by Christina OW
Why? “Just because,” he answered more harshly than he meant to. Mac took a deep breath and began again. “You need things, Jolie, especially when you start showing. And we’ll need baby things and a lot more stuff. I know right now you don’t feel like doing anything, but our son wants me to make you better and I promised him I would. So, tomorrow we are going shopping then we are going to see a doctor.”
She smirked. “You mean a psychiatrist?”
He took the smirk as a good sign. It was better than nothing. “Yes, for your depression and maybe someone else who can help us get our lives on track.”
Her gaze dropped down before she met his eyes again. Her brow went up in a condescending manner. “Would this someone else have anything to do with the fact you’re wearing your wedding ring again?”
Mac stopped himself from hiding his left hand. He couldn’t feel ashamed anymore if they were going to heal. He needed to face it all head first. “Yes. I made a mistake and I lied to myself for years that what I did was okay. Although, now I’m ready to face the truth and I want to give our marriage and our family the chance I denied us.” He took her hands in his, noticing that she too still had her wedding ring on. It gave him hope. “Please, Jolie, help me.”
Jolie stared at him for a long while, and he noticed that her eyes were glazing over again. He was losing her. In a stitch of desperation, he pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, putting all his emotions in it. It took him a moment to realize she wasn’t kissing him back. When he pulled away, she was staring at him with that blank look he was quickly growing to hate.
“I’ll go make dinner. Miles needs me to be normal, so I’ll go make dinner.”
She stood and left him there, staring out of the same window she did just a few minutes ago. His mind was filled with thoughts, thoughts that were slowly drowning him. He should never have made love to her then asked for a divorce.
Chapter Three
“So, how is everything?”
Mac could hear the worry in Jase’s voice. The guy was lying in a hospital bed plugged into machines that kept him alive and still he worried about his sister. Mac would have been worrying about himself...and that of course was the reason why he was in his current predicament.
He slouched into the chair with a heavy sigh. “We went shopping yesterday, for clothes and baby stuff.”
Jase nodded, a smile on his cracked lips. “That’s good. Getting her out of the house and engaging in normal activity is good for her. It should get her out of her funk soon.”
“She stayed in the car the entire time,” Mac added with a deadpan voice.
Jase dulled, his optimism completely shuttered. Mac could see it in his face. He guessed it was probably the same look Mac had on his face. He’d been so optimistic, even hiring a nanny for the entire day because what woman didn’t love shopping, especially if she was shopping for herself and a baby? He should have left that store with mountain of bags, even hiring a delivery service. Instead he walked out of both shops with the number of a stylist for Jolie and a list from the sale assistant for stuff babies needed. He’d been so tempted to drive home and let Jolie isolate herself in their room, staring out of the window, but instead he drove to a psychiatrist’s office.
It wasn’t like driving to the ER. The receptionist kept parroting he needed an appointment and he kept demanding to see the doctor. He’d reached his lowest point when he threatened to beat her with the phone, but the doctor came out just in time to save them both—the receptionist from being hospitalized or worse and Mac from prison. From where he stood, prison didn’t sound so bad. The doctor took Jolie into her office and they remained there for two hours as Mac sat impatiently in the waiting room, praying Jolie would walk out as her normal self. Instead, the same depressed Jolie was who he met, with a schedule to see Dr. Patel for one-hour sessions, five days a week.
It was why he was in Jase’s room, killing time as Jolie had her appointment.
“So where is she now?”
Mac pointed up. “A floor above us with her psychiatrist Dr. Patel.”
Jase just nodded with understanding. It was like he knew they would get to this point. How was it that all their lives had turned to shit even before they reached their thirties?
“You do know this is all your fault,” he stated matter-of-factly.
Mac nodded as he shrunk in shame under his accusing gaze. “Trust me, there is nothing you can say to me I haven’t said to myself already. Right now, I just want her to get better for the sake of our son and our unborn baby.”
Jase sighed heavily. “Well, I guess having my family here will make matters worse.”
Mac stiffened. A sick Simmons man, he could handle, but the entire clan? They would lynch him!
“Ah Jase...what exactly happened after I...ah...”
“After you left?” He threw the words at Mac with venom. The anger in his eyes stood out against his yellowing skin. “That day was the worst day of my life. Hell, even finding out I needed a new liver didn’t suck as bad. They—”
The door swung open and a timid voice floated in. “Jase?”
They both turned to the door and Mac immediately jumped to his feet. His mother-in-law was here...and she looked like she’d aged twenty years and not five. The sadness in her eyes pulled at him, and he felt uncomfortable just looking in them. That wasn’t a problem when they blazed in anger once she recognized him.
“Mackenzie, what are you doing here?” she demanded with an icy tone.
Mac stood straighter and formally said, “Mrs. Simmons, nice to see you again. I’m just visiting with Jase before I meet up with Jolie.”
The glare was gone and she looked hopeful. “You’re with her? How long have you two been together? Where is she?”
Before Mac could answer any of her questions Jase spoke. “She’s fine and that’s all you need to know. So are you here to get tested? I need a liver transplant, and I don’t have much time to kiss anyone’s ass. Where are the Simmons men?”
