Page 44 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“Like hell it is!” I yelled as I threw the card on the table. “Why didn’t you tell me about the trouble at school?”

She laughed at me. “Like you cared?” I got ready to argue, but the look on her face stopped me. “I don’t know what changed for you recently, Merc, but back then you didn’t care. You knew – whether you wanted to pretend you didn’t or not – you knew what Brinley was like. Hell, you were there the day when I tried to tell you I was pregnant and heard the things she had to say to me. You didn’t try to put a stop to it then, you continued to see her and take care of her in a way you never attempted to do for me. So, let’s not back peddle into a different reality that never existed.”

She popped my son off her boob, and it was the first time I noticed she had been feeding him during our conversation. “Now, what exactly was the point in telling me about the party that you’re going to with Abbi?”

“I’m not going to a party with Abbi. I didn’t even know about it until she said something, but Lily, that party is supposed to be a surprise for us, and is club members and family only, to welcome our son.”

She rolled her eyes. “Considering I wasn’t invited, I doubt that.”

“I just got off the phone with Boone who confirmed it. I guess they were going to try to just get you there without telling you since it’s a surprise and everything.”

“Well, that’s stupid! What if I didn’t have everything that I needed with me for the baby? And why would I want to bring the baby to a loud, smelly, smoke-filled clubhouse full of nasty whores and men who don’t shower near enough anyway?”

I had to laugh at her description because it wasn’t entirely inaccurate. “Tell me how you really feel about the place.”

“Okay, it’s no place for a baby!”

“How about I make sure the place is cleaned up, aired out, and that you have everything you need?” I asked and she just looked at me like my head was spinning circles on my shoulders. “Would you go then?”

“I know that we aren’t anything to one another in any real sense, but like hell do I want to go to a party where all your past hookups will be lined up waiting for another chance to hop on your dick. I think I’ll pass.” She turned to leave the room then.

“Wait, I told you it’s club and family only.”

She shrugged. Before she could get down the hall toward the bedroom, I called out to her again.

“Lily, what’s up with the presents in the living room?”

“Three are Christmas presents that you and our dads never got because no one showed up on Christmas to get them. The other two are birthday gifts for Boone and you, since you both just had birthdays recently. I forgot about them because I had other things on my mind, so I just put them with the others.”

“Were you ever going to give them to us?”

She shrugged. “One day, when you guys remembered I was here.” Then she walked off, leaving me feeling like absolute shit all over again. Fuck me, I couldn’t win with the woman, and it was all my own damn fault.

14 – The Wilted Lily

Merc

1 year later

Lily never did attend the club party to welcome Declan to the family. I couldn’t blame her for declining either, and honestly, she had been right. Some of the club girls lived there, and while they were supposed to be respectful and stay out of sight during family events, some of them enjoyed testing those boundaries and making trouble.

Ever since then, I had it in my head to eventually get Lily out to a party somewhere. All she ever did was go to school and take care of our son. She was almost eighteen and about to graduate from high school, but never got to live the party life that I had enjoyed during my high school years. If I was being honest, I still enjoyed more than my fair share of parting

“My dad wants to stay in tonight and thought it would be good to take Declan for you so you can go out and have a good time for once.”

“Your dad thought that, huh?”

“What do you want, Lily? I said I would take you out because they’re worried that you never leave the damn house.” There was no way I’d tell her that it had been my idea because then she definitely wouldn’t go.

“Well, tell them to stop worrying. I don’t need your pity.”

Lily and I had been making good headway toward a friendship before, but that all ended abruptly when she accidentally ran into me at the grocery store one day a few months back.

Two of the club girls joined me to pick some things up for a patch party the club was having for one of CJ. The hope was, that between the three of us, we would remember everything. Among the shit we were stocking for the night were a jumbo pack of condoms and several bottles of lube.

I didn’t even realize Lily and Declan were standing there at the other end of the aisle as Marissa teased me about needing to get an extra box of the larger size condoms just for my room.

“That way you can pound my pussy all night long, baby!” Unfortunately, she was fucking loud when she said and drew the attention of the two people at the opposite end of the aisle.

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