“They all sided with a woman who had been an old lady for thirty years instead of their pres, one they knew wouldn’t have made the decision unless it was serious,” I remind him, “I can’t be a part of a club like that, I fucking refuse and fuck…”
I look down, shaking my head.
“If they knew the truth, if your dad did, she’d be dead, Logan,” Doc mutters, and I nod because I know he is right, but I just fucking can’t because dammit, she’s still my mother.
“I already had one foot out of the door,” I admit as I look at him, “When I got with Jas, she didn’t agree with club life, and not because she looked down on us, but because of who her family was. To make things easier for her, before she left me, I was going to call it quits.”
He frowns and asks, “Just like that?” confusion lacing his tone, “You had no problems leaving the brotherhood? Your family? Just like that, for your girl, and I get it, you were rarely at the club. I get that she was, and most likely still is, your everything, which is why you're struggling with your anger towards her, but to leave your family?”
I chew my bottom lip and eye my friend, debating on what to tell him, to make him understand why I struggle at the club, why I’m barely around.
I could lie and walk away, or I could confide in him.
Fuck.
“Mama always wanted a girl,” I finally admit, and he frowns. I continue, “She wanted a girl so badly that she forced her young son to wear dresses and to grow his hair long. And if he complained, he got burned on his back, the one place no one would notice.”
“What the fuck?” he snaps as he stands up straighter.
I continue, “As soon as the son was old enough to learn the ropes of the enforcer, his mama backed away and acted like he didn’t exist, like she didn’t make his life hell for years. She ignored him, all while his father was ignorant and blind to what was happening under his nose.”
Doc begins to pace and I swallow hard as I say, “Mama had an affair, got pregnant a few times and lost the babies, the last one is when Dad had found out, he was the one to rush her to the hospital when the doctor mentioned Mama was warned how high risk she was if she kept getting pregnant. Dad had gotten the snip and knew the babies she lost weren’t his, he realized she had a full blown fucking affair as punishment because he didn’t want any more kids. Fuck he didn’t even want me but she trapped him hoping to get the girl she always wanted.”
“That’s why Sara latched onto Kate?” Doc cuts in, and I nod.
“She’s the daughter she never had so while Dad was heartbroken and found comfort in Tiffany, he forgot I existed. Mama latched on yet again only this time, instead of forcing me to act like a fucking girl, taking photos and filming me, calling me her princess, she began pushing Kate on me instantly. Forcing me to go to school dances with her, dressing me in suits she deemed fit and don’t fucking get me started on her anger when she found out I didn’t want to become a lawyer, I mean, you’d think she would have been proud that I became a doctor, that I still helped at the garage and got my cut but nope. If it wasn’t her way then it was no way which is why I, fuck, I screwed Kate’s mama when I was sixteen, giving her my virginity and I only stopped because the woman tried claiming she was pregnant when I was eighteen,” I state, shocking Doc.
“I fucking hate her, Asher, I hate my mother, I hate the choices I made because of her, bringing leeches like Lyndsey around me. I hate her with a passion and what she did to Jas, her threats to my own daughter,” I shake my head, “You told the brothersshe had to go and not one listened, not even my dad. I just, I can’t be a part of that and now I’ve got to ride two fricking hours just to see my daughter because Jas let slip she’s protecting me. Which brother, nothing, and I mean fucking nothing will make her keeping my daughter from me okay, not even protecting me which why I, fuck’s sake…”
Doc frowns as I wince. He tilts his head, most likely seeing my guilt, and he asks, “What did you do?”
I plant my hands on my hips as a truck pulls into the parking lot, and I admit, “Threatened to take Aisling from her…”
“Ah, for fuck’s sake, Logan!” Doc snaps and I wince again already knowing how fucked up it was just as fucking Brady of all people stops beside us in some beat-up truck.
“I know, I fucked up,” I growl, not needing a lecture, before I ask, “Brady, what in the fuck is that?” and I nod to the truck.
The man has a fucking Ferrari for Christ sake.
He slaps the door as he leans out the window and admits, “My disguise, my mother has someone fucking following me to see if I lead her to my sister because guess what? Some fucker saw her at the funeral and snitched.”
“Fuck,” Doc mutters, and I frown at his reaction.
“Look,” Brady says, “we need to find my sister like yesterday, Mama is on the war path for Granny’s estate.”
“Didn’t your uncle give your sister the paperwork?” Doc asks in confusion while I tilt my head at the anger in Brady’s eyes and I swear to fucking god.
No, she wouldn’t have…
“She donated fucking everything,” Brady confirms my thoughts, and I groan, dropping my head.
“Why in the fuck would she do that?” Doc demands, “I overheard her speaking about a payment plan, she clearly needs the money!”
“Guilt,” I mutter as I shake my head while Brady asks, “What payment plan?”
“Her insurance wouldn’t pay for…” Doc stops mid-sentence, and Brady raises a brow as he looks between us while Doc looks away and I sigh.
“Jasmine had my child,” I admit, and his mouth parts in surprise, “Aisling, my daughter, needed surgery, her appendix was about to burst, and Jas’s insurance wouldn’t pay for it, so I have, not that she knows that,” I sigh, “I’m now about to go see them.”
