His mother?
“Her name was Loretta. And your daddy was her best friend. They grew up together, ran along these hills together, just like you and Boone. She was wild and carefree.” His smile fell. “That is, until the Cryptids sunk their teeth into her.”
He handed me the photo back. I looked down at it and noticed the similarities between them. He had her dark hair and nose…but what struck me most was he had her eyes.
“According to Memphis, my mom’s childhood and home life wasn’t the greatest. Her daddy worked here, busting his butt to make ends meet. But one day, when they were just teens, he had an accident while moving the livestock. It left him unable to work, relying on drugs and alcohol to self-medicate. Before long, he had become an unruly drunk with a heavy fist. Over the years, her momma grew tired of his shit and ended up just skipping out on them both, leaving my mother to deal with it alone.” He paused. “Your daddy did all he could to help. He even offered her a place here…but she was too stubborn to accept his handout.” He looked at me with a smirk. “Kind of reminds me of someone I know.”
I gently shoved him. “Is that how she ended up with the Cryptids?”
He nodded. “In a way. One day, after she took off, she ran into an older guy at a bar. According to your daddy, they really hit it off, and he swept her off her feet, promising to protect her and give her a home of her own. It was everything she always wanted. It wasn’t long before they ended up getting hitched and then pregnant with me. She moved in with him, and he gave her everything he promised, a home…protection…it was all hers.The only thing was, it was because my dad was the MC of the Cryptids.”
Which makes Forsythe a club child of the Cryptids.
“I don’t remember much about her early days in the gang, but I vaguely remember the nights. They were filled with violence and anger. Raised voices and the sound of things breaking. I remember the fear I had…not for myself, but for my mother.” His eyes raised to mine, and I could see the trauma within them, hiding in those emerald pools he got from his mother. “She ended up with a guy worse than her dad. She tried to suffer through the abuse, hoping my dad would one day clean his act up, but he never did. And as he drowned himself in all the ways you’d expect, he took the gang down with him. It was then my mother decided to leave and bring me here. She knew my dad would never let her go…no one leaves the Cryptids.” He paused. “That’s how I came to Bone Ridge. My mother risked her life to save me. She knew Memphis would protect me, raise me as his own—” He stopped and I noticed tears in his eyes. “I just wish she would’ve stayed too.” His hands tightened into fists along his thighs.
Without a thought, I instinctively reached out and grabbed his hand, looping my fingers through his. He looked up at me, shocked by my kindness, and I found myself wanting to take away his pain. “If she saved you from that life, then why did you go back? Weren’t you happy here?”
“Do you think I wanted to leave?” His irises fell. “No, I didn’t have a choice. I spent most of my life thinking I had a choice of freedom, but it was only a matter of time before fate would reel me back down to my sad reality. There was no escaping what I was born into. And eventually, it caught up to me.”
“When I was around twenty or so, I got a letter from my mother who had ended up running right back to the Cryptids, falling into old habits and forgiving my dad.” He scoffed. “Sheconvinced herself that if he truly loved her then things would change. They never did. From what I heard, they stayed the same. And the only reason she was reaching out was because she was sick.Reallysick.” He paused. “She had cancer, and being a part of a biker gang, you can’t exactly get the greatest medical insurance. She spent years battling it all by herself, seeking comfort in all the wrong places…following the footsteps of her own mom. And the worst part? My dad let her suffer. He was too busy with his mistress and illegal shit to take care of her, or even give her the time of day. By that point, they were married on paper but nothing else. So, my mother did the one thing no one expected and wrote to her son, asking for help.”
His story sounded so oddly similar to mine.
I held his hand close. “Did you want to help?”
