He winks at me, “You just worry about packing, I assure you, I have taken care of the rest.”
The night warms up with excitement as we sit down to eat but before we can begin we are informed of a guest. Nick tells the guards to let them in and he rushes to meet whoever it is.
“Kayla, come here please, I want you to meet someone.” Nick calls out to me.
With Brayden in my arms I walk out to see Jonathan Coulton, “Mr. Coulton, I am sorry we did not realize you were coming or we would have waited on dinner. Would you like to join us?”
He smiles awkwardly, looking over me as if he has never seen me before. “Thank you, but I don’t want to intrude I only wanted to thank your husband for his support and have a chance to meet his beautiful family.” Coulton looks down at Brayden. “He is beautiful.”
“Thank you, do you have children, Mr. Coulton?”
My question seems to have caused him some pain, which immediately makes me regret asking. “Yes, one. But please call me John.” Nicky comes running into the room right up to Mr. Coulton as if he knows him. He laughs, “I met this young man the other day.” He says leaning down to Nicky and pulling out a toy car from his bag. “If I recall, you like cars?”
Nicky instantly becomes excited, “Thank you!” He squeals before holding it up to Nick to show him.
“He does love cars. Why don’t you two talk while I take him to finish his dinner.” Taking Nicky by the hand, Nick picks Brayden out of my arms and smiles at me. “I am not sure he will finish it now, but better try before he gets too involved in his new toy.”
Coulton stops Nick with a simple hand gesture, “You should know that our old friend has decided to avoid arrest and has taken his own life. The Welch family was quite disappointed in their son’s failed attempt to be the next President, and even more so in his dealings with criminals.”
“Can’t say I am sorry to hear that but for his family I am sorry.” Nick says smiling back at me as he leaves with Nicky and Brayden.
I look back at John, fidgeting with my shirt. “Sit down please. I feel horrible leaving you on your feet for so long.” John says, helping me to a seat where he can sit comfortably next to me. “I brought something for the new little one too but you can wait to open that later.”
“Thank you, but I get the feeling that you are not here to give us presents, nor to thank my husband for some donation that he probably gave.”
“You are smart. Nick told me how intelligent you are. He said that you are beautiful too but I had no idea how much.” He glances my way. “I’m sorry, I have made this more awkward than I thought possible. I should probably tell you that I knew your mother once.”
My jaw drops to the floor, “When? I don’t remember her ever talking about you. No offense, but I am sure that she would have mentioned you.”
“It was before you were ever born.” He looks my way again. “I really cared for your mother, but she had her demons, more than I could deal with. Actually, I didn’t even know about you until the other day when Nick came to my office. I guess your mother tried to contact me. I don’t know. I cut her off purposely from my life. I married my wife and … I do love her, and oh the things she puts up with for me. I told her about you, she wants to meet you.”
Pushing my way from my seat I stare down at him with shaky hands, “What are you trying to tell me?”
With a deep exhale he stands to meet me, “I swear I had no idea you even existed until the other day. Maybe if I had taken a second to look into your eyes I might have seen your mother, maybe even a little bit of me.”
Stepping back, I stare at him in disbelief. “I don’t know what you expect me to do with this information? Do you think I am going to jump for joy, run into your arms and call you Daddy? My life was hell, pure hell and to think that even a small portion of that hell could have been prevented if you had - just gave a damn! Don’t tell me that you didn’t avoid her or shut her out immediately or that you had no idea about me.”
“I didn’t have any idea. Yes, I shut her out because I could not convince her to stop drinking. I thought maybe if I threatened her with leaving that she would try or at least let me get her some help. I had to shut her out because it hurt too much to see her that way. I loved her but I wasn’t going to watch her kill herself.”
“She hated me. She told me every day how much she hated me because I reminded her of my father.” I cry, understanding a lot more about my life than I ever have before.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry Kayla for everything. I don’t expect to be forgiven but I had to try. I can’t have children now, you are all I have got.” I shake my head walking away from him. “My wife is a wonderful woman, you would really like her.” Meet his perfect wife, he is crazy? “Marilyn is dying, she refuses to go through anymore treatments. She wants to help me meet my dreams so she can rest peacefully, she says.” Turning back towards him, I watch the tears form in his eyes. “I can’t tell you how scared I have been – to be without her. To be alone. We thought about adoption but there never seemed to be a good time.”
“Is that why you’re here? Because you are afraid of being alone? You want an instant family to make everything alright for you, keep you from having to suffer for even a moment.” I seethe back in his tear filled face.
“I may not have suffered compared to you but I am suffering now and always will when it comes to you. How would you feel if you found out your son was put through hell and back again and you could have done something to prevent it - but you didn’t? That kind of pain never goes away, that guilt will stay with a person forever. I don’t expect your forgiveness and maybe I feel better not receiving it, but I will never stop trying to earn it.” Glancing his way I look into his eyes for the first time. I don’t move, I don’t run from him like I should. No, instead I stand near him and watch him as he reaches his hand out slowly to me. After waiting seconds he decides to take hold of mine within his own. I let him but I don’t allow him any closer than that. “It’s a start.” He says with a half smile.
Nick waits for me in our room, rightfully on edge, wondering if I am angry with him or not. “Are you going to yell at me?” He asks.
