No Going Back (5 page)

“Seth, baby,” Allison coos, trying to rub my arm. “Don’t listen to anything…” I shut her up by signaling her to zip it with my hand.

“Your baby isn’t alive Seth. She had an abortion. Now she’s lying to you because your band has taken off. This is strictly about money and screwing you over.” He turns a hard gaze towards Allison, who is slowly trying to make her escape.

“Is that true?” I knew something was off from the get go, but damn, I didn’t think it would have been this shady.

“If I say no, would you believe me?” She doesn’t stop walking backwards. That alone speaks volume. She knows she’s fucking caught. I don’t have time for her fucking lies anymore. I turn my attention back to Mr. Fucking Remington. Damn, that brother of mine always had an odd feeling about this guy. Looks like I’m about to find out why.

“How did you know?” I ask, wondering what his motives are behind showing up here like a damn super hero.

“Well, it’s a long story. Is there any way we can talk in private?” Doug asks. I nod back towards my dressing room. “Your brother needs to come too,” he adds. Now he has my mind running wild.

Before Derek even closes the door all the way, I’m telling Doug to spill it. I’ve waited to damn long for answers.

“First off, don’t listen to a thing that little tramp out there says. She just wants your money. Your daughter is not alive. Allison didn’t have a miscarriage; she was still pregnant when she told you that.” He takes a seat on the couch and runs his hand through his hair before he perches himself up, resting his elbows on his knees. “She had an abortion after she took off. Everything she has told you are lies.”

“And how in the hell would you know that? How do you know any of it? Because I’m still trying to figure out where the hell you fit into this picture.”

Then it clicks. I remember one thing Allison told me that day she showed up.
“Your father paid me to run off and give our child up for adoption. He didn’t want us ruining your music career.”

“
Fuck,
you paid her to have an abortion, didn’t you?” I shake my head. I’m so stunned right now. This guy paid her to get rid of our child. I didn’t get a fucking say in the matter. As badly as I want to strangle this guy claiming to be my dad, I keep my cool. I want to know everything this guy has to tell me. By the looks of things, he’s been stringing us all around as if we were his own little puppets.

“No, that wasn’t part of the plan.” He sighs, “Let me start from the beginning.” He leans back and relaxes into the couch before letting out a sigh. “Daryl is my brother. Well, half-brother. Just like you and Derek have different dads, we did as well. I obviously lucked out with the better dad, while Daryl grew up on the other side of the tracks so to speak, I had the good life. The scenario is rather ironic, seeing that Derek got the short end of the stick just like Daryl did in the father department.” I laugh.

“I don’t consider my life the short end of the stick,” Derek counters before I can fully grasp what this man is implying. I’m pretty sure that I received the same damn stick out of life as Derek did.

“Wait. Wait. Wait. So you’re telling me you let your scummy brother claim me as his own? You knew what kind of childhood Derek and I had, and you did nothing? With me being your son, and Derek being your nephew, you just sat back and did nothing?” Now I’m fuming. Our motherfucking mom worked two jobs just to feed and clothe us, and this rich dick didn’t do a damn thing to help her out.

What the fuck?

My anger doesn’t faze him. “I’ll answer all your questions after I’m done telling you everything.” I nod for him to continue. “Anyways, your mother and Daryl grew up together. I was rather jealous of their friendship. When we got older, I started sneaking around and seeing her without my parents or Daryl knowing. It was the typical ‘being from two different worlds’ romance. It was a lost cause for me to even get attached to Claire, but I couldn’t help it. I did. I fell in love with her. Just like Daryl. My family expected so much from me that I had to make a choice. That choice broke her heart. Daryl managed to swoop in and pick up the pieces. Or so I had thought. I was sent off to college, and when I returned that summer she had a baby. I knew you were mine, but what could I do? I couldn’t take care of a baby. I couldn’t quit school. I confronted her about you and she said you were Daryl’s. I knew she was lying. I knew she was giving me the easy way out, and I selfishly took it.”

“Damn right you did.” I seethed. I’m fucking heated.

