Chapter TwentyFive
Lexington Reynolds fell into a coma on our flight back to New York.
The news greeted us as we touched down at the airport, sending Evelyn into full-scale panic.
His health took a rapid decline in the early hours of the morning with no one around except Flynn. No doubt the youngest Reynolds wasn’t handling it well.
I tried to provide some comfort in the car, reassuring Evelyn that there was nothing she could have done to stop it. But with each mile closer to home, her leg refused to stop bouncing, and she didn’t speak a single word to me as she tried to wipe away the fast-falling tears before I caught sight of them.
When we arrived, she fled from the car and ran straight into Lexington’s house.
I was in two minds whether or not to follow her. No doubt there was a mountain of work that needed my attention. With Frederic still in Monaco, there was no one overseeing things.
Not that there was a whole lot that needed done.
The business itself at this point, with our team ensuring plain sailings every day, doing what they were paid to do. However, I liked to be in the loop with everything. There were still meetings with potential clients and not to forget the fact Dade Diamonds was days away from stealing the deal with Marina Kentwood right from under Reynolds’ nose.
My mind told me to go back to the airport and grab a flight to Ontario, but something more physical and painful demanded that I follow Evelyn.
Our time with the Junipers, away from everyday life, shifted something lodged in my chest.
I meant what I said. Wanting her was a one-way ticket to disaster. She was becoming a distraction to the true task at hand.
And what was worse, I was letting her.
I wanted her to be my distraction.
“Coming or going, boss man?” Benny peered into the rearview mirror.
I ran a hand along my chin. “Going.”
Out of the car, I followed Evelyn straight into the house and was instantly greeted with a barrage of shouting along with the familiar gray purring demon twisting between my legs.
“Move out of my way, Flynn,” Evelyn snapped. “If you don’t let me pass, I won’t be held responsible for what I am about to do to your testicles.”
The siblings stood on the staircase. Flynn blocked Evelyn’s path, his face etched deep with tired lines and bloodshot eyes. From alcohol or stress, it was anyone’s guess.
Evelyn seemed to be under the impression now that the youngest Reynolds was back in university, that it would somehow fix his behavior.
Not likely.
The boy never faced a single consequence in his life and was so busy living off Daddy’s money that he saw no real reason to change his ways.
He was as close to being able to take over the company in nine months as a lump of coal.
“You left me alone to deal with this,” Flynn spat. “You fucked off when you knew Dad was sick and left me here alone.”
Evelyn scoffed. “Don’t fucking start with me, Flynn.” She tried to move around him. “Move out of the damn way.”
“No.” Flynn blocked her path again. “You lost the right to see him when you abandoned us.”
Her hands curled into white-knuckled fists at her sides.
“Do you have any idea what I have been through?” Flynn continued his tirade. “He got so sick so quickly. One second, he was there, and the next, he wasn’t.”
“I get that you’re scared…”
“Scared?” he laughed coldly. “Scared doesn’t cut it. You left me here to look after him all by myself.”
“Who the fuck do you think was looking after him while you were yachting to the Caribbean? Or spending nights in jail? Or the time you were so wiped out on drugs that you spent a week in hospital?” Evelyn moved up a step, coming eye to eye with her brother. “Don’t talk to me about doing this all alone, Flynn Reynolds. I’ve been doing it without you for months.”
“Then why the hell did you stop? Just because you got married doesn’t mean you can forget about your family.”
The sound of her palm ricocheting off his cheek echoed through the foyer.
“You seem to forget, baby brother, I put my whole life on hold for this family. I gave up my job, my fucking dream career because you weren’t ready to step in for Dad. You said you wanted the year to finish your undergrad, so I stepped up to the plate.” Her voice dripped with venom. “I’m the one who rings the lawyers and cleans up your damn messes every time. Hell, I got married for this family, because I wanted to protect Dad’s life’s work.”
Flynn looked between me and Evelyn. “You said you loved him?”
“None of that matters,” she said. “All that matters is that you understand that everything I have ever done is for the benefit of this family. How dare you stand there and question that?”
“Oh, boohoo.” He rolled his eyes. “Poor Evie, always the martyr. I am so sick of you acting like you’re better than me. You treat me as if I am nothing more than a fuck up.”
Her hand flew through the air, ready to brighten his other cheek, except this time he was ready. “Maybe if you acted like anything other than a fuck up, I wouldn’t have to.”
