Chapter Eighteen Rage
We are in the waiting room waiting to hear about what is going on with Whip.
Everyone is on edge and I feel like I am going to jump out of my skin.
I’ve been texting Rose on and off for days now and haven’t heard anything back.
But this morning she finally replied to me and I feel like I am one moment short of losing my shit.
With everything going on I don’t know what to do any more.
I don’t know how dad has been so fucking calm finding out he has another sone almost thirty years later.
I think I would lose my shit. I already found out about Mason ten years later and I want to destroy the world that kept me away from him.
When I went to dad’s house the day we found out that Whip was possibly his kid, I lost my mind.
I showed up after I went to a fight. I looked like hell from going rounds with multiple different fighters.
I just didn’t give a fuck. I knew the neighbor was watching Mason and I knew that I didn’t have to worry about him being safe since he was somewhere not associated with the club.
Everything about that night comes swimming back as I stare down at my hands.
I peel up the driveway on my bike and before I even get a chance to get off the bike my dad is already heading out of the house.
“Caleb, son, we need to talk.”
I climb off my bike and meet him halfway up the drive.
“Yeah, about what, dad? About the fact I have another fucking brother?”
“Caleb, you need to keep this shit down right now. Your brothers and sisters are asleep inside and I really don’t want to have to beat your ass for waking them up. It seems that you already had someone do enough of that for me.
I don’t know why you are coming here so pissed off about something I can’t fucking control.”
I scoff and my fists clench at my sides.
“Maybe if you fucked different women then the whores you did, you wouldn’t have this problem. I mean shit old man, four different fucking baby mamas. Are any more going to come out of the woodwork or are we all caught up?”
“We do not know if Whip is actually mine. And don’t you fucking lecture me, Caleb. You are my son. I do not need you to tell me anything about how I should’ve lived my life before you even came in the fucking picture. We all make fucking mistakes and I lived my life like a single brother.
Which I fucking was. We all do that shit. Don’t come at me.”
“Yeah we might all do that shit dad, but not everyone ends up knocking up four different women. The women you knocked up were real fucking winners. I mean look at this, Whip’s mom, she’s a fucking drug addict. A real piece of shit and I don’t even know half of what he went through,
but his story sure has some similarities to mine. Then we have my fucking mother. A real gem she turned out to be. Fucking selling herself for money and for her next fix. I mean fuck she even di—--” I stop myself before I finish that sentence and I try to center myself,
but I know dad and he caught on to how I was about to spill some secrets I haven’t in all the years I’ve been in his life.
“She even what, Caleb? What the hell did she do that turned you into this man right here? Why the hell do you have this hate for women so much? You are fine with the women your brothers are in relationships with and the women you grew up with, but when it comes to other women you shut down.
You don’t let anyone in. You act like all women are the same, like they have plans to use you and then throw you away. Why the hell is that son? Talk to me? I need to know what is going on. Especially now, Cooper might be my son. I don’t want this to bring out more issues for you.”
“It doesn’t matter, dad. None of it fucking matters. What matters is yet again we are here dealing with more of your drama. I have dealt with it most of my life. I’ve had to deal with fucking bitches from the club trying to get with me because they were with you or they wanted you.
I had to deal with all the shit talk I got around town. I had to deal with the fact that my dad has kids who are young enough to be mine because he fucked a woman five years older than me and decided to lock her down after she got pregnant the first fucking night. Let’s face it,
you really haven’t shown me what a stand up woman looks like.”
His face is angry at this point and I know that if I was anyone else I would be laid out on the floor after insinuating that his ol’ lady was just a piece of fucking ass he was trapped with. He takes a step closer to me.
“You will not talk about Liz like that ever again. Do you fucking hear me? I told you this the last fucking time I heard you mouth off about her at the club. She deserves your mother fucking respect. She has not done anything to deserve your rage. I know I’ve not been the best example,
but shit Caleb, I did the best I fucking could with the shit that I was given. I didn’t know anything about raising kids and then I had a newborn and an eight year old.”
“Whatever, dad. Let me know if I am throwing a welcome to the shit show party for Whip after you get the test results back.”
