14. Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
Griffin’s Beach Lex
“ D o you really think this is a good idea, Mom?” Lex asks as she removes the last curler from Emma’s hair.
They get ready in VP’s apartment, and Lex still can’t believe this is happening. The timing feels suspicious to her. Very odd considering Zane’s state of mind these days.
All her life, Lex wanted her parents to get married. She thought it would make it harder for them to split up, which she always knew was inevitable. She should be happy. Over the moon, jumping for joy. Instead, a gnawing feeling tugs at her gut about today’s event.
This is a bad idea.
“Not at all,” Emma says as she lets out a deep breath and locks eyes with Lex through the mirror. “But I’ve loved your father since before you were born, Lex. I never thought marriage was something he’d want. Not after losing Margaret.”
Zane’s mother, Margaret, died of cancer, and shortly after, Lex was born. It’s no secret there was an overlap of the women.
“You know how weird the timing is, right? Right after Lane dies and Zane’s in need of being committed or medicated seems like a recipe for disaster. It’s bad timing.”
“I know.”
“And Margaret has been staying with me since Zane showed up drunk. Weeks ago.”
She hasn’t told her mother about Zane trying to kill her, but the bruises were noticed. And probably too easily brushed off as normal club stuff when it’s anything but.
“Your father doesn’t talk about Zane with me. I tried to force it when Diesel told me I needed to talk to him that day he tried to take Margaret, but he refuses. It’s the one subject besides club business that’s off-limits.”
Sighing, Lex walks around and leans against the dresser to face her mom. “You really want to marry someone who refuses to talk to you about how fucked up his first born is?”
“Zane’s grown. Just like you are. What can talking about Zane do, anyway?”
“Maybe you can finally get him to see how much help Zane needs. Like no longer making excuses for everything Zane does, for one. He just enables Zane to act badly, Mom. I mean, did he even tell Zane you were getting married today?”
“He says he did.”
They share a knowing look of dread. If Zane knows about the wedding, there’s no telling what he’ll do. He ruins every event he doesn’t want to happen. Christmas. Birthdays. Even the Fourth of July some years.
Crashing from the main room have both of them snapping their heads to the door, and Lex knows exactly what it is. “Zane smash,” she mutters as they hurry out to see what the damage is.
It took hours to set up everything, and Lex holds out an arm to stop her mother while they stay in the hallway. Zane stands in the middle of the room holding a pool cue with everyone else standing in shock.
After what he did to Lex at her house, she has no doubt her brother would use the pool cue on Emma. Especially when he begins smashing every present on the table, the glass and plastic breaking.
Once all the gifts have been sufficiently destroyed, he breaks the rental table in half. It doesn’t satisfy his desire for destruction, so he takes the now-broken cue and breaks the glass shelves behind the bar. Liquor and glass being to fly everywhere, and a few pieces even cut Zane’s skin a bit.
“That whore my father cheated with doesn’t get to live happily ever after! Not when she probably killed my mom the same way her spawn of Satan killed my wife!”
“Zane, what the fuck?” VP shouts as he tries to grab him.
He pushes VP back, knocking him over a table. “Don’t you fucking touch me, traitor!”
The cue continues swinging until he’s broken everything in sight. No one moves, which surprises Lex. They just stand in shock as Zane destroys his own clubhouse.
Undertaker walks into the room and steps in to fix this. He tosses Zane outside, and the destruction has finally stopped. No one says a word, and Lex feels like throwing up.
“Why the fuck would he do this?” VP mutters as she stands and examines the carnage.
“Are you fucking kidding?” Ky asks. “Everyone in here but you knew this was going to happen.”
Lex moves with her mom to stand by the bar and looks around. “Welcome to my life, VP.”
“It was never this bad,” he says as he stares with wide eyes. “It’s like a tornado tore through here.”
The regression of her father and the psychotic fury of feelings he calls a son pisses Lex off. How can he not remember any of this?
“No, you’re right,” Emma says and sighs as she looks at the smashed wedding cake along the wall. “What he did to Lex was worse than this.”
“No, I’d remember that.”
“It was never directed at you until now, so you never cared. And when you don’t care, you don’t notice. It just doesn’t happen,” Lex snaps.
He glares at her as his nostrils flare. “That’s not fair.”
“Fair?” Her hands shake at her sides, and everyone but her mother keeps their distance from her.
“You wanna know what’s not fair? I never got a Christmas present with Zane around that didn’t end up broken or stolen until I moved to Arizona with Mom.
Not fair? I fucking hate my birthday because every party Mom ever tried to throw ended up just like this. ”
“She goes all out for our birthdays to make sure our kids never feel how she did,” Colt says.
Tears sting at her eyes, and she furiously blinks them away. She will not cry over her father or brother ever again. “I need to make sure they never know what it feels like to have the men in your family hate you.”
“Oh, no,” Emma gasps.
“What?” VP asks, turning his back towards Lex and ignoring her comment.
Bending down, she picks up a piece of what looks like the neck of a glass swan. “My crystal.”
“We’ll get you new stuff.”
Tears fill her eyes, and she steps back like he just slapped her. “This was my mom’s crystal, Nash. It’s the only thing I have left of hers.”
Lex realizes Zane destroyed absolutely everything. Priceless heirlooms belonging to her grandmother. Her mother’s spirit. Her parents’ relationship. None if it can be replaced or repaired. Not anymore.
“He won’t get away with this, Emma,” VP says and tries to take a step towards her.
“Get real, Nash,” she spits out and moves away from him.
