Unlike Any Other (Unexpected #1) (6 page)

2015

“You want me to believe you were upset because Christian Decker took a girl out to watch movies?” a hysterical laugh takes over. “As if. The man was the God of Rock back then, and there are books about his little and big escapades.”

Tons of books that describe his crazy days.

“I’d rather keep the story tuned down; you’re my little girl.”

“Yeah,” I chuckle. “So little, I’m going to believe that Christian, who says that F-word at least a thousand times a day talks so proper. Pl-lease.”

“I have the right to tell my story however I want,” he informs me, his back straight and confidence oozing from him. “If I say that Christian Decker had a British accent, you have to live with that.”

“He’s a dope when he tries to imitate a British accent or speak Spanish,” I groan shaking my head. The man knows Spanish but with his American accent it only ends up sounding comical. “Did he really call his first band, The Metal Tacos?”

“You doubt it?”

“Nah, that sounds like something Chris would do.”

“Exactly.” Dad laughs with me.

“Well, let’s keep going, Dad,” I prompt him, hoping by now he had forgotten about me and my stupid issues.

“You haven’t said anything yet.”

I shrug.

Among one of the biggest problems—confessing to my parents that I lied to them for years—there’s yet another big issue at hand: my parents love for Porter, the guy who fucked my life several ways to hell and beyond. I can’t place the full blame; it wasn’t all just him. I contributed a huge chunk for being stupid and believing in love. Telling them about us didn’t feel right back then and doesn’t feel right now. I shouldn’t continue to protect him—Porter. But the irony of life is that we are his only family.

“I think we should stop this,” Dad says after I remain silent pressing my lips together, refusing to speak, and waiting for him to retake his story. “You promised to share with me and you haven’t said much.”

I rub my nose with the back of my hand as I shake my head.

“You mentioned there was a piano in the middle of this room, where is it?”

“Christian moved out, of course he took it with him.”

Yes, of course, why would he leave it here? So twenty some years later I could play it… yes, please. I want to reach for Breezy. She leans against the wall next to the door, but I know Dad will lecture me if I try to play. I’m one who drifts away and ignores her surroundings while I lose myself inside my world and my music. But I can’t ignore him if I want to help him fix his marriage.

However, there’s the fact that he’s expecting a baby with that girl Nikki. We can’t ignore the baby that’s on the way.

Shit, a baby.

My eyes blur and Dad uses a tissue to clear my tears.

“Are you okay?”

“No.” I take small sips of air to control the sudden change of mood. “I want to stop, but then… I want you to tell me that life isn’t always shitty and to believe that it can get better, even when you want to die.”

Dad pulls me into his arms and doesn’t say a thing until my eyes dry.

“See, I want you to fix things,” I regain my strength, my normal voice is back. “But you’re going to be a father and I can’t take you away from him—the baby.”

“Right now, nothing else matters to me, AJ. Please talk to me, baby girl.” He smoothes my hair. “What happened to you?”

“Promise you won’t break ties with anyone, please?”

“I can’t do that. I can only promise to help you.” His protective arms continue to soothe me. “We can’t help if you don’t tell us what happened.”

“Many things, Dad.”

I scramble through my thoughts searching for the right thing to say without giving much away. I can go back to the time when I believed my parents and everyone around wanted me to be different. It all began around the time my body changed. I already carried the burden of not being loved enough by parents. That’s what my fourteen-year-old thought, but I was… different from other girls and women.

“I can tell you about the huge list of insecurities that weighed me down; I was a freak.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Simple, Dad. I was fourteen, stupid, and childish?”

We sit on the couch that faces the large mahogany desk and blue sky.

“Care to share a little more than that?” Dad’s humorless smile curls the edge of his lips.

“Not really, Dad, my fourteen-year-old brain decided I was fat, stupid, and ugly.” He frowns. “I wanted to look like the models who you were photographed with. Those women you made movies with. Slim, sophisticated, beautiful…”

I mumble trying to push away the shame that brought from recognizing it. I wasn’t skinny, my boobs weren’t as big and I had pimples, nothing like those girls. No one had explained to me that airbrushes, Photoshop, and other tricks made them perfect. That in order to look like that, some starved themselves to maintain those perfect camera bodies.

“Maybe if I did, you wouldn’t be ashamed of me.”

“Oh, sweetie.”

