Turning away from him, I nodded at Declan and Neal who already knew no one but family and her doctors were to enter that room.
“Thank you, doctor.”
“Blake, sir, Dr. Nickolas Blake,” he said quickly, shaking my hand. I tried to leave but my mother held on to me.
“Everyone go. We need a moment.” She said it in such a way that none of us could even bring ourselves to argue. I had never heard so much anger roll off her tongue. She and my father shared a quick glance before she pulled me off to the side.
“Mother, whatever it—”
“Right now, this very moment, will define you and your marriage forever,” she said. In her eyes, all I saw was pain. “The wife you once knew is not going to be the same woman you see when you walk into the room. Imagine that Melody ‘the Boss’ is simply asleep and how you react will define how long she remains so. She needs to mourn.”
She doesn’t know my wife. She didn’t even shed a tear after her father died.
“Mel isn’t the crying type.”
My mother slapped the back of my head, something only she could do. “You’re not listening to me. Your wife was attacked. Her child was stolen from her. She isn’t the same ‘type’ you remember. At least not now. You have two choices—pull away or hold on to her even when her words and actions hurt you. Because they will, believe me they will. Do not make the same mistakes your father and I made.”
“You came through it,” I whispered. Here they were, so many years later, as in love as ever.
She smiled, but it didn’t make her eyes shine like usual. “I asked for a divorce. I had the papers drawn up and even called my cousin in Canada. Your father agreed. Had you not gone to the hospital, we wouldn’t have made it. He couldn’t handle my mood swings or all the names I called him. I couldn’t stop myself from blaming him. We made it. But we made it through the hard way. So this, son, is your defining hour, and how you react now will either break or make your future. Whatever pain and anger you are holding on to let it go before you see her or you may just lose her.”
She kissed me on the cheek before leaving me standing there, unable to even speak. I couldn’t even breathe. Walking into a nearby supply room, I let the tears fall for the child I would never get to meet—who I would never get to know—and I tried to not let myself grow angry with her. What was fucked up was the fact that my anger at Mel overshadowed my anger at Saige. I told her not go. I told her to get in the fucking safe room, but she didn’t listen. She never listened.
Slapping my cheeks, I took a deep breath before walking back out again. No one made eye contact with me until I stood right outside her door. Neal and Declan were smart enough to look away.
It felt like hours before I found the will to walk in, and to my surprise, Mel was sitting up. She looked so dazed, like she had gone to war and come back, but nothing was the same as it once was. Evelyn kissed her forehead, while Coraline gave her a small hug. Olivia stayed back. She stood next to Sedric with her head hung low as if she were some servant, and the sight of it pissed me off.
“Out,” was all I had to say before they left, and it was in that same moment that I knew my mother was right. Never in all our months together had I ever see Mel jump at my voice.
Taking a seat beside her, she shook her head at me as she fought the tears building in her eyes.
“Say it,” she whispered.
“Say what?” Anything she wanted me to say I would say.
“Say it was my fault. Say I killed our child. Say it was for the greater good, because I would have been a horrible mother anyway.”
Anything but that. Taking off my jacket, I laid next her, pulling her into my arms.
“This was not your fault, and you did not kill our child. You would, and will, be a great mother,” I whispered, kissing for forehead.
“Then why do I feel this way?” She held on to my shirt as she fought back her sobs.
I couldn’t answer, mostly because I couldn’t think of what to say. I felt so guilty for thinking that this was her fault just moments ago. This was Saige. This was the Valero, and they would pay dearly.
After Mel had gone to sleep, I let go of her and stepped out into the hallway.
Neal, Declan, Monte, Fedel, and my father all stood waiting. I didn’t trust any of them. That’s what Patrick had done. He had broken the band of trust that we kept in our innermost circles.
“How did this happen?”
“Patrick was the one who found the lead on Cross, the man Melody was interrogating.” Declan stated. “He had a CS-5 jammer implanted inside of him. With that, it blocked half of our defense codes and sensors. From there, Patrick opened the gate from the inside. He’s been working for them for mouths. We have no idea why he betrayed us. All they needed was a person willing to die, and Cross was that person. With the botched surgery he had to get the jammer inside of him he did not have long anyway. It was simple.”
“Getting into our home should never be simple,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I want him found and I want to know how no one else knew. Then I want you to call every Irish or Italian man in the damn country able to build our house. We aren’t moving.”
“Liam we can stay in the summer home—”
“We are not moving!” I yelled, breathing through my nose before taking a step back. “I will not be chased out of my home like a poverty stricken street rat. There is plenty of house left. Pick a room and deal with it, Father.”
He raised an eyebrow at me, grinning before he nodded.
“As for Vance and Saige, take photos of Amory’s body and send it to them. When you’re done, throw Amory’s body anywhere you fucking please. Ship him to the moon for all I fucking care. Just make sure Vance knows those pictures are all that he will ever have left of his son.” Part of me wished I hadn’t killed Amory outright and used him for some leverage to bring down his father.
“When are we hitting back, boss?” Fedel asked me, and I do believe that was the first time he had ever called me his boss.
“We start now.” I glanced over to them all. “Declan, gather every motherfucking hacker and suck him dry. Anything you can destroy, do it. The rest of you, your orders are the same. Shoot to kill. I don’t care if they’re in the street or their damn beds. We’re ending this if I have to bomb all of Russia to do it.”
TWENTY-NINE
“The family that mourns together
survives forever.”
~ J.J. McAvoy
SEDRIC
It was déjà vu. No father ever wanted to watch his son suffer as he had. Our sons and daughters were supposed to move forward. Make new mistakes. Forge new paths and conquer new mountains. Yet Liam was fighting my battle. I should have killed off Vance years ago. I should have prevented all this, but I failed.
Allowing the smoke to fill my lungs, I stared up at the sky.
“Sedric.” Jumping at the sound of my wife’s voice, I looked back to find her glaring at the joint in my hands.
“Sorry,” I whispered, preparing to throw it out, when she simply took it from my hands and took a long drag.
Smirking, she handed it back to me. “Only tonight. After today, it should be allowed.”
“This reminds me of college.” Smoking on the roof after a long, hard day of sex. There was some studying every once in a while also, but still.
“I was pregnant, remember? I couldn’t smoke.”
“Oh, right.” I laughed as she hit me, but I just held on to her.