Chapter 12
As Jacob looked upon the tiny island, a gamut of emotions ran through him.
He hadn’t told his family that he watched her walk out of the hospital, leaning heavily on a cane. He didn’t know where she was headed or who owned the black Sedan that she slowly got into. The vehicle didn’t match anything associated with her father, who had already disowned her.
That day he’d been full of mixed emotions.
Anger, hurt and distaste, but also sorrow for his daughter, that she lost a mother, and pity for Sierra being alone, the life she knew gone.
The final emotion, he buried it. Even if he could have loved her, her actions throughout the years that they were together made it impossible.
Even the warmth and caring he felt for her in the beginning had died.
He also knew he was partly at fault. He should have stood firm and continued to turn her away; his body led too many of his decisions, which ruined both of their lives.
Eventually, she would have tired of pursuing him and moved on.
But after having a taste of her passion, he couldn’t get enough.
He was not surprised with how persistent she’d been after they’d hooked up, he expected she would show up where he frequented. And she did.
He let out snort at his gullibility into believing that with just one taste, he would end it.
But then one night became two; another taste became a regular sampling, a craving he couldn’t shut off.
He’d warned her in the beginning when they became lovers that he didn’t think he had it in him to love another being and she didn’t ask why.
He thought maybe it was because she’d finally realized that this wasn’t serious but now, he knew it was because she thought she would be the one to change him.
His father had scarred his brothers in some way or another.
Him, Colin and the twins were cautious when it came to commitment and the idea of loving someone.
Rafe, Dyson and Bronson—he’d been an absent father, so they became unable to trust loved ones would stick around, something their grandfather couldn’t quite overcome when he took them in.
The atmosphere had been tense throughout his father’s visit when Kaitlyn was born, and he soon left, with barely a word to his children.
He could not understand his father, even less after he held Kaitlyn for the first time; he vowed to make sure she felt loved and wanted for nothing. Her hand wrapped around his finger and her eyes staring blindly up at him with trust.
Her uncles fell in love with her the moment they saw her.
There were times he had to fight his brothers to get his daughter back.
As she grew up, her uncles became her protectors, and her tea-and-dolly playmates.
He found it hilarious to see grown men sitting in small chairs, sipping fake tea and eating dessert but they did it because she was their precious princess.
She was an adorable, loving and friendly child.
He should have expected it because of how Sierra was, but he was still surprised that Sierra had struggled with being a mother to Kaitlyn.
It wasn’t easy for her to adapt while a small being needed her attention constantly, unable to fathom her life wouldn’t go back to what it was before having a child.
There were moments where he saw her love and care for their daughter but also the times where she grew frustrated and cool toward Kaitlyn.
It got worse as Kaitlyn aged. Other priorities pulled his attention away from her; taking care of Kaitlyn and taking over more of the Norris empire took precedence.
Their fiery love-making, the strongest draw they had between them, became more infrequent.
To cope, Sierra clung to the bottle, and her temperament turned more volatile and angrier.
He brought in a nanny to watch over and take care of Kaitlyn when he couldn’t be home.
He never forgot how he lashed out at her on that devastating day. He’d been so tired of her accusing him of anything her alcohol-soaked mind could concoct.
He had gripped the cell phone so tight and in a low tone said harshly, “If you hadn’t pretended to be pregnant in the first place, I would not have married you! I have tried with you for Kaitlyn’s sake, but I want a divorce.”
When he heard her soft gasp and her beseeching call of his name on the phone, he continued to berate her. “Save your denials; keep it for the next sucker you try to bring into your hellish, drunken life.”
The silence he had heard on the other end sounded warning bells in his head and he realized too late he’d let his anger get the better of him.
And just like that his anger cooled, and he thought to himself it was obvious Sierra needed help and he was going to make sure she got it, but they were not good for each other.
Beyond her addiction, he couldn’t make her the priority she wanted to be.
Then she just hung up the phone without another word to him.
The guest at his table gave curious looks and he’d assured his clients he just needed a moment to resolve a personal call.
As he left the room, his phone rang again.
Relief poured through him. It was a chance to apologize and try to placate her until he could get back home.
But the relief turned to fright when he heard the nanny’s panicked voice alerting him that Sierra took Kaitlyn and drove off in her car.
Without a word, he left the dinner, hitting redial until Sierra finally picked up. No matter what he said to her to try and calm her down, she yelled at him, most of her words incoherent and slurred. He begged her to pull over, but she shot back with a threat and a laugh.
Her sudden scream would haunt him until he died. Seeing his little girl looking so small and fragile, he’d simply cried, wiping away his tears when his brothers got there to support him. It had been a long night, but her surgery had gone well. His wife, on the other hand, had to fight for her life.
When she got out of surgery, she was almost unrecognizable, her face swollen and bruised.
A long scar went down her face and her hair had been shorn in places for them to get to the swelling in her skull.
They had to induce a coma in order to deal with her head injury.
The fact that she’d been awake in the beginning was a surprise; she was in a lot of pain.
He’d never felt so hopeless in his life, except for that day in the hospital.
Guilt weighed him down that he was unable to make everything okay for Sierra or his daughter.
Seeing him this way, his family stepped in and told him to not feel guilty for Sierra, that she’d done this to herself and even the Senator advised him to walk away now.
He hadn’t argued because they were right. He’d become focused and determined to think only about Kaitlyn’s safety and well-being. And now he would continue to follow this path, even if it meant facing his ex-wife again.
He walked up the drive of a tiny brick-and-wood bungalow.
The wind pulling at his hair and the rain making it a bit difficult to see, he pulled the hood further down his face.
