He gets to his feet and leaves, slamming the door behind him. My heart aches knowing it’s going to take time for him to heal and for us to get back to where we were.
I watch DJ from the doorway of his room as he strums one of the guitars Dalton bought him.
“I know you’re there, Mom,” he says, making me smile.
“Hey, baby. That sounds amazing.”
“Meh, it needs work.”
Pride overflows inside me. He’s talented way beyond his years and has such dedication for music. I’m not sure where he gets that from but I’m happy he has it because listening to him is one of my favorite things in the world, along with the sound of his heart beat when he comes for cuddles in the mornings.
“Do you like this room?” I ask, and he shrugs and fiddles with the strings. “I’m sorry you had to meet your Dad the way you did,” I tell him sincerely.
I told him his Dad went away and that wasn’t a lie, but I didn’t tell him where or that he was back. I didn’t want him to ever think he wasn’t wanted because even when I thought Dalton didn’t want anything to do with him, I always wanted him.
“I like him.” He looks up at me and offers a small smile that mirrors his father’s.
“He likes you too, baby. Very much.”
“Do you like him?”
I laugh and nod. “I love him very much. He gave me you.”
He puts the guitar down and gets up to wrap his arms around my waist. He’s getting so tall that his head can rest on my chest now. “I want you to be happy, Mom.”
I swallow the lump forming in my throat and squeeze him tight. “That’s what I want for you too, buddy. I want you to tell me if this is all too soon and if you need time to get used to Dalton.”
“He’s my Dad, Mom. I want us to be a real family.”
“I want that too.”
Taking my painkillers, I lay down on the expensive-looking suede couch. I wake when I feel someone standing over me. My blood floods with ice and every hair on my body rises in fear.
I sit bolt upright too fast, causing a tearing pain to shoot up my abdomen. “What are you doing here?”
He pushes a finger to his lips gesturing me to be quiet. He points towards the stairs. DJ.
“He looks like him,” he says quietly.
“Get out!” I hiss.
He looks the same, only healthier. Older and fuller in the face. He has stubble but he looks clean and well kept. His dark eyes show the brother I knew in them.
“I came as soon as I heard.” He points at the bruises healing on my face. “Those fucking bastards nearly killed you.”
“Mom, is Dad back?” DJ calls out, and all my protective instincts tell me to go to him and keep him quiet.
“No, baby!” I call back, but I hear his footfalls.
I hold my hands out to Jonah, telling him not to move. I race to DJ and usher him back into his room. “It’s no-one, baby, just the TV. It’s time for you to get into bed.”
“Already? But there’s no school!” he whines.
“Mommy is so tired, baby. Please don’t fight me on this.”
He shrugs off his clothes and opens one of the drawers, which is filled with nightwear. He pulls on some sweat pants and jumps under the covers. I pick up his headphones and place them on his head. “Stay in bed now, baby, okay?”
He nods.
My finger itches to go for the phone and call Dalton but some deep-rooted bond I once had with Jonah stops me. What if Dalton kills him? Could I live with myself? Could I live with him?
“What are doing here, Jonah? You do know that Keith wants to kill you?”
“Fuck him.” He walks over to the window and looks outside. “Is Mom here?”
“No. I sent her away when I found out what you guys did to Dalton.”
He laughs but it’s more sickening than comical. “I lost everything anyway. That wasn’t how I wanted things to go.”
“You let Dalton take the fall for you.”
“Keith let him take the fall.” He turns and anger swirls in his dark eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean a Moore needed to go down. I didn’t choose which Moore.”
“Oh my God. Why didn’t you tell Dalton? Why did you let it be him?”
“Let’s not pretend I had any power there, Alex. They could have killed me.”
“Dalton was your best friend.”
“He was also fucking my baby sister behind my back.”
He comes closer, causing me to take a step back and hold my hands out. He shakes his head. “You’re still holding that against me?”
I almost laugh. “Are you joking? You tried to rape me, Jonah.”
He makes a pfft sound and waves his hands in the air in a manic hand gesture. “I wasn’t myself. I would have never really done it.”
