FRACTURE: Hearts of Stone Book Six

by Woodward, Kaya

  She comes around the desk and wraps her arms around me, but I feel nothing.

  “It’s over,” I say.

  “Aidan give us a moment,” Athena requests.

  “Are you sure?” Aidan asks.

  “Before you make some inappropriate joke and upset him further, yes,” Athena says sharply. She has a short fuse, at times, and can deliver some stinging rebukes if she gets in a mood.

  Aidan chuckles lightly and leaves, closing the door behind him.

  I am pretty sure he is thanking his lucky stars for having avoided her ire.

  “Evan, what happened?” Athena asks.

  She sits down in one of the leather chairs across from me.

  “Leigha decided that I deserve to have a chance at a family with Vic, and didn’t give me much of a choice. She didn’t even ask me what I want. All I want is her,” I confess to my aunt.

  “Evan,” Athena begins to speak.

  She pauses, looking around the room.

  I suppose she’s wondering what Noah would do, at this point.

  Only, Noah’s not here.

  She looks at me directly, still mulling over her thoughts. Finally, she sits back and blows out a breath.

  “Well, I honestly don’t know what to say,” she tells me. “If your father were here…” Athena begins but trails off when she doesn’t know how to continue, tears in her eyes.

  “There’s nothing anyone can say,” I reply.

  It’s a small nugget of wisdom with which I have made an uneasy peace. My marriage to Leigha is over. Right now, I only care about that.

  Despite Ethan, I’ve no desire to make anything work with Vic.

  On the other hand, I’d do anything to get Leigha to take me back.

  My previous fuck ups regarding her don’t help the situation either.

  “Leigha deserves better,” I say the words out loud, and it hurts.

  “Leigha deserves to be with the man she loves, and that’s you,” Athena corrects me.

  “Life isn’t fair,” I spit the words out.

  “No, it isn’t,” Athena agrees.

  Noah Stone would know precisely what to do and what to say.

  Even if I hated hearing his words, I knew that they’d provide me with much-needed perspective.

  I try to think like him, but I fail, miserably at it.

  He’s one hell of a man in whose footsteps anyone would try to follow.

  Being his son only emphasizes the size of how gigantic those shoes are to be filled.

  * * *

  Athena takes the bottle from the shelf and pours herself a drink. Before she sets it down, she takes a healthy swig.

  “What are you going to do?” she asks.

  “I don’t know, honestly, because Leigha’s going away with Merc, and I can only assume she’s going to move on with him. If not right away, if not now, then eventually. I doubt Merc will leave her to some shithead,” I tell her.

  I fear my worries are valid.

  And, if I am candid with myself, Merc deserves Leigha, as much as I don’t want to admit it.

  As if reading my mind, Athena chuckles.

  “Not him,” Athena says with an eye roll.

  “He lied to both of you! I highly doubt that Leigha isn’t going to trade you in for Mercutio,” she tells me, her voice full of disdain for him.

  Briefly, I wonder why she hates him so much, but frankly, I don’t care. My aunt’s hatred of Merc isn’t going to change the fact that Leigha is with him.

  She’s probably kissing him this very instant, telling him she loves him, that she’s never loved anyone as much as she loves him.

  I torture myself with the thought for a moment, while Athena slowly drinks her vodka.

  Fuck that! Leigha will never love anyone the way she loved me!

  We built something together! We’ve built a whole life revolving around the idea that we would last forever!

  How could she let me go so quickly?

  Suddenly, I’m full of anger and spite for the woman I adore.

  My mind warps back to the crucial mistake I know I made: dinner with Vic, in our home.

  When Leigha walked in wearing that little dress, she took my breath away, and I knew at that moment nothing was going to convince me or change my mind: she belongs to me, with me! Leigha Bergmann is mine!

  “Evan, if there’s one thing I learned, it’s when to move on,” Athena breaks the silence.

  Again, with the mind-reading…

  “I refuse to accept that,” I tell her instantly.

