Chapter Twelve
Morgan
I let myself have exactly thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes to cry in my mother’s arms.
Thirty minutes to accept that my husband never really loved me.
Thirty minutes to finally let him go.
I was done.
I stood up from the couch and moved to the kitchen. Staring at the coffee cup, I took a deep breath and picked it up. I stared at that tan liquid; the steam was gone, the coffee now cold.
Like my heart.
I dumped the coffee down the drain and rinsed the cup. When I turned around, my mother was putting away the food I had taken out.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re going out. Neither of us is going to be in the mood to cook and clean. So let’s go.”
She grabbed her purse and waited for me at the door. I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave my house. Jude was out there. My friends were out there. My secret was out there.
“I think I need to call Dev first,” I said, biting my lip. “If she finds out before I tell her everything...”
“Go, call her. Then we’ll leave.”
I looked around for my phone and remembered what happened when I found it on the floor in the corner. My mother followed my gaze and sighed.
“What happened?”
I stared at the pieces of the phone scattered on the floor, like the pieces of my heart.
“I called King.” I looked up at my mom, tears filling my eyes again. “He knew, Mom. He knew and he didn’t tell me.”
“Baby, he doesn’t know.” She dug in her purse and held her phone out to me. “Here, use mine and call Devlyn. Tell her everything, Morgan.”
I took the phone and moved back down the hall to my room. I looked around at the colors I’d chosen in here. Colors that made me think of Jude. Colors that made me feel close to him.
“Guess I’m redecorating this week,” I mumbled as I climbed onto my bed and called my best friend.
“Benny? Is Morgan okay?”
“I’m fine. I broke my phone,” I told her as I chewed my fingernail.
“On purpose?” she asked.
I smiled. Devlyn was the one person who knew me best.
“Who pissed you off?”
I took a deep breath and blew it out. “My husband and my brother,” I spilled, and then pulled the phone away from my ear before Devlyn pierced my eardrum with her screams.
“You got fucking married without me? And then didn’t fucking tell me?” she shouted.
“Cher? What’s wrong?” I heard Gator ask in the background.
“Oh nothing, just my best fucking friend keeping secrets from me,” she told him. “Bitch, you have five seconds to explain before I come back up there and kick your ass.”
I smiled in spite of the threat that I knew she’d carry out. “I might need more than five seconds.”
“Start at the beginning,” she ordered.
“Well...” I wasn’t sure how to start. “I need you to understand that I never wanted to keep secrets from you.”
I heard her breathing on the other end of the line. And I wondered if I was about to lose my best friend when I told her everything.
“I know who my father is. I’ve always known, but both he and my mother chose to keep it a secret to protect me.”
“Morgan Delany, is this going to sound like the plot of one of the books Henley reads?”
“MyfatherisBraesalO’Malley,” I said quickly, my words running together in one breath. When the line went quiet, I knew she’d heard everything.
“Dev?” I pulled the phone away and looked to see if she’d hung up on me. The call counter continued to tick away the seconds as I waited for her to respond. I pressed the speaker button and laid the phone on the bed. “Say something, Dev.”
“I don’t even know where to begin,” she whispered.
“I know. My life is fucked up, but it gets worse,” I admitted, letting the tears fall. “I met someone when I was in Arkansas.”
“Morgan,” Dev whispered.
“You should sit down and make sure you aren’t holding one of those babies; I wouldn’t want you to drop them.”
I told Devlyn everything.
I told her about the first time I met Jude, then meeting King and Gunner and a few others. I told her about getting pregnant and then getting married. And I told her about losing them both within a few days of each other.
“That’s why you shut down every year,” she said, her voice filled with sadness. “Morgan, you should have told me. You didn’t have to go through all that alone.”
“I wasn’t alone. I had my brother.” A pitiful chuckle slipped from my lips. “Only neither of us knew it.”
“What about your mom and dad?” she asked.
“Mom knew. I’d called her when I got married, but we never told my dad.”
“And he still doesn’t know? And King doesn’t know you’re his sister?”
“No, and no,” I confirmed.
“You realize when King finds out, he’ll kill Jude. And so will your father.”
I sat up on my bed. Oh God! I hadn’t even thought about that. King’s words from last night ran through my head.
“I was giving him the chance to do the right thing.”
“Dev, what do I do?” I asked, my voice filled with concern.
“Well, I was going to come up there and kick Jude’s ass, but I won’t have to. Not once King finds out.”
I closed my eyes and groaned. How did this become my life?
“Wait a minute,” Devlyn said. “How did you know Jude was still alive? Where the fuck has he been all these years, and why is he in Rosewood now?”
“I don’t know why he’s here; I kicked him out without letting him explain. As for how I found out he was alive—” I paused, because when I told Devlyn what happened last night, she might actually come up here and kick Jude’s ass. After she’d finished with me.
“What?”
“Well, I went out with the girls last night.”
“Oh God, tell me you didn’t get drunk.”
“I didn’t think I was, but when I came home, he was here in my room, and I thought maybe I had a brain tumor and was hallucinating. You know, like on Grey’s.”
“Izzy and Denny, yeah,” she said, and I smiled.