“Where have you been all this time?”
He looks around the house before his eyes rest back on me. “Nowhere. Everywhere. I should have been there for you with the kid. You should have let me be there.”
“His father should have been there. You robbed him of that.”
“Moores don’t know how to be fathers. He would have just fucked it up anyway.”
“Why did you end up that way, Jonah? Why did you go to Keith and get involved in that life?”
“Because I found out my life was a lie.” He pulls out a chair and slumps into it. “Our mother is a hypocrite and our father was a fool.”
I sit down.
“When I was eleven I fell out of Keith’s tree trying to get your kite, do you remember?”
“Yeah. You broke your arm.”
He looks down to the scar on his elbow and rubs away a phantom pain. “Mom went crazy when she found out where it happened. I didn’t take much notice at first, but once Dad arrived at the hospital I heard them talking outside my cubicle.” He laughs. “It was a freaking curtain not a soundproof wall.”
“What did you hear?”
“Mom panicking that Keith lured me over there because he knew.”
“Knew what?” I don’t know if I’m ready for the answer but I’m also intrigued and need to hear it. He looks me dead in the eyes with no emotion. “That I’m his.”
I gasp. “That can’t be…”
“It is, and when you think about it, really think about it, I fucking look just like him. How he hasn’t put two and two together I don’t know. Maybe he has and doesn’t give a fuck.”
“Mom hates Keith.”
He shakes his head at me like I’m stupid. “Too much, Alex. She fucking hated him too much for there not to be a story there.”
Oh my God.
“Dad knew?” I ask, astonished.
“Dad always wanted her, apparently, and when she turned up at his doorstep, pregnant by the town asshole, he married her and said I was his.”
“Oh my God. So you and Dalton are related.” It’s not a question, just me thinking out loud.
He stands, making me jump. “None of it matters now.”
“Why did you come here then?”
“To see you and make sure you’re okay.”
There’s a rustling and then a bang from outside, and all of a sudden the door flies open and people enter. Jonah tries to fight them off but they hit him with the butt of a gun. I can’t move. I’m paralyzed in fear.
DJ…DJ…DJ.
“Hello again. Maybe we can finish what we started this time.” Tim Moore licks his lips and then his fist connects with the side of my head and my world is sent spinning.
My energy is heightened knowing Alex is over the street with her kid, and Dalton is leaving for the night. He had words with his uncle but I don’t trust that sleazy cockroach one bit. He’s a man on a mission and he thinks he has something to prove. Men like him don’t just let shit lie. He hates his nephew, hates that he dictates to him. It’s clear in his mannerisms, in his eyes, in his actions. I’ve seen men like him before and they’re power-hungry and have a mob mentality. Bully until people submit. I fucking hate bullies. I enjoyed killing those fuckers who hurt my girl. I ripped them from limb to limb and got a taste for blood when it coated every inch of me. I’ve just got out of prison but I’m not opposed to going back in for the right reason. Protecting Alex and honoring my friendship with Dalton is as good a reason as any.
I still remember when he first walked into my cell. His young, fresh face wary of everything, and rightly so. You hear people say, “I’m too pretty for prison”. In his case that was true. He would have been eaten alive in there if it wasn’t for his name and the fact he went in ready to protect himself. I admired that. He reminded me of myself. Men prey on the weak inside those walls. I preyed on their wariness. No one knew me or what I was in for, they just heard whispers and tales. So I kept myself a mystery. I looked every fucker in the eye and made a point of putting myself out there. If anyone wanted to take a shot at me they would only get one chance, and no one did. The beast in me must be scarier than I think. But this kid, he didn’t back down when I dared him to take back his pillow. He didn’t try to get to know me and beg me to help him out when some cunt picked a fight with him in the shower. He was looking after him, letting people know he was there to do his time and he would do whatever he had to to make it out the other side. He didn’t flaunt his father’s name around when his Dad was in solitary. I liked him, and opened up to him. Men like him, if they’re weak in prison, end up becoming someone’s plaything. or they get their pretty face cut up from jealous fuckers. He came out just as pretty as he went in… on the outside anyway.