Family Affair by Elle M Thomas

Chapter 24

 

Declan

 

I still can’t believe how angry Nigel was to find his daughter in an embrace with me. Well, I can because I’m sure it looked sexual more than anything, even if that is the last thing it was. It was loving and intimate but on a deeper level. Nigel didn’t see that. I did think at one point that he was going to burst a blood vessel or something. Her mum was cool though and I think could see there was more than possibly met the eye going on.

Looking around my office in the empty club, I thank my lucky stars that Nigel’s business is no longer operating from my kitchen, or it would be really quite awkward today. Part of me regrets Anita no longer working here but then I also appreciate having my own space without the distraction of her ever-tempting self and frosting.

My phone dances across the desk and I immediately smile when I see Anita’s name lighting up the screen. I text her first thing and am relieved to see a reply.

 

<Morning, Stud. My dad is still refusing to speak to me…probably for the best. My mum still thinks you looked incredibly athletic climbing out of the window and back down the tree x>

 

I laugh and compose my reply.

 

<As it’s after 12 it’s technically afternoon but am glad to hear from you no matter what time of the day it is. Your dad probably used all of his words up on me last night! And I am so pleased your mother got something from my descent from your window x>

 

Her reply is immediate.

 

<I still can’t believe he did that to you. Yeah, she reckons it was incredibly romantic, like something out of a romance novel x>

 

<I still can’t believe he did that to me. But his house, his rules and I guess he had a point that I should leave his house the way I’d entered it x>

 

I hear a lorry pulling into the back yard. Moving to the window I see it’s a delivery of beer.

 

<Sorry, got to go. A delivery has just arrived. I’ll call you later and arrange tonight’s plans x>

 

I slip my phone into my pocket and head downstairs to open the cellar up.

 

I have just seen the back of the delivery guys when I notice another vehicle pulling into the yard. Shit. Nigel, and he still doesn’t look happy.

“A word,” he calls, already out of his van and heading for me.

I nod and can only dream that he will stop at one word but know he won’t.

He follows me into the club where I hold up a cup and offer him coffee from behind the bar. I’d prefer something much stronger if I am about to be subjected to a lecture of some kind, but I am hoping to create a good impression.

A nod confirms he’s having coffee and is clearly here for more than just the one word.

With two cups of coffee, I round the bar and take a stool, indicating for Nigel to take one too.

He accepts the drink and fixes me with a stare that I can’t decipher. Silence hangs between us before he finally breaks it.

“You had no right being in my house last night.”

I actually thought we’d discussed this already, just before he made me climb back down that bloody tree.

“As I have already said, I am sorry that I was there without your knowledge, and I am, but there really wasn’t anything untoward going on.”

He scowls at me.

“And whilst I may not have had your permission, it’s not like I broke in.”

His face contorts through a variety of emotions, most of them linked to annoyance. “She’s my daughter. My little girl and I found her draped all over you in her bedroom, in my house.”

I’d like to dispute the description of her draped all over me, if only because he makes it sound sordid. I don’t. I let it go.

“I can appreciate that, but there was something we needed to discuss, and it couldn’t wait til the morning.”

“And what was that?”

“Sorry, Nigel, not to be rude, but that’s none of your business. It’s between me and Anita.”

He offers no protest, but he doesn’t look thrilled.

“You are going to hurt her.”

“I have no intention of hurting her. I love her.”

He looks slightly startled at that revelation.

“That may be so, but it doesn’t mean you won’t hurt her. She’s not like your usual types.”

I can only imagine what he considers my usual type to be.

He continues. “She’s a good girl. Never been the sort to have lots of boyfriends or sleep around.”

He shudders. I nod, confirming what he’s saying, although I would put everything I own on the fact he has no clue about Christian. I shouldn’t have thought about that because now I am fighting against images of him touching her and kissing her and that is without me considering his marriage to my stepsister.

“She’s not like Liv…” his voice trails off and I stare at him, wondering if he has just called his other daughter a slapper and thank all things holy that Mase isn’t here to hear it.

“I don’t think…” I allow my own voice to trail off, wondering just how I am going to deal with this because Liv is many things, none of them a slapper.