“Of course I wanted to help. She might be a stranger to me, but that woman was still my mother. The only issue was, if I wanted to return to the Cryptids and help her, I’d have to earn my place. Despite being the MC’s son, I was an outsider to them. My birth gave me the right to return, but the rest was solely on me. I spent years crawling my way through the gang, scraping by on survival alone. I did things I regret to this day, participated in things no one should be forced to endure, all to help her. And in the end, it still wasn’t enough.” Forsythe wiped his face. “My dad had me out running a drug deal with a neighboring gang. I told him I didn’t want to go. That I wanted to stay behind, by my mom’s side, but he wouldn’t have it. So, I did as I was told and followed orders. But when I returned to her side…she’s gone.” He slumped forward as tears flowed from his eyes. “She died all by herself. Alone in that damned place!” He reached around and grabbed me close, hugging me tight as he cried. “I could’ve saved her…had I stayed by her side, I could’ve saved her!”
I broke hearing his heartache, feeling it in my chest. This man had suffered so much, and yet never showed one ounce ofit. He knew the pain I carried, and all this time he spent trying to help me, he was suffering himself.
He’s not a stranger…he’s the same as me.
“I’m so sorry,” I cried into him. “I’m so sorry!”
Forsythe held me close. “You don’t understand, Lucille,” he whispered into my hair. “Losing her, after only just getting her back…it broke me.” His arms squeezed tighter around my waist.
“It wasn’t your fault. You shouldn’t blame yourself.”
He fell silent for a few minutes before speaking again. “When it happened, the only person I could blame washim.” He nestled closer to me. “She could’ve stood a chance had she not gone back to him. She could’ve lived a normal life and known peace. She could’ve had freedom…but instead, he ruined her. And when she died, I made the choice to ruin him.”
I felt a wave of fear travel up my spine.
“When she died, I confronted my dad. He tried to laugh me off, saying how real men don’t cry over such things and that it’s only natural for a son to bury his mother.”
I stroked his hair and held him. “What a sick and cruel thing to say to someone.”
“The man was nothing less. He went on about how ashamed he was of the man I’d become, blaming my mother for my weak heart. He went on and on, spouting shit about everything until he was red in the face. But what he said next was what sent me over the edge.” He nearly trembled recalling the painful past. “He told me Memphis ruined me, ruined his legacy, and would pay for what he’d done.”
My body seized at the sentence.
Forsythe squeezed my waist as he cried, trembling while he spoke. “I snapped, Lucille. I completely fucking snapped! Memphis, Ms. Nellie—all of you—you were theonlyfamily I’d ever known. And to hear him threaten any of you…I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing anyone else.Especially because of me. And before I knew it, I was standing over my dad’s lifeless body, holding the pistol you found in that box. I didn’t know what happened, or how I got there—” His whole body shook. “There was so much blood. So much blood! I must’ve beaten him to the brink of death…and when I finally came out of it, it was too late. I killed him, Lucille. I killed my dad! I killed him. I killed him.” He struggled to speak. “Of course, I couldn’t just leave the Cryptids. If I did, they’d only chase me the way they chased my momma. No, I had to pay for my crimes.” He pulled away and raised his shirt, revealing the old brand across his heart. “A parting gift. Call it a miracle or even sympathy from one of the other elders, being the MC’s son, even after what I’d done, earned me the chance to walk away. An option none of the other members had. But by choosing the easy way out, I seared any chance of ever returning. I was no longer welcome in that world. No longer a Cryptid. I would lose my protection as well as my family.”
Oh Forsythe.
My fingers traced the raised scar burned into his flesh. “You can’t lose your family, because your family…yourrealfamily, is here.”
His eyes gazed at me. “After what I did, I was so sure Memphis would send me away. Hell, I wouldn’t have blamed him either. I wouldn’t want an ex-gang member hanging around my kids. But he only smiled and welcomed me home. And from that day forward, I tucked that part of my life away with that vest, swearing to never let it out.” He gently touched my cheek. “But I shouldn’t have hid it from you. I’m sorry, Lucille. I’m sorry for not being honest, or telling you the truth of who I am. I’m sorry for asking you to stay.” He paused. “I know you want to leave, and I know after everything you’ve heard, you probably don’t trust me. But would you consider giving me another chance?”
I felt a thump in my chest.
