Chapter Fifty-Six
Grace
I watched the man who stood behind Darcy. King said his name was Hemlock, and he was her son. King and Jackson’s brother. Judging by the man’s face who sat beside her, she hadn’t told him he had a son either.
I looked over at Charles ‘Snoopy’ Kennedy. My father’s friend. He was watching me. He hadn’t said anything since we’d all walked into this room, and I wondered why he was here.
He looked sad, not angry.
“Snoopy, right?”
He nodded.
“What are you thinking?”
Darcy wouldn’t look at him. She dropped her eyes to the table and pulled her hands into her lap. Hemlock put his hands on her shoulders, but he didn’t look at the man either.
“I think you look just like your mother, and your father has missed you. He’s never stopped looking for you, princess.”
King snorted beside me, and I glared at him. He knew I hated being called that. But I guess that was what I was.
An MC princess.
Somehow, it didn’t hold the same contempt as it had when I thought Steele was my father. I loved Uncle Stephen.
“I mean about this.” I waved my hand in Darcy’s direction. “Unless I’m mistaken, you also have a son you never knew about.”
“Two,” he answered.
“Hemlock had a twin brother,” King whispered to me.
My eyes sought out Darcy. “I’m so sorry.” Losing a parent is so hard. I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to lose a child. She didn’t acknowledge my condolences, and that was when I got a good look at her. She wasn’t a deceitful woman looking to hurt anyone.
She was a mother who had lost her own happiness over and over again trying to protect her children. She’d sacrificed everything to keep them safe. I couldn’t help but wonder what she’d given up for Hemlock and his twin.
She’d raised them. After everything she’d lost with King and Jackson, I suddenly understood why she’d stayed hidden. We talked a little longer; neither King nor Jackson gave her much hope of a reconciliation.
But when we stood to leave, I walked over and hugged her.
“I understand,” I whispered.
She squeezed me tight and then gave me a small smile as she slipped from the room. It was only the four of us left. Jackson, Karlyn, King, and me.
“What do you think?” King asked the room. I knew he wanted to hear Jackson’s thoughts but didn’t want to single him out.
“I don’t know,” Jackson answered, his voice low.
“I don’t think she was trying to hurt you,” Karlyn said. “I think she was a scared woman doing what she could... the only thing she knew, to protect her children.”
There was something in Karlyn’s voice. I watched her, but she wouldn’t look up. Jackson held her hand, and I saw him squeeze it. Pain flashed in his eyes as he looked at her.
Pain for her.
“I agree with Karlyn,” I said.
King stood and paced the room, rubbing the back of his neck. I knew he was struggling with this. He’d had his whole world flipped upside down, and he’d tumbled right along with it for months.
“You need time. Both of you,” I announced. Nothing would be solved today as far as Darcy and her children were concerned. “You need to get to know her. But...” I looked at King and then Jackson. “I think you should also get to know your fathers.”
Jackson shook his head, and King stared at me.
“He didn’t know, King. He isn’t to blame, and if you want to have a relationship with your mother, then he deserves a shot too.”
“He’s the reason she ran. He runs the fucking Mob, Grace.”
“And you’re an upstanding citizen?” Jackson snorted.
King spun around and glared at his brother. “Fuck you, Jackson. What about your father? You gonna give him a fucking chance?”
Jackson growled. “He fucking left. He knew, and he fucking left.”
“I need to talk to Uncle Stephen,” I announced, changing the subject before these two hotheads came to blows. I didn’t think they’d ever give their fathers a chance, and it was sad. Because they both had strong men in their lives who wanted them. Men who were fighting for them.
I needed to know whether Uncle Stephen had fought for me. I walked toward the double doors.
“Grace.”
I looked over my shoulder at King.
“I want to come with you.”
I smiled and nodded. Jackson and Karlyn stood. “I can tell him to come in here if you want some privacy,” Jackson offered.
“Thank you.”
I wanted to hug him. I wanted to hug them both—him and Karlyn. They both looked so sad. So broken. But I didn’t reach out. Instead, I moved back to where King stood. And I waited.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No.” I chuckled. “I’m caught somewhere between happy and pissed off. Only, I’m not sure who to be mad at.”
“As long as it’s not me,” he said and put his arms around me from behind. My body locked up when Uncle Stephen walked in. He didn’t sit down. He walked straight toward me and grabbed my hand.
“Let me hug you, baby girl.”
King’s arms loosened but didn’t let go until I took a step toward my father. He pulled me into his arms, and I broke down. All the memories hit me at once. All the happiness there was when he was around, followed by the sadness when he left.
“Why did you leave?” I sobbed against his chest. “Why didn’t you take me with you?”
“I couldn’t, Stephanie. I couldn’t take you away from her. I couldn’t let anyone know you were mine.”