“What? No!” He looks alarmed when he figures what I’d taken from his comment. “Livy is a good girl, too, but she wasn’t sheltered and protected like Anita. Liv met bad people…Anita never did.”

I accept what he’s saying and believe completely that his meaning is precisely what he claims it to be.

“When I met Carol, I had lost my own children.”

I say nothing but can see that fact saddens him and makes him feel guilty in equal parts. Part of me wants to point out that he didn’t lose them. He knew exactly where they were, so technically he left them.

“She had three fatherless children and I was a childless father.”

Again, I choose not to correct him. He was not childless as far as I was concerned, and I knew that was something Mase and I agreed on. We were children of divorce and had watched our mother remarry four times and yet, none of those men were ever our fathers. They were our mother’s husbands, but never our dad because we had one of those already. A loving, attentive and present father.

This conversation was beginning to irk me. “Nigel, I get it. You made a new family and loved the children as if they were your own, but those children, Anita, is no longer a child. She is a grown woman.”

He fidgets in his seat; he’s getting pissed off again.

“I will apologise again for the way I entered your house and for the position you believe you found me in with your daughter, but I won’t apologise for being with her. I love her and she loves me. We are together and plan on remaining that way.”

“You’re not good enough for her,” he snaps.

I fight the smile threatening to curl my lips. “You will get no argument from me on that score.”

He looks startled by my response. “I don’t like you.”

I do laugh now. “Can’t say as I blame you, but Anita does.”

He gets to his feet and offers me a single nod. “Don’t hurt her.”

Before I can respond he has turned away and is heading towards the exit.

I release a long, loud breath and decide that went much better than I might have hoped.

Anita

 

“He’ll get over it.” My mum leans against the countertop near to where I am mixing frosting.

“Will he? He didn’t look like it was something he’d get over too soon.”

She shrugs. “Anita, it was a shock for him. He knows you’re an adult, but he doesn’t like it so when he sees you and Dec all wrapped up together, he has no choice but to face that fact head on.”

What she’s saying makes sense. He has always been protective. Overprotective, but he needs to accept my status as a fully-fledged adult.

“Where is he, anyway?” The silence of my mother’s reply makes me suspicious. Turning to face her, I use her name in question. “Mum?”

“He didn’t want you to know.”

“Mum!” My voice is more insistent and filled with more than a little angst.

“Fine! He’s gone to see Dec—to talk to him—man to man.”

I don’t whether to laugh or cry at the notion of either of them being capable of acting like a man rather than a boy.

“Un-bloody-believable! When is he going to accept that I am a grown woman?”

“When you stop sneaking boys into the house.” The sound of my father’s voice draws my attention to him entering the kitchen. “And in case you were wondering there were no punches thrown or insults hurled.”

I look across at him slightly disbelievingly but before I can say anything my phone buzzes on the kitchen counter I am standing next to. Dec.

 

<Just to give you the heads up, your dad paid me a visit earlier…I’m still not his favourite person, but I think we’re okay. Call me when you’re free and we can do dinner and catch-up x>

 

Our plans turn out to be me going to Dec’s for dinner and a plan for me to stay over. He meets me at the door and unlike his usual reaction of dragging me in and devouring me is replaced with a gentler approach that consists of a warm embrace and a gentle kiss to my lips.

“Come in, dinner is almost done.”

We sit together in a comfortable silence eating pasta with peppers and cheese. I take a sip of the wine Dec has poured and look across at him. He suddenly looks nervous.

“Are you okay there, Stud?”

He smiles and I reciprocate, loving that he still enjoys my use of his nickname.

“There’s something I need to tell you…” As his voice trails off, he moves his remaining pasta around the bowl.

“Is this something to do with my dad?”

We haven’t actually discussed my dad’s visit to him.

“No, not at all. I think we may have reached an understanding of sorts.”

I nod, believing what he says. “If not that, then what?”

