by Frank, Ella
I’d waited so long for this moment, wanted it so much. I made a mental snapshot of all that I was seeing then reached for the back door and stepped inside to join them.
34
Laurel
THE SOUND OF the back door opening made both Jake and Noah look in my direction. I clutched the strap of my bag and offered up a small smile.
Noah was the first to move; he shoved back from the kitchen table as though he’d been caught doing something wrong. “Hi.”
Jake rolled his eyes, and my lips twitched despite the tense circumstances.
“Hi,” I said, then walked over to the table and placed my bag on the chair beside Jake. “I didn’t expect to find you here this morning.”
For the first time ever, Noah looked uncertain of himself as his eyes shifted between Jake and me.
“Right, I wanted to talk to you before work about something, so I called Mom and she told me your address. I hope that’s okay?” Noah asked.
I placed a hand on Jake’s shoulder for comfort. For him or me I wasn’t sure, but I figured it couldn’t hurt either way. He must’ve gotten quite the shock when his father had turned up on the doorstep this morning.
“That’s fine,” I said. “I see you’ve met Jake.”
“Yes, he was kind enough to offer me breakfast.”
I looked at the two Pop-Tarts sitting on a plate in front of Noah. “Frosted strawberry with sprinkles. As you can see, it’s a family favorite.”
Noah frowned and tapped his fingers on the table’s edge. “Could we, um, talk for a minute, Laurel?”
I looked down to Jake, who was yet to say anything, but even when he nodded, I asked, “It that okay?”
“Yeah. It’s all good. You want me to—”
“No.” I shook my head and gestured to his half-eaten Pop-Tart. “You stay, finish your breakfast. We’ll be out on the front porch.”
Jake glanced to Noah, who was watching us intently, then nodded. “Okay.”
I walked around the table and stopped beside Noah. “Follow me.”
I made my way down the hall more self-conscious than I’d ever been in my life. And why? Because Noah was in my house. Actually standing, talking, and walking through my house. The place that was my safe harbor, the place that was most me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he thought of it.
I led him out the front door and over to the porch swing. I offered him a seat, but he shook his head. Fair enough. I took the spot instead, figuring I might need something stable under me, depending on how this conversation went.
I waited in silence, wanting to give him the opportunity to speak first. To ask the questions that I could see swirling in his eyes. He paced back and forth for a few minutes, twisting his hands around each other, then finally he stopped and pinned me with an unwavering look.
“He’s mine, isn’t he?”
I sucked in a breath as a sense of pure joy and automatic protectiveness warred for supremacy. But there was no way I was about to deny him now. So I straightened my shoulders, looked him dead in the eye, and said for the first time out loud, “Yes. Jake is your son.”
Although it was clear Noah had suspected as much, the shock of hearing it confirmed made him stumble back as though someone had sucker-punched him.
“Shit, Laurel.” As his ass landed on the rail behind him, he placed a steadying hand beside him and ran the other through his hair. “What the hell?”
“I know.” My voice was faint, even to my own ears. So I cleared my throat and spoke a little louder. “This must feel like the Twilight Zone to you.”
“That’s putting it fucking mildly.”
I winced and looked down at my hands. “I’ve had this conversation with you so many times in my head, and now that you’re here—”
“You actually have to follow through.”
I whipped my head up and frowned. “No. It’s not like that. I was always going to tell you.”
“Yeah, really seems that way. He’s, what, eighteen?”
“Seventeen, turning eighteen this year.”
“Jesus.” Unable to sit still, Noah began to pace again as the disbelief began to blend with anger. Then it finally got the better of him. “Why? Why did you never tell me? Did you hate me that much?”
“No.” I shot to my feet and stepped toward him. “I did want to tell you. I was going to. But when I went to see Harry to ask him where you were, he…”
Noah’s eyes narrowed and he closed the final few feet between us. “He what?”
I swallowed and lifted my head. I wasn’t going to run from this anymore. Jake knew everything, and now it was time Noah did too.
“He wouldn’t tell me. He didn’t want your family, the town, anyone to know about Jake—not even you. But that wasn’t going to stop me. I was determined to find you no matter what, and he knew it. Unfortunately, there was one thing he knew that would keep me quiet.”
“What?”
My mom’s face came to mind. Her smile, her laughter, her voice as she told me I’d make a wonderful mother no matter what, because I was strong—she’d made sure of that. And it was that strength I called on now as I retold one of my most painful memories.
My eyes blurred as I blinked up at him. “Shortly after you left, my mom was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. It was devastating. She got so sick so fast, and we struggled trying to make ends meet while she was in and out of treatment. Harry had somehow heard, of course, and when he found out about Jake, he offered to pay for her care—with one condition.”
“Your silence.”
I wrapped an arm around my waist and pressed my lips together, knowing if I spoke now, I would lose any hope I had of keeping it together.
“Laurel…”
My name in that deep, resonant voice made me look away, unable to bear the sympathy. I didn’t deserve Noah’s understanding—if anything, I deserved his anger and resentment. But right now, the truly good part of him was shining through, and was a stark reminder of just how different he was to the father who’d taken so much from him.