Mrs. Simmons blanched, visibly drawing into herself. “They are outside. They thought I should have a minute alone with you before they come in,” she whispered.
Mac looked between the two of them in confusion. What the hell was going on? What happened since he left?
She turned to leave. “I’ll just...ah...”
Mac stepped toward her, taking her arm and leading her to the chair he’d just vacated. “Don’t worry about it, Mrs. Simmons. I’ll get them.” He left the room shaking his head, questioning if he really did want to know.
“Mac?” Jake’s heavy voice boomed before he fell onto Mac in a bear hug. “Mac, my man! Long time no see. Where have you been and how long since you came back state side? Hey, Dad, Mac is here!”
Mac took a closer look at his best friend. He hadn’t changed much, except filled out in the shoulders a bit and grew out a beard. He was glad to see his friend, he’d missed him. He just hoped the reception would stay warm once he learned about his sister and Mac.
Mac smiled as he shook hands with Mr. Simmons. Unlike his wife, he looked like he’d aged appropriately, and James...wow, the guy was in a suit looking like some big shot.
“James, you a lawyer or something?”
James barely gave him a smile in return as he gave Mac a dismissive perusal. Arrogant ass!
“I’m a paralegal in Washington. I’ll be sitting for my boards soon. So how is the Army?”
Was that a sneer he detected? Mac narrowed his eyes at the pompous ass, tightening his hand around James’s until he winced and yanked his away.
“It was the Air Force, and I’m done with that now. I’m doing some other work for the military.”
James flexed his hand. “As a MP?”
Wow, this guy is really asking for it, Mac thought with a lazy smile.
Jake gave his brother a loud smack on the back of his head. “Stop being an arrogant ass, jerk off!” He rolled his eyes at Mac. “He thinks because he went to Harvard Law he’s better t
han everyone else.”
James turned his lips up in a sneer as he rubbed the back of his head. “At least I’m not a fucking plumber!”
Jake grabbed his tie, lifting him up to his toes and said, “And yet my construction business brings in more in a month than you make in three.” He released his brother who stumbled before finding his footing. Mac thought he should throw in he probably made ten times more than him. Instead he stayed silent and let Jake handle his pompous brother.
“I have assholes for sons,” Mr. Simmons mumbled moving past Mac and walking into Jase’s room.
Mac shook his head, now understanding why Mrs. Simmons looked completely done in. He followed his father-in-law in, just in time to catch Jase’s cutting remarks.
“If it isn’t god himself, come to grace me with his presence. Sorry, old man, I know you came expecting a corpse, but I won’t die until I’ve danced on your grave!”
“Jase!” his mother admonished.
“You better watch your attitude if you expect one of us to save your ungrateful ass!” Mr. Simmons barked.
Jase laughed loudly, ending in a fit of coughs and whizzing. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want anything from your family; you can all leave!”
“Jase!” His mother panicked, jumping to her feet to move closer to her sick son.
Mac stood there in complete amazement as the Simmons men hauled insults at the sick man, while Mrs. Simmons looked like she was going to pass out any minute in terror. What the hell happened to this family?
“Did you all come here to kill him faster?”
Mac turned to the door and his heart literally jumped.
* * * *
Jolie looked into each and every face in the room, even Mac’s stunned one. She could tell what he was thinking. Where did the zombie go, and who was that?
Well, Jolie couldn’t explain it herself. When she came to the door and heard the loud yelling, something inside her clicked. All these emotions bombarded her—pain, anger, sadness—and the dark cloud she’d been walking under just lifted. She looked at herself, at how frumpy she looked and she knew she couldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her at her lowest.
She rushed to the bathroom to tidy herself. First she took off the large men’s shirt—she wasn’t sure where she got it. That morning Mac had said they were leaving the house for her appointment and she was in sneakers, tights and a long vest that stretched over her midsection. She was already showing, which wasn’t surprising considering her first pregnancy had been the same. There wasn’t much to work with in her appearance, but she took her hair out of the knot it was in at the top of her head and combed it, which was surprisingly wavy as it fell around her in a thick curtain to the mid of her back. She pinched her pale cheeks until they were pink and borrowed lip gloss from a stranger. Looking at the end results, she looked like she’d just left the gym.
A gym in a hospital? A physical! Yes, if they asked she’d just had a physical...to make sure she was healthy and didn’t have...whatever had caused Jase’s liver failure.
She paused wondering why she didn’t know what made her brother sick. What else had she missed in her ten weeks of absent mindedness?
She’d then got out of the bathroom, with the shirt on but hanging sexily on her shoulders, walked to Jase’s room and loudly announced her presence. She met three steely gazes, one sad one that tagged at her heart, one shocked and yet in awe, and the other conspiratorially cheeky—that one belonged to her twin.
She pushed her way to his bed, settling on it and taking his hand. “You couldn’t wait for me? You just had to take them all on your own?”
Jase lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “It’s good to have you back, Sis.”
Jolie’s throat clogged with emotion. She knew what he meant. He thought her depression was over, but she could still feel it. Like it was waiting to pull her back into the abyss the moment she let her guard down. Whether or not she would succumb to it, all depended on how she handled herself during her family’s stay in her home base.
