Chapter Twenty-Three Rose
I watch as Rage steps forward towards my dad who hasn’t even bothered to look at him and extends his hand.
“Caleb Matthews, sir. My brothers call me Rage. It is nice to meet you.”
I watch as my father’s face turns from the softness he shows to his family to the man who you don’t see often when he has been around the events for the Callahan family in Maine.
You see daddy might have taken his freedom from doing mafia business, but he still attends events and does his job as the head of the family’s younger brother.
He turns and looks at the man standing before him.
“I do not care who you are or what your brothers call you. My family has done a lot of business with the Devil’s Chaos in Ashford, Maine and I have to say those men seem to be more noble than the ones that I have heard about here. You used my daughter, she might not be a mafia princess,
but she sure as shit has the full weight of the Callahan family behind her. I have always told her to stay away from bikers. This is why. You men might be good for business, but you treat your women as disposable. My daughter is not disposable. You do not know what you threw away.
You are lucky I am not going to kick your ass right now.”
“Daddy, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it, I’ve learned my lesson.” I turn and look at Rage, “Can you please leave? I will let you know when we leave the hospital and I will send you the address.”
When I say that, dad’s head shoots towards mine.
“Oh, so the deadbeat wants to be a part of the child’s life now. Despite what he said about you and if you were to get pregnant.”
Rage steps forward, “Sir, I was drunk. I’ve said and done a lot of shit and I am sorry for that. I have so much to explain to her–”
“There is no reason for you to explain anything. She does not need you. If you want to be a father to your son, great. Good way to step as a fucking man. But she does not need anything more from you.”
I look up at Rage who is watching me as dad talks.
“Can you please leave? I’m tired. My family is here now, they will stay with us.”
Rage walks over to the bed and puts his hand down and cups Reid’s head in his hand. Then whispers in my ear.
“Are you going to be telling him everything that is going on? Or just keep him thinking that I am the threat you need to be protected from? We both know you do not need to be protected from me. I am sorry that I ever made you feel that way, but I love you. I may have realized it too late,
but I am not going to stop until you understand that.”
I turn my head to look at him, “Just go. I’m fine and we are both safe with my family here. Thank you.”
Rage doesn’t say another word, instead he kisses my forehead before looking back down at our baby.
“Bye, my little man. I will see you soon.”
He then kisses his head before he straightens up and begins to walk out of the hospital room. Not before he nods to Abby who came in at some point and was hiding by the door. She nods back and when she makes eye contact with me, I glare at her and she winces.
“Do not look at Abby like that. She told us everything too and that boy was right. He might have been wrong about a lot of things, but he is wrong that you should’ve told all of us about what was going on. You were just going to keep hiding it from me. That is unacceptable and you know that.
I know some of the shit you went through with Travis and I do not know if this is him, but if it is, I am not letting that asshole anywhere near you. I will be speaking with the president of this club and requesting some protection as well as asking your uncle to send some men.”
I groan, “And this is why I didn’t want to say anything. I don’t need all of that. Finn already set up security around the land, he set up cameras and fences and I will know if anyone crosses into my property. He also set up enough security at the house that I feel like I’m living in a fortress.
Tell him Abby.”
I look at my friend and pray that she will actually have my back on this instead of letting my dad put more people around me to control every aspect of my life.
I am not the mafia princess, I am not used to bodyguards and people being around me all the time.
Abby looks up at me with a guilty expression on her face.
“I think it's a good idea Rose. You don’t know who this is. The messages have been threatening. You don’t only have yourself to look out for, but you also have Reid. I’m so sorry that I broke your trust and told them about everything, but I’m worried about you.”
I look at her and roll my eyes, “Yeah everyone always seems to be more worried about shit than I am, but it still was not your place. I get where you were coming from, but it’s wrong that you took matters into your own hands again like what I want doesn’t matter.”
She looks down after I finish talking and I look back at my dad.
“So what, I have to be babysat all the time because some freak thinks he can have something that doesn’t belong to him?”
“Yeah, Rose. That’s exactly it. You don’t know what this person is capable of and who might be helping him. Abby told me there were photos from some of the girls at that club your baby daddy is from. So that means he has the ability to be involved in all areas of your life.
I am not going to sit back and let anything happen to you or my grandson. So until this asshole is taken care of that is what is going to happen. Also what did you mean when you told him you would send him your address?”
I sigh, “He’s Reid’s father. He will be staying in the guest house with his other son. At least until Reid is older. It’ll work for now.”
“He has another son? Did he abandon this one as well? I don’t remember you telling me he had a son.”
“No dad, the woman didn’t tell him about Mason. He only found out after she died. I don’t know all the details, just what Liza has told me. I haven’t had any of that conversation with Rage. The longest we talked since that phone call after I heard and saw him with that bitch was today.”
“Alright. Well your siblings want to see you and meet their new family member. Are you up to seeing everyone in the hospital or do you want me to set them up in a hotel and they can meet you at home when you are released?”