I hopped on my bike before he could say anything else and headed back to the apartment to Mason.
I knew that night that I was not really mad at my dad, I was mad at myself for letting history repeat itself.
I just hope that I don’t let it repeat too much.
I can’t lose Rose. I know I probably already have, she is back in Texas and I haven’t fucking heard anything from her since that phone call.
I’ve sent her messages and I know that it is late and she probably hasn’t gotten any more of them, but I just want to know she is okay. I want to know my baby is okay.
“Family of Cooper Stone?”
All of us stand up and the doctor looks around at all of us with his mouth wide open.
“I’m sorry, immediate family only for now.”
I watch as my dad grabs Liz’s hand and they begin heading towards the doctor. He looks at all of my brothers and sisters and nods at them to follow. I don’t know if I am included in that, but I start heading that way anyway. I notice as dad looks at Knox, Peyton and the triplets and he stops.
“You guys come too. You’re immediate family. You’re his ol’ lady, those are his babies. Thorn, son, you too.”
Since we have more than a fucking army heading back to speak with the doctor he walks us into this bigger private room that almost looks like a conference room.
It is one of these rooms that looks like they are about to break some shit news to you.
I take a seat along with everyone else after the doctor tells us to.
“So I know Dr. Montgomery and that is why I am going to give it to you all straight and why this has not gone to the police. So the good news is that he is stable. We got the internal bleeding under control from the severe trauma and impact of whatever it was that was used to beat him.
We did have to repair his liver and remove his spleen because of the stab wounds that punctured those two organs. We stitched up all the wounds he had and made sure that no arteries had been pierced. He had been stabbed a couple of times in the stomach, a couple of times in each leg and arms.
I believe that the stab wound on the stomach came after all the beatings and the torture, that appears to have been done to him. He was shot probably after all that, there really is no way of knowing until he tells you.
The shot to the shoulder was taken care of and we got the bullet out and everything looked fine. He will need rehab for all those injuries and to take it easy for a little while. He also has a concussion and good news is that there were no brain bleeds.
He is going to be in a lot of pain when he wakes up. But he appears to have a lot of people that love him and will take care of him.”
“We will doc. Now can we see my boy?” my dad asks.
I can’t help, but flinch as he says that.
“You can see him as soon as they move him to a room from recovery.
A nurse will come grab you and we ask that there only be a few of you in at a time.
I see he has a big family, especially just in this room alone and with the men out there in the waiting room, but we would ask that you all take turns sitting with him.
I know that might be a hard ask, but we believe it is for the best of the patient at this time.
We do not want to overwhelm him. Once he starts to feel better we can possibly have more at a time.
“Thanks doc. We appreciate it.”
Dad stands up and shakes the doctor’s hand before he heads out of the room and leaves us there.
He then tells everyone he thinks Peyton and Fang should remain in the room with Whip and the rest of us can visit a couple at a time.
Everyone seems to be in agreement. Peyton leaves with Fang and Thorn after they grab the babies.
No one else leaves and there is so much tension in the room that it feels like it is going to explode.
I hate it and I hate it for my younger siblings.
Dad looks around the room at Liz, Trevor, Bethany, Cassie, Adam, Brock, Rip, Samantha, Bailey, Ashton and myself and takes a deep breath like he is preparing for war.
I’m assuming he is preparing for a war with me.
I know that I am the most difficult of all of us in this room and I have my fucking reasons he knows that.
He knows, but he doesn’t know what those reasons are.
Despite the fact that I came to him at eight, I am more like him than he wants to admit.
I keep my shit tight and don’t let other people know about my secrets, my pain and my fucking problems.
“So I think we need to sit down as a family and discuss some things.”
“You mean to tell us why the heck we are in a family meeting about what’s going on with Whip? And why the hell did you call him my boy?” Trevor asks.
Trevor won’t be thrilled about this development either because we were kept from our brother. Yeah, we know Whip, but we don’t really know him. If we had had the opportunity to get to know him growing up shit might have been different.
“It’s pretty obvious there Trevor. Daddy’s got another baby. I think we should throw him a shower.” I sneer.