  “Why should I?” I snap.

  “Sweetheart, I don’t think you have a choice,” Athena points out.

  I stand suddenly and move away from the desk. I’ve nothing more to say to her.

  Even though Athena was my voice of reason growing up, it doesn’t mean I ever listened. When I was younger, I rarely took Athena’s advice, and I’m not going to start now.

  It would be easier if I didn’t think that at this moment Leigha is in bed with Merc.

  I force myself to picture them together, twisted in the sheets and making love.

  Him fucking her, and she crying out in joy as he makes her cum, again and again.

  The rage I feel is all-encompassing.

  For further torture, I toss in the thought of Leigha’s belly swollen with Merc’s child.

  “Leave me,” I growl.

  Athena finishes her vodka and sets the delicate crystal glass down on my desk with a resounding thump.

  “Fine,” Athena says, standing.

  “You’re not Noah, Evan, and you won’t ever be. But maybe you can act like the man he’d expect you to be, for once. Not some whining crybaby,” she says, acerbically.

  Good old Aidan was right about leaving when he did. I pity him if he says anything to her for the rest of the afternoon, though.

  I pick up the vodka and pour another glass. Athena makes a face, and then storms out, and slams the office door behind her so hard the vodka in the bottle ripples.

  Poor Aidan…

  * * *

  Whenever I need to clear my head, I go for a swim.

  With everything going on, and the vodka, and Athena, I need a good dip, and some laps to work out the kinks.

  When I get to the pool in my swim shorts, it’s not empty.

  Vic is in the shallow end with Ethan.

  “He can’t swim, obviously, but at almost four months, I figured it wasn’t a bad idea,” Vic tells me.

  “He’s adorable,” I say.

  Ethan’s eyes are wide as Vic holds him in the water. His little arms splash lightly, and the smile on the kid’s face is so broad that I can’t bring myself to regret him. Ethan is part of my life now, and I wouldn’t trade that, not for anything.

  I still can’t believe Leigha, and I are truly finished.

  I walk into the shallows and sit down next to my ‘family.’

  I take stock for a second, mentally saying the word. It feels alien to me, in this context.

  Yet, here we are.

  “Are you okay, Evan?” Vic asks. “I know you signed the papers today, and, well, that must be hard.”

  I know that, on top of everything else, I’ve broken her heart. For her to be so casual and forgiving is a massive concession for her to be making.

  Of course, I’ve lost Leigha, so I guess we’re even now.

  “I feel worse for you,” I ignore the question.

  I push the water around with my feet and even splash the boy with some of it. He chuckles and giggles, as I play with him. He’s melting my cold, Stone heart, all right.

  I look at Vic, who is just content with enjoying the day. She’s got her son and his father.

  Why should she be worried?

  I see the way the light highlights her hair and face and think of how much motherhood agrees with her. She’s radiant. Beautiful, even, in a different way that suddenly has me crossing my legs in discomfort.

  Down, boy, I say to myself.

  Vic gri
ns. I think she knows.

  Everyone is telling me to let Leigha go. Even Tinsley! And, she believes in true love.

  Everyone except Ava. She is convinced that I need to keep on fighting for my soulmate.

  Like Corban did. For her…

  But what can I do?

  I can’t give up having Ethan in my life.

  The boy tips over, and comes up sputtering, and laughing. His little head is full of mirth, and Vic bounces him in the water. She’s delighted!

  I smile at them. I feel I could quickly learn to love Vic if this is what I would gain.

  Ethan is not a business to toss away.

  Corban tossed away his business for Ava. He made her the center of his entire life.

  Truth be told: I cannot and will not hurt Vic any further than I already have.

  She smiles as Ethan tips over again.

  “Silly boy! Look at you, all wet and funny!” she teases.

  Ethan blurts and gurgles, and she hugs him to her, and he plays with her hair. She kisses his nose, and he happily grabs hers. Vic looks over at me, and it breaks my heart, the feeling of how lucky I am.

