Slice (The Elledge Family #1) (34 page)

“We just fucked on your teenager sister's bed.”

I laughed. “Yes, yes we did.” I nodded in amusement.

“She is going to kill us.”

“It's okay. I'll wash her sheets.”

“She's gonna burn them.”

“More than likely,” I agreed.

Chapter Sixteen

Asher

I had never had to face with anything of this magnitude in my life. For the first time it was confirmed that I was not who I thought I was and for some reason it hadn’t surprised me. I felt that I had been tossed into my life for the majority of it anyhow. But it was particularly hard because I had no one to fall on. Margot became distant. She refused to answer the phone and she had not responded to any texts in the last week. It baffled me to think that she could be mad at me. Margot acted as if she had received the news. I had reached the breaking point with her stubbornness. I just wanted my birth certificate and it was going to take an act of congress to even get that from her. So I stopped bothering her. I focused on the bigger issue around me. Whitney and I had met the end of the relationship. I feared my world would collapse.

“Are you still focused on Lucas?” Whitney was curled on the couch next to me. Her eyes focused on the television and her cold feet planted in my thigh.

“No,” I paused. “I mean I have nothing more to focus on really. My paper is basically done. It just needs to be fine-tuned and then it’s off to the professors.

“So is he out of your life?” She asked.

“No,” I turned a few pages in my book.

“Why is it so important that you are around him and what does he have over you that makes you hooked to him and Mark for that matter?”

“What do you want me to say Whitney?” I snapped. I had a shit ton on my plate and the last thing I wanted or needed was for her to hound me all things concerning my new found family.

“I want you to say that you are done chasing crazy.”

“I went to see Margot and she confirmed everything that I thought about the picture. It was me and I am his older brother and Mark coincidentally, is my older brother as well. For once I have some brothers and some family.”

“You have always had family.”

“I have always had someone who called me family. I have never had a real family. Margot spent so much time at that hospital and my dad spent so much time researching god knows what that I was alone. They never listened to me and they never pretended to care about what I was into. They were a filler.”

“A filler? Are you insane Margot worked all of those long hours at the hospital to make sure you had food on your table and roof over your head. And you can’t just drop them to be a part of a family that you barely know anything about. You have lost it.”

“You haven't even taken the real time to get to know him. Lucas is not bad and neither is Mark.”

“Yeah, I think it’s better that we no longer talk about it. I will never see your side and I don’t want to.” She picked her purse up from the table. “Who are we meeting here?”

“Mark, I figured it was time to tell him about it. He is better at breaking news to Lucas than me.”

“That's because they are the same kind of crazy.” She snapped. “I'll leave you two to whatever you are planning.”

“Thanks,” I responded.

“We'll talk tonight.”

Mark waved at Whitney as she turned to leave. “Hey Whitney, you look gorgeous today.”

“Thanks.” Whitney rolled her eyes as she made her way out of the door.

“Real ray of sunshine you have there,” Mark chuckled. “What's up Asher?”

“Not much,” I shook his hand and slid the picture over to him. He was cradled in Luna's arm's. Her beautiful blonde hair fell behind her ears as the tears seemed to roll in streams down her face. “That is you.”

“Bullshit.”

“And this is me.”

“Get the hell out of her man!” Mark smirked. “This shit is ridiculous.”

“Has your mom told you the story?”

“No,” Mark stared at the picture. “So this means that we are indeed brothers?”

“Yes.” I answered.

“And no one has told Lucas?”

“Not a soul, I kind of wanted you to tell him?”

Mark dropped the picture on the table. “Oh, you think that I should be the one to deliver that shit storm to him. I mean he seems to be in a good place. He has Cypress back and has he told you the news of the week.” he laughed.

“No, ever since she took him back I’ve seen him like twice a day and we usually don’t talk. I’ve started meditation with him. It seems to be working.”

“You will want to hear this news yourself. I was kind of shocked, but then not really. You can come too. Because I believe we are actually the older brothers and we should ban together. This can either piss him off or make him happy.”

“You think he will be happy?”

“Like I said there is no real way to know how he will act Asher; he tends to be unpredictable. But I want to know more about our parents. I don't care to know about he feels. I'm happy about this whole situation. It makes sense to me in a way as to the connection my mother had with Luna.”

“Did you ever get to meet her?”

“On a few occasions, mostly when she was dropping Lucas off to be with us for a while. He had a fucked up childhood. He was bounced between three homes constantly.” He touched my shoulder lightly, “Asher you aren't a bad guy and I think we'll be fine. You just worry too much.”

“I hope.”

“You'll be fine. How did your mom act?”

“Margot has not called me since. She won't answer the phone and she won't talk to me. I didn't think it was going to be like this. I would have just found out on my own.”

“Margot,” Mark nodded his head as he noticed that I didn't call her mom. “Is she mad?”

“She said that Declan was not a good guy.”

“I've researched. He was an enforcer for some pretty bad guys. But it' not important about him. This is about us defining who we are in this world. And a major part of that rest on who our family is…”

“Good.”

“We are going to Ireland in a few months and you should come. There is a guy named Callum there. He's Lucas' cousin, ours too apparently and he wants to meet us.”

“Why us?”

“I think that was Lucas' excuse so that we could go. He doesn't want to just go with Cypress, she’s pregnant and everything. He said that she has been an emotional wreck and he’s not too good at being kind to her.”

“So… is that the news you were hiding out? I had no idea that she was pregnant.” I laughed as he covered his mouth.

“Fuck it, yep. Lucas is about to be a father and he is scared shitless. I hate to say it, but it’s funny as hell.”

“I can imagine.”

“So are you down for Ireland? I think it will be nice to get out of the country and for once out of the hair of the feds. They have been a fucking tick for me.”