“Laurel,” Noah said again, then he took my hand and drew me to him. “I’m so sorry about your mom. I didn’t know.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. You weren’t here.”
“I wanted to be.” He cradled my face between his hands and swiped his thumbs over my damp cheeks. “You’ll never know how much. That morning of graduation, Harry called and told me that people around town had seen us at the hotel and were talking, and if I cared for you at all I would leave immediately and he would come and take you home, and make sure your mom knew nothing bad had happened between us. Call me naïve, but back then I still believed that part of my father was good, that he’d finally seen how much I loved you and he’d given up this stupid, old-fashioned way of thinking about who I had to marry and how I’d live my life… It wasn’t until I got home and saw my packed bags and the car waiting to take me to the airport that I realized how wrong I was.”
Noah took one of my curls between his fingers and stroked the soft strands.
“He had it all planned out from there. My schooling, my career, my future fucking wife. And he made it crystal clear that if I contacted you in any way he’d make your life a living hell. Seems like he did that anyway, goddamn bastard.”
I closed my eyes and finally let the tears slip free for all the years we’d lost, all the moments me, him, and Jake would never have, and for what? The selfish wants and desires of a monster. It wasn’t fair. None of this was.
Noah wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on top of my head, and the steady beat of his heart was like a balm to my soul.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I should’ve tried harder, should’ve found you after my mom—”
“Shh… This is on Harry, not you. Just let me hold you. Let me feel you in my arms, where you’ve always belonged.”
I tightened my arms around his waist and nestled into his embrace. Then, after what felt like an e
ternity, he shifted back and tipped my face up. The emotions in his eyes seemed to be warring with each other.
Anger, hope, pain, and desire. They were all there, and I wondered what it was he was looking for in mine.
“Does Jake know?”
I licked over my lower lip and nodded. “Yes. He worked it out on the weekend, at the baseball game.”
“So, the whole time I was in there he knew and was—”
“Checking you out? Yes. Did he grill you badly?”
Noah scoffed. “No. But I’m pretty sure he knew I was out of my depth.”
“He’s a smart kid.”
“Gets that from his mom, is my guess.”
My lips curved, and I suddenly felt…shy. “Or maybe his dad.”
Noah shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t feel particularly smart right now.”
He looked over my shoulder to the front door, then back to me.
“It didn’t even occur to me when you told me about him yesterday that…that—”
“He was yours? Why would it?”
“Because I know you. That bullshit one-night-stand crap Willa and Ryan spouted should’ve tipped me off.”
That made sense. Then something else occurred to me. “What did tip you off?”
“Ryan. He said that it was all just a rumor and told me to look closer, and then…”
“Then you did.”
Noah nodded. “And you’re sure no one else in my family knows?”
“Not as far as I know. Harry said I couldn’t tell anyone, and I can’t imagine your mom ignoring her own grandchild, can you?”
“No. I can’t. But I also can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that they’ve been around you and Jake all these years and never noticed.”
I’d often wondered that myself, but I’d always come back to the theory that if you weren’t looking for something, why would you see it? And with Noah out of the picture, it was easy to forget the little things unless you had them memorized. Unless they were what kept you alive and dreaming.
“I don’t know. But Ryan probably suspected something because he was there the day I came to see Harry.”
Noah’s back went ramrod straight, and that anger from earlier returned until it was all that was in his eyes.
“Ryan was there?”
“Well, not there. But he saw me when I went to visit Har—”
“I’ve got to go.”
Stunned by his abrupt change in mood, I frowned. “Okay. Will you—”
“I’ll be back.” He paused and then seemed to temper himself when he realized I’d moved away from him. “Is that okay? If I come back? I’d like to talk to Jake about, well, all of this. Try to explain my side of things…”
“I think that’d be good.”
“Okay. I need to go and talk to my family. Find out who knew what and when, and why I’m the last to fucking know.”
I could understand that, and I didn’t envy Ryan in that moment.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be. But I’ll call when I’m on my way. You and I are taking the rest of the day—hell, maybe the rest of the week off, paid. It’s the least Harry and that place can do for us. We have a lot to catch up on.”
35
Noah
“CALL A FAMILY meeting,” I barked at Ryan through the phone as I pulled out of Laurel’s drive and gunned my car up the road.
“Noah?”
“Yeah. Get everyone together—now.”
“It’s barely seven. Bree will be getting ready for school.”
“I don’t give a shit if she’s about to go to the fucking moon. Have someone drive her home from that prison she’s been sent to. It’s one town over. That’s fifteen minutes max.”
“Okay, okay. I can do that. You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Yeah. I looked fucking closer.”
I ended the call before Ryan could respond then threw my phone down on the seat beside me.
I was livid. Absolutely fucking livid. How could Harry have done this? To me. To Laurel. To Jake? How could he have denied his own grandchild a place in his life? In my life? How could he have denied him a place in our family?
