Give Up On Me

by Tressie Lockwood

  “W-who?” Margaret stuttered.

  So Kyler hadn’t told her. Janae glanced over at him, and he appeared embarrassed. Who knew whether his discomfort had to do with not keeping his grandmother updated or the fact that he’d almost caused her to pass out.

  Coward.

  Matt ignored his grandmother and brother as he walked across the office to another door and opened it. He flipped on the lights in there, and Janae saw that it was a small conference room. Speaking in fluent Spanish, he instructed Maria to wait in the conference room with Nerea. Janae handed over the bag she had packed with a puzzle, coloring books, books to read, and snacks for Nerea.

  The maid nodded, but Nerea broke away from Maria and clung to Matt’s legs. “I want to stay with you, Papi.”

  Matt fairly glowed. He picked Nerea up, kissed her cheek, and hugged her tight. “Papi has to take care of some business. We’ll go somewhere fun after this, si?”

  Little pink lips poked out, but Matt tickled her side, making her giggle.

  “Si?” he repeated.

  “Si.”

  He put her down, and she obediently went into the other room with Maria. The door had hardly clicked closed before Margaret started in on him, slapping a hand on the desk. “You have no proof that child is yours!”

  Matt approached the desk, a muscle jumping in his jaw. Kyler leaped to cut him off. “Whoa, calm down, Matt. You don’t want to do anything you will regret.”

  Matt looked through his brother, and for a minute Janae thought the two of them would get into it. She grabbed a seat as far away from Margaret and Kyler as she could get without leaving the room.

  “I’m not here to discuss my daughter,” Matt said through clenched teeth. “No, I am actually. What I want to know before I make both of you pay for what you put Janae through is why?”

  “I only did what was best for you, Matthew,” Margaret said.

  “You can’t believe that.”

  “I do! She—”

  “Careful. You don’t want to insult Janae right now, not with the mood I’m in.”

  “This isn’t you, Matthew. You’re not the kind of man who would turn his back on his family over a woman.”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong. Maybe I’m still having some memory issues after the accident. But, I believe I haven’t spent any time with either of you in the last four years. The last I saw you, Margaret, was at the hospital, and before that not for a year and a half.”

  “That wasn’t by my design.”

  “No, it was mine. I’m done hearing from you. I knew from the age of eleven that you are a heartless person. I want to hear from Kyler. We had our differences, but you, Kyler, I thought you had at least an inkling of feeling for me. Yet, you blackmailed the woman I love. You tormented and threatened her. Tell me why I shouldn’t let you get a taste of what I felt lying in that hospital.”

  Kyler raised his hands. “Hold on, Matt. I admit we were harsh, but—”

  “Harsh? You ripped her from the only family she had and forced her to go alone and pregnant to a foreign country. You forced her to record herself blackmailing you.”

  “That was her idea.”

  Three sets of eyes shifted to Janae, but Matt turned back to his brother. “Why? Because you gave her no choice. Janae, did you realize what you were doing when you let him record you? Kyler and my grandmother could have used that recording to press charges against you.”

  Janae gasped.

  “You don’t have to worry. I destroyed it the day he played it for me.” He advanced on Kyler. “You knew what she meant to me, what she means to me now. Tell me something. Did you know about my daughter before my accident?”

  Kyler paled again. “I—”

  Matt punched him in the mouth, and Kyler landed on his ass. Blood ran down from his lip and stained his pristine white shirt. Janae didn’t like this side of Matt after all. She ran over to him to grab his arm before he could attack his brother again.

  “Matt, don’t. He’s not worth it.”

  “He’s worth every punch in the mouth,” Matt said. “Get up.”

  “Matt,” she cried out, but he didn’t seem to hear her. He reached down and dragged his brother to his feet, a challenging task given Kyler was just as big as Matt.

  “I don’t want to fight you, Matt,” Kyler said, “but I will. I’m not going to just stand here and let you slug me. Last time took me by surprise. Not again.”