“Stupid.” I point at myself. “Then one day, I decided that no one should see me outside my baggy clothes in case they realized I wasn’t perfect. But someone saw me and that someone said the right words. A set of magical words that trapped me…” My eyes water and I can’t continue.

“Sorry, Daddy.” I shake my head. “I can’t. Not today, please.”

2015

I don’t have time to convince AJ to tell me what happened to her. I had somewhat of a lead, and suddenly she closed up entirely and begged me not to pressure her. She gave me those same eyes, the ones where she begs for mercy and to stop torturing her. Like the times when we took her to the hospital for yet another round of blood tests and she was poked several times until they found a vein. The door of the library opens with a big thunk as it slams into the wall. Tall, long blond hair almost reaching his shoulders, blue eyes, and a need to kill someone. JC. He and his brother are my spitting image, but their attitude isn’t mine.

“What the fuck, old man?” he barks.

“JC, respect,” AJ talks before I do.

“Sorry, princess. Did you miss the fucking pregnant woman when you arrived?” He points toward the door while he continues his way in. “Because, believe me, she is real. Damn it, AJ, when you called earlier I thought this was yet another one of his stunts. You blowing things out of proportion and the beginning of another nuclear war between Gabriel and you which we came to stop.”

Then JC’s eyes harden as he narrows his gaze at me. “Not that I know much about it, but that’s more than a three-month pregnancy. Are you telling me now that you’re a fucking cheater?”

“You wouldn’t, would you, Dad?” AJ’s posture stiffens and her mouth opens slightly. “You’re not one of those men, Daddy.”

I rub my face and try to think about what I should say.

I don’t have enough time to think as MJ enters the room and points at me. “Six fucking months, I can’t believe it. The guy who swore to be in love but couldn’t work things out. You know, learning that shit from the tabloids kind of hurts.”

MJ touches his chest and glares at me.

“Dad?” AJ’s glassy eyes widen and I have no choice but to stand up, close the door, lock it, and confront the truth because I’m not losing my daughter again or the respect of the other two either.

“Nikki is the niece of an old friend.”

The three of them stare at me, and I feel like a felon trying to convince the jury of my innocence, when I can read on their faces that they’ve already reached the verdict:
guilty
.

“A week ago they asked me to take the heat while they figured out what to do… that’s something I won’t talk about. It’s their business, not mine. So far, I haven’t searched for a new relationship or fathered another child. I have no more offspring than you three and that’s enough since at least one of you usually keeps me entertained.”

“I can’t believe it.” AJ tosses her hands in the air. “You’ll never change; it is still the same shit.”

“Not my woman,” I repeat. “Not my child, I’m doing a favor,” I blurt, as her green eyes darken and the red rim forms, granting me her best disapproving stare. It matches the gaze the other two are giving me already—there are times they all share one brain.

“Give me a few hours and she’ll be taken care off,” I promise. “Now that you’re up to date on that issue, I hope you can forgive yet another bad publicity stunt. Can I offer you something, you bunch of brats?”

“Yes, some food will be welcomed,” AJ pulls her lips hard but her mouth can’t form a smile. “I’m due for some lunch pretty soon, but a snack can fuel me for another hour.”

JC and MJ blaze out of the room, yelling that they’ve got it.

“Pump?” I inquire.

“Up and running, Dad.” She checks on it and gives me two thumbs up. “I don’t let my sugar drop, that’s why I asked for food. You can check my glucose levels; they are where they are supposed to be. Please don’t mother me, Dad.”

A chuckle escapes me, she always says that when I’m being overbearing.

“Well, that was awkward.” MJ steps inside holding a glass of orange juice and a protein bar.

“What?” AJ asks.

“The woman glared at me like I owe her something, and I just walked around her.” Then MJ’s gaze turns my way. “Does the favor include marrying her… are you marrying her?”

I shake my head.

“Dad was telling me our parents’ love story.” AJ takes the glass and drinks everything before talking again. “He assures me that he became an actor so he can bore us to tears as he explains how movies are made.”

I’m guilty of that. A few times I had paused a movie and explained to them how they added the explosion behind us, or that we had filmed the ending before we shot the beginning. Stuff that no one thinks about as they watch a movie from beginning to end.

“Did you guys know that Dad’s roommate made him go to a Dreadful Souls’ concert?”

MJ and JC shake their heads and stare at me waiting for a reason.

“Why would he make you, Dad?” JC narrows his gaze.