“I know what I did was wrong. After my brother was thrown in prison, I confronted her again and she finally confessed. She wouldn’t accept any of the money I ever offered her. The only thing she would allow me to do is to help fund you boys’ extracurricular activities. I’ve done a lot of bad shit that I do regret. Like I said, I’m a selfish man. It was ingrained in me from my own father. I paid Allison to go away, but never to have an abortion. I didn’t want your dreams to be ruined, or you to feel like you were trapped. I thought I was doing what was best for you in the long run, but I realize now that it was never my choice.”

Derek is leaning against the wall behind the couch so that he is looking right at me. He’s kind of got this blank expression across his face. I’m sure he’s questioning the reason Mr. Remington here requested his presence to the lie reveal as well. It can’t be good.

“So, you’re Jake’s dad…were Jake’s dad?” Derek finally asks. Then it really clicks. He pushes himself off the wall with the foot he had propped back against it. “Holy fucking shit. You paid Victoria off too, didn’t you? Just like you didn’t want Seth’s career being ruined by a child, you didn’t want Jake’s marriage being ruined by the fact that he cheated on Jesika. It was never him that paid Victoria, it was you the whole fucking time. Wow.”

“Yes, and before any of that I helped you get accepted to Ohio state. Who do you think got the scouts interested in you? Not everything I did was bad. Jake never knew I was his father either. His mom made damn sure to keep that knowledge from him and everyone else. I actually think she wasn’t sure who his dad was and it was easier to just tell him that his father had died. It made her look better as a person instead of a whore. I kept a close eye on Jake because I saw the type of mother he had and I knew he could be great if he found the right avenue. Just like music is yours, fighting was your brothers. Getting him into fighting is what helped me have access to finding out he was mine. There were always good supplies of blood around for a DNA test. He never knew about Emma being his until a couple months before he died. That’s when I also told him I was his father and had paid off Victoria. And none of it was for any other reasons but to help y’all better your lives. I’m sure it doesn’t look that way, but…”

“You’re damn straight it doesn’t seem that way. I don’t fucking appreciate you playing God with my life. I needed a fucking dad, not a puppeteer.” I need a drink. I need to calm these nerves. I’m about to go ape shit on someone if I don’t.

“You need to fucking go now.”

“I still have more I need to tell you.” He doesn’t move.

“I’ve heard all I fucking want to hear. If I need any more key pieces of my life filled in, I know where to find you, but I’m pretty sure I’m good and won’t need your assistance in fucking up my life anymore,
dad
,” I spit the word out of my mouth. “There’s the fucking door, now GO!” I roar.

Before he opens the door to leave, Doug turns to Derek. “Thanks for being such a good father to my granddaughter. I knew she’d be in good hands with you.”

After he shuts the door I start laughing. My whole fucking life has been a joke. I knew there were pieces missing, but all this bullshit is something I could have never fathomed. This Allison bullshit to top it all off, just pushes me over the edge. I believed her — for the most part. I wanted what she told me to be true. It was so much easier to deal with then the fact that she took money, ran off, and killed our child. And what, her bank account runs dry and she hears about my band doing well, and thinks she’s now entitled to my funds? She was going to fucking trap me.
Bitch!

Derek reaches for my arm as I jerk open the door. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go beat a bitch’s ass. Then I’m rushing to the airport hoping I can catch Mallory.” I’m out of the door before he can even try to talk me out of it. That bitch better still be here. Knowing her, she has already booked it. She’s not one to show her face when shit hits the fan. I run down the hall, looking in every door. I hear heels clicking in the distance as I round the corner. I’m now in a full blown sprint. I reach her just before she can make her way out the door where I’m sure her escape cab is parker on the other side. As I forcefully grab her arm to turn her around, her purse falls from her arm, spilling all of its contents.

She bends down trying to quickly pick up the contents. I’m about to go off on the lying tramp, but then something catches my eye. A little black and white photo. I bend over and swipe it up before she can get it.

“Gimme that back,” she huffs as she tries to take it from me. This is something she obviously doesn’t want me to see.

“What is this?”

