67. Chapter 67 Jack
Chapter sixty-seven
“If I hear one more announcement about that damn gift basket raffle fundraiser, I’m going to lose it!
Come on, Henry. Maybe if we go buy all of the damn things, they’ll shut up about it!
” Blanche storms off, dragging Henry behind her.
The atmosphere since we all arrived at the hospital has been tense, to say the least. We’re all so excited, and Ledger is ecstatic, but the Sinclair family isn’t exactly known for their patience, so the wait is killing us all.
We’re lucky to be in a semi-private wing with a large suite, so at least our tense exchanges haven’t been observed by anyone other than the medical staff.
With their departure, and Ledger only coming out to give sporadic updates of how Sloane is feeling, Margot and I continue our standoff.
After we both got the same “LJ is coming” text in the family group chat, she didn’t even seem surprised to see that I was already at the airport waiting when her car arrived.
She may not have been happy about sharing the jet with me on the way home, but she didn’t speak to me to say no.
Now that we’re back in the States, confined to this hospital for who knows how long, it’s much easier to keep an eye on her and make sure she has what she needs.
As mad as she is, she didn’t refuse her chocolate croissant and iced coffee for breakfast, or the fashion magazines I picked up at the gift shop, or the fluffy blanket I had delivered when I realized how cold she was.
Her feet are warm in her slippers as she sips her tea, and I think I have about two hours before she gets hungry enough for lunch.
There’s gummy candy in my bag for any hint of hanger I see.
She’s a fast reader and the magazines probably won’t last much longer, but I know she’s got the Kindle app on her phone, so as long as she has a charger, she should be okay…
“Do you fucking mind?”
Her voice, as acerbic as it is, is music to my ears. It’s the first time she’s addressed me since our encounter when I arrived in Paris, and it’s completely fucked how amazing it feels to be the focus of her attention, even if it’s her wrath.
“What?” I ask, knowing exactly what.
“Stop staring at me like a psychopath and stop trying to ply me with treats and creature comforts. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. You’re being such a creep,” she huffs, and I swear I see a crack in her anger armor.
Slowly moving closer, I take what I think is my chance to plead my case again.
“Margot, please. I am begging you. I’ll stay on my knees forever if you want.
You were right, in the hallway, everything you said.
I was so much worse than I had realized, and I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness.
But please, Princess. I can’t stop fighting for you.
It doesn’t matter what you do, if you want the man from your apartment, I’ll still be in your life in any way you’ll let me.
I won’t let you go.” Every time I think I’ve cried all my tears, I surprise myself and more form in my eyes.
“Michel,” she says primly, eyes drifting back to her magazine.
“What?”
“The man from my apartment. He has a name. It’s Michel.”
“Did you…” My voice cracks, and I must be a masochist for how much I have to know the answer to this. “Did you sleep with him?”
She’s still nonchalantly flipping her magazine pages, barely paying me any attention. “Hmm, I’m not sure. He had a mask. It could’ve been anyone. He said he was Michel, though, and I trust Michel, so…”
God, I deserve that, and it hurts more because I know I do. I can’t stop the tears from escaping now. “I just, fuck, Margot. I know I deserve that, but please…”
“You’re being a little pathetic right now, Jack. Jesus. I didn’t sleep with him.” She rolls her eyes and stands up, stretching and drawing my eye to the sliver of skin she shows as her shirt rides up.
She’s lazily doing walking lunges across the room while I cry, and her apathy is so much worse than her anger. “I know I’m a piece of shit, Princess, but you don’t have to be this cold to me.”
This has exactly the effect I desired, and she rises and turns to me with fire in her eyes, crossing the room and shoving her finger into my chest as she raises her voice. Yes. Touch me, yell at me. Anything.
“Are you fucking kidding, Jack Carter? You ripped my heart out of my chest, again , and you’re sad about me being cold to you?
You should be glad I didn’t kill you! You’ve been stalking me, not giving me an inch of space, suffocating me with your presence even after I flew across an ocean to get away from you.
Now I’m anxiously awaiting my nephew’s arrival, and you still won’t let me out of your sight!
You followed me to the bathroom!” Her chest is heaving now, and as perverse as it is, I’m not sure she’s ever looked more beautiful.
“I know you don’t believe me, but I was going to tell you.
I promise. Before we went to Paris, I was going to explain myself.
I wasn’t trying to fool you. The first night in the club, when I realized it was you, you still hated me.
