A Different Game: A Wrong Game Novel

by Matthews, Charlie M.

  My hands instantly went to her hair and I pressed my lips against the top of her head. “You okay?” I found myself asking. It was a stupid question. She wasn’t alright.

  Mel shook her head, confirming what I already knew. “They’re tearing it down, Jake. This time tomorrow it’ll be gone.

  “Mel, look at me.” When her eyes lifted to mine, I dipped my head and smiled softly. “I know it’s not the same but you’ll find somewhere else. Someplace you can call your own.” I was trying to reassure her, letting her know that everything would be alright. I knew it wouldn’t, though. This place meant everything to Mel. It would destroy her watching them tear it apart.

  “I don’t want another warehouse. I want this one.” Tears streamed down her face and I brushed them away. I hated seeing her cry.

  “I know, babe. I know.”

  “I can’t believe it’s all gone. My machine. Mum’s machine. My designs. That table. Our table. It’s all gone. They’ve destroyed it all. I spent years working on those damn dresses and I have nothing to show for it.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not true, Mel. You have this…” I said, tapping the side of her head. “This remarkable brain of yours has everything you need right in here,” I reminded her. “You have a thousand more designs. You just have to believe in them.”

  Mel turned in my arms and dropped her head back to rest against my chest as she watched her whole world crumble around her. “I can’t believe it’s going. Every good memory I had growing up was spent in there.”

  “Those memories won’t go away just because the building has. That’s the wonderful thing about memories. Good or bad, we never forget them.”

  Sighing, she laced her fingers through mine and placed them across her chest. “I guess I can kiss that Danni Marston competition goodbye. Without that machine I’m pretty much screwed anyway.”

  Resting my chin against the top of her head, I sighed. “I’m sorry, babe. I’m sure there will be other competitions, though.” Just as I said that, an idea popped into my head and I pulled my arms from around her waist and said, “Hey, there’s something I need to do. Go back to work and I’ll see you later,” I assured her as I backed away.

  Mel frowned in confusion but nodded anyway. “Okay. I’ll see you later.”

  I jogged back over, pressed a quick kiss to her cheek, and I left. If there was one person that could save this place, it was my dad. I just wasn’t sure how he would take it. I guess there was only one way to find out.

  If it wasn’t for my dad’s sleek, gunmetal-grey Mercedes parked in the driveway, I would’ve said the house was empty. A quiet eeriness greeted me as I made my way through the house. I could hear hushed whispers as I entered the kitchen. My parents were sitting at the dining table and it looked as though I’d just walked in and interrupted a heated argument. I pushed my hands into my pockets and nodded my head in greeting.

  “Jake?” my mum said, attempting to smile. It never touched her eyes, though. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m good.” I nodded again. “Actually, I was wondering if I could speak to Dad for a sec?” I looked to him, but he still had his eyes on my mum. He didn’t look pissed off like she did. He looked upset.

  “Of course,” Mum said, shaking her head and pushing up from the table. When she reached me, she pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll just be in the study finishing off some paperwork if you need me.” Then she left me alone with my father.

  “Son?” Dad frowned. His eyes followed my every move as I took the chair opposite him. “Is it your knee? I could get someone over to take a look at it if it’s bothering you?”

  I shook my head. “It’s not the knee, Dad.”

  “If it isn’t the injury, then what is it? You look troubled.”

  I knew I needed to just bite the bullet and tell him. As much as I hated having to ask him for help, I knew he was the only one capable of doing so. “I need your help,” I told him.

  “Are you in trouble?” he asked, his eyes filled with concern.

  “I’m not in trouble. It’s about the warehouse on Curtis Lane.”

  “Curtis Lane?” He frowned, and I nodded my head once. “The old building Jessica used to own?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  “Go on…”

  I sighed. “I need you to buy it.” I held my breath as I watched his brows furrow while he tried to process my words.

  “Why would you ask me to buy that place?”