“Can you set them up, I’m really tired and honestly had my fill of visitors today. I will see them when I get back home.”
“Of course baby girl. I love you.” He then turns to Abby, “Make sure you send me pictures. I am sure you’ve taken a bunch.”
He kisses me on the forehead and I whisper that I love him before he heads out of the room. I’m sure to make his obnoxious phone calls giving me limited privacy and to even chew out Finn for not telling him what was going on. I look at Abby.
“So what all did you share with him?”
“The important stuff, Rose. Shit he needed to know. You two have so much to share with each other it’s ridiculous and honestly I hope he looks more into the shit about the nights he was too fucking drunk to remember shit.
He might not have made statements about being there for you or in a relationship with you out loud, but that man was one hundred percent in a relationship with you in his mind.”
“It wasn’t your place to tell him anything! You had no right to share personal shit with him. You are one of my best friends and I love you, but sometimes you step over the line! It’s so crazy to me, Abby, that when you heard that shit go down you were totally against him,
but now all the sudden you are willing to believe that he’s a good guy.”
“I am sorry you feel that way! I really did not intend to upset you, I just felt like if your life is in danger, he needs to know!
Your family needs to know. You can’t keep these things from people when you need to protect yourself and that precious baby.
As far as everything else, when you were in Texas I saw a change in him.
He was beat down. Rose, he has this darkness that he doesn’t hide well.
He’s been through shit you can see that.
You knew he was hiding parts of himself, but you still kept going there because you knew deep down he was a good guy.
He had to be somewhere you felt like you could be safe to fall in love with him.
So yes, parts of him had to make you feel that way.
He’s not like the other nasty fuckers you’ve dated.
He’s messed up. When you were in Texas I saw how torn up he was.
How much you not being here broke something in him.
I may not have liked the shit he did and said, but I can recognize trauma when I see it.
But from what I understand, he didn’t do anything with anyone until Missy died and that’s if he actually did.
He talked a big game from what I heard at the clubhouse trying to deny everything, but when women tried to get with him they complained that he never could do anything with them.
I’m thinking that those photos and those nights were staged to make him think he did shit.
For multiple reasons, I think one was to get you to leave him and I think the other was for him to feel so guilty or even feel like ‘well shit I guess I can fuck other women’ so he does it more.
I wanted to believe the worst in him when this happened because what I heard made my blood boil.
But I’ve seen the way he was when you left town, I’ve seen the way he was when you came back, I’ve heard about how he’s been different since everyone found out about Mason.
He’s trying. He’s trying to change and I think it’s not just for those two boys.
I think not having you and fearing he won’t have you again is making him want to change for you and for the two of you.
I just recognize the trauma responses he has.
He has childhood trauma, he doesn’t need to tell you that, you can just see it.
The way he reacts to things, you can’t predict it.
You can see the walls he tries to put up, Rose.
But he’s trying for himself, for you and for his sons.”
I ignore everything she said because she can’t keep butting into my business while she keeps secrets of her own from me.
“You seem to have a lot of information from the club. Are you going to tell me who the hell is providing you with that information?”
“It’s no one anymore. So don’t worry about it.”
“Anymore? So there was someone. I mean I knew you were hooking up with someone in the club. Why are you so insistent on being in my business when you won’t tell me who it is that you’ve obviously fallen head over heels for?”
“Because that’s done, it doesn’t fucking matter, Rose.”
“It matters to me that my friend is hurting and instead of leaning on me you’ve felt like you’ve had to hide everything. Yet another thing these dumb ass bikers do. You can talk to me, you know that. No matter what I am going through I’m never not going to be there for you.”
She walks over and sits on the bed next to me.
“I know that Rose, but I want to work it all out in my head before I share it with everyone else. Okay? I just don’t want to give you half of the story now.”
“Fine. I’ll accept that for now. But I’m going to keep bugging you until you tell me.”
“Deal. But you need to not get mad at me when I give you some hard truths about your baby daddy biker. Yes, I am angry at him for what he said about you. But somewhere there are more misunderstandings that we need to figure out and I think eventually, Rose,
you are going to have to push past some of that hurt and talk to him. Really talk to him. Find out his hang ups and everything. You might not want to be his and that is fine, but I have a feeling that he is not going to let go of you now that he knows what he lost. Men are idiots. We all know this,
but I think that bikers seem to be more idiotic. I don’t know why. Especially since I have seen and heard about their fathers and let me tell you, I think this group should be smarter than they are when it comes to women.”
I just laugh and shake my head because really what do you say to that.
It is true, for whatever reason this generation of this club seems to not have their shit together.
All of us seem to have some sort of issue with one of these men and whatever is going on with Abby and her mystery biker is just another thing that proves they do not learn.
“Try and get some sleep. I’ll hang out with our boy here.”
I hand off Reid to Abby and try to put everything out of my mind and focus on what I need to focus on and that is sleeping and being ready to be the best mom I can be.