Shaking my head, I kept walking backward, my tears blinding me. “I don’t believe you. How could you keep any of this from me? I thought you loved me.”
“I do,” he rasped. “Baby, I love you more than anyone. You are my other half, the fucking reason I even get out of bed in the mornings. Please, just listen to me. I can explain everything if you will give me five minutes.”
“Why?” I cried. “So you can lie to me more? Feed me more bullshit? You promised no secrets, that we would tell each other everything, and yet you kept something as major as this from me. You lied.”
“Kitten, you were so distraught over your dad, I didn’t want to add more stress on you. I was never going to marry Darcy. It was just an idea Lyla came up with to find out if Darcy was pregnant like she was telling everyone.” I made a distressed sound, causing Lyric to move closer to me protectively. “She is, but it’s not mine. I swear on everything I love and hold dear, I’m not the father of her child. Fuck, baby, I hadn’t even seen her in years until the night of my parents’ party.”
“Then who the hell is the father?” I demanded, unsure if I believed him or not.
“I don’t know yet. I’ve had a tail on her for the past week to see what he can find out about her.” He moved closer, but I grabbed Lyric’s arm and used him as a human shield to keep Braxton away. I could barely see him over my cousin’s shoulder, but I was sure everyone in the hospital heard his feral growl, and for a moment, I actually worried about Lyric’s safety. “Goddamn it, Nevaeh, let me touch you. I can’t stand this distance between us. I’m not marrying Darcy. I’m not the father of her baby. You are the only woman I love, and right now, you are ripping my fucking heart out.”
The pain in his voice only made what I was feeling that much more intense, but I refused to give in.
“Having Darcy show up at our door, finding out you were keeping shit from me, that tore my heart out, Braxton!” I yelled at him over Lyric.
“Hey, hey, hey!” I stiffened at the sound of Mom’s voice and clutched even tighter at my shield. “Why are you screaming out here?”
I turned to face her. When I saw her ashen face and the tears on her cheeks, my knees went weak. “How is he?” I asked, my breath coming out in gasps.
Her eyes went to everyone before they landed on me, and something softened in her tense face. “He’s in pain but good. He told me to tell you how much he loves you.” Then she looked at everyone else again. “Mia, I think you should take your friends back to your house. This isn’t the time for whatever is going on with you guys, and I won’t have Nevaeh more upset than she already is. That is only going to stress Drake out more.”
“I agree,” Uncle Nik announced, coming out of the men’s room. The look on his face told me he must have heard everything. There was something dark in his expression as he looked at his daughter. “After the hell you’ve put me through for keeping everything from you two years ago, I’m surprised you would keep secrets from anyone, Mia. Least of all from Nevaeh.”
“This isn’t like that at all,” she told him with a stubborn lift of her chin. “I just wanted to protect Nevaeh.”
“Yeah, and that was what I was doing with you, but that whole situation ruined our entire relationship, didn’t it?” He walked around Braxton and Lyric and put his arm around my shoulders. “Now, whatever you have to say to each other can and will wait until later, Mia. For now, take your ass home and stay there.”
Chapter 20
Nevaeh
No one but Mom was allowed to see Daddy for the rest of the night. The doctor wanted him to rest, and depending on his pain level the next day, we would get to see him then.
Mom and Aunt Harper both decided to stay, but they wanted us kids to go home and get some rest. Luca took Violet and Mason home, and one of Aunt Emmie’s security team drove me home with Bliss, Heavenleigh, and Damien. But it was Jordan who drove Arella home. I didn’t even want to know what was going on there. She was too young, and he was nothing but a player. My sister was going to get her heart broken by him, but I didn’t have the energy to argue with her over it.
At home, I made a snack for everyone and then went to take a shower. I felt drained, but when I lay down a short while later, I couldn’t get my brain to turn off, so I just stared sightlessly at my ceiling in my darkened bedroom. The house felt too quiet, empty without Mom and Daddy there.
My phone went off, and I reached out blindly to grab it off the side table. Lifting it, I saw it was a text from Braxton and debated the pros and cons of throwing my phone against the wall. But in the end, I just dropped the damn thing back onto the nightstand because it was my only method of immediate contact with Mom. If something happened to Daddy in the middle of the night and she couldn’t reach me…
I heard the door open, and I lifted my head off my pillow to find four shadows sneaking in. “Come on,” I told them and pulled back my comforter. Patting the bed beside me, I waited until all four of my siblings climbed in before covering us all up.
Damien was the one snuggled up against me, with my three sisters squished up behind him. It was only a queen bed, not made for five people, least of all my squirmy as hell siblings. The mattress protested when Bliss and Heavenleigh twisted and turned until they found a comfortable position.
Despite feeling like hell, I found myself smiling and kissed my baby brother’s brow.
“Daddy’s really going to be okay…right, Nevi?” I wasn’t surprised by the question, but that it was Arella asking it made my heart ache. She was always so confident, so strong like Mom, that I sometimes forgot she could be just as vulnerable as me.
Reaching across the other three, I caught her hand and linked our fingers together. “Yeah, he’s going to be fine,” I told her. The truth was I didn’t know, but my heart wouldn’t let me tell her anything but what she—what we all—really needed to hear.
“PopPop said Dad loves Mom so much, there was no way he’d die,” Damien
said, then yawned loudly. “PopPop said Dad would just make a deal with the man on the other side to come back, and if that didn’t work, he’d fight his way back to Mom. Because nothing can keep them apart. Not even death.”
“Sounds like something Daddy would do,” Heavenleigh said with a choked laugh.
“I want that,” Arella said wistfully in the dark.
“What?” Bliss asked, sounding confused.