Chapter 12
Bronte
She’s been in the bathroom for four hours.
Not a sound or a peep has come from the other side of that door, and she needs to eat. She needs some air, a drink, or something.
I’m fully aware that my execution of everything that has transpired was too abrupt and forceful, but Meirna is hardheaded.
So stubborn that small punches aren’t going to make her move or do me any favors.
I have days in Prague with her before she tries to escape me.
Days before she runs back to Bobby, looking for answers that she’ll want face-to-face, where he’ll lie and give her solutions to rid herself of me.
Little does Bobby know that I already have a one-up on him—Daddy’s company for her.
And I know which one he’ll choose.
I have evidence coming out of my ass of so many felonies and embezzlement charges that he and our father have done that’ll put them away for decades.
I’ve just been building my own case against them so I could take what was rightfully mine in the first place.
Bobby and I might be twins, share a special bond, but I’m almost positive that piece of shit tried to kill me before I left the womb. I came into this world dead, not breathing, and it took three minutes and twenty-one seconds for the doctors to bring me back to life.
Fucking Bobby has taken enough from me. Harding Holdings was supposed to be mine, but unbeknownst to Daddy, Bobby has had it out for me for years.
Not only did Bobby rat me out for sneaking girls inside our childhood home—which was true—smoking weed—another truth—and doing normal-ass shit every teenager did, he also forged false evidence that I was sleeping with my teachers to get good grades.
And, if that wasn’t enough, he conjured up a story that I was stealing thousands of dollars from Alan’s safe.
Which was false.
Bobby has always had a gambling problem, but I was a bad seed. The black sheep. That would be an accurate way to describe myself within the Harding clan.
I’ve never fed into the dream. The lackluster social scene where the family stepped on everybody to get ahead. Who would go through lengths to come on top.
And, speaking of the top, the cherry for me was Alan sleeping with fifteen-year-old girls.
Some of them friends of mine in high school.
I can’t tell you how sickening it was to be told by your classmates that they fucked your dad. That they even once did it on your bed.
I didn’t need to confront Alan about it. When I started looking hard enough, he did it right under our noses.
Catherine was always out fucking around with tea parties, shopping, and dredging up the next elite ball to show off her status and the money she married into.
Bobby was doing the same damn thing I was, but betting our father’s money away and his weekly allowance, but with different friends.
And, Alan, he would devise times for a quick fuck at our home, in his office, or a cheap hotel, then send them on their way.
Meirna would’ve lived with not only the past, but the future that was still happening today.
Alan is still fucking fifteen-year-old girls. Bobby is still cheating on her with Jolene, is in debt now up to his ass, and gets blown by women he picks up on business trips.
And for Catherine, nothing has changed on the front.
But everything has changed for me.
My life.
My family.
The way I approach and do things.
I’m cautious as hell and didn’t take marrying Meirna lightly. Nothing was going to be easy about it. It didn’t matter how I moved or what I did; Bobby was going to be her number one due to comfort and familiarity.
I’ve had my own trials and tribulations that I’ve had to overcome through the whole course of my life.
After my father’s sudden death, I became a pillar to my mother and sister.
I had to fight against his friends and business partners who tried to steal what was rightfully ours.
I had women come out of the woodwork claiming my father had knocked them up and carried his love child.
We’ve had his will contested twice, and my mother’s mental health started deteriorating. Nothing about what happened was alright. Not only did I need to be there physically for my family, but I had to securely fasten myself into my father’s company so my mother and sister didn’t lose it all.
It’s why I could never fully be in Meirna’s life.
Not only did my family not live in New York, but I was fighting several different battles at home.
But I did everything I could to keep Meirna within my grasp in some capacity.
I was her first time with Bobby.
And I’m going to be her last.
When my brother wanted to take her to Chicago so he could spend “time with her”, I funded her non-profit, so she had to cancel the trip with him.
Why would I do that at that specific time?
Because Bobby was meeting with a mob boss to get more money for his bullshit. One look at Meirna, and she would’ve become collateral damage when he couldn’t pay them back.
They may have gone out to dinner, spent holidays together, and fucked. But once my family was secured, I was going to rip her away.
And I did.
Now I have to deal with the consequences of how to attain her trust moving forward.
Three drinks in, I’m tired of waiting for Meirna to come out and yell at me some more.
In fact, I’m looking forward to it.
However, she’s secured herself away from me, and the longer she’s been in there, the more fidgety I’ve become.
Lightly knocking on the door, I wait for her answer and order me to leave her alone, but nothing comes.
I do it again before waiting a few seconds and opening the door with the looming threat that she might have something hard to crack over my head.
I don’t see her anywhere, at first, causing a bolt of anxiety to course through my veins because my first thought is that she found a way out.
But then I see her lying on the hard, marble floor, curled up in a tiny ball, and that feeling immediately flees, replaced with guilt.
This is Prague, her dream honeymoon and vacation.
And I ruined it.
She’d rather stay on a bathroom floor before dealing with me or any more of my bullshit.
Gathering her up in my arms, her cold body hits every nerve-ending in mine, and I should’ve brought her out sooner.
I step back inside the space of the bedroom and gently lay her onto the bed, tucking her underneath the plush comforter and stare at her.
I stare at the woman I’ve obsessed over for two years. The one I would sneak away to see. The one that kept me together after my father passed away.
She may hate me now, but she’ll love me in the end. I’m the reason we’re here in the first place, the way we are.
Not that it’s her fault, it’s mine.
I should’ve given her my name. I should have done a million things to secure me inside her head.
But I can’t go back and change time.
But I can save hers.
And I will from the Hardings.
It’s only a matter of time before they don’t exist in her brain space or mine.