  Despite Leigha.

  Despite losing my father.

  Despite the Three Witches.

  I feel suddenly melancholy as if I am standing on the edge of a high precipice, and all it would take is for one small push that would propel me into a disaster.

  Vic takes hold of my hand, holding Ethan to her.

  “Evan, honestly, I’ll make it. I’m fine because I’ve got Ethan, and he’s my world. As much as I want to hold everything against you, I can’t do that. Not everything is your fault, Evan. A lot of it was because of me. Of the choices, I had to make, to protect you and our son. You’re his father. You gave me Ethan,” Vic is honest with me, no holding back.

  This is a severe change from the Vic that I know.

  For a moment I think that it’s too bad that Vic and I didn’t get to this point sooner. Maybe we both knew something was wrong with our relationship, and going that far would end badly for everyone.

  I think back to my dream about Leigha’s daughter with Merc, and Leigha and I carrying on our affair anyway. Nothing mattered in that dream, not even the families we were about to break up.

  “I don’t think it would’ve worked in the long run, Evan,” Vic interrupts my thoughts.

  “If you felt that way about Leigha all this time, even if I didn’t leave, even if we ended up together, I still think Leigha would’ve been the woman in your heart. I want a man whose heart is mine. I am a bit envious of her, to be sure. But the man I love has to put me first, Evan. And, sadly, it’s just not you. I can see that” Vic confesses.

  “You deserve to be happy, too, Evan,” she continues.

  “I just don’t want to go back and forth in court over who gets Ethan when, and all that bullshit,” I say to her.

  I watch my son, now nestled against her bosom.

  “Vic, we need to make this work. For him. For us, too. I know you said you’d stay here temporarily, but stay for a while, okay? You don’t have to make it temporary. We’ve got a ton of room here, and I like having Ethan close,” I say.

  Then I drift into the water, and turn over on my back, staring at the sky.

  Vic gets up to get out of the pool.

  I see her tending to Ethan and think again about luck.

  Why did Noah keep her all that time?

  I dive under, the cold water cleansing my addled brain.

  I come up, sputtering, and Vic is drying the boy.

  “Well, what do you think?” I ask.

  She turns to look at me, and again, I marvel at how different her becoming a mother has made her. She smiles at me, and I am glad that my lower body is under the water.

  “Thank you for that, Evan. I truly appreciate that you want to be in his life. I wasn’t sure if Leigha was going to make you choose,” Vic admits.

  “She would never do that. I know why she left me. She thinks that it will be easier for us to fall back together. Honestly, Vic, I don’t see that happening,” I blurt.

  I suck in a breath after I say this. It sounds so raw, even to me. It’s cruel. It’s mean.

  “Sorry, Vic, I just am having a hard time with my feelings right now,” I apologize.

  “Me, too, Evan” Vic agrees.

  “I see the way you look at her. I know how torn you are. I also have resigned myself to the fact that you’ll never look at me the way you look at Leigha,” she adds.

  “I’m sorry. Honestly, I am,” I tell her.

  “Me, too, Evan, me too. Don’t worry about us. Ethan and I will be fine,” she says stoically.

  “I will always worry about you and Ethan, don’t forget that,” I remind her.

  “You two are a part of my family, whether or not Leigha is in it,” I tell Vic.

  “You mean that?” Vic asks hopefully.

  “Of course! I’ll always be looking out for you,” I comfort her.

  I see the tears of gratitude in Vic’s eyes, and I reach out with my free hand to wipe one of them away.

  Vic turns her head at the last second.

  “You can’t do that, Evan,” she whispers.

  I am taken aback.

  “I’m still in love with you, you know. You’re not going to be easy to get out of my system. You need to give me time to get over this,” Vic says painfully.

  For the first time, I feel the loss of what we could’ve had, even though I know it wasn’t meant to be.

  “Come on,” I tell her, and I offer her a towel.

  She wipes her tears away with it.