  “Because if you don’t, they’ll tear it down tomorrow.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t understand, son. You want me to buy an old, derelict warehouse because… what? They’re going to tear it down? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Melanie’s been working there since her mum sold up. The person that brought it from Jessica has left it abandoned ever since. So, Mel kinda stayed there, working on her designs.”

  “You know that’s illegal, right? She could get into trouble.”

  “I know, Dad. But it doesn’t matter now because if we don’t do something, tomorrow it’ll be gone and Mel with have nowhere to go.”

  “Well, can’t she find some other place?”

  I shook my head. “That place means too much to her. It’ll destroy her if they knock it down, which is why I need you to put in an offer.”

  “It sounds as though they’ve already made their minds up. If you’re right, and tomorrow is the day it happens, then I’m not sure what it is you want me to do.”

  “Stop them! I want you to stop them. Buy it from them. Do whatever it is you need to do to stop them.”

  “It’s not that simple, Jake. I can’t just buy it. It doesn’t work like that.” He laughed. It was as if he thought I was crazy for even considering it.

  “Try, Dad. Please. People listen to you, and I don’t know anyone else capable of pulling this off.”

  “You’re doing all this for a girl?”

  “She’s not just any girl,” I admitted.

  “I can’t just fork out hundreds of thousands of pounds on a building. It’s wasted money. The place is falling apart. It’s understandable they’ll want to tear it down and use the land for something else.”

  “If it’s the money that you’re worried about, then I’ll pay rent each month. You know I’m good for the money.” I realised how desperate I sounded. I hadn’t even mentioned Mel before and now there I was, begging him to buy a building for a girl I wasn’t even seeing three months ago.

  “It’s beside the point, Jake. You can’t be serious about this. All that money for a girl. Melanie, of all people. Do you really think your mother or Taylor would allow it?”

  “Then don’t tell them.”

  “I can’t keep something like this from them. You can’t ask me to do that. You of all people should know that secrets have a way of getting out.”

  Okay. Maybe I was wrong in asking him to keep something this big from them, but I was desperate. I couldn’t sit back and watch them destroy that building knowing what it would do to Mel.

  “Dad,” I sighed. “I’ve never asked you for anything. Ever.”

  “Son…”

  “I’m asking you to please, do this one thing for me, and I won’t ask anything of you again. I promise.”

  “And you’re doing all of this for Melanie?”

  “I guess I am.”

  “You care about her?”

  “I love her, Dad.”

  My father nodded and pushed up from behind the table. Grabbing two glasses from the cabinet and a bottle of whiskey from the shelf, he poured a bit into each and slid one of the glasses across to me. I hated neat whiskey. I didn’t tell him that, though. I swished the contents around the glass and knocked it back in one. The amber liquid burned my throat as it travelled down, warming me from the inside. My dad eyed me from over the glass as he pressed it to his lips and did the same, sinking it back in one.

  He placed the glass back down and refilled it. When he tilted the bottle to do the same to mine, I sho
ok my head. “You know, there was a time I would’ve done anything for your mother. I loved her. God, I still do. But I was stupid. I took her for granted, and stopped showing her the love she deserved. Our relationship was never easy. We fought constantly, but we always loved one another. The fighting made us who we were. They say the day you stop fighting is the day you stop caring, and it’s true. We stopped fighting, stopped listening to each other and it wasn’t long before we stopped caring altogether. We almost gave up and filed for a divorce. Did you know that?”

  I shook my head, frowning. I hadn’t known that. I always thought that their relationship was strong and could withstand anything.

  “It was our anniversary. I had a table booked at this fancy restaurant she’d always wanted to go to that we couldn’t afford. We were barely able to afford a takeout back then.” He laughed. “I saved up without your mother knowing. The table was booked. I looked sharp as hell in my knockoff Hugo Boss suit.” I smiled. My parents rarely spoke about their younger years. It was hard to imagine that they, too, were young once. I’d only ever known them as my parents. My rich parents. Only they hadn’t always been loaded with money.

