Page 9 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

4 - The Damage is Done

Tiger Lily

“He doesn’t want to be with me,” I argued with my father again as he put a crown of delicate little white flowers on my head.

“Baby girl, there are things that need to be done sometimes. Damon needs to take responsibility for his actions and so do you.”

“I didn’t plan this,” I told him, and not for the first time, because after hearing his now ex-girlfriend talk about me being a psycho who plotted to trap him with a baby, that was the line Damon had been using in order to try to get out of our current situation.

“I know you didn’t. Hell, he knows you didn’t, baby girl. That little shit is the one that offered to drive you home. He’s the one who pulled over on the side of the road, hid his truck in the trees, and did what he did. Don’t you worry, we are under no illusions about what went down.”

“Don’t you think this will just make everything worse?”

My father shook his head. “Nope. I think it will all get better. It might take some time for the two of you to get used to one another, but eventually, I think real feelings can develop. You’re going to be taking care of this baby together. Before long, it will bond you.”

My eyes moved from the bottom of the mirror where the silver slipper shoes adorned my feet. They were more like ballet flats than anything, but I just didn’t feel comfortable wearing heels and my dad wouldn’t let me wear my sneakers under the gown he’d gotten me.

The gown was a simple, strapless, ivory sheath with a sinched, beaded bodice that managed to highlight my B-cups rather than make me look like I had no boobs at all. I don’t know where my dad found the dress, or how he got the perfect fit, since I refused to go dress shopping with him, but I had to admit that it made me look elegant.

“You look beautiful, baby.”

“I don’t want to do this,” I admitted again while that sick feeling rumbled in my belly.

“You’ve been in love with him since you were little. I would think this was your dream come true.”

I shook my head. “Not like this. In my dreams, he loved me back. This is more like my nightmares, where he’s forced to marry me and will never love me.”

“Ah, sweet girl, I need you to trust me. It’ll happen. Maybe not right away, but I promise, eventually, that boy is going to fall head over heels in love with you and wonder why the hell he was so stupid not to have done so sooner.”

I hated my dad in that moment.

He was the sweetest man I had ever known – to me. He wanted only what was best, and maybe he even believed the bullshit he was trying to sell me on. I didn’t know. There was just no getting around the fact that my dad was trying to give me hope where I knew there was none. He was basically forcing me to go through the hairbrained scheme he and Boone had cooked up.

A legitimate, good ol’ southern style shotgun wedding for yours truly and her baby’s daddy. I thought these things didn’t even happen anymore, but guess what? I had been wrong about that too.

“How did you even manage to convince him to go through with this?”

My dad shrugged. “He just finally came to terms with the fact that this was his kid you’re carrying.”

“We don’t lie to one another,” I reminded my dad.

His chuckle was the only answer that greeted me. When I poked him in the ribs he relented. “Fine, the boy isn’t totally stupid. He knew there was no way in hell that he would ever become a member of the MC if he didn’t do the right thing by you.”

My heart sank because that was what this whole farce of a wedding boiled down to. Damon Donovan wanted to be a member of the MC for as long as I had a crush on him. Maybe longer. I wondered if there was a time limit on him doing the right thing, or if there was some sort of stipulation or out-clause for him in the end. If my father had anything to do with it, there wouldn’t be.

“We don’t lie,” my father repeated, and I knew there was more and that I probably wouldn’t like it. “Baby girl, this won’t be easy. Not at first. I want you to be hopeful for a future where the two of you have mutual respect and realize you’re in love.”

“But?” I countered quickly, knowing more was coming.

“But I don’t want you to be crushed in the meantime when it doesn’t start out that way.”

That was all I needed to hear to understand that my marriage to Damon would be on paper only. He would be one of those MC men who used the whores at the clubhouse, who fucked the women who came to party, and who rarely – if ever – made it home to his wife and kid. We would be nothing more than a responsibility he didn’t want and the only thing keeping him from finding his own happiness one day.

“What if I’m the one who doesn’t want this?”

“I need you to give it five years, baby girl.”

“Five years?” I asked hesitantly.

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