The Legacy series: The Love series, the Wrapped series, and the Burning Souls series.

by Mj Fields

  ���I found out last night it was a������

  ���Did you tell Dad?���

  ���Maddox, I tell your father everything. He only knew for a few hours longer than������

  Tessa stood up and walked towards the door, ���Mom, please.���

  ���Harper, I���ll get this,��� Maddox bent down and kissed her head and ran out the door. He put his foot in the elevator door to stop it and got in.

  ���Maddox, I need time to process this.���

  ���Me too,��� he smiled wryly.

  They walked off the elevator and outside. He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards a path, ���I ran here this morning, it���s not lit well I���ll keep my mouth shut and walk behind you.��� They walked around the lake in silence.

  She continued to walk and he followed. ���Maddox?���

  ���Yeah?���

  ���Why didn���t she tell me?���

  ���I have no idea. When I found out she as she was lying in a parking lot bleeding from the head with her elbow pointing in the wrong direction.���

  ���Hyper-extended.���

  ���Yep.���

  ���But you told Emma right away?���

  ���No, I grabbed her discharge papers and didn���t realize the sonogram picture had fallen. She picked it up. She had planned on telling you and Collin together. And I wanted Dad and Mom to know as well.���

  ���Oh.���

  ���Blake knew.���

  ���He did?���

  ���Yep, they have gotten very close.���

  Tessa stopped and looked at him, ���How do you feel about that.���

  ���I hate it,��� Maddox kicked a stone.

  Tessa laughed, ���How do you feel about being a father?���

  ���If Harper didn���t hate me and ask me to walk away and leave her and the child alone because I am a piece of crap, I would honestly be ecstatic.���

  ���She���s confused.���

  ���I know. So am I.���

  ���Are you angry at her for not telling you?���

  ���I can���t be, leads me to dark places.���

  ���Like?���

  ���Drinking, smoking pot or kicking the shit out of Blake.���

  ���It���s not his fault you know.���

  ���No, I don���t know. He has gone to doctor appointments for my child. And he told me to leave several times. He is a douche bag.���

  Tessa giggled, ���He is protecting her.���

  ���Not his place.���

  ���Okay I understand, but she chose him as a confidant over both of us.���

  Maddox stopped and looked at Tessa, ���Do you think I should walk away?���

  ���I saw you with the girls tonight. I watched you help Harper through the big reveal tonight. I know you don���t want to, and I know down deep you can���t. I just worry about my daughter getting hurt. I worry about your drinking and drug issues.���

  ���I am sober and love your daughter. I already love that baby. She kicked this morning for the first time and I felt it.���

  ���She?���

  ���Just a feeling,��� Maddox laughed.

  ���Can you stay sober?���

  ���I know my triggers.���

  ���Is Harper one?���

  ���Disappointing Harper, hurting her, and even though she does not see it, being hurt by her are all dangerous triggers.���

  ���Show her who you are, Maddox. Don���t push her. I happen to know she is a hot head,��� Tessa laughed and pointed to herself, ���Genetics.���

  Maddox laughed, ���I fully intend on showing her. If she does not choose me, I fully intend on staying healthy for your grandchild.���

  ���Grandma, ugh!��� Tessa teased.

  ���Yeah, wait till it sinks in to Dad, a Grandfather at thirty-five,��� Maddox laughed.

  ���Wait until London finds out. I would ask if she knew but I am sure she wouldn���t be able to hide that,��� Tessa laughed.

  ���Not in a million years. I actually think we should not tell her. She would drag Harper kicking and screaming to the altar,��� Maddox laughed.

  ���Do you want to marry my daughter?���

  Maddox looked down and smiled, ���I want Harper to have everything she has ever dreamed of.���

  Tessa smiled, ���I���m ready to head back in.���

  ���Alright. Do you think Dad and Collin are both alive still?���

  ���Emma is there.���

  ���Thank God,��� Maddox laughed, ���Will you forgive her for not telling you sooner?���

  ���She���s my daughter Maddox, I will forgive her.���

  ���Good, she is under a lot of stress right now.���

  Tessa smiled at him, ���You love her.���

  ���Even when it hurts so bad it burns my soul.���

  MERGED

  Book 3

  DEDICATION

  To those who find hope when all hope seems lost. To those who find strength to move forward when others would retreat.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Rockefeller Center

  Maddox

  I slide the key card through the lock, aggravated that I was here in NYC for work and not upstate where I knew I should be; with her, the other half of my heart, with Harper, who was sitting beside her dying grandfather.