“The reason Zane felt he could do this was because you have never reprimanded him for anything in his life. You let him do this to our daughter, and you made it okay for him to do this to me. To us. He took the only physical piece of my mother I had left, and there’s nothing you can or will do about it. ”
“That’s not true. I’ve gotten after Zane, and I will again. He’ll apologize.”
Reaching out to her mom, Lex gets brushed off.
Her mother’s pain at the hands of Zane makes her even angrier, and she glares at her father.
“He’s never apologized for a thing in his life, and you sure as hell have never made him.
Why the fuck do you think he’d start now that he’s over the age of forty? ”
“You don’t understand!” he snaps and shakes his hands out at his sides. The hands he’d had balled into fists as he glared at his daughter. “How am I supposed to tell my son he’s not allowed to feel upset that I moved on before he even lost his mother? When we both lost the love of our lives.”
The collective gasp from a few of the club members audibly expresses Lex’s feelings of shock. Her father just said he loved his dead wife more than he loves Emma. On what was meant to be their wedding day. That has to be a punch to the gut, among other things.
Shaking her head, Emma takes off her engagement ring and sets it on the counter where she found a rare dry spot.
“He was always allowed to torment our daughter because you made decisions you clearly regret. I used to understand to a small extent, but you just admitted to loving him and Maggie more than you’ve ever loved Lex and me. ”
“Em—”
“I’m done, Nash. For good this time.”
“Em, that’s not what I meant—”
“Don’t,” she says. “You refuse to open your eyes and see what’s staring you in the face. You’re blinded by your own guilt and regret, and you’re just as much to blame as he is.”
He runs a hand over his face as he takes a few deep breaths. “This is coming out all wrong.”
“I never felt a comparison to Maggie until right now, but it’s always been there, hasn’t it? No matter what, I’ll never be her.”
“I’ve not asked you to be!”
“You’re settling by marrying me, and I don’t deserve that. I should’ve taken Lex away from you long before I did.”
The looks he gives her makes Lex angry. He doesn’t get to look like he’s just been stabbed in the chest by a shard of glass that was once her mother’s’ crystal.
“You don’t mean that,” VP says.
“If I’d had the strength to move on from the toxic environment you and Zane put us in, maybe Lex wouldn’t be living in a state of constant survival. That she wouldn’t take the entire world on her shoulders until she breaks.”
“This isn’t about Lex—”
“The hell it’s not!” she shouts. “When you all but said you regret us, it’s about her as much as it is about us.
Without us, there is no Lex. Maggie’s the love of your life, and I’ve been letting you get by, turning a blind eye to the abuse Zane put our daughter through.
This is the exact reason Lex believes she has to be strong all the time. Because of you.”
“We have an extra room, Mom,” Lex says. “Why don’t you stay with us for a while?”
Nodding, Emma wipes her eyes. “I’ll pack my stuff up. I only need an hour to get the essentials, and when I figure out a new place to live, I’ll get the rest of my stuff.”
She leaves, and VP moves to follow her, but Lex cuts him off. Shaking her head, she says, “Let her go.”
“I love her.”
“Not enough. You made your choice, and that choice is Zane. It always has been, and you just lost the best thing to ever happen to you since you lost Maggie. You lost your daughter today, too. Congrats, VP, it’s just you and your son. Just like you always wanted.”
“Lex, that’s not true, and that’s sure as hell not fair. I know you’re angry right now, but you don’t mean that.”
Wiping her eyes, she just shakes her head. “Yeah, I do. You’ve always been a father to Zane and fallen short with me. The fact you don’t look at this and remember every time he’s done it to me tells me as much.”
“Lex—”
“I always thought you refused to acknowledge what he did out loud because you were ashamed of how he acts. The truth is that you love him. I was an accident.”
“No, Lex—”
“I’m done. Look around you. You did this. You let your guilt stop you from being a strong parent that Zane clearly needed. You’re not a father to either of us, but at least you love him enough to make excuses for him. I just hope he doesn’t go too far to come back from this.”
“I love you.”
Swallowing, Lex laughs. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
Colt hurries over, his face pale, and she knows the words hit him hard. They’re the same words she once said to him. He told her he loved her, and she didn’t believe it.
“Baby, look at me,” Colt orders.
The fear in his eyes overwhelms her, and she hates how much still hasn’t fully healed between them no matter how much work they put in and time passes. “I’m okay.”
‘Say the word, and I’ll risk my leather to take care of Zane. For you, I’ll do it.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” VP shouts and steps up to him.
“Back the fuck away!” Colt screams as he turns and gets into her father’s face. “You don’t get to fucking speak right now.”
Pulling Colt back, Lex points at the patch on his chest. “You earned this. Don’t you dare risk it.”
“I’ll risk it for you.”
“Don’t let him take what you’ve earned. He’s not worth it. Promise me.”
“I promise,” he says and looks over his shoulder. “Clean up your kid’s mess, Nash. This is no one’s responsibility but yours. Prospects, get the fuck out of here and let him do it alone.”
Lex fights to hide the smile of satisfaction when she sees the offended look on her father’s face. Someone’s finally forcing him to face the consequences of his actions.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard him,” Diesel says and rests a hand on Lex’s shoulder. “Your kid, your responsibility.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Shrugging, Jennings waves the others towards the door. “You heard your President, Nash.”
“I need to go and check on Mom,” Lex says, the room suddenly closing in on her.
Dashing outside, her chest heaves as she takes deep breaths. In and out. Her father’s ignorance caused him to lose his woman and his daughter. At close to sixty, he’s finally experiencing the consequences of his actions. What it cost him and everyone else around.
He doesn’t love me. Not really. Someone who loves me wouldn’t allow this to happen. Wouldn’t turn a blind eye until it truly affected him. He deserves this.