.”

  My father sighs and sits back down in his chair. “Let me guess… You were a match.” He rolls his eyes dramatically.

  “Yes.” I grin, loving that he thinks he’s laying into me when I haven’t even dropped the bomb on him. This game of cat and mouse is taking the burn off the knowledge I now know to be true.

  “Please tell me you’re not going to give her a goddamned thing.”

  I shake my head. “Actually, I’ve already donated. I underwent the procedure last week. Greta has received the transplant, and we’ll know if her body accepts my marrow and starts creating white and red blood cells to fight her disease very soon.” I smile wide.

  “Look at your face. You’re pleased with yourself. Son, you’ve made a grave mistake, but I’ll clean it up. I’ll wipe the floor with them.”

  “No. You will do no such thing,” I say with a raised voice and returning anger.

  He frowns. “Don’t you dare tell me what I can and cannot do. I am your father. The patriarch of the Winters name. I will protect you even if you won’t protect yourself! These people are bottom feeders. The scum of the earth. A bastard child and an unfaithful woman.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me my mother wrote me letters?”

  He snorts. “She didn’t. Left you, left me, and took her bastard child with her.”
r />   “Lie!” I roar and slam the tumbler down on the table, the contents sloshing outside of the glass and spilling all over the wood.

  My father glances at the drink and then back up at me, his eyes turning to daggers. “What did you say to me?”

  “You’re a liar and a coward! My mother didn’t leave you. You cast her away with threats of ruining her life and the life of her unborn baby. You told her if she ever approached me, you’d set a plan into place that would destroy her and Greta as well as the man you thought she was cheating on you with. Which, by the way, she never did!”

  He laughs dryly. “I caught them kissing in this very house!”

  “That she did admit. And I understand if you couldn’t trust her anymore, but you did not have to cast her and your own child out the door with nothing. You could have divorced her and allowed me to still have a mother! I prayed for years, Father…years that she would come home.”

  I stand and rub at the back of my neck. “And you forced her to go, leaving me without a mother for my entire life!”

  “She didn’t deserve you. And the child she carried was proof of her infidelity. What would you have me do? Raise another man’s child as if it were my own, a daily reminder of her treachery?” he grates through his teeth before sucking back more whiskey.

  “You are so fucking blind. I had the test done to see if I was a match for her marrow. And you know what they told me…oh, patriarch, seer of all things? They told me Greta Tinsley and I are an exact match because we are siblings.”

  “Of course you are.”

  “Full-blooded siblings, Father! Thirty-year-old Greta Tinsley is your biological daughter. Her four-year-old son, Gavin, and her six-month-old daughter, Gabriella, are your grandchildren, and you’re never going to know them.”

  “It’s part of their lies! They are telling you a tale,” he blusters and stands to go fill his drink once more. Fucking old man has turned into an alcoholic.

  “No. It’s the truth. The tests have been done. I have a copy right here.” I pull out the second, more conclusive DNA test I had run by the hospital. “This is the DNA test I personally had done. It’s all there, in black and white. Greta is your daughter and my sister. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a family to get to know, without you.”