  “We were both working nonstop to build up our companies, we rarely had time for one another, let alone time to go out for a posh meal.” My father shook his head and knocked back the amber-coloured liquid as though it was water. “I waited at that restaurant for forty minutes. Three drinks at ten quid a pop and I knew she wasn’t going to show up. I went home, drank some more, and before I knew it the bottle was empty. I just wanted to numb the pain. I knew I was losing your mother and I was tired. Tired of trying to fix us when it didn’t appear as though she wanted us to be fixed at all.”

  “I had no idea,” I breathed out. I had always assumed they were happy. Well, when I was a kid, anyway. I must’ve been about sixteen before I realised that something wasn’t quite right in their relationship.

  “No one did. Except your Aunt Marie.” He frowned. “She came around that night, bottle of wine in one hand and a smile plastered on her face that reminded me so much of your mother. She was beautiful. Not as beautiful as your mother, though. No. I don’t think there’s a single woman in the world that could match up to that kind of beautiful.” He sniffed, refilled the glass again and continued. “I didn’t know back then, but that night changed everything for me and your mother. And, in a way, my mistake had forced us to realise that something was seriously wrong in our relationship.” Dad shook his head and paused, his mouth lingering on the rim of the glass. “I let it carry on. For six months I took any chance I had to be with Marie. It didn’t matter where or when. I was pretty sure I didn’t even care if we were caught. Maybe I wanted your mother to catch us. In some warped, fucked up way, I wanted her to see what she had been missing out on by pushing me away.’

  “Dad…” I groaned. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any more. It was enough watching my father relive the moment he changed our lives forever. I could see the guilt in his eyes as he spoke about deceiving her. I couldn’t imagine how she must've felt at the time.

  “Marie had planned a getaway for my birthday. We had a weekend booked at some grotty hotel up north, just the two of us. Your mother had called the day before to say she couldn't make it back and that she would make it up to me. When Marie showed up with her bags, ready to leave, your mother came back, surprising us all. She had planned a surprise for my birthday and to keep it a secret, she pretended that work had forced her to stay on longer. She had it all planned out until she saw us. She didn’t cry. She didn’t even yell. Just told us to go and enjoy ourselves.”

  “Did you go?” I held my breath, waiting for his answer.

  He shook his head and I blew out the breath I’d been holding. “No. I couldn’t. I called Marie a taxi and told her it was over. I grovelled and begged for forgiveness. Pleaded with your mother to take me back. It wasn’t until a month later that she eventually agreed to talk. We went out to that restaurant she had been dying to go to and had the most incredible night together reminiscing about our youth and how crazy in love we were back then.”

  “So, she took you back?” I asked.

  “She did. When your mum told me she was pregnant with you, I was over the moon. It was as if everything had finally fallen into place. We were more in love than we’d ever been and looking forward to being parents. When you came along, we both looked at each other and knew. We knew that what we had was worth fighting for because it wasn’t just us anymore. It was the three of us.”

  I sighed, knowing that the story was about to change.

  “Taylor was born just a week before you. Your Mum and Marie had barely spoken since the affair came out, but when your mother knew that Marie was carrying her nephew, she couldn’t just walk away. She didn’t want Taylor to suffer for something that we had done. I don’t even think Tom knew of the affair, just that we were all too busy to be in each other’s lives. When Taylor came along we tried to change that. It was hard on your mother and I don’t think she trusted either of us for a long time. If ever.”

  “When did you find out that Taylor was your son?”

