Chapter 16 Mason
Mason
I paced from the front door to the kitchen, waiting for Axel to arrive. Once I was able to form words during the initial call, Thomas suggested we meet at our house to avoid an audience. It would give us privacy to talk.
“Once he arrives, I’ll go out and give you some time alone.”
That wouldn’t work. “No.” I heard the commanding tone, making Thomas’s brows lift. “You need to stay here. I need you to stay here. Please?… If you want.”
He raised his hands in surrender, but deep down, I knew he’d never really leave me. The appearance of the soft lines around his eyes when he smiled settled me. “Okay, Champ. I won’t leave you. I’ll stay here.”
With that settled, I looked around, not knowing what to do with myself.
My skin was a buzz, and there was a good chance I might pass out.
Excited, yet terrified. My usual go-to for dealing with my anxiety, going out for a run, was out of the question.
“Do you think…” I paused, looking over my shoulder. “Is it too early for a beer?”
Thomas’s mouth twitched as he glanced down at his watch. “I would say it’s never too early if you actually liked beer. But you don’t.” Approaching with a smile on his face, he put his hands on my shoulders. “What can I do to distract you?”
I opened my arms wide. “Hug me,” I blurted. “Hold me so tight that you squeeze the anxiety out of me.”
Thomas’s brows shot up as he barked out a laugh. When he failed to detect humor in my statement, his expression changed as he tightened his hold, swiping his thumbs across my neck. “Seriously? That’s what you want from me?”
I never broke eye contact, trying to convey how much he meant to me.
“It’s what I need.” Just as I started to explain, it was what my father used to do, a knock sounded on the door.
My eyes widened as my heart jolted in my chest as if I’d been shocked with a defibrillator.
Frozen in my tracks, the knock sounded again.
“You’ve got this, Champ. Go meet your brother,” he whispered. His words were the fortitude I needed to ground me and move me past my spinning thoughts. Grabbing the doorknob, I looked over my shoulder at Thomas, who smiled like he was proud of me. I smiled back, then I opened the door.
Axel’s back was to me, but when he turned, I met the same eyes I saw in the photos. Same build, same height, same everything. We stared at one another, cataloguing everything about the other, until the novelty disappeared and reality sank in. And I started to cry.
Like the big brother I’d always longed for, Axel stepped through the doorway and held his arms open to me.
Without a word, he took me into his arms as I stepped into his embrace without hesitation.
There weren’t enough words to describe the feelings running through me.
Elation, relief, a sense of being whole for the first time, and more importantly, the chasm I’d felt in my soul most of my life was suddenly gone.
Axel held me as hot tears dripped onto his shoulder.
I detected the same reaction in the hitch of his breathing.
When he released me, he held on to my arms as tightly as I’d held onto him.
Without letting go, he looked over at Thomas, then held out his hand, introducing himself. “Axel Hughes. Who might you be?”
“Thomas Kingsley.” His eyes found mine. “I’m your brother’s best friend.”
Our eyes held as Axel appraised us. My brother didn’t comment on our status, but turned to look at me. “How long can you stay?”
Wiping at my face, I cleared the emotion from my throat. I wanted to say forever, but that wasn’t possible. “Ten days.”
“That’s a start,” Axel said, then looked around before releasing me to take a seat on the sofa.
I followed him, afraid that he’d disappear if I didn’t stay close.
Clearing the overwhelming emotion away, I fought back the sadness in our separation for the joy of being together.
“I have a million questions, but I’m still in shock about everything.
I don’t quite know where to begin except to say I’m angrier than I’ve ever been in my life. ”
Axel grunted as his leg bounced. I smiled at the familiar response.
“I am too, and I was ready to kill someone when I found out my twin was living in America.” His tone changed, and his jaw hardened as he looked at me.
“We were separated for no good fucking reason other than the pretentious prick of a sperm donor was to blame.”
My eyes automatically went to Thomas before going back to Axel. “What do you mean?”