  “Last time?” Janae said.

  “No, but you thought it was okay to beat Janae.”

  “I never hit her!”

  “With your actions,” Matt snapped. “You kept piling on the pressure.”

  Kyler wiped his lip. Matt looked like he’d go at him again, but Janae darted in front of him to block his path. He brought heavy hands down on her shoulders, about to toss her aside.

  “Nerea wouldn’t like her daddy fighting,” Janae said quickly. He froze. She saw him considering the truth of her words and come to the conclusion that he didn’t know Nerea well enough yet to know if she would be disappointed in him. Matt hitched his shoulders in an effort to calm down.

  “Why are you defending him, Janae?”

  “I am so not defending him. I thought I’d like to see you wipe the floor with his ass, but I love the man you are, the one who is patient, loving, and kind, not the one that’s quick to throw a punch.”

  He stared down at her a minute and then looked up at his brother. “I want you to apologize to her. Nothing you say can make up for the past, but you can start with an apology.”

  Margaret scoffed. Janae realized she’d forgotten about the woman because Margaret was so quiet. She looked over at the old woman and noticed Margaret seemed far paler than usual.

  “We don’t owe you anything,” Margaret said, but her voice came out weak and frail. Both Matt and Kyler stared at her.

  Kyler was the first to speak. “Are you okay, Margaret?”

  “I’m f-fine.”

  She wasn’t. Janae saw it now as if all the strength had been sucked out of the woman in an instant. Her head bobbled, and her eyes were almost closed. She seemed to try to raise her hand, but it flopped down to the desk.

  “She’s having a heart attack,” Janae said, shocked.

  “I’m fine,” she said again. “Just…tired. Really tired.”

  Matt pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed 9-1-1. Kyler knelt beside his grandmother, trying to make her comfortable, but Matt didn’t move from where he stood in the middle of the room. Janae glanced up at him. As a compassionate human being, he called for an ambulance, but his keeping his distance from Margaret told Janae he hadn’t forgiven his grandmother. Maybe he never would.

  “I’m going downstairs to direct the paramedics,” Matt said. “Honey, are you going in with Nerea, or coming with me?”

  She apparently had two choices, neither of which involved her staying in the same room as Kyler without Matt there. “We’re going to get out of the way. This is a family matter. Nerea, Maria, and I will just go back to the apartment.”

  “No!”

  She sighed. “Matt, I’m not going to disappear.”

  “Stay here until I take you home…please.”

  “All right. Fine.”

  He didn’t go downstairs until she walked into the conference room. Janae sat near a window, trying to see the front entrance of the building, but the rise was too high. She couldn’t hear a siren approaching either and had to just wait.

  Janae must have dozed because the next time she opened her eyes, she found ocean blue eyes staring in her face not more than an inch away. She reached up and gently pushed Nerea back a little.

  “I’m bored, Mommie,” Nerea sing-songed.

  “So is Mommie.” Janae stretched and yawned. As if on cue, the conference door opened. Matt strode in, silent and tense. She hurried over to him. “Everything okay?”

  “No, it looks like you were right. The paramedics think it’s a heart attack.”

 
She nodded. “Sometimes they present without pain, but the extreme tiredness can be a giveaway.”

  “How did you know?”

  She shrugged “I read.”

  “Come on. We’ll go back to my place.”

  “Matt.”

  “Please, Janae. No arguments.”

  “All right. I feel like I’m just getting shuffled around. This is a family crisis for you, and you should be at the hospital.”

  He didn’t respond. Rather he helped gather Nerea’s things, who had already climbed him like a little spider monkey.

  Janae chewed her lip. “I’m worried about how fast she’s taken to you. I mean I know you’re her daddy, but she doesn’t know you.”

  He set Nerea on the table and kissed the top of her head. “You gave her the go ahead. She trusts your judgment.” He gazed at their daughter, swinging her legs over the side of the table and humming. “But you’re right. Better to be on the safe side and talk to her about stranger danger.”

