Page 101 of Knot Only For One Night

Queen watched Soren and I get our asses beat. The kids were double our size and I honestly knew that ass-whooping was coming. But I couldn’t stand—and still can’t stand—fucking bullies.

After, she took us back home, cleaned us up, and made us sandwiches. She cut my crusts off for the first time.

I didn’t notice it then. I didn't realize that was her way of letting go of what life hadn’t given her so she could grasp onto what it had.

Since then, Queen and I hung together a lot more. She’d help me with my homework. She’d take me shopping. We’d watch those crazy reality shows. She’d brush my hair.

Our relationship grew slowly but deeply. We’d gotten so close, I started spending more time with her than Ace.

When I presented—that not-so-horrid-anymore morning waking up in my perfume-covered room—I ran to Queen. She’d stayed up all night, sitting on the bench down the hall, waiting.

Like she knew.

She smelled it.

I rushed into her open arms. She held me while I cried, my tears soaking her shirt.

No one could understand me from that point on like she could.

She’s been my rock since. The best mom anyone could ask for, and why the gods didn’t give her a baby of her own, I’m not sure. Because if anyone would have deserved it, it would have been her.

I think she’s found peace with how her life turned out, but the ache of what wasn’t still throbs from time to time. So kids will always be a sore subject for this family. Out of respect for Queen.

Prez places a hand on her knee, but addresses the room. “We deal with this today. This is an unfortunate situation. But stealing is stealing. Bring Hunter in.”

Hunter is a big guy, like the rest of us here. In his forties with dirty blond hair and tanned skin, he looks as if he could be Ace’s brother. That, and he’s been beside my dad since the beginning. Only those light blue eyes mark him as different.

As Soren’s boss, he was always the guy with a smile on face. The man cracking jokes and fixing anything with a motor. He replaces the batteries in those kid car things so they’d go faster. The guy who loves to have a picnic. Always there for everyone under him.

What I don’t understand is why he couldn’t have come to us.

“Hunter,” Ace acknowledges him, nodding his head in greeting and Hunter does the same. He comes to stand in the middle of the room, sitting at the middle table by himself, an island of his own.

I can’t tell if that’s a good idea, or if we should make him feel like he’s got someone in his corner, ready to hear him out.

“Do you know why we called you in?” Ace asks, and Hunter nods his head. “Do you have anything you want to say?”

“There is no excuse for stealing. I shouldn't have done it,” he says, shrugging one shoulder. He looks down at the table, but moves his gaze to look over everyone in the room. “I’m sorry. I was just in a tough spot and I… I got lost.”

“Hacker looked into the situation. I’m sorry to say that you, Hunter, are not a dad. Mari Lowe is happily married in Kansas with no children.”

“No, she’s in⁠—”

“That’s not Mari. You’ve been actually talking to a scammer,” I say.

The man falls into despair. His eyes go wide as he stares at me. His brows furrow, and I nod to confirm what I'm saying is the truth.

“What about Lilia?” he murmurs, but I can tell the cogs are turning in his brain.

I shake my head. “She’s… not real.”

Watching this man I’ve grown up with be crushed from the inside out is a devastation all its own. His voice, when he speaks, is thick with unshed tears. “I was… I was gonna visit her. Get my baby. I’m a father. I have to see my baby. This summer. It’s why I took the time off…”

“I’m so sorry, Hunt,” Ace says. He’s not Prez at the moment. He’s Hunter’s friend. My gaze tracks to Queen, who holds her chest as she stares off into space.

Eventually, though, business must be attended to. “Despite the situation,” Ace says, putting his Prez hat back on, "stealing from the MC is a high offense. The trust has been broken, and for that you have two options.”

Hunter nods, though he’s barely here with us anymore. My heart aches for him. He was only trying to do right by his baby girl. I can’t say if any of us were in that situation, we wouldn't have done the same thing.