Chapter ten
Nadia
The breeze out here was like no other. If you listened, really listened, it was like it was whispering its secrets to you. I missed this. When Pop first took me in, I instantly knew this was home. It was this strange, undeniable feeling of rightness. Like, this was where I belonged.
I was at Pop’s crib. On his porch, leaning on the banister, hands clutching the wood.
My body was facing the house, and Pop, who was sitting on a rocking chair, but my face was towards the open field, basking in the sun.
I was dressed in blue bell bottoms, a black vest and bomber jacket, and boots.
My sunglasses were on, and there was a bag of clothes at my feet.
“I thought about coming back every day since I left. Dreaming of the day when it wouldn’t be a thought and would be a reality.” I admit. Pop rubs at the scruff decorating his jaw.
Pop and I were tight. Our relationship was far different than what he shared with the others.
He was more of a father to me than my real one.
He knew my past, most of it at least. And I was the one he trusted with his darkest truths.
Truths he couldn’t even tell Abby, his own flesh and blood.
I’ve killed for Pop without a second thought, and he would do the same.
I just hope I can fix what’s broken. I hope he understands why I did what I did.
“I wish you never even left in the first place.” He says.
“I had to, Pop.” I sigh.
“Why?” I bite my lip, staring at the cracks in the floorboard.
“I know…” He trails off.
“I know I didn’t handle myself well when I found out about you and-” He stops short.
“When you found out that I was dating a Phantom behind your back.” I finish for him. It’s his turn to sigh.
“I said some things I never should have said. Things I regret every day. It hurts my heart, the things I said, trouble. That I could hurt you so.” He runs his hand over his face.
“It’s fine, Pop. I deserved it. I didn’t know my place. I wanted something I couldn’t have and betrayed everyone. You. Abby, Deck, Isla. The LBC. My entire family, for fuck’s sakes, and I almost threw it all away for-” I shut my mouth.
“For love.” He says.
“Nadia, you fell in love. Love knows no boundaries. It doesn’t care if you’re a man, woman, LBC, or Phantom. And you, of all people, deserve love.”
“It doesn’t matter now. We’re over.” I shake it off.
“Your husband seems to have other ideas.” My heart stops.
“What? Didn’t you think I knew you and Riven snuck off and got married two towns over? Nadia, I know everything that goes on. Whether it be east side, west side, I know.” He grins.
“But I didn’t even have to work for it. Riven waltzed himself all the way to my front door the morning after you left and demanded to know where his wife had gone and where his ring was.” He chuckles to himself.
“You’ve got that boy wrapped around your finger. I like it.” He full-on smiles now, eliciting a small laugh from me.
“But there’s more I have to tell you. I can’t expect you to be honest about what happened two years ago if I myself am still keeping secrets.” He exhales, leaning his elbows on his knees.
“What is it, Pop?”
“I had no right to reprimand you for falling in love with a Phantom. Especially since… I did too.” He reveals.
“Cal’s mom…”
“… was a Phantom.” He confirms.
“That’s why you never went to war with them.” I put the pieces together.
“I didn’t want to hurt her. She lived and breathed her gang, just as I did mine.
We shouldn’t have let it get as far as it did, but neither of us had any sense.
Both caught up in our feelings. Then, it was one thing after another.
She got pregnant with Cal. Her brother was shot by a Scorpion.
Her parents found out and wanted her to have an abortion.
She didn’t want to, but she didn’t want to abandon her family either.
So, she stayed in hiding for a bit. Wouldn’t even see me.
Until nine months later, I get a knock in the dead of night, and there he is.
Wrapped in a blanket and inside a basket like a goddamn vegetable. " He chuckles sardonically.
“I hated her. For years, I watched my little boy grow up without his mom, and I hated her for leaving him. We’d be walking towards the east side after getting ice cream, and there she’d be.
Across the street, walking towards the west side with her friends and another man’s arm slung over her shoulders.
I fucking hated her.” His head drops into his hands, and he clutches his hair.
“By the time I stopped hating her, stopped thinking about what she did, Cal was shot dead on the steps of this very house. The same house she left him. All because of her precious Phantoms.” He grits his teeth.
“And then the hatred resumed. As I lived the whole story over again, only this time with Abby. But I never went after her or her gang because-”
“Because despite all that happened, you still loved her.” I conclude.
“When she first told me she was pregnant, I was so fucking happy. Never mind that I was 16 goddamn years old, I wanted that baby. I wanted her and whatever family we could have. I was ready to leave LBC, leave Stonebridge, and the only life I’d ever known.
I chose her, but she never even considered choosing me.
” He runs his fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair.
“That’s why I went crazy when I found out about you and Riven.
I was scared, trouble. So goddamn scared that you’d be victim to the same fucking fate I had, and I didn’t want that for you.
After all that you’d been through, you deserved to be loved unconditionally.
I’m sorry if I ever made you feel that I love you solely when you do what I tell you to.
When you obey and don’t rebel. That couldn’t be further from the truth, Nadia.
I’ve loved you from the second you came into my life, and I’ll love you til I die.
We may not be blood, but you are my daughter.
The one I choose, how great is that?” He smiles as he stands.
I don’t deny myself the urge to hug him, and I pretend I don’t notice how watery my eyes are.
“I know I don’t say it enough, Pop, but I love you too. I thank my lucky stars every day that you took me in.” I give him one last squeeze and pull away.
“Well.” He reclaims his seat.
“I’ve shown you my skeletons. Show me yours.” He jests.
“I really didn’t wanna leave, Pop. But I had to.” I meet his questioning stare.
“Because Olympus is back.”