She gave him her best smile before she stood and faced the room. “I won’t waste time with pleasantries. You don’t care how I am and I...can’t seem to gain the sentiment to care so we’ll just get down to business. Have you all been tested to see if any of you are a match?”
“Tested? Tested for what?” James squeaked.
Jolie looked at her elder brother. He looked sharp, but the suit gave him the appearance of the man he wasn’t—one of power. Even now he stood a foot behind Jake like an obedient puppy.
“I’ll take that as a no, a double no.” She turned to her eldest brother, who was dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt, staring him dead in the eye, answering his challenge and said, “What about you, Jake, ready to think of someone else besides yourself and give your brother half your liver?”
Jase squeezed her hand. She wasn’t sure if he was telling her to rein it in or encouraging her. Either way, she wasn’t pulling any punches. She wasn’t that little girl who’d begged them for mercy when they cast her away like she meant less than garbage.
“Hallo, Jolie,” he said softly. “Congratulations on the new baby.” He stared pointedly at her belly.
Jolie gave him an insincere smile. “Jake, congratulations on your construction company. You must be proud to have it recognized as Nevada’s most promising small business.”
He looked shocked that she knew that. How could she not, when she received one letter a month giving her details on the family that had rejected her, but not being allowed to write back and share her own news.
“Did you read that in the newspaper?”
As ashamed as she felt to admit it, she had documented all their greatest achievements in scrapbooks. She had started that when she was still a member of their family and kept on when they cast her out. She even had pictures of Jake’s wedding, his son’s first birthday and James’ engagement to a senator’s daughter from the society pages, but she was never going to admit that.
“That doesn’t matter. Did you get tested or not?”
He shook his head with a smirk. “No, I didn’t. But that wouldn’t matter. I can’t donate. I just had a tetanus shot after someone I knew died because he stepped on a rusted nail at a site.”
Jolie nodded feeling a little despair. Jake wouldn’t lie to get out of donating. If he didn’t want to do something, he’d say it outright. That left one more person. Should she even ask? If she didn’t he would take that as a slight. Did she even care? Yes, because as angry as I am at him for hurting me, he still frightens me.
She turned to her father. “What about you?”
He sneered shaking his head. “What else can I expect from Ana’s daughter, but total disrespect? Have you learned nothing girl!” he bellowed, making her flinch, her free hand quickly covering her unborn baby.
She caught how stiff Mac went and something came over his face like a veil. It frightened her, and yet it gave her courage. Her father wouldn’t lift his hand against her with Mac in the room.
Pushing her shoulders back and lifting her chin she responded. “Yes I have learned something. I learned that I’m your biological daughter though I question that because I find it hard to believe I came from such a spiteful man and carry your blood in my veins. I learned that my mother was telling me the truth when she said she never cheated on you. What I haven’t learned yet is why she is still married to you after all the hell you’ve put her through.”
She saw his nostrils flare and knew immediately what was coming and yet, she felt no fear. In fact, she hoped he would try something so that she could learn something else that was very important to her and her future.
Her father took a step forward and then all of a sudden, he was up against the wall, with a heavy arm pressing his head into the wall, while another heavy arm trapped her father’s hand behind his back.
“I take issue with anyone threatening my wife, no matter who the hell they are!” Mac’s voice was cool a
nd harsh and she had to admit, it sent a chill down her spine. Jolie wasn’t sure he knew what he’d just done, but it didn’t take long before the surprise wore off and the repercussions unfolded.
“Your wife?” her father whispered.
“When did that happen?” Jake asked simultaneous to James’s “Why would you marry a woman with a child?”
Mac released her father and moved to stand before her, both shielding and blocking her view from watching the explosion. She sat on the bed next to Jase and peeked around Mac to see her father rotated his shoulder and work his jaw from side to side. It really shouldn’t give her pleasure knowing that her father had been manhandled, but it did. She’d been defenseless against him. It was good to see he’d met his match in Mac.
Mac turned to look at her, his eyes sad and pained. Why? Pinning her father like that had given him the upper hand. Her brothers wouldn’t jump him now. He held out his open hand to her and hesitantly, she placed hers in it. With a warm smile to her, he turned to face her family.
“Jolie and I got married before I left to join the Air Force. We’ve been married for five years.”
After a moment of silence, Jake began to laugh and James soon after. He probably had no idea why Jake was laughing, but was just doing it because that was what shadows did.
“That’s a joke, right?” her father demanded.
Mac shook his head, “No. I know I should have done it better, involved her family but...” He shook his head again, at a loss for words.
“She trapped you, didn’t she?” her father added with a sneer in her direction. “Loose, just like her mother!”
What? Even after the truth came out about her parentage he still despised her. So was his hate because she was a girl, was that it?
Jase snorted. “You don’t believe her, that she’s your daughter? Why would you when you can use it to control Mom?”
Jolie looked at her mother and caught the despair in her eyes. What was it that they didn’t know? There had to be more to the story, the real reason she was trapped at her father’s side, because no self-respecting woman would stay with an abusive husband.