He caught her wrist. “How will you live with yourself if Dad never wakes up and you never got to say goodbye? All because you were too busy running around lying to everyone’s face, including mine.”
She winced as he twisted her wrist.
I acted before I thought. One second, I was watching their little performance, wishing I drove straight back to the airport. The next, I was on the staircase directly behind my wife.
“Let her go,” I attempted to speak calmly. “Unless you wish to join your dear father and breathe through a tube.”
“Stay out of this,” Flynn sneered. “This is between family, and you are definitely not that.”
“True.” I bared my teeth with a lifeless smile. “Which means I won’t feel guilty for breaking every finger you lay on her.” I couldn’t look at Evelyn. If I saw even a hint of her pain, I would be forced to burn the entire house down to the ground. “Let her go. Don’t make me say it again.”
“Listen to him,” Evelyn said. “If you don’t let go of me, he will hurt you, and I am sorry, but I am willing to let him do it.”
He did as he was told. “Fuck the two of you.”
Evelyn stepped back into me. Her body relaxed as I rested my hands protectively on her waist. We watched Flynn recede back up the stairs and when she was sure he wasn’t going to appear back like a charging bull, she left my touch.
I was surprised that they didn’t keep the dying man in the hospital where he belonged. But that was the thing about money, it pretty much gave wealthy people the illusion they could do what they wanted.
Lexington had been clear from the day and hour of his diagnosis that he did not wish to spend any time in a hospital.
He paid a great deal to turn his bedroom into a makeshift private hospital ward. Everything he needed to keep him comfortable and chasing away death for as long as he could.
The sound of a steady heart monitor beeping and the hum of a ventilator greeted us. Evelyn approached the bedside with her shoulders pushed together.
It was never easy seeing a parent so weak. So vulnerable. Growing up, we were all raised to believe that our parents were indestructible and that they would always be around.
How quickly losing one of them brings the harsh reality crashing down.
She sank to her knees, head burying in her hands as her shoulders started to shake. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. You have no idea how sorry I am.”
Sobs silenced the rest of the noise in the room. The sound caused blackness to shroud my vision, and it was as if someone was reaching through my chest and physically trying to remove my lungs with a hot poker.
I hated it.
I hated the sight of her broken and scared.
I hated the sound of her inconsolable tears and knowing that I had no way to fix them.
And most of all, I hated how I wanted to do everything in my power to ensure she never felt that way again.
Shrugging off my jacket, I let it fall to the ground behind me as I strode across the bedroom. Evelyn was, in my eyes, larger than life. Her very presence swelled within me and eclipsed any other thought I ever had. To see her so small, so broken, it wrecked me.
I dropped to my knees beside her and placed a hand on her lower back.
“He’s going to die, Jaxon,” she whimpered.
There was nothing to say. No amount of words would disguise or soften the truth.
“What if I never get the chance to say goodbye? What if I missed my chance to tell him how much I love him?”
“He knows you love him.”
Moving her hands, tears stained her exquisite face. “I just don’t know how I am meant to keep going when he leaves me. I’m not na?ve. I know it’s coming, and there’s nothing I can do to stop that. But I try to picture a world without him, and I just can’t.” Her bottom lip trembled. “How do I keep going without him?”
“You’ll find a way. Trust me.”
Water-filled eyes found mine. “How did you do it? How did you go on after your mom passed?”
“When I lost my maman, the pain was nothing I thought a person could ever endure.” I tried to push the sharpness of the memories back. “Sometimes, the grief comes in such unforgiving waves that it feels like you might drown. But, there will come a day where it hurts less and less. With each new breath you draw, your heart won’t feel so heavy.”
Fresh tears fell.
“Don’t fear embracing the grief, feeling that pain, but only for a while. Otherwise, it will consume you. It has the potential to change you for the worse if you allow it.” Don’t be like me. “You’ll be okay. You have people who care about you and who will help you through it.”
“Not Flynn.” She exhaled unsteadily. “I don’t think he will ever forgive me.”
“He just needs time.” I stroked the length of her back. “Plus, if all else fails, you have me. I’ll be here for you as long as you need me.”
“Promise?”
My throat constricted. “I promise, ma douceur.”
Losing maman tore my family apart. It ripped it at the seams and warped it into something twisted and ugly.
The man lying in front of us was who I believed to be responsible.
Yet, as Evelyn tucked herself tighter around me, her tear-soaked cheek against my chest, I found it hard to find the hatred I once had for Lexington.
For that small moment, he was nothing more than the father of the woman stealing my heart.