  Harrison Dunlap, her paternal grandfather, who she never knew existed until just a short time ago. She didn���t know him until she was kidnapped and beaten so badly that our son, growing inside of her, was killed. Her father Collin understood more than I will ever pretend to understand about myself, knew who I was. He was a good man who grew up in a horror that most people could never even want to begin to imagine. I reminded her of him, she told me that once. So did her mother Tessa. As the last few weeks of our life unfolded one secret at a time my respect for him grew deeper. He didn���t know the man who his daughter Harper was comforting. The man who lay dying in a hospital; he man who had one night with Collin���s mother and never knew of Collin either. A man who I had grown to know was not unlike my own father, Brody. Had he known about me, I would never have had the life I did. But it made me who I am; it made Collin Abraham who he was. Two men that loved a beautiful girl more than their own lives. Two men who would give theirs to protect hers and one already did. A young beautiful, kind, loving, strong willed angel on earth who is and always will be, my Sweetness, Harper Abraham.

  So I am here in NYC without her, and her without me. Advice given by her family���s bodyguard, Tomas. Unsolicited advice that she needed this. For me to let her feel like she is still her own person and that I am my own. What he failed to say was it would give her the sense that I knew after the hell she had gone through we needed to move forward, because nothing, and I mean nothing, good ever came out of living in the past. Tomas and I would someday soon be having a conversation about this. I knew he also was hurting and that he loved her. Regardless, he would have to learn a few things soon. I would always do what was best for her, always. What he didn���t understand is that she was mine. I owned her body, heart, mind, and soul. Just like she owned mine. She was mine always and forever

  She knew from the first time, she told me so. When I think back I���m sure I knew then too but I was so fucked up that I really didn���t get it; I didn���t get what love truly was, I didn���t get that people actually stayed wh
en they came into your life or I didn���t realize that sex wasn���t dirty. Never in a million years did I think that when you���re so fucking busy fighting your past, the demons you allow to haunt you, you can never truly move forward and live, really live.

  I threw my bag on the sofa and walked to the balcony. It was so odd being here; I loved and hated this room. This was the first place Harper and I became one. On this balcony she dropped her robe and wrapped her beautiful naked body around me. Here is the place where she was willing to accept me, flaws and all���me! Offering her body, her love, her���all of her.

  I had several sexual experiences before that of course but I was only going through the motions. Getting sucked off and stroked backstage at a concert was nice? Yes nice. But staying away from Harper, keeping her safe from the harm I could bring her heart was hell. Blow jobs, alcohol and pot numbed the fire I felt for her. But it never went away, never.

  I stood silently with my eyes closed remembering that moment. The moment I now feel like I had waited for my entire life. Ready, willing, needing to touch and taste every part of her. I needed to be one with her, the only person I knew I could be with that intimately, that completely, Harper.

  I knew when that day finally came it would be pure elation, heaven on earth. I had never felt the need I felt for her. I never wanted to make anyone cum the way I wanted, no —needed her to. Not dirty, not recreational, not just fifteen minutes of excitement and then the short and sweet feel of release. I NEEDED to make her feel the ecstasy I felt when I thought of pleasing her; the high, the frenzy, the rapture, the stupor I imagined would overtake my entire being when our souls, souls that have burned for each other for so long, finally come together as one. I���m glad I waited to share that with my sweetness, my love, the other half of my heart, the reason I was created by God.

  At times I was so angry with God. Questioned his existence, his love, everything that I had read about him was a joke at that time. No one being could possibly hate a child like I had been hated. I���d never given him a reason to hate me and neither had any of the others that where bought and sold by the pigs I lived in that hell with for fifteen years. I still didn���t understand completely the whole God thing but I believed now. Harper wouldn���t have it any other way and I wouldn���t either. If his plan for me was to burn in hell for another fifteen years knowing my reward at the end would be that very moment with Harper, I wouldn���t bat an eye, I would go willingly.

  I remember when I first learned there had been photos of that moment splashed all over the internet and the news. How upset she was and how I secretly thanked the universe because now the world knew she was mine. I had sung to her on stage, the very first song we had ever danced to. I had made love to her with my mouth, my hands, and my body, all of me. I knew she felt the same about me as I did her and that physically I had pleased her. I had the ring, the proposal memorized, the whole thing planned. Then the proverbial shit hit the fan.

  After months apart, she finally came for me and I couldn���t control myself. I regretted the aftermath of that moment immediately because she walked away again. Still, somehow I won her back. I held nothing from her. She knew my feelings about the time we were apart. I felt her hurt and she felt mine. She was such an enigma to me for so long.

  It took a long time for me to feel the love I have for Dad, Mom, London, and Lexie. Why such a thing as love was given so freely from them to me I didn���t understand. I completely understood that now and I would die for any one of them.

  Finally after years I was no longer trying to figure out what it was that Harper saw in me. Why she loved me when she didn���t have to. The moments that I still doubt God exists all I do is look at the angel who most certainly changed me, and all the doubt is erased.