“What does it look like dumbass? It’s mine, now give it back,” she demands.

I’m about to hand it back to her and then I see a name typed up along the top:

Prentice, Mallory June, 7
^th
2012

I look at the picture more intently now, trying to make out what I’m seeing. Then I see it. It’s a baby with the word
girl
typed next to it.

Holy shit! Mallory is pregnant.

“How the fuck did you get this?” I shake the picture in her face. She tries pushing by me, but I make sure to keep blocking the door. I don’t expect answers for any of the other shit she pulled, because I’ve heard enough of how all that went down, but this, the fact that she was going to hold out on telling me about Mallory; there will be answers or there will be blood.

She places her hands on her hips in a defensive stance towards me. “Your baby momma fucking dropped it when she pushed me as she came out of your room. I picked it up.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I was going to tell you.”

“I highly fucking doubt that. You’re a fucking jealous bitch. You were going to tell me about this just as much as you were gonna tell me that you killed our baby.” Like a light switch, her facial expression went from impassive and almost bored to murderous.

“You think you’re any better than me? You think you deserve some sort of happy fucking ever after?” She pokes her fake finger nail in my chest. “I’m not finished here. I’ve just begun. If I can’t have you, no one will.”

Chapter Seven

*MALLORY*

I don’t remember any of the flight home. I’m not going to lie; I popped a Xanax as soon as I could. Don’t judge, my doctor said it was perfectly fine for me to take one since flying gives me terrible anxiety. It’s not like I’m a pill popper, and besides making sure I didn’t have a panic attack was the whole purpose of the pill. I just needed to not think and sleep the entire way home. It was a brilliant idea at the time, but now that I’m home and lying in bed, all I can do is toss and turn. All I want to do is freaking sleep. Sleep all these feelings that are taking over my mind away. I just want them gone. I’d rather not have any feelings than to feel the way I am right now. I feel like a complete idiot. I made a fool of myself today. I fucking flew over a 1,000 miles to talk Seth out of marrying that woman. The woman who I’m sure has a trick card up her sleeve. Even though Seth broke my heart all over again, I pray that he calls her on her freaking bluff. As hurt and pissed off as I am at him, I’d hate for him to get stuck with that sleazy woman for no damn reason.

I don’t have anyone when I return home. No one to pick me up from the airport. No one waiting for me to walk through the door of my house. Absolutely fucking no one. I’ve never felt more alone than I do now walking into this dark empty house of mine that my grandma had left me when she died. She was the only family to ever truly love me, and she had to die. If only she was alive, she’d know what to do. She’d have the advice I’m so desperate to hear. She’d probably tell me something like,
“Don’t pay no mind to that boy honey. He isn’t worth all this pain you’re feeling. Especially now that you have a baby on the way. You have to push all your thoughts and feelings to the side and focus on that lil bundle of joy growing inside your belly. You need to be sending nothing but good vibes to that lil girl.”

A girl. I’m having a girl. Just like I said. That thought instantly puts a smile on my face. I make sure to lock the front door before making my way to my bathroom for a much needed bubble bath. As the water and bubbles fill up the old porcelain tub, my phone rings. As I expect, it’s Jesika. I’m assuming she’s calling to make sure I made it home just fine.

“Hey Jes.”

“Hey,” she says with a lingering sad tone. “Did you make it home okay?”

I sigh, remembering the hour long layover I had in Dallas. “Yeah, sure. Well, besides my layover it was fine. I slept pretty much the whole way home which was nice. You know how much I love riding on planes,” I say sarcastically.

“Okay, I just wanted to check to see how you were doing. Apparently a lot of shit hit the fan here while I was taking you to the airport. It’s been pretty crazy. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back. We’re coming home the day after tomorrow.”

“I can’t wait to see ya, but I don’t think I really want to hear anything about what happened. I’m pretty sure my ‘
give a shit’
scale was just broken beyond repair today. It’s time for me to keep looking forward with my life. I can’t keep grasping to the chances of things turning out the way I would want them to. From now on I’m putting my baby’s needs above everything…even my own needs when it comes to the men department.” And that’s the truth.