“Because I slept with his girlfriend.” The heat of embarrassment crawls up my neck as I confess that to my children.

AJ hisses.

“We were drunk,” I weakly explain further. “And my roommate was cheating on her with another girl at a frat party.”

“College kids, never a dull moment.” AJ rolls her eyes dramatically at me, then smiles. “But the best is how not once Christian has said the F-word.”

MJ and JC laugh hysterically.

“You need to hear it, it’s over the top.” AJ pats the seat next to her and her brothers actually join her and stare at me with expressions of love and admiration I’m used to seeing.

“Where was I? Yes, of course, moving to Russia or staying with the crazy musician while searching for an agent and other roles.”

“I never understood why you wanted to move to Russia, Dad.” JC angles his body, resting his head on the headrest and his legs on his siblings and starts biting an apple while waiting for the conversation to continue.

“Because Chris had already
watched movies
with most of the women around the country,” AJ responds.

“I don’t believe it,” MJ says. “Chris watching movies… like going out on dates. Not happening.”

“That’s code for having sex, you two,” AJ clarifies. “In fact, I bet Chris said, ‘I fucked the entire female population of the United States and Canada. If you want to marry someone I didn’t fuck, you better move to fucking Russia before I get a visa and…’”

“Say the F-word one more time AJ and I’ll put you in time out,” I warn her.

The three of them explode into laughter.

It’s like watching them fifteen years ago when their innocence knew nothing about the fucked up world.

I miss this, having my kids around, my family. My kids I have no doubt will forgive me, I worry about the one I hurt the most as I left our house. How do I say
I’m sorry
?

“I’m going to the kitchen to order lunch.” I have to clear my mind and think about my next move.

“We’re not sharing the table with your new whatever, are we?” JC asks, rising to a sitting position and opens his eyes as big as the apple he’s eating.

“We’ll eat here, and she’s not my ‘new whatever.’”

I arrive in the large kitchen where I find Nikki, my pseudo fiancée, talking with Coco, my maid.

“I can only assure you,” Coco tells her, “those children aren’t reporters. I can’t divulge any further information.”

She’s worked for us since the children were, in fact, children. Coco went wherever they went. Usually, she prepared lunch and dinner for us as we tried to make breakfast an all family affair. Once the triplets left the nest, she stayed with us because we were too used to having her cook for us. I bet if one of those children asked her to pack up and go with them, she’d do just that and abandon us—or rather, me.

“Nikki.”

The girl turns around giving me an annoyed glare. I can’t believe my children thought for one second that I’d consider dating her.

She’s their age.

“My family isn’t taking the news well,” I announce. She crosses her arms and switches the weight of her body from one foot to another. “I’m going to make some calls and you’ll have to find some other scapegoat.”

“But you promised to marry me.”

My mouth gapes open.

“No, I said that I’d give you a place to stay until you find another alternative. As agreed, I won’t marry you.”

I don’t add that I need to divorce in order to marry anyone or that I’m even married for that matter. My separation will never include me signing a bunch of papers that say I’m no longer bound to the love of my life.

“Coco, can you fix us lunch, please? We’ll eat in the library.”

“I heard my little girl is here,” Coco says, clasping her hands together.

I nod. “Then I’ll make sure to cook something special for her.”

Before I receive a call or a text to send me back to the hell where I took residence three months ago, I send a text of my own.

Gabe:
Our kids are with me in St. Barbara.
»
Should I say congratulations?
Gabe:
For getting AJ back, yes; for the shit published, no. That’s crap and you more than anyone should know it.
»
Ainse? How’s my girl?
Gabe:
It sounds stupid, but she’s a grown up… you need to see her.
»
I’ll try to call her, see if she wants to have Thanksgiving dinner with us.
Gabe:
Can I join?
»
Gabriel, don’t do this. We’ve talked and decided your fucking career is more important. We should file the divorce papers.
Gabe:
I love you, babe, and I won’t sign any papers.
»
You love me so much, there’s a pile of magazines saying you’re getting married—for the first time—and having your first child. I can only imagine how Ainse reacted.
Gabe:
She spent a ton of money on a plane to come and confront me; on the positive side, she came to me. Can we talk?
»
If I’d known, I could’ve done something shitty like you three years ago, and had her at home in no time.
»
Look Gabriel, I love you, but I won’t do the ‘let’s be friends’ for the sake of the kids. They are old enough and I’m too old for this fucked up shit.