“I told you about Amber and our wedding that never was.” He takes a slug of his wine and with a long exhale prepares to continue. “There was more to it than that. Afterwards, she disappeared, not even Audrey knew where she was. She offered no explanation to any of us as to why she had changed her mind about getting married.” Dec laughs. “I didn’t even want to get married, not really. It wasn’t something I wanted or needed and with how many marriages I’d seen fail, I knew there were no guarantees of a happy ending.”

“She, Amber did?”

“Yup! I don’t know why. Maybe because her friends were all getting married.”

I scowl. “You must have had feelings, both of you.”

“Of course. We were a good match, well, I thought we were, and we did love each other, but maybe we were in love with the idea of being in love a little more.”

I watch on silently as he pushes his hands through his hair.

“I went off the rails a little bit and was beginning to get my man whore reputation and needed some focus. Mase suggested as I was spending so much time in clubs, I should run one. He invested and it got me back on track. About eighteen months after the wedding day, Amber came back.”

“Just like that?”

“Yup, just like that. Completely out of the blue and with no warning. She tried to talk, wanted to explain, but it all sounded like excuses and bullshit to me. I was done the second she jilted me without so much as a backwards look.”

I’m not entirely surprised by the bitterness and hard edge to Dec’s voice, and yet, it unnerves me slightly.

“Mase and my parents were concerned by her reappearance and the effect it was having on me, so, my dad decided to look into where Amber had been as that was a subject she absolutely refused to be drawn on, suspiciously so.”

“Dec, what is it your dad does?” While I was sure this probably wasn’t where my attention should be drawn, I couldn’t help it. Between how enigmatic Jimmy seemed to be, the references to him tagging Liv with implants and the sense of mystery that shrouded him and his ‘work’, I was intrigued.

Dec chuckled, pulling my hand to his lips where he kissed my knuckles. “I could tell you, but then he’d have to kill you.”

“Oh.”

He laughs again at my single word response and continues with his story. “Dad found out where she’d been, somewhere near Manchester, and while she was there, she had a baby.”

Silence hangs between us for long, heavy seconds.

“Yours?”

He nods sadly.

“You have a child with her?”

I can feel fight or flight instinct kicking in. He had a child. A child I have never even heard him mention. Nobody has mentioned this child, ever. I can’t believe Liv wouldn’t have mentioned this to me.

“No!” he protests and then corrects himself. “I mean, yes, kind of.”

“Dec, I don’t understand.”

“Sorry, I’m not being clear.” His voice breaks and I can see tears beginning to shine in his eyes.

This is hard for him, and that fact makes me strangely happy and honoured that he is choosing to share this with me. I wait expectantly, anticipating the word abortion or termination to follow.

“The baby, my daughter, was adopted.”

“Adopted?” I feel sick. In fact, I might be sick with all the feelings and emotions washing over me and infiltrating every fibre of my being.

“Yeah, and there was fuck all I could do about it and God knows, I tried.”

I am stunned. What the hell am I supposed to say to this. I had no right to be part of this. It was private and personal to him and Amber and I felt as though I was intruding now.

“I’m sorry,” I decide on saying, reaching for him, to pull him closer. “I’m sorry,” I repeat, not really knowing what else to say. “I’m sure they found her a wonderful home, so you and Amber have nothing to feel bad about.”

In an instant, Dec has pulled away and is storming in the opposite direction to me. “Her home should have been here, with me, with her family, and I do feel bad. Bad that I trusted Amber enough that she was able to do this to me. Oh, and as for her—” The venom in that one word, her, stuns me. “She deserves to feel bad about it all. She made the choices, the decisions she had no right to make without me and I hope she feels guilty for what she did for the rest of her life because that is what she deserves. So, you see, Anita, we might have to agree to disagree on this because for me she has everything to feel bad about.”

I am rooted to my seat and have no idea what I should or shouldn’t say or do to avoid making things worse.

“I need to get out for a while,” Dec announces, reaching for his phone. “I just need some space, sorry.”

He heads for the door and then turns to look at me.

“Cupcake, this is not your fault, and I am sorry that I can’t stay here right now, but please, don’t go. I don’t talk about this often…like ever, so I just need some space and air, alone.”

I nod, silently begging him to leave so I can fall apart in private.