I thought you would always hate me, and I would have no other chance to have you in my life, so I took it.
I’m sorry. You don’t have to believe me, but I promise I never meant to hurt you,” I cry, and she’s joined me, wiping the tears angrily from her face.
“Your promises don’t matter at all, Jack. You lied to me. You hurt me and took advantage of me. We were together, and you lied ,” she screams. I open my mouth to try to find something to say when the last voice I want to hear right now pierces the tension in the air.
“What’s going on in here? Jack? What’s Margot talking about, the two of you were together?” Henry asks, placing the gift baskets he was carrying down onto a side table.
Nobody moves. I’m unwilling to break the silence, and I don’t even have anything to say if I did.
The thing I always feared, the anxiety that kept me up at night, is about to crash over me like one last lethal wave.
The only family I’ve ever had is about to cease to exist, and I’m the one to blame.
The fact that it’s happening on Ledger’s son’s birthday is something I’ll always regret, and I doubt the child will ever hear the name Jack Carter.
Henry is objectively a genius, and it doesn’t take long at all for him to connect the dots. I see everything click into place behind his eyes, and I wish I wasn’t looking. I’ve never seen such a combination of hate and disgust. I don’t think I’ll be leaving this hospital intact.
“You were together?” Henry asks in a low whisper, stalking slowly toward me like a panther approaching unsuspecting prey. “I know too much about you, Jack Carter. So either you cheated on my baby sister…”
“I would never.” I squeak out.
“Or my baby sister was the woman who you came to me for advice on how to dominate !”
I’ve never heard Henry raise his voice, and I’m shocked into silence. Margot’s face pales in my periphery as she realizes that neither of us is in control of this situation now. We’re both just along for the ride.
“You asked me, in detail, how to properly punish my baby sister. You told me and my brother, to our faces, that she was your natural good girl! Did you know it was her? This is your chance to live. Did. You. Know?”
“Yes,” I choke out, and before I know it, he’s grabbed me by the neck and has me shoved against the wall on my tiptoes. Margot could probably end my life here if she wanted to, by clarifying that she didn’t know, but she stays silent.
I’m so focused on how Henry is holding me up with one hand and trying to breathe, that I never see the punch coming—heavy and right in my ribs.
I crumple to the floor on a wheeze. I’m being pulled up, and I have a feeling the next one is coming for my face, and I deserve it.
I see Margot over Henry’s shoulder, tears streaming down her face and a hand over her mouth as he pulls back.
“Henry, wait!” she cries, but she’s interrupted by Ledger bursting in.
“It’s a boy!” He’s sobbing, tears of happiness wetting his shirt.
Everything that was happening in the room before he came in stops, and all of us shift our focus immediately to the new dad.
We’re in one big group hug, Henry grabbing me around the waist and digging in a little extra on the side that he punched.
Margot beams, and even eye contact with me doesn’t dim her smile.
“He came about an hour and a half ago. I’m sorry I didn’t come out sooner, but we were doing skin-to-skin time and taking pictures. He breastfed for the first time, which is fucking hot, by the way—”
He laughs as Henry interrupts him with a disgusted, “Jesus, brother.”
“Mom is in there now. Margot, do you want to go?”
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and looks at me, wondering if I’ll make it out alive without her here. I give her a subtle nod, and she turns to go. This is my mess to deal with, not hers.
Wincing, I take a couple of steps back as Henry and Ledger face me shoulder to shoulder.
Ledger notices and gives me a concerned look that hurts because I know it’s about to shift into something else. “Jackie, are you okay? What happened, man?”
Henry doesn’t beat around the bush. “Margot was Jack’s sub. He knew it was her the entire time. He’s done something to betray her and break her trust. She’s very upset.”
If I thought that hurting Margot and Henry, and losing their trust, was enough to break my heart…seeing my best friend, the man who’s always been closer to me than a brother, look at me with disappointment…God. I can’t live with this.
“You were fucking Margot? And you knew you were?” he asks, pain evident on his face, like he can’t believe I would do something like this. I can’t believe it, either.
I nod, once, and brace myself for the hit that quickly follows across my jaw. I know it’s not as hard as he’s got or my jaw would be broken, but my ears ring all the same, and I slump backward into a plush armchair.
Fuck, I’m losing it. I can’t stop crying, my head hurts, and I see black spots in my vision.
I think that asshole concussed me. They can beat me if they want to, and ship me off to wherever they want, never to be heard from again.
But I’m not going one more second without my cards on the table. Time to say my piece.