  “Thank you. You always were a gentleman, Evan. Like your father,” she says.

  She is smiling, so I know she meant it as a compliment. It makes my heart soar, to think anyone feels I can measure up to Noah Stone, in any capacity.

  I give her a peck on the cheek.

  “Let’s take Ethan out for dinner,” I say to her.

  Vic hesitates, and then a smile spreads across her face.

  “Alright, let’s do just that!” she smiles.

  10

  Leigha

  January 9, 2019

  Maldives

  It feels good to hold a gun again.

  It feels good to know that I have some control over my life once more.

  If it’s going to come crashing to the ground again, it will be my choice.

  I made a conscious choice to come with Merc.

  It wasn’t his mistake to make. It was mine.

  “The water is so clear here,” I say to him, conversationally.

  I grin.

  He scowls at me, for the tenth time this hour.

  It’s another lame attempt to break the ice.

  He’s furious that I was allowed to come with him on this mission.

  “It’s great,” he replies.

  Merc’s tone is blasé, like when someone is familiar with something.

  “I take it you’ve been here before?” I ask.

  We’re anchored in his boat, in what feels the middle of the Indian Ocean.

  The Ari Atoll stretches out in front of us miles away, while we bide our time.

  “Yup,” is all Merc says to me.

  I huff. Merc says nothing, stone cold again. The almost imperceptible tilt of his head is the closest I get to a response. Trying to pry Merc open when he’s emotionless like this is impossible.

  Merc says nothing and I lounge in the back seats, silent.

  “It’s not you,” Merc says finally.

  “Then what is it?” I persist.

  He shrugs, shutting me out, once more. It’s fucking exasperating.

  Back when we were in boarding school, he’d do the same thing and not speak to Evan and me for days.

  I walk across the boat and plop my ass next to him.

  My boobs bounce a little, and I smirk as he notices it.

  Men.

  I put a hand on his arm. He looks at it, as though it’s some weird bug.
/>   “Merc, it’s me. We can talk to each other, remember? I know you’re James Bond now, and I’m intruding on your fun, but it’s still us,” I say, my words laying everything on the table.

  “Leigha, do you ever think about the time I asked you to leave? To come away with me? To leave it all behind and go with me, wherever?” Merc asks suddenly.

  I sit bolt upright in the plush, white padding.

  “What?” I say. I’m confused.

  “Do you think about it?” he asks.

  Even though he’s scanning the horizon, I can see his eyes lock onto mine for an instant, impatient for the answer.

  “Is this something that’s suddenly bothering you, Merc?” I ask.

  He doesn’t say anything.

  I look out at the waves. There are a few gulls, way up in the blue sky, but we’re pretty far out. I turn to face him again.

  “It’s not far from my mind,” I admit.

  “Well, I think about it all the time. I think about how I should’ve made you come with me. I should’ve dragged you kicking and screaming from Evan because I knew, I knew, it was the right thing to do,” Merc says.

  His words are like a knife into my heart, and I’m suddenly aware that not all of that dream was, in fact, a dream.

  Some of Merc’s speech, I’m suddenly sure that was real.

  Oh my god…

  I cried over Evan in his arms all night. The truth is, a part of me will always love Merc for what he is to me.

  But my heart belongs to Evan, probably for all the wrong reasons.

  “Why are you telling me this?” I ask quietly.

  Merc presses his lips together; his chocolate eyes darken, and his brow furrows for a moment. Then his face is expressionless the next second.

  “Oh, this is where you wanted to come,” I finally realize.

  Merc nods a real nod this time.

  “I’ve always had money put away, for whenever I decided to leave. You were the only person that made me think about actually doing it,” Merc admits.

  His honesty makes me hurt for him. It makes me want this. Sitting in a speedboat, in the middle of the day, just enjoying each other. My mind drifts to how it could be - late lunches, casual days walking the beach barefoot, and long sultry nights.

  That’s what we could’ve had. But it’s too far away now.