Axel furrowed his brow. “He caused this, Mason. Not that our mother was innocent, because she obviously agreed to the arrangement. If she hadn’t received an early diagnosis, I might never have found out.
And I’m still fucking furious, especially now that I have you back.
” He looked away and gritted his jaw, causing the muscles and tendons in his neck to flex. Just like mine did.
Propping my elbows on my knees, I clasped my hands together and rested my chin on them.
“I’ve only known about you for two days, and let’s just say I didn’t handle it well.
You don’t want to know what I did to our father’s desk after I questioned him about you.
He went pale and started apologizing. I’d never lost control of myself before like I did in his office.
It just all came to a head, and I exploded. ”
Axel’s head turned, showing me his devious grin. He almost looked proud of me. “What did you do? I need to know.”
Thomas chuckled, obviously enjoying our interaction, as I relayed the story. “Initially, I thought I was adopted, but when he said we were his biological children, I stood and wiped everything off his desk. When I went to flip it, Thomas stopped me.”
Axel laughed. “Damn, I wish I’d been there. Did you take photos?”
I bumped his shoulder, like I would have done with my friends.
“No.” Turning, I looked into my brother’s waiting eyes.
“I don’t ever remember a time I was that hurt and angry.
He’d just told me you were not just my brother, but my twin.
And I lost it. Didn’t even give him time to explain.
Just got myself out of there before I destroyed the place. ”
Axel wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close. “I’m proud of you, little brother,” he said.
I shrugged, secretly loving it when he called me that. “For what?”
“Well,” he mused, “for being angry on our behalf, but also having the self-control I probably would lack in that situation. I might have torn the place to shreds. Sometimes my anger gets the best of me. I end up in the sin bin a lot.”
“Oh wow,” I laughed. At that moment, I didn’t care who was to blame for keeping us apart. I was simply grateful we’d found each other before more time had passed. “I’ve had this feeling…like something was missing in here,” I patted my chest, “for as long as I can remember.”
Axel’s expression changed from deprecating to solemn. “Yeah. I know that feeling,” he murmured. “But it’s eased once I found you online.”
“I still can’t believe you were looking for me.”
Axel pulled me closer. “Why? Of course I would. Just like you were looking for me. I stalked your social media for a while, which was bare, by the way. That’s why I had to go to your team pages to get your attention. Who do you think did all that tagging?”
My mouth flew open as I turned to look at him. “You started that? You’re the one who tagged me and the Storm?”
He smirked. “Only took a million times, but I had to get your attention in a way you wouldn’t freak out. If I’d popped up on your doorstep, what would I say? Hello, mate. I’m your older brother.”
I grinned at the eerily familiar words, then erupted in laughter. Glancing over at Thomas, he wore a dazzling smile that stretched from ear to ear, almost taking my breath away. I was fixed on him until Axel drew my attention back to him. “What’s so funny?”
Wiping my hand across my mouth, I shared it with him. “It’s the twin thing, I suppose. I said the same thing to Thomas on the flight over. And I, like you, didn’t want to freak you out.”
Axel nodded at my words. “I guess what they say about twins having a connection that goes beyond the physical is true.”
I was unable to form words as tears threatened to take over. The weight of the years we’d lost came back with a vengeance. Shifting on the sofa, I looked over at him with teary eyes. “Tell me about our mother.”
Axel’s demeanor changed as he curled his lips in. He breathed deeply before speaking. “What do you know about her?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
Accepting my admission, he sighed. “Okay, let’s start from the beginning.”
It occurred to me that as much as I wanted to know everything, I was also afraid. “Am I going to need a drink for this?”
He snorted. “Maybe not. From what I saw online, you like the asshole a lot more than I do.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not so sure about that anymore.” A question had been hovering in the back of my mind. “Have you ever met him?”
Axel looked over at me and nodded. His jaw was clenched as the muscles in his neck tensed again. “I grew up with the fucker. I thought he was her boyfriend who traveled for work. But I didn’t put it together until I read her letters. That’s also how I found out about you.”