  Janae smiled. “How do you know about that?”

  “I read.” He winked, and they left the office to head back to his house.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Why didn’t you trust me, Janae?”

  She tensed and drew away, but he pulled her back into his embrace. They sat together on his patio, watching Nerea play on the grass. Matt had suggested he buy her a swing set and maybe get a full on playground built in the backyard. She hadn’t doused his enthusiasm because he deserved this, when he had missed out on so much already in their daughter’s life.

  “You asked me that before,” she said.

  “And you didn’t answer, so I’m asking again.”

  “Should you be focused on me? Margaret’s condition is—”

  “Not going to change if I spend time with you and Nerea.”

  Janae sat straighter. “Do you hate her?”

  He was quiet a minute. “I can’t say I don’t. My brother is a hardass. He’s selfish, and all he can see before him is his own goals. Yet, I sometimes see snatches of humanity in him. In Margaret, I’ve never seen it. She didn’t keep us apart because she worried about me and my future. She did it because it didn’t fit her plan and her image. Even while she was having a heart attack she tried to get me to deny my baby. I should despise her.”

  “Then I don’t want to add fuel to the fire.”

  He stroked a hand over her hair. “You’re too good. You should hate both of them.”

  “Trust me, I do, but I also, um, care about you.” She didn’t know why she stumbled over admitting it. Maybe because the awfulness of four years seemed to crumble in a few short moments. There were times she felt like the space between Matt and her was as thick as a bank vault’s door, and just as solid.

  “Tell me,” he said. “I can’t relax until I know it all. I was prepared to beat it out of Kyler, but you don’t want that.”

  “Because of you not him. Okay, I’ll tell you. Margaret said if I didn’t stop seeing you, she would take away all your money. She said she would fire you, and that you don’t own anything in her company. You would be penniless. I told her I didn’t care. We would make do.”

  “First of all, that’s a lie.”

  Janae’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “I owned considerable shares in her company. The day Kyler played that recording, I started proceedings to sell them. Even still, the cost left me with a fortune.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t understand y’all.”

  He grinned down at her. “Everything I have is yours and Nerea’s. What else? You said you wouldn’t leave me if I was poor.”

  “I wouldn’t have.” She looked away from his smile because it set her on fire. For the last two days since Matt insisted they all stay at his house, Janae had shared a guest room with Nerea. Matt didn’t pressure her, but he’d been back and forth to the hospital. She didn’t think he hated Margaret as much as he wanted to.

  “Janae?”

  She stirred from her reverie. “Margaret influenced a major client of my dad’s to back out of their deal. We needed that account bad because the company was in trouble. There was also this couple who’ve been with my dad from the beginning. Margaret had a whole file on the company and its status. She said she would make sure the business crumbled.”

  Matt swore. “All of those burdens were dumped on you. It’s not fair that you were made to take responsibility when your dad should have—”

  “Don’t talk about my dad.”

  Matt’s eyes narrowed. “He should have taken responsibility! Whether you want to acknowledge it or not. He should have run out and found a buyer for his company or filed for bankruptcy, not let you throw your life away.”

  “You don’t know anything about my dad!” She jumped to her feet. “You don’t know what he’s been through.”

  He stood to face her. “No, I know what we’ve been through. You and me.” He then pointed to Nerea. “And what she has. He told me you didn’t want me and that you were seeing me for the money.”

  “Because I asked him to back up my story. He didn’t want to, but I pushed him.”

  “How hard, Janae?” He grasped her arms and gave her a shake. “How hard did you push to get your dad to choose his fucking company over his own daughter?”

  “You’re blaming my dad?” She had started to shout. “What about your blood-sucking family?”

  “I’m not letting them off the hook, but you’re not going to stand there and act like your dad was just as much of a victim as you were.”

  Janae spun away. “You know what, I was wrong to stay here. We’re leaving.”

