I nudged Axel. “Relax, Cujo.”
He zme back, but the moment I saw the smirk on his face, I knew he was okay. “Who the bloody hell is that?”
Thomas snorted as I chuckled. “Never mind. Let’s not crash the nets the first five minutes, okay?”
He grunted, but enjoyed my analogy as I turned back to our mother. She was smiling as if seeing us for the first time. And in a lot of ways, she was.
“Can you tell us what happened? Axel said you wrote me letters, but I want to hear it from you first. If that’s okay?”
She sat back against the cushion and shredded the tissue she still held. Allowing herself to feel it all again, a tear slipped down her face as she told us the story.
Chapter 19
Thomas
It took a lot to make me nervous, but Shannon Hughes Jones was doing a great job of it. My official assessment after viewing the family photos of Axel in the hallway made me believe she was a good mother. The way she cried upon seeing Mason was heartfelt. I just hoped he came away better than he was going in. Something told me I was going to be wrong.
“I met Davis in the summer of…1995. I had just finished at uni and was looking for my first job. My best friend and I were having a pint at a pub when he walked in.” She smiled as if she could see it happening again, which led me to believe she had loved Davis Kennerly. “He was wet from the rain, but I didn’t care. To me, it made him even more handsome.” She paused, then started again. “I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and when he looked at me…” she trailed off with a heavy sigh. “Anyway, he approached us and took a seat next to me. We ended up talking for hours after my friend left. It was as if all the people in the pub had disappeared. All I saw was him.”
I glanced at Axel for confirmation. When our eyes met, he dipped his head to confirm the story was accurate. When the pause lasted longer than before, he prompted her with a question. “What happened after you met him at the pub, Mum?”
She smiled up at him. “He walked me to my flat and kissed me goodnight. He was a gentleman. Didn’t try to come in, even though I would have welcomed him. The next morning, he showed up with pastries and flowers, and I was smitten.” She placed her hand over her heart. “I just knew he was the one, so giving my heart to him was easy, even though he had one more year of school before he was free. When he left London, he promised to come back and that we would stay in touch.”
“Did he keep his word?” Mason asked.
She nodded with a wistful smile. “Yes. He called when he could, and we sent emails to one another.Hotmailhad just started, so it made things easier. I missed him terribly, and to make the time pass, I spent my time focusing on my new job until he made it back to me. Each time he left, it got more difficult. I’d cry for days. I even looked into going to America, but he wanted me to stay. He wanted to live here when he finished his education and start his career. Davis returned two more times before things changed. Each time he came back, I could sense something weighing on him, but when I asked, he said it was business, and he’d take care of it. We’d survived a year when he came back the next June. It was the summer he told me he wouldn’t be coming back.”
“Why?” Mason asked. “Did he give you a reason?”
I watched as her lip trembled. “Rather than staying in the UK, he was starting a new venture in New York that would save his family’s business. His father needed him to manage a merger.”
“He didn’t want you to go with him?” Mason asked.
“No. He said it was complicated, and if he could find a way around it, he would come to me.”
Shannon went back to fiddling with the tissues, as if she needed something to do with her hands. A tear slipped down herface, but she wiped it away. Perry put his arm around her, and she leaned into him.
Mason stretched a hand out to her across the coffee table. She looked at him and grabbed it. “We don’t have to do this if it upsets you.”
Shannon smiled at her youngest son. “Thank you, dear. You deserve to know.” Her gaze went to Axel. “You both do. But no matter what happened, please know you were conceived in love and heartbreak, and what happened was… not what either of us wanted.”
Mason tightened his jaw and nodded. He didn’t reply, but Axel was seething. I wasn’t sure how long he was going to be able to control his anger.
“When Davis went back to America, I cried myself into a depression. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, I was just miserable. I went so long without eating that I made myself sick. When I tried to eat and couldn’t hold down food, I went to the doctor. That’s when I found out I was carrying you.” She smiled at them. “I was so happy when I found out. I hoped it might change things between us, that he could come back to me. But that didn’t happen. When I explained to Davis that I was pregnant, he cried with me. We were happy until he finally told me about his business arrangement. And the part Melinda played. He was marrying her to save his family’s business.”
“Motherfucker,” Axel growled between his teeth. He clenched his fists as if he wanted to punch something. And Mason wasn’t handling it much better. “So the asshole got you pregnant and left you with two babies to marry someone else. Then he had the balls to take one of us to give to her? Was my brother a goddamn wedding present?”
Mason flinched at Axel’s words as Perry spoke. “Axel, you have every right to be upset, but this isn’t helping anyone.” He hugged Shannon close to him.
I rubbed his back, knowing Mason wasn’t a wedding gift. From what Axel told us in the pub, taking Mason to the States was means for Davis Kennerly to have both worlds.
“My father told me I was part of their prenuptial agreement. He wouldn’t marry her unless she agreed to raise me as her son.”
His mother looked horrified. “I didn’t know that. I swear.” Shannon looked at him with pleading eyes. “It was the only way to have him in both of your lives. He promised the marriage was a business arrangement, and that he would leave and bring my baby back to us as soon as he could. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. He wasn’t supposed to have more children with her. I believed him until I couldn’t take the heartbreak any longer.”
Axel got to his feet, suddenly unable to sit still. I recognized the response. “No, but the asshole sure liked to play house with us. He had two fucking families at one time.” He was seething again, and I couldn’t blame him.
“Please,” she begged through tears. “Please forgive me.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. One look at Mason and I knew he wanted to comfort her, but I wasn’t sure he could. His knee bounced as he tried to make sense of all of this. Axel was actively pacing the room, running his hands through his hair just like his brother did. Reaching out, I put my hand on Mason’s back. Leaning in, I whispered, “You doing okay, sweetheart?”