“Why?” I asked, pulling back. “Why is that the standard answer for long-lost parents?” I stepped back and bumped into King. I was angry now. I loved Uncle Stephen, but I swear to God, if he told me he was trying to protect me, I might just kick him in the balls again.
“Stephanie,” he began.
“It’s Grace now. I haven’t been Stephanie for ten years.” Uncle Stephen nodded. “Why couldn’t you be my father?”
Uncle Stephen rubbed his hands over his face and pulled out a chair. He sank into it and spread his hands on the table, staring at the emblem carved into the center.
“George Stone was my best friend. When I joined the club, we had big plans. Plans to take over the world.” He scoffed. “I didn’t realize he was actually trying to take over the fucking world.”
King pulled out the chair next to Uncle Stephen and sat down, pulling me down on his lap. He wrapped his arms around my middle as we listened.
“George sent me to California. He wanted the Golden Skulls erased. There is a history there. His family and the Dohertys, along with the Goldmans, the Lombardos, and the Wolfs. Something happened that split them up. And George couldn’t let it go.
” He shook his head as if he didn’t believe it.
“His grandfather was one of the two men that started the fucking thing, but George couldn’t see that his family was in the wrong.
Anyway, I’d met James at Sturgis, and George thought he finally had a way in. James was VP at the time, like me.”
Uncle Stephen settled his gaze on my face. “You look so much like your mother. I met her in California. Her name was Christina Dougal. Her twin sister was Caroline Dougal, James’ wife. What I didn’t know at the time was that she had a brother.”
“The man who hurt Donna,” I whispered.
Uncle Stephen nodded. “James and Donna were in love. But he was married to Caroline. She was such a bitch. It didn’t surprise me that James had fallen for her trap; the woman was gorgeous.
Just like Christina. But where Caroline was conniving, Christina was na?ve.
Innocent. I fell for her the moment I laid eyes on her.
“I started making regular visits out to California. I told George I was close to getting him what he wanted. The truth was, James and I were doing everything we could to cut George and James’ father, William, off at the knees. But we failed.
“I’d fallen in love with Christina and gotten distracted. When I found out she was pregnant, I panicked. If George had known I had a child on the way, he would have killed your mother before you were born.”
“You can’t know that.”
“I can!” Uncle Stephen shouted. He took a deep breath.
“Baby, I have done terrible things. Not long before you were born, George Stone had an affair. The woman was pregnant with twins, his twins. He killed two innocent people to cover up his affair, and I said nothing. I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but after that.
..” He reached over and took my hand. “Once I knew you were on the way, I did everything I could to protect you. I pulled your mother out of California, gave her a new name, and put her in Arkansas, under Titan’s protection.
I’d worked out a deal with him to protect you and your mother, and I came to see you as often as I could without George finding out. ”
King’s body was hard as granite beneath me. As soon as Uncle Stephen started talking about George Stone, I could feel the rage building inside him. His arms tightened around me, and his breathing was deep and slow like he was trying to rein in some control.
“Did George find out? Is that why you stopped coming around?”
“No, baby, he never knew.” Uncle Stephen closed his eyes. “I trusted the wrong man.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” King growled behind me.
“Titan. The man I asked to watch over the most precious thing in my life fucked me over. He told me you were gone. That your mother had taken you and run.”
“We moved, but only to the next town over. Mom said there was something wrong with the house. We moved further from the club. That was when she stopped bringing me there.”
“I searched for you. But she had nothing in her name. I had no trail to follow. Because I thought she’d taken off, I never looked in the surrounding towns,” he said. “But I never stopped looking. When Shane Keller called the other day, it was the happiest fucking day of my life.”
“So you didn’t leave?”
“Never, baby girl. I would never have left you.”
“Why did she lie?”
“What?”
I looked up at Uncle Stephen, my father. “She said you left. That you didn’t want us anymore.”
“There hasn’t been a day when I didn’t want you.” Uncle Stephen had tears in his eyes. I tapped King’s arm, and he loosened his hold on me. I stood up from his lap and reached for my father.
He stood up and pulled me against him and buried his face in my hair. The tears started again. But these were happy tears. I’d finally found my father, and he was the man I’d always wished for. The man who’d always loved me.
I hadn’t been abandoned; I’d been stolen. Robbed of a life with the one man who loved me unconditionally. I didn’t know how I would ever forgive my mother.
“Popeye, stay as long as you like. But you have to know we have a lot of shit going on.”
“I know. If I take my place in the club, half of your problem goes away.”
“How is it you have a claim to the presidency?” King asked. “Your last name is Hartley.”
“I was adopted. My mother was Sarah Hartley. She had an affair with her sister’s husband, Ashley James.
My mother moved to New York and gave birth to me, and I was adopted by her brother and his wife, who couldn’t have children of their own.
I never knew. Not until George ordered Bane to start DNA testing the club members. ”
“Cordell James was your brother?”
“Half-brother.” My father took a deep breath. “Devlin Scott was also my half-brother.”