“Should I?” I ask with a heated tone.
“You can if it makes you feel better. You can even be angry with me if you want.” He watches me stand away from him, holding myself with tears dried up in the corners of my eyes. “You know, it was Braylin that first told me that you wanted to know who he was. That you were determined to seek him out the first chance you got. Even since we have been together you still bring it up. You even checked your birth records, talked to nurses, who didn’t remember you. He has broken your heart countless times and I thought it was about time that he knew that.”
“You thought it was good idea to tell him and let him tell me?” I say, pursing my lips to keep for crying.
“Yes, Kayla. You would have watched him for months, maybe years, but you would have never approached him. You think he is out of your league even as a father. The only way to get you to talk to him was for him to come to you.” Nick says so sure of himself. I hate that about him. Too cocky for his own good.
“I hate you.” I say, watching him nod but still holding his hand out to me. “I really do.”
“It is not the first time, Princess.” He says, taking my hand and pulling me into his warm, strong arms. He lets me cry all my frustrations out on his shoulder as he soothes all of it with his touch, a whisper or the feeling of his lips against mine.
Chapter 48
~Nick~
Revenge: the act of retaliating for wrongs done to you. The definition is simple. Most would say it is best to forgive and forget but there are some things you can never forget and therefore you certainly can’t forgive. My family is a piece of me. You come after them, then you will have to deal with me.
It feels good to be back, but before I can meet up with my family and take them to our secluded home away from it all, I have one thing I have to do - alone
. My parents’ graves are nowhere near as nice as this one, Tanners is being prepared to be even better but this one will always remain just as important. The day they lowered her coffin into this ground, I decided I would never let anyone get close to me again. Placing the flowers near her name, I wonder about what Elijah said. “I wish I could say I don’t miss you. You were so important to me but I have moved on and I need to let you go for good. Reaching into my pocket I pull out the faded scarf mailed to me months after her death and I tie it around the vase of flowers. I had hoped that she was alive, but after I met Kayla I understood where my heart was supposed to be. I need Franky to know that, if she is alive then she should know. “I don’t know if it was you or your father that sent this scarf to me, but I think it is time that you have it back. Good-bye Franky.” One last touch of the fabric she once wrapped around my neck to keep warm and I let it go, let her go. Leaving her notice, if she is alive, I need her to know I stopped waiting for her. Somberly I walk back to the car, letting my past go and embracing what is ahead of me. Lionel opens the car door for me. “You drink Lionel?”
“Not really but I could eat if you are buying?” Lionel glances in the mirror to see if I am willing.
“Sure, I feel like celebrating. Just make sure I catch my flight tonight. I have a family vacation to get to.”
“Yes, Sir.” He smiles for the first time since I have known him.
Lionel is a good man. I miss my uncle, but I like Lionel more and more every day and even more so when he makes sure I meet up with Kayla and the boys to catch our flight - to our secret place.
Kayla runs to me as soon as she sees me coming through the door, “You made it!” She says with a kiss. “I won’t ask what last-minute business you had to take care of, I will only ask how you are feeling about things?”
Smiling wide, I look deep into my wife’s eyes, “It feels good to be alive again, Princess.”
“And so the devil lives on …” Kayla smiles back at me.
Epilogue
~Nick~
Back from our family vacation and the first person I have to deal with is the chief of police. You would have thought he would annoy me less with more responsibility on his shoulders, but Simone is determined. Even more so with his new position. He rambles on and on about the evidence and the reasons why I should help him, but he has no idea what he is getting into. No idea what Dennis Savage can do to him. Savage, if he is The Baron, is a psychopath and will destroy Simone without blinking eye. I do my best to talk him out of it, to threaten him out of it, but the man has clearly had this on his mind for a long time.
Simone’s story is a hard nightmare for him to live with. He tells me he was hiding in the attic when they came. His father was investigating some murders and Simone didn’t find out until much later that the murders were connected to The Baron. His father was warned, but just like his son he believed in justice and set out at all costs to do his job with pride. A pride he held onto even when several men broke into his house late one night and beat him to death. A disgusting, miserable way to die and his wife was forced to watch every second and his son, heard every second. Simone still remembers the voice, that cold harsh voice telling his mother, “Take this knife and push it into your heart or I will kill you the same way as your husband.” He never heard her scream, just a sharp cry out before the deadly silence. Simone was lucky enough to have access to the attic from his bedroom closet and ran there when he heard his father scream out. The men assumed he was still in his bed asleep. He left his bed in such a hurry that he left his teddy bear behind and created a child-like figure within the blankets. They shot his bed, his bear, several times in the dark and left quickly soon after. He left the house and ran to his grandmother’s and told her everything. Smartly, she claimed he was with her the whole night and made him promise to never tell anyone differently for his own protection and he has kept that promise - until now.
“I don’t care if you help me or not, I am going after Savage. He cannot hide as The Baron any longer. I have an entire force to take him down with now, and if you get in my way I will take you down too.” Simone walks out with a chip larger than life on his shoulder and no one is going to be able to knock it off. The only way to remove it is to remove the pain he has carried for so long.
“What was that about,” Dwayne asks me.
“Apparently, we have a new enemy …”
Jennifer Loren, The Devil's Revenge
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