  I walked back in to the suite and looked at my phone; she hadn���t returned my text so I worried —of course I worried. I loved her so damn much it was killing me inside being away from her. I knew she would call or text when she could. I knew that I had left her���FUCK! Why had I listened to Tomas? I needed to be with her, this was shit, fucking shit!

  I must have stared at the wall that I caged her against when I had learned that Jane was really Claire for a very long time. I held my hand above my heart because that memory, that moment that I let her go, hurt like hell still.

  I checked my phone again and still nothing. A few missed calls from unknown numbers but no messages, Harper knew to leave a message if she wasn���t calling from her phone, or one that had a recognizable number.

  I took a long hot shower hoping it would help me get relaxed or tired—something.

  I lay on the bed in my towel trying to relax. I laughed to myself knowing it was impossible without her. I jumped when my phone started playing Wanted the acoustic version, my ring tone for Harper.

  ���Harper.��� I���m sure I sounded like a fucking wounded dog. I hadn���t wanted to; she didn���t need that right now.

  ���Maddox.��� She sounded no better than I did. She sighed and continued, ���He���s not doing well.���

  ���How are you?���

  ���This just���God I don���t even know. Every time he seems to be taking his last breath I want him to fight. I just got him; I���m not ready for this.���

  ���I can come home.���

  ���No, no Maddox. If we���re to move on we���Maddox, Mom���s waving me into the room.���

  ���Don���t hang up; let me be there with you.���

  She was quiet and I heard her boots clicking against the tile floor as she went down the hall to Harrison���s room. I felt sick to my stomach knowing she must feel the same.

  I heard Tessa whisper to her.

  ���We need to let him go, be strong for him. He���s in pain Harper���. I heard her brothers Matthew and CJ saying their goodbyes.

  ���You can do this Harper.��� I whispered not knowing if she could hear me but needing desperately to be there with her in some way.

  ���I know Maddox.���

  ���Good girl. I love you.���

  ���I love you. I���ll call you back okay?���

  No, I wanted to say no.

  ���I love you and I���m here, always.���

  ���Good because after all this, all we���ve been through, I need you to show me that we can have normal Maddox. Well, our normal.��� She kind of had a smile in her voice, a sad smile, but a smile none the less.

  ���Call me back?���

  ���Of course, talk to you in a bit.���

  And that was it, she hung up.

  I hated this! Hated all that she had been though, that we needed to move on, to grow from tragedy. I knew it was necessary but my God how much more could she take? How many days could she go with gloom hanging over her before she felt like nothing would ever be the same? Could things ever be the same?

  I grabbed my phone well aware of what time it was, and truly didn���t give a shit. I needed to do something for her. If I couldn���t be there I needed someone to be. Someone who could make her smile, laugh, forget about the hurt for five minutes.

  I dialed my phone and waited for the answer.

  ���Hello,��� a sleepy voice cracked.

  ���Ava?���

  ���What the hell, is this, is Harper������

  ���This is Maddox Hines.���

  ���Am I dreaming?���

  ���Ava, I think Harper could use a friend������

  ���Wait, hold on just a second hot stuff let me wake up. Tell me you didn���t fuck up again. If you did I swear to God I���ll������

  ���No I���m in New York City. She���s
at Community General Hospital with her Grandfather������

  ���John?���

  ���No Harrison, Collin���s father. He���s dying and I just thought maybe���this was probably a bad idea.���

  ���Nope, well I don���t think it is, but you need to finish. What can I do?���

  ���Make her laugh? Be her friend? Shit I don���t know. Do whatever it is you do that makes her smile in situations like this until I get back.���

  ���You asking for a favor Maddox Hines?���

  ���I suppose I am, yes.���

  She laughed, ���I���ll go. Is he������

  ���Dying. And I feel like he���s holding on for her.���

  ���So you want me to go in there like the Grimm Reaper and������

  ���You truly have a way with words Ava,��� I couldn���t help but chuckle.

  ���It���s a gift.��� She responded flippantly. ���Of course I���ll go. I was here first you know hottie McRockstar.���

  ���I know and thank you.���

  ���You owe me.���

  ���What do I owe you?���

  ���Your boy T���s number. Not now though, but someday.���

  ���It���s a deal.���

  ���Good, stay safe Maddox Hines.���

  ���You as well. Thank you again.���

  There was a knock at the door which startled me. I opened the door and Dad was standing there, alone.

  ���Everything alright Dad?���

  ���Nice to see you too son.��� Dad laughed.

  ���Sorry it���s just���come in.���

  I opened the door and he walked in, he looked behind him. ���Thanks Surge.���

  ���What are you doing here?���

  ���Just came to hang out, see how you were, you know?���

  ���Checking up on me?���

  ���No, just didn���t want you to be alone.��� He patted my back and set his bag on the table. ���You tired?���