“And if you have to choose?” I ask, and he glares at me, but I raise a brow, and his jaw ticks.
His wife of thirty years, who has made only one mistake, or his daughter, with whom he has no relationship and doesn’t know, a daughter whose existence he has blamed his wife for several times, putting her down.
“I choose my wife,” he finally says, and I nod.
“Correct answer, and now you need to go make sure your wife knows that because for years, she hasn’t believed that you’d choose her in any scenario because you haven’t chosen her. You have allowed the people in this club to degrade her, make her feel unwelcome in her own home for a mistake she made twenty-four years ago while you, your attempt to hurt her, continues every day. You have a living breathing reminder of what you did, something mind you, you like to throw in her face in front of everyone,” I state before grabbing the new alternator out of thebox and I state, “Leave me to Sky, let me gain her trust again and we’ll see what happens. Go fix your fucking marriage before it’s too late, if it isn’t already.”
Turning back to Venom’s bike, I ignore Brick, getting back to work while Blade says, “He’s right, Dad. There is a lot we all don’t know, but right now, your focus needs to be on Mama before she leaves you.”
An hour later, I push through the front door and enter the common room with one purpose in mind, to figure out what is holding my girl back.
I look around and see brothers mingling, but no old lady in sight, and I know she must still be in the kitchen. I descend the few stairs and set my sights on the double doors in the back.
I need to talk to a certain person before I meet up with my girls.
“Fury, where is our daughter?” Lacey demands to my right, but I ignore her and keep my stride.
She doesn’t care, she hates she hasn’t been able to use our daughter like she does every time I’m around, thinking I’m thick enough not to know she has nothing to do with her when I’m not around.
I swear the urge to kill the bitch is climbing.
“Fury!” she snaps, but again, I ignore her and push through the kitchen door as Brick says, “Please, Anna, just come for a ride with me. It’s been years since you’ve gone on the back of my bike, and I miss you…”
I wince when she replies, “I’m busy,” without even looking at him as she rolls out the pastry and he opens his mouth, most likely to snap at her, letting his emotions cloud his judgment like he always does when he’s frustrated with her, but I quickly save his ass and state, “Brick can I have a moment with Anna please?”
He looks my way across the large stainless steel kitchen with a scowl while Anna turns, wiping her hands on her apron.
“I’ll come find you later, Brick,” she says, and he flinches at her use of his road name before he nods, looking at her longingly, then walks past me with a furrowed brow, clearly confused as to why I want to speak to his woman.
As the door shuts, Anna looks at me with a head tilt, and I state, “I’m sorry.”
She frowns, leaning back against the counter full of food she’s made, and asks, “What for?”
“For hurting your daughter,” I reply, and she nods, a soft look coming over her face instead of shock like I thought. “You know she told me?” I confirm, and Anna smiles, replying, “My daughter tells me everything, Nyx,” she smirks, “By the way, does your mama know a fling is the one who flooded her brand new kitchen out of revenge?”
Dammit, I knew I should have kept that story to myself, but we’d been friends for about a month at the time, and I hated not giving her some truths. I hated that she thought my childhood was shitty after I told her I didn’t have family here.
I wince and mutter, “Fuck, she told you?”
Anna chuckles, “Like I said, my daughter tells me everything, including how devastated she was when you admitted to lying to her.”
“That’s why you slapped me,” I confirm, and she nods and says, “She never mentioned you by name back then, if she had, I would have realized sooner what Brick had done, and I would have confronted you. But it was too late, you’d already done the damage, though her heart has never strayed from you over the years, she never looked at anyone else, but at that time, all I saw was my daughter's pain. I didn’t do it to get kicked out like I had with Luna. I did it for my daughter because I knew she couldn’t at the time.”
I swallow hard, my heart tightening at her words while relief fills me, knowing I’m her only.
I'd worried over the years that she'd found someone else, which is why she wouldn't give me a second chance.
Fuck she really does love Skylar like her own, becoming a mama bear just like she had for Blade over the years, and while yeah, she slapped Luna to get kicked out, she also did it because she thought she was using her son and Luna understood that while Blade, well, it broke a little bit of their relationship because all he could see was the bitch Anna tried to portray to get Brick to leave her.
I sigh, “She hasn’t told me why she wants nothing to do with Blade or Brick, she won’t for you.”
Anna eyes me for a moment before she asks, “Who is Skylar’s most favorite person after Tate?”
I half smile and say, “Her mama,” and Anna grins, clearly loving that I’ve accepted that title for her, then asks, “And you want her trust back, right? You’d do anything, including lying to the club?”
I swallow hard and nod, crossing my arms over my chest while she looks at me again for a moment and says, “Okay, time to prove yourself, Nyx,” and I furrow my brows until she states, “Peter was Melissa’s partner.”
“Peter? As in….” I say with confusion, and she finishes, “As in the prospect.”