First Installment for the MAYHEM series
"Innocence was never meant to be addictive."
Addiction has been a part of Kyson Montenegro's nature, and women, in particular have always been his favorite obsession. Being the lead singer in a band has its pe...
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"What did the doctor say? Did your dad talk to a doctor? Who called him?" I asked with a wide range of emotion running through me.
Lucas had called me thirty minutes ago. I hadn't answered because I couldn't talk. My tears were dried up, but my body was aching from all the vomiting I had done when it had finally sunk in that another woman would carry Kyson's baby inside her and she would give birth to that baby. A part of him. I had lost it.
I had curled up on the bathroom floor and whimpered after the dry heaving stopped. Lucas had called four more times, and I'd realized it had been almost midnight. Something was wrong. I had been right. Something was wrong.
Tito Henry had been admitted to the hospital. He was in ICU. He'd suffered a heart attack. Not a good one either. Apparently, they were amazed he was still alive.
I had grown up in a house with him, but I didn't know him that much. All I knew of him was the good deeds he had done to the people in our place and the times he'd stopped his wife from saying hurtful things to me. And when she had beaten me, he had stopped her when he'd caught her.
Then two months ago he had given me an apartment and car and a chance at a life by sending me away. It had been the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me. But he hadn't hugged me when I left. He hadn't stood at the door and waved like a parent would as I drove away. He hadn't even been there the day I left. He had gotten up and gone to his office without a good-bye.
But now he was in the hospital. I was his only living family . . . if that was even what I was. I was his ward, or I had been his ward for nineteen years of my life. His mother had passed away when I was ten. She had never come around or spoken to me. Tito Henry's father had died when he was just a boy. I only knew when I heard one of his business partners mentioned it. Everything I knew about his life, the rest of the people in our town did too.
"Felicity, I'll stay with you. It's okay. He made it. That's something. Tito Henry is tough," Lucas said, reaching over to squeeze my hands.
Confused, I turned to look at him. And he frowned and touched my cheek. "You've been crying pretty hard. I shouldn't have told you over the phone. I didn't . . . Dad didn't think you were very close to him. I'm so sorry."
I had washed my face after Lucas had called about Tito Henry. He had asked if I wanted to go to Batangas, and I'd said yes. I wanted to go. Not because I needed to see Tito Henry, but because I needed to get away.
This was an excuse to clear my head. It sounded cold. But what was I supposed to feel? I didn't really know the man. Anyway, my eyes were swollen and bruised-looking from the vomiting and sobbing.
"It's okay. I'm fine. It wasn't—" I stopped myself. I wasn't ready to tell anyone about Kyson. I couldn't handle it yet. Talking about it would make it worse. "I'm fine," I repeated instead.
Lucas' phone lit up. He glanced down and muttered something. Then he glanced at me. "I have to take this or she'll keep calling."
She who? I wondered, but I just shrugged.
"Hey," he said. "No, uh, I'm having to take a friend to see her father. He's in the hospital." I stiffened. I didn't refer to Tito Henry as my father. "Yeah, I will. No, I'll be in a hospital. Let me call you." He sighed, pulled over into a shopping center parking lot, and parked behind a Starbucks. Then glanced at me. He mouthed, Be right back, then climbed out of the car.
I watched as he argued, or at least it looked like he was arguing, with whoever was on the phone. I laid my head back and closed my eyes. I was tired. My body was tired. This day had started out perfect. But I didn't end perfect. I shouldn't have allowed myself to think I could keep it.
Kyson had been my perfect. He had marked me. Yet again. I had been molded by life. He had shown me what it felt like to belong. I would cherish that memory, and I would love him for the rest of my life. No matter what happened or where we both ended up, my heart would belong to him.
But I had been an unwanted child. I knew what that felt like. How lonely and painful it was.
No kid deserved to feel that way. Every child deserved parents. If I stayed with Kyson, there was a chance he wouldn't allow himself to accept his baby. And that baby deserved to have its father. And if I stayed with him, I would be in the way. When he went to Kyrie to help with the baby, I would be alone. They would be bonding over their child, and I would be something hindering them.
The car door opened, and Lucas climbed back in.
"Sorry about that," he said, tucking his phone into his pocket. "Do you want me to swing by the drive-thru and get us a coffee? I think I could use one."
"Yeah, I could use one too," I replied as I stared out the window.
Sometime after three in the morning Lucas and I gave up trying to stay awake, and he pulled off onto an exit. We both got our own rooms, and I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.