This place wasn’t easy to find information on.
He had gone back to the hospital, inquiring with any staff member he could, even though she’d been discharged over a year ago.
Fortunately, the male physiotherapist remembered an elderly lady coming to one of her sessions and asking questions on her care.
Jacob explained it was important and if the physiotherapist could provide any information he could, and after digging through his files, he found an emergency contact number with the name Patricia scrawled beside it.
At first, the Senator denied knowing anyone by that name. His tone had been gruff and impatient, but Jacob pressed, preferring crumbs to nothing.
“Wait, hold on. Call me back in about twenty minutes. I’ll go upstairs and grab my mom’s stuff from storage.”
The Senator ended up finding a letter between Patricia and his mother. As it turned out, during the last year of her life, she’d taken a woman as a lover, after her husband had passed.
Now there he was, at the door of Pat’s home on Matinicus Isle to see his ex-wife. He stiffened when he heard her voice on the other side of the door and braced himself to see her for the first time in a year.
Though she swung the door open, she kept shoving items into a bag, focused only on her phone conversation.
It gave him time to study her. Her hair was short, the long, curly tresses he remembered now gone; the cut looked cute on her.
She wore no makeup and he could see the sprinkle of freckles she used to hate and hide them from him.
Tiny scars peeked out from the curls on her forehead and the long puckered one that ran down her cheek still pulled the eye down slightly.
He took in her sweats and loose t-shirt covering up her curves instead of emphasizing them.
But he could tell from her shape and her face that she’d put on weight, and it looked good on her.
She’d been slim with curves but now her hips were a bit broader and her small, pert breasts were a handful now.
Her voice still sounded the same, light and soulful.
He preferred this voice over the manufactured cute and sultry sound she’d put on in public.
When she finally raised her eyes to his, he once again found himself captured in their dark depths.
Her eyebrows arched up in surprise and her plump lips separated into an o shape.
He heard her intake of breath, and he took a step out of the rain and into the threshold; she moved back instinctively, and he saw when her face grimaced in pain.
She winced as her left leg began to shake suddenly and she almost lost her balance. He caught her elbow, steadying her.
“I have to go, Jacob’s here.” She said into the phone. Then she pulled away from him, taking slow and steady steps to the side, letting him enter into her home. The lights winked in and out. He glanced at her, and she shrugged.
“It happens when the wind gets strong here. We have a backup generator if the power lines go down.”
“You know why I am here?”
“Yes.” She said to him, simply.
“The person on the phone?” His interest peaked and annoyance flooded in—someone had been keeping tabs on him and Kaitlyn. She was breaking her promise.
“Yes. But I didn’t know she was doing that.” Sierra explained, seeming to read his mind. She shifted from one leg to the other and he wondered if it was to help with her other leg that had been shaking. But that was not his concern; he came here to get her and leave.
He said coldly. “Are you ready to go then.”
“Yes, but Jacob, what is happening to Kaitlyn?” She pressed her lips together, looking concerned.
“Your friend didn’t tell you.” He shot back sardonically, thinking she had no business looking worried.
She scowled and was going to say something, but he saw she thought better of it. “Not everything. Just that Kaitlyn has leukemia and has been in and out of the hospital.”
“We can talk about it on the way back. The boat is waiting to take us to the city, and I was warned we need to hurry to avoid the second severe storm that’s brewing. The captain wants to get ahead of it.”
She nodded. “You can wait in the kitchen. I have juice or water in the fridge, if you are thirsty. I am almost ready to go.” When she turned to walk past him, her scent teased his senses.
It smelt like she was wearing cocoa butter and something else.
It was lighter than what she unusually wore. Maybe more like soap than perfume.
Jacob was still standing in the hallway when she disappeared into a room, then he decided to take off his boots. He was a bit parched, but he was also curious to see the place that she now called home.
The kitchen was small and compact, just enough for two people to use and dine in.
He then made his way to another room off to the side of the kitchen that had the light on.
He stepped into a tiny office and was surprised to see a cot instead of a small couch.
He figured Sierra sometimes slept here and wondered why.
There was a desk with a small chair, but nothing was on it.
He approached the massive bookcase that took up most of the space in the room; his gaze rolled over all the books there, some biographies, but also romance, horror, fantasy, cooking and travel books.
He pulled out one that looked to be a thriller; he knew of this book because Marissa read this one and was reading the second one in the series.
She loved it and told him he should give it a try.
He was not into books, especially ones that looked to be more romantic in nature.
He guessed Sierra must like them, assuming they didn’t belong to Pat.
He put it back and left the room, turning off the light. He could hear Sierra still moving around in her room.
Jacob turned around and went into the kitchen.
He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, popping the cap and slaking his thirst. His eyes wandered and he saw a cupboard door slightly ajar.
A burning memory of his drawers being left open when Sierra was looking for a drink had him in front of it.
Glaring, he pushed the doors all the way open.
All he found was tea boxes. Not mollified, he continued to search.
The dull thud of her suitcase hitting the ground brought him out of his investigation.
For a moment, she just stared at him. When he said nothing, Sierra turned away.
“I’m ready to go if you are. I can’t carry all my bags because I will need to use my cane to get down to the docks.
Can you help me when you are done searching my cupboards? Don’t forget under the sink too.”
“Do you blame me?” He snapped at her back. Though guilt crept over him for going through her kitchen, he didn’t think he was wrong for searching and being skeptical.
She paused and her shoulders slumped. “No, no I don’t. I get it.”
Even though she acknowledged his need to search, he still didn’t like the cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew he had to rein his emotions in. She was only here to be useful and help his daughter get better and nothing else.