  “You both must’ve been around seven or eight years old. We had thrown a joint birthday party for the both of you. You had all of your friends at the house, a magician, a clown—you were petrified of it, by the way. We had to send the guy packing.” He grinned and shook his head at the memory. I could see the pain in his eyes as he braced himself for his next words. “Your mother and I were stood at the kitchen window watching from the inside while you and Taylor tore through a pile of presents. We spent weeks trying to figure out what to get you both. You had everything back then. Anyway, a new games console had recently come out and we knew you had your eye on it for weeks, but we couldn’t get you one without getting Taylor it, too. You both must’ve known what it was, saving the best present until last. When you both tore through the wrapping paper, you looked to each other with the biggest grins on your faces. We knew we’d done good.” Sighing, he said, “We’d just stepped outside when you both rushed over to us. We smiled at each other, looked down at the both of you, and that’s when we saw it. From that moment on, we knew you were brothers.” Dad sank another glass of whiskey, and when I eyed the bottle, I saw it was almost empty.

  “Marie said we were ridiculous. How could Taylor be mine? He was Tom’s. But we knew. We could see it in his eyes. Same colour your grandmother had. That same golden streak running through the centre. Those dimples…” He shook his head. “We knew.”

  “So, Marie never told you he was yours?” I frowned.

  “Not until Tom went to prison, no. By then she was drinking heavily, saying shit that didn’t make sense to anyone who would listen. But we knew she wasn’t lying about this. She was just confirming what we already knew.”

  “I was eighteen when you stopped coming to my games. Why? Why then and not before?” I found myself asking. I’d never wanted to hear it before. Maybe I was too angry to hear it. But I needed to know now.

  “It was easy to ignore when you were young. It was only when you reached your late teens that it became harder to ignore. You could’ve passed as twins. Your aunts being related wouldn’t explain the colour of your skin, or the same eyes and hair. That’s when the arguments with your mum started again. We couldn’t ignore it and pretend that Taylor wasn’t mine. Yet, we’d promised Marie we wouldn’t let on that we knew until she gave us the okay. That kid should have known from the beginning. It wasn’t fair on him. It wasn’t fair on you. We thought we were doing what was best for the both of you, but when Taylor went to see Tom, and Tom told him he wasn’t his father, we knew it was only a matter of time before he found out it was me.”

  I had no words for my father’s revelations. I had always assumed that it was my father’s choice to refuse Taylor as his own. Only it wasn’t. They had wanted him to know. If Taylor had known from the beginning, maybe his life would’ve been different.

  “We should have told you o
nce we knew for sure, and for that, I’m truly sorry.”

  I nodded, acknowledging his apology. “Are you and Mum okay?”

  Dad sighed and refilled the tumbler until the bottle was empty. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “But you do want things to be okay, right?”

  “More than anything, yes. But things are never as easy as they seem.”

  I raised my brows and shook my head. “You’re telling me.”

  “Promise me you won’t make the same mistakes I did. Even if they don’t seem like mistakes at the time. Hold onto that love. And never take it for granted.” He sighed. “Promise me, Jake?”

  “I promise,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “About the warehouse…?”

  He smiled tightly. “I’ll make some calls. See if I can make a last minute offer.”

  I pushed up from the chair and clasped my hand around his shoulder. “Thanks, Dad.”

  “I can’t promise it’s going to work, but I’ll try.”

  His eyes lifted to mine. He looked defeated, like he was fighting a losing battle. And it had nothing to do with what I’d just asked him to do. He was losing the woman he loved, and I had a feeling that this time the outcome would be different.

  49

  I was losing the warehouse.

  This time tomorrow it would be gone, and although Jake had been right that my memories would always stay with me, it didn’t make me feel any better. Dreaming about it, seeing it in my head, wasn’t the same as actually being there. It was the only place I could be myself. The only place that really felt like home. I knew Bessy felt the same. She adored that place as much as I did. And Harry? He’d have nowhere to go. No one to leave a bowl of Frosties out for him. Would he even survive without the shelter we provided? What if they tore it down with him still inside, eating his bowl of cereal? No, I couldn’t think about that. Harry was sensible. He’d find a loving home someplace else. Someplace that wouldn’t be destroyed. The thought of the warehouse no longer being there hurt. It was as if my childhood had been taken from me and there was no way of getting it back.