Chapter 36
“Avery,” I sighed into her hair, laying a firm kiss on her forehead, unable to take my hands off her.
“Spencer. You found me,” she cried into my shoulder.
“I would never let anything happen to you, Bella. Please tell me nothing happened to you.” I held her by the waist, stretching my arms out, so I could examine her from head to toe.
“I-I’m fine. Just rattled.” She shook her head. “Jax … He … He’s Jackson,” she stuttered the truth I didn’t want to admit myself.
Fuck, why did this have to be so messy?
“I know, baby. I just put the pieces together today. We have a lot to catch up on. But first, where the hell is he?” I looked behind her toward the area she had run from.
“I left him in the bathroom...”
The bathroom?
The questions were building up as time went on.
“I need to confront him. Come with me—”
Her eyes widened.
“Wait … Spence, I need to tell you something.” She tugged on my arm, pulling me back from my mission to face Jackson.
“What is it, Bella? Can it wait?”
“No. I … I sort of got desperate. Being locked in the bathroom with Jax, I didn’t know what else to do…”
“Baby, you aren’t making any sense. What happened in there?” I peeked behind her; Jackson had yet to make his exit.
“The thing is … I had no idea what was going to happen in there. What he planned to do. I had to take control of the situation. I convinced him to take his pants off—”
“You what?”
What did she mean they were in a bathroom together, and he took off his pants?
“I needed him vulnerable, Spence. Nothing happened. I just made him believe something was going to. But we didn’t kiss. He didn’t touch me. I definitely did not touch him. The second his pants were around his ankles, I kicked him, weakening him long enough that I could escape.”
Naturally, I winced at the thought. But I trusted Avery. I knew how much she despised him; she would never physically be with him again. Especially after somehow finding out he was my son. She was desperate. And my girl was a fighter.
“Everything is going to be okay. Come on, I won’t let anything happen to you. Promise,” I assured her, nodding my head toward the bathrooms.
“He’s your son.” Avery dipped her head with a saddened expression.
“Honestly, after today, after the last … I don’t even know how fucking long, I don’t know what the hell he is to me.” I shrugged my shoulders, squeezed her hands in mine, and walked in the direction she’d come from just moments ago.
With a slight limp and an arrogant grin on his face, Jackson walked out of the bathroom and headed in our direction. When he looked between the two of us and our interlocked fingers, he took the opportunity to get the first word in.
“Well, well, well. Should we all have a little family powwow at the nearest bar? Take shots to celebrate the happy couple?”
Jesus Christ.
The plan I thought I had when it came to confronting Jackson for the first time flew out the window. Just when I thought I could put my finger on the type of man my son was, he proved me wrong, showing me another side to him. After today, I realized I didn’t even know him in the slightest.
Dropping Avery’s hand, I lunged toward him, wrapping my fists around his shirt.
“We are going to my place to have a much-needed talk. All three of us. And I’m not taking no for an answer,” I growled.
“Fuck that. I’m not going anywhere with you two.” He reared back as if he’d been slapped.
“You will. Unless you want me to report you for being a con artist or whatever the fuck you are. Don’t forget who the hell I am and how easy it would be for me to ruin you, Jackson.”
“Your girlfriend,” he looked behind me, making eye contact with Avery, “was two seconds from dropping to her knees for me, so this will be interesting to say the least.” A menacing laugh escaped his mouth.
The blood pumping through my veins turned to stone as I clenched my fists tighter around the collar of his shirt, knowing Avery never had the intention to suck him off.
But as I thought of Avery, of Jackson being my only son, the scene I was creating in the middle of a casino, I loosened my grip, not wanting to act on my heightened emotions.
Choosing to ignore his lies, I pushed him forward, finally releasing the hold I had on his shirt, and told him to lead the way.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t bothered in the slightest with the new information I’d found out today.
My son was the ex-boyfriend of the girl I love; he’d been a complete asshole—stealing from the both of us—and I was human for fuck’s sake.
Today alone skewed every thought I’d formed about him since I met him a few years ago.