“I'll go.”

“Bring your ray of sunshine, I’m sure that she would love to meet the entire family.”

“Fuck you Mark.”

Cypress

Lucas apparently thought that being pregnant was an excuse to play driving Miss Daisy. He acted as if I was crippled. Lucas stared at me like I could break at any wrong movement. If I reached for something off the top of the refrigerator, he would scowl at me or move me entirely out of the way so that he could do it. He was overly affectionate and at first I enjoyed it, now I wanted everything to be normal. I wanted him to give me my space and for him to have his space as well. Not to mention he monitored everything that I was doing like I was constantly being babysat. I wanted to scream and punch him in the throat most days. Then there was Tracy, she demanded time with me because she said that she didn’t know enough about me. Never before had she tried to put in extra effort into knowing me, but throw a baby in the mix and I was the perfect daughter-in-law.

Sunday afternoons had gone from the normal being lazy on my couch with Lucas to mixing the biscuit batter with Lydia and Tracy. Then there was the part of me that still hated Lucas for cheating on me with that bitch. Even as I sat with them cooking I wanted to beat the shit out of her.

The spell with Persephone always hung in the air when he was around me. I wanted to know why he went to her and pound a million and one questions into his head but I couldn't. “I wonder why men cheat.” I mumbled aloud.

“Men are dumb.” Tracy answered simply. “And everyone makes mistakes. It's just that they learn a lesson from the mistake that they make. If it happens over and over again, it is a habit. If it happens once… it can be a lesson learned and then it ends up serving a purpose.”

“Never thought of it likes that.”

Tracy smiled, moving the mixture to the bowl and dashing a sprinkle of salt on it. “I heard about why you two took a break.”

“Yeah, it was the longest month of my life.”

“I can understand why you were. I would never expect that from Lucas, but he is man and men are unpredictable.”

“I wish that he would tell me why.”

“Have you ever considered that maybe he doesn't know why? Sometimes there isn't a reason.”

“Possibly.”
      

“There are some things about my son that I want you to know.”

“Okay.” I watched her as she flipped through her photo album. “You do know that we adopted him.”

“I know that. He talks about his biological mom so much.”

“Has he told you about his father?” Tracy asked.

“He hasn't told me much.” I smiled at her. “You knew him?”

“Yes, well actually, his mother and I were best friends. She went to school over in America for a while and then when we got older we spent every waking moment together. She came to California for college and she was a free bird. My mom liked her, but she had a way of making parents think the worst. Her hair was the prettiest of strawberry blonde and she had a laugh that could light up any room. We got to the campus and the first person we met was Declan Elledge. He was English as well and she was under his spell for the moment she heard his name. He seduced her with his brown eyes and his smile. His smile was alluring. Much like Lucas'. They started to date and they had this amazing connection and honestly, it reminded me of you two. There was not much that could keep them apart.”

I bit into my apple. “Yeah, I figured that it was from his father. He has charm that is just…. ridiculous.”

“Right, well it is definitely genetic. Anything that we say in here stays between you and because I haven't yet told them about it.” She paused and pulled a picture from her photo album. “She had Mark when she was 19 years old.”

I felt my jaw drop. “Mark?”

“Mark is her oldest son.  His name on the original birth certificate read Marcus Declan
Elledge. When she had him she decided to go ahead and put him up for adoption. I begged her to not be that person. So I took him. I raised him as my own.”

“Oh my God.” I gasped and stared at her.

She placed a picture of her holding the small infant Mark in her hands. “That was when she decided to give him up. She said that her mother would have her shipped off. So she didn't claim him as hers. But she loved him none the less. I sent her pictures once she moved back to America and we stayed in contact. I met my husband and he followed the program.”

“They have no idea.”

“Mark can feel it. But Lucas is such a loner, again he is like his father in more than one way.” I could feel the double meaning in her words. “Wow.”

“One year after she had Mark, there was another child. She offered, but I couldn't take another one in. Mark was a handful and I was still pushing through school. I told her I couldn't. And I was not a fan of Declan at that moment. He had been a pain. She named him Asher Elledge. She gave him to a friend in California that could not have kids. Her name was Margot.”

My mind wandered. “Asher… couldn't be his friend Asher could it?” I nodded my head. Things were coming together.

“It is.” She laughed. “Margot and her husband decided it was for the best that they change his last name as I done with Mark. He looks like her side of the family as does Mark. Lucas the baby of the family has everything from his father. They had him two years later and named him Lucas and she kept him. She had finally made Declan into a man that could handle a family. She raised him until Luke turned 14 then something happened that she least expected.”

“ALS?”

“Indeed, she caught it early and at first there was nothing that changed with her, but she started to make Luke attend school in different places, one year in Ireland and the then several over with us. He and Mark hung out every summer together and that was the start of a beautiful friendship. Margot cut all ties with us. She married a psychologist and she demanded that we stay away from Asher, mainly Declan. Declan was this towering gentle giant to us. He loved everyone and everyone loved him, but Lucas adored him. He saw the real version of him and it was obvious because of the type of bond that they had with one another. Declan was not the best father, though, they had their differences and Lucas and him were alike. They fought like cats and dogs because whatever Declan’s job was caused him to be out of the house a lot. And whenever he left Luna was sadder. He didn’t like to see his mother sad or sick. He was left to deal with his mother along. And in my opinion when he started to take care of his mother it made him a stronger man, but it also made Declan less of one. He left his family and he didn't care or at least to them it didn’t seem like he did. He checked in with him and then he would playhouse when she was really sick. Then she started to send Lucas here for longer bouts of time up until she died and she knew that there was something that she had to do to make sure that he didn't suffer while she died.”