“Well, he started out all growly and asking why some guy had his hands on his wife—”
“He called you his wife?” she screeched.
“Then he kissed me, and I just let it happen.” I buried my face in my hands. I was so fucking stupid.
“Let it happen?” she asked. “How drunk were you?” The suspicion in her tone told me exactly where her mind was going.
“Chérie,” Gator’s voice came over the phone. “Do me and the boys need to introduce someone to Thore’s gators?”
“Wade, give me that phone,” Dev yelled.
“Not yet, Sha,” he said. “Morgan?”
“No, Gator, I wasn’t that drunk. I knew what I was doing; I was just stupidly ignoring reality,” I confessed. “But thank you.”
“Explain,” Dev demanded, once she retrieved the phone from Gator.
So I did. I told her about the bar, and David Gearing, and Skylar meeting someone named Jude. And how she saw him there ready to step in when Bailey took care of David.
“I guess I just wanted it to be him so much that I convinced myself I was hallucinating, or that Phoebe had put a spell on me or something.”
“Morgan.”
“I know. I was stupid, but when he kissed me, it felt so familiar, so right.”
That was what made his admission hurt so much. I loved Jude. I’d never stop loving him. I just thought he loved me too.
“Morgan... hang on, Henley’s calling. I’m going to patch her in,” Dev said. “Henley?”
“Did you know Morgan was married?” Henley’s voice was somewhere between hurt and excited.
“She just told me; she’s on the line.”
“Hi, Henley,” I said quietly.
“Morgan Delany, when I see you I’m going to... I’m going to...”
“You’re going to what, Hen?” Devlyn asked with a chuckle.
“I’m going to sic Bailey on you!” she said triumphantly.
“I’m sure once Bailey knows, she’ll kick my ass, anyway,” I surmised. “Wait, how did you know?”
“He came to the clubhouse and punched Gunner.”
“He what? Why would he punch Gunner?” I asked. Then it hit me. “Oh shit!” I whispered.
I scrambled off the bed, leaving the phone. I rushed out to the living room and found my mother sitting on the couch reading my book.
“This is good; I need to borrow it.”
I snatched the book and threw it on the floor. “We need to go to the clubhouse. Now!” I grabbed her hand and yanked her up. Looking around, I searched for my keys.
“Why do we need to go to the clubhouse?”
“Because Jude is there and he’s about to start another fucking war.”
My mother didn’t say a word; she just pulled me out the door and drove me to the clubhouse. I was a nervous wreck the whole way up the mountain, and when we pulled up outside, I didn’t think. I hurried up the steps and barged in.
Looking around frantically, I searched the faces, and when I didn’t see the one I was looking for, I turned toward church.
I blamed Jude.
For every stupid decision I’d made since the day we met, I blamed him. And barging into church at the Sons of Hell clubhouse was probably the dumbest decision I had ever made in my life.
But I did it anyway.
I pushed the door open, and King glared at me.
“Why the fuck would you punch the VP of an allied club?” I heard my brother’s voice snarl from the phone laying on the table.
“Because he fucked my wife.”
I closed my eyes.
He knew.
I should have told him first.
I should have let him explain, and then I could have explained.
“Jude,” I whispered.
When my husband turned to face me, all I saw was anger and hurt.
“I can explain,” I said, but the sound of my brother’s voice cut me off.
“What the fuck, Rome?! I’m on the phone.” The phone was silent for a minute as Jude and I stared at each other.
“The fuck did you just say?”
I glanced at the phone. My brother’s voice sounded deadly. And all at once, everything came crashing down. Romeo had interrupted the call. Romeo, who was Gator’s cousin. Gator, who was Devlyn’s baby daddy. Devlyn, who I’d just told everything to, not thinking about Gator hearing it too.
“Chasm, where the fuck is Morgan?”
“I’m here,” I said, closing my eyes tight.
The sound of a chair scraping across the floor had me looking up and staring into the angry eyes of King, the Sons of Hell president.
“Is it true?” my brother asked.
“Is what true?” Jude stood up and glared at me for a beat before looking at the phone.
“Morgan!” my brother shouted. “Is. It. True?”
I bit my lip, afraid to answer, but also afraid not to. I looked at Jude, and my eyes filled with tears. I sought out King, who stood on the other side of the room. I pleaded with him silently to do something. Anything to turn back time.
Twenty-four hours was all I needed.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as my mother stepped up behind me. “It’s time, sweetheart.”
I nodded. “Yes, King. It’s true.”
“Don’t fucking move, Jude,” my brother ordered before disconnecting the call.
“Morgan, what’s going on?” King asked. A sad chuckle fell from my lips as I thought about how confusing life was about to get in Rosewood, Virginia.
My brother, Kingston O’Rourke, was coming here.
We would have two men, two MC presidents, with the same name.
“Morgan, what the hell is going on?” Jude asked. “What’s true? What did Rome tell King?”
My hand covered my mouth; I couldn’t say the words. I couldn’t confess what I had kept from him all these years.
My mother stood behind me, her hands on my shoulders. She was my strength, my rock. My whole life she’d been there for me. And she was there for me now. Saying what I couldn’t.
“Jude, Kingston is Morgan’s brother. Her father is Braesal O’Malley.”