I hoped once we sat down and talked like men, he would fill in the gaps that were eating away at my brain and answer the questions I knew were burning in both mine and Avery’s mind.
As he led the way through the casino, heading toward my building, I held Avery tightly around the waist, refusing to let her out of my sight.
“Sit,” I barked.
Following suit, I did my best to remain calm.
The entire walk back to the penthouse, I ran over every way in which I would start this conversation off. But the truth was, this shit was so complex that I had no idea where to even begin.
“You were supposed to meet me at the bar.”
Keeping our distance, I sat on one side of the couch next to Avery, with Jackson sitting across from us.
“I was on my way. Then I ran into Avery.” He avoided eye contact with me, staring directly at her.
I snapped my fingers to get his attention. “My eyes are over here. Don’t fucking look at her.”
Jackson chuckled.
“I never thought my own father would be enjoying my sloppy seconds.” He shook his head in amusement.
“Jackson.” My voice was stern.
“Where do you want to start, Dad? Your new relationship with my ex-girlfriend? How you left mom high and dry and became a fucking millionaire while leaving us with practically nothing? Take your pick.”
That last part reared me back; the surprise evident on my face. Pausing, I gathered my thoughts and finally spoke, even though I was still plenty angry. My voice softened, and I did my best to be as real with him as possible.
“Jackson, I don’t know what your mother has been telling you all these years, but we didn’t even know each other.
We went to different high schools and ended up at the same party one night—completely wasted.
I never saw her again after that. I didn’t even remember her name until I met you, looked her up, and put the pieces together from that night.
I would have never willingly dismissed your mom if I knew she was pregnant—my parents wouldn’t have allowed that either. ”
Growing up in a large Italian household, grandchildren were what every parent dreamed of. My mother would have slapped me on the wrists and scolded me for having sex at such a young age. But without a doubt, she would have jumped at the chance to help raise Jackson as her own.
Looking ashamed, Jackson picked at the lint on his jeans with his head hung low.
“Mom always knew who you were.” He took a deep breath. “Naturally, when she never got married or could keep a steady boyfriend, I had more questions about my dad as I grew up. She finally told me she knew exactly who my dad was. That he left us. That you left us.”
None of it made sense. Why any woman would know the man who got her pregnant but refused to say anything—refuse the help.
“I know you don’t have much to go on since we don’t have a strong past. But I’ve never given you a reason not to trust me since we met. I never would have left you,” I pleaded with my elbows resting on my knees and my head dipped into my hands.
I felt the gentle touch of Avery’s hand on my back, letting me know she was here, even though this part of the conversation didn’t involve her.
With realization, Jackson took a deep breath and began talking.
“Mom told me she’d tell me who my dad was when I became an adult.
I guess what she really meant by that was once I graduated college.
It took years of trying to pull information out of her, and I resented Mom for it most days.
For whatever reason, she fucked me out of having you in my life.
And because of that, she wasn’t very present herself.
She had to work a lot. For some reason, she decided to make her life harder by leaving you out. ”
“Sounds like you may need to have a conversation with your mother.”
With everything said on my behalf being true, there wasn’t really any other way to get answers. He was going to need those answers from his mom.
“Yeah, a lot of conversations need to happen, apparently,” he huffed under his breath.
After a few minutes of watching Jackson’s walls come down, I had a sneaking suspicion that he never had a gambling problem. Instead, he was an entirely different type of trouble.
“What did you need all the money for, Jackson? The real reason, please.” I rubbed my thumbs into my temples.
“Gambling debts.” He doubled down as his eyes veered to the left, and his knee bounced up and down.
“You’re still going to stick to that story?” I challenged him.
After moments of silence and Jackson’s head cowered down, avoiding eye contact, a pair of brown eyes that matched my own finally lifted.
“I wanted the life I should have had, okay?” Finally giving up, he slapped his hands along his thighs.
Before I settled on what I wanted to say, my mind stirred, wondering why he felt entitled to a certain type of life.
“And what kind of life is that?” I bit my tongue.