  “The hell you will.” His voice dropped low and dangerous. Janae glanced over her shoulder at him, startled by his tone.

  She was surprised to find all the anger had drained from his face. His expression turned solemn, but the tightness in his jaw said he was determined not to let her go. “You ran away before, but I’m not letting you go again. The sooner you realize that, the better.”

  “So what, am I a prisoner now?”

  He walked over to her and grasped her arms. Gently, he ran his hands up and down them. “No, you’re the woman I love, and I will fight for you, Janae. I will fight with everything inside me. All I’m trying to do is make you see that you can’t take on the burdens of others in exchange for throwing away your own life. If you don’t see that, you’ll disappear again when some other threat arises. Don’t you get it?”

  She suddenly did get it. Not just her, but she and her dad had been giving beyond what they could bear emotionally. All for his business and for the people who worked for him. No one wanted to let down the people who depended on them, and it would hurt to lose a company after spending years building it up. What did it matter if the company prospered when she couldn’t see her dad and she couldn’t live her life as she chose? If Matt had never been in that accident, would she have been exiled from home until her dad passed? The thought scared her, and yet, four years ago, her decision seemed like the logical one for all involved.

  “I see your point, but I’m not going to blame my dad. He was hurt in all this, too.”

  “We agree to disagree. I want you to stay, beautiful.”

  A small body wriggled between them. “Papi, are you mad at Mommie?”

  Matt bent down and lifted Nerea into his arms. “No, baby. Mommie and I had a disagreement, but we made up. Didn’t we, Mommie?”

  She rolled her eyes at him behind Nerea’s back. “Yes, pumpkin. Don’t worry.”

  Janae kissed her little girl’s cheek and tickled her. Nerea threw herself to Matt’s chest. “Ayuadame, Papi.”

  “Papi can’t help you, pumpkin. I’m going to eat you up.”

  Nerea screamed. Her high-pitched voice had Janae’s ears ringing, and Matt covered her mouth with his hand. “Papi will save you if you don’t burst his eardrums first.”

  Nerea laughed. The little scamp knew what she’d done.

  Later that evening, while Matt and Nerea
played in the family room on the lower level of his house, Janae helped Maria prepare dinner. Matt had given his maid a few nights off, and he couldn’t understand why Janae would help Maria cook. She wrote him off as a spoiled rich man and helped anyway.

  “Mm, I outdid myself with this samfaina sauce. Esta delicioso, Maria.”

  When the maid didn’t answer, Janae turned around to see what she was doing. She started to find Matt standing behind her. “Can I have a taste?”

  She pursed her lips. “You don’t look like you’re talking about my sauce.”

  “I wouldn’t mind tasting your sauce, too.”

  “Perv.”

  He tugged her to him with a hand around her waist. “Is it perverse to love every part of your body? You’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with after all.”

  “Matt, don’t.”

  He frowned. “Why? We’ve settled things, Janae. There’s nothing to stop you from being my wife.”

  “You still want me to marry you after all this time? If you think you have to because of Nerea then—”

  He kissed her, cutting off her words and then raised his head to run a thumb over her lips. Her nipples tightened, and she was pretty sure her panties were on their way to being ruined. Ah well, she was at his house, and she had brought extra clothing.

  “I love you,” he said, his gaze locked onto hers. “I haven’t stopped in all this time.”

  “You thought I bribed your brother and grandmother.”

  “True, but I was also fully convinced I could change your mind about taking the money and running. Had I found you.”

  For a moment, she saw pain in his expression. What he must have suffered when she disappeared, it hurt thinking about. Back then she’d seen no other way out of the mess. Matt was right. She should have trusted him enough to talk to him. For so long, it had been her dad and her, and they had struggled together. On top of that, her dad was the sensitive type, and so was Matt. Often, she felt she had to take on more responsibility just to keep her dad on the right path. She’d been wrong to think Matt was as weak as her dad.