I’d known my father was a bastard, but this was a whole other level of fucked up.
I tightened my fingers around the steering wheel until I thought I would break it, thinking about the pain and heartache in Laurel’s eyes.
I’d tried to keep it together back there, but now the anger washed over me in waves. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the nightmare of a situation Harry had put Laurel in. Not to mention the devastating decision she’d had to make as a young woman barely out of high school dealing with a terminally ill parent. How dare he let her carry the shame of his disgusting scheme for all these years?
My fury ran hot as I sped through town, going straight to the place where this sick and twisted scheme had been hatched—the winery. I needed to know who knew about this. I needed to know who had kept this from me, because it sure as hell seemed a little too convenient to think that no one else in the Chamberlin family knew what dear old Dad was up to.
I ground my molars as I pulled onto the road that led to the property, and as the rows of vines came into view, I suddenly felt nauseated.
Somewhere between meeting Jake and finding out the truth, my grief on missing out on his life had been temporarily squashed, because the reasons I’d been denied were so unimaginably vile. The shock had turned to pain, the pain had turned to sorrow, and before I could even let that all sink in, an intense rage had taken over.
As I pulled up to the gates, I stared at the emblem above and thought how satisfying it would be to drive my car right through it.
Fucking Harry. He’d been messing with my life since the day I came into it, but this time he’d gone too fucking far.
I shoved open the gates and climbed back behind the wheel, and when I slammed my foot on the gas, a cloud of dust was left in my wake. I flew up the driveway and came to a screeching halt by the entrance. The squeal of my brakes made several employees race around the front to make sure everything was okay.
When they spotted me—and the scowl no doubt etched on my face—they quickly scampered away. I was sick of being polite, sick of watching my Ps and Qs, and I didn’t give a flying fuck who knew it.
I stormed inside and past the front desk, then headed straight for my office. I needed a moment to think. A moment to collect my thoughts and put them in some kind of order before I was face to face with the rest of my family.
I took a seat behind my desk and thumped my thumb on it at a frantic pace.
Had Mom known about this? I’d kept telling myself the entire time Laurel and I had talked that there was no way. No way she would push aside a grandson, even for Harry. But how could she not?
How could she have not put two and two together, especially when face to face with Jake every day? It was clear that Ryan had some inkling, but Mom? Maybe she was just in denial. Denial that she’d married and loved a total fucking monster.
A knock on my door jolted me out of my thoughts. I looked up and spotted Ryan standing just inside the door.
“Hey.”
Not in the mood for small talk, I said, “Is everyone here?”
Ryan gave a clipped nod, so I shoved to my feet and headed around the desk. He moved out of my way without a word, but I could tell by the look in his eye that he knew exactly what was going on.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“Down in the production facility.”
I raised an eyebrow, and Ryan shrugged.
“I thought you might want some privacy.”
Yeah, no shit. Wouldn’t want the good folk of Chamberlin to hear that the golden family was harboring some major fucking secrets, would we?
We walked out across the back deck, the silence heavy between us. I had a feeling he wanted to ask more but could tell now wasn’t the time. That was smart, considering the thoughts running through my head.
&nb
sp; We’d just reached the large metal doors of the shed when Justin came strolling down from the parking lot in his usual boots, ripped jeans, and black t-shirt, carrying a motorcycle helmet in one hand. When he spotted us, he came to a stop.
“I’m here, almighty one,” he said, looking at me. “I heard you summoned us.”
“Shut it, Justin,” Ryan said before I could get a word out.
Justin frowned. “What the hell crawled up your—”
“Just go inside. Mom and Bree are already in there.”
Justin’s eyes cut to mine, and it was clear he was trying to work out what the hell was going on. But good luck with that. If he hadn’t worked it out by now, there was no way he was going to in the next five minutes. “Fine. I’m going. Keep your fucking panties on.”
He walked ahead of us, and Ryan said, “If this is about what I think it is, it’s going to destroy Mom.”
I knew the fucking feeling. “If she didn’t already know.”
Ryan grabbed my arm. “You don’t actually believe that.”
I looked down at his hand and then back up to his eyes, and all of my anger from earlier returned full steam. “I don’t know what I believe anymore. But you sure as hell didn’t call and tell me what you suspected, did you? Or the fact that, what was it, seventeen years ago Laurel showed up here looking for Harry? Then she had a fucking baby. Let go of me.”
Ryan opened his mouth, to say what, I had no clue. But whatever it was, I wasn’t in the mood to listen. I yanked my arm free and headed for the doors.
“Noah? Ryan?” Mom stepped forward the second she saw us. “What’s going on? Did something happen?” She looked back to the rest of her children, who looked equally bewildered, then shook her head. “Why are we all here? And so early?”
Well, this was it. The moment of truth.
“You’re all here because I need to talk to you about something.”
Justin dumped his helmet on the table then leaned against it. “Oh yeah? What happened now? Did you find out that someone else died and left you a million-dollar inheritance?”