A wave of sorrow and anger consumed me. I wanted to sob and fuck shit up at the same time. Clenching my fists as tightly as I could, I fought back the truth. “He was living a double life.”
Axel reached over and put his hand on top of mine.
The effect of his touch was different from Thomas’s, but it still helped.
“Yeah. But she finally had enough when she met Perry, my stepfather. She found someone who really cared about her and me. What I didn’t understand was if he was going to take one of us, why not both? ”
I looked up at him. “That’s what I’ve been asking myself, too.”
“Did you ask him?”
My eyes went to Thomas, then I looked down. “No. I’m sorry. I didn’t get that far. Had to get out of there, and I haven’t spoken to him since I walked out. Not that he hasn’t blown up my phone.”
Axel chuckled, but soothed my nerves just like a big brother would. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Like I said, I’m sure you handled it better than I would have. I might’ve done more than wipe his desk.”
Unclenching my fists, I ran my fingers through my hair.
I already felt like I’d known him my entire life, and in a way, I had.
“I don’t know what to think anymore, Axel.
My mind keeps replaying every single moment I spent with him, trying to piece things together.
He brought me over here when I was seventeen.
Showed me the office, claiming it was a boys’ trip.
My mother was a shrew to me every time he came home from a business trip. Not to my sisters, just to me.”
Axel huffed out a heavy breath. “Seventeen. That’s about the time she was first diagnosed.
We’d noticed she was experiencing gaps in her memory, but didn’t want us to know.
She’d just married my stepfather the year before and proceeded to actively ignore her symptoms. Not that anything could have been done to stop it. ”
Knowing our mother was suffering her own personal hell softened my attitude. It was just another thing my father had taken from me. “Where is she now?”
He sighed. “She’s at home with Perry. I pay for a nurse to help with her, so he can work and have a life. She always knows me when I see her during the offseason. But when I’m away for months at a time, sometimes she has to be reminded of my name.”
“Does she ever confuse your name with mine?”
He nodded. “Sometimes. I just thought it was the M names.”
I swallowed, thinking how hard that must be for him. He had our mother, but I had our father. Even though I didn’t know her, I needed to help with her care. “I want to help you pay for whatever they need. It’s only right.”
Axel turned to me. “I can more than cover it, but I understand.”
It made me happy he didn’t fight me on it. Even though he was also a professional athlete, I didn’t want him to handle it all alone. I wanted us to do it all together. ”How did you find out about me?”
“Letters. My stepfather was going through some things about six months ago and found a box she’d been keeping, with instructions to give it to me.
We were trying to make the playoffs, so I put it away until the season ended.
It was odd how she kept telling me she was sorry.
” He paused and rubbed his hand over his mouth.
“I thought she was talking about her illness. When I finally got around to opening it, there were two banded stacks of letters. One stack for me, the other addressed to My Sweet Mason. There were letters from every year on our birthday until a couple of years ago. They progressively got shorter and shorter. I have them for you at my flat.”
I hung my head as I thought about our mother. Running my hands through my hair, I fisted it. It gave me hope that she hadn’t given me up willingly. That she regretted losing all those years with me. And it hurt me all over again. “How did all this happen to us?”
Axel took a deep breath, then released it as if he were calming himself.
“According to her, he was visiting Europe after graduation, and they fell in love that summer, like some fucking Romeo and Juliet. But, shocker, he was betrothed to your stepmother. Before he went back to America, they conceived us. Nine months later, when we were born, he and the other woman took you, and our mum kept me.”
My stomach roiled at the thought of being a pawn in their love triangle. My mind jumped from scenario to scenario, trying to make it make sense. But nothing stuck. “Was she a good mother to you? Because mine was not.”
Axel’s jaw clenched. Even though he was only three minutes older, I could feel his protective instincts come out. He took my hand, then pulled me into a hug. “Fuck them all to hell. They’ll never separate us again.”
Tears filled my eyes as relief washed over me. With Axel and Thomas in my corner, I would be okay with them.