CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE | Onyx
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Onyx
P ACING THE FLOOR OF Candace’s office is calming me down while I wait for her to come in here. I’ve gotten my sweet boys back, I have my children to look forward to. But the one thing I currently don’t like is the fact that Candace is keeping more secrets. Today, that ends.
I’m not sure if it’s my journalistic mind, or just the fact that I hate secrets in general, but something has to give. I can’t keep living here and continuing to live this life with everything basically hidden from us. Candace and her men have had their hands in the world for over twenty-five years, making life easier for the everyday people for the most part. They monitor everything, but I need to know what my purpose is. She gave me the choice of coming back or staying gone. I chose to come back, but it’s going to be on my terms, and I’m going to make her tell me how she does this.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting.” Candace comes into the office, walking past me. “Your test results are back.” She says, handing me an opened envelope.
“You opened it?”
“Of course, nothing happens in the city without me knowing, especially in this house.”
“Whatever is in this envelope is not your fucking business Candace.” I shout, slamming my hand into my thigh. “I’m not one of your obedient children that you can just fucking order around.”
“I know that, but what’s in that envelope does concern me when you’re fucking one of my children and claiming that they’re the father.” She sits at her desk and offers me the chair in front of her. “Now, if you’re quite finished, we have some things to discuss.”
“You’re damn right we do.” I say, taking the seat and opening the envelope. As I read through everything, I stop and compare the paternity tests. Baby One has a different father to Baby Two.. “How is that possible?” I ask, looking up at her.
“Apparently it's not that rare when you’re sleeping with multiple men at once.”
“It didn’t happen to you.” I say, looking back at the paper.
“Mine we’re all planned, mostly. Not the point though. You have one of each of their babies inside of you, which makes your ceremony that much more important.”
“I was planning on committing myself to both of them anyway, not just Kenan.” I say, looking back up at her. “They’re both mine, and anyone who tries to take them away from me won’t like what happens.” I say, anger seeping into my words.
“See, I knew I was right in choosing you for Kenan. He’s always been lost in his own world, he just needed a strong woman to help him along. However, you continue to surprise me. I didn’t see Beckett joining the picture.”
“Is that an issue?” I ask.
“Of course not. I have no place to judge. I have five husbands, all of which... Nevermind, not the point. I need to know what you plan on doing with Kenan.”
“Nothing. He’s his own person.” I reply scrunching my face.
“No, he’s your person, you’re the strongest of the three of you. You keep them grounded and held together. Whether you know it or not, your life is no longer your own. You own them, and now you have their children to look after.”
I scratch my head in annoyance because I feel like she has something specific she’s wanting to talk about but she’s not getting to the point. “No offense Candace, but you’re getting on my nerves. You keep talking in circles, can you please get to the point.”
“You really are a rude little thing, aren’t you?” She scoffs.
“No, actually I’m not, but I don’t like lies and secrets, I don’t like betrayal. I need to know what’s going on, how shit works around here and no one will give me straight answers.”
“Well, then I suppose we have some things to actually talk about then. How do you feel about being the one who takes over one day?” She asks. There’s a seriousness to her face that scares me, because I’m not sure I could be the one to order the death of someone else. Could I be cold and calculated, or would my emotions get in the way? Also, why is she asking me?
“I’m sorry, what?” I sort of do this awkward laugh thing that makes me feel stupid.
“Maci has told me time and time again that she doesn’t want the crown, Cara has no interest in anything other than what she already does. Axel’s too manipulative to let Cordelia take over, he’d weasel his way into the leadership role. It must be a woman, I will never have a man sit on this throne again.”
“Why not? From what I’ve learned about your family, JT seems like he’s the most well balanced, crazy and smart.” I say, reminding her of her oldest son.
“He’s good at what he does, and again, there’s this thing that hangs between his legs that stops him from thinking clearly. You’ve already shown that you have no issue telling me off, you have no problem putting Kenan and Beckett in their places. Ethan said you carried yourself respectfully when you asked him and some others to come and install hand pulleys in Kenan’s room. That you show the potential to be a great leader. Not to mention, you have the need to know things, which helps in knowing what’s going on around you. So far, I haven’t found anyone else to take over for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love being at the top of the food chain, but I’d also like to retire, spend time with my grandchildren, maybe my guys and I could go on a real vacation.” She continues to talk, and I study her face. The wrinkles around her eyes, the tired look she has. She’s really ready to pass the torch. Her body language shows how she’s being genuine, there’s not a single ounce of trepidation or malice in her words.
“Let me get this straight.” I say, clearing my throat. “You want to give up your crown.” I lift a brow, studying her face again, waiting for something to flicker across it showing that she’s lying, but there’s nothing. “And you want me to step up.”
“Yes. Down the road. You’d need training, I’d have to introduce you to my world. But yes.” She nods and I fall back in my chair with a deep breath, blowing it out as I feel the world closing in around me.
“You know I just got the guys to understand why I came back. I didn’t mention this, this isn’t why I came back. I came back for them, because you were right. I wanted them just as much as they wanted me, I was just too scared to let myself be happy.” Running my hands over my face. “Do I get time to think about it, or is this one of those, I don’t get a choice, things?”
“You get a choice, just as my daughters did.” She says. “I hope you seriously consider it, though.” She stands up and moves to stand in front of me, holding her hands out to help me stand. I take them and heave my pregnant ass up to a standing position.
“I’d like to think about it. But, I’ll tell my boys, you don’t mention this to them.” I scowl at her, hoping she understands.
“Yes. Of course.” She smiles, like she already knows what I’m going to say, when I don’t even know. “You go tell the boys the good news about them both being daddies, and then we’ll have your ceremony. We don’t have to decide anything until after you’re no longer carrying precious cargo.”
Blowing out a deep breath, I nod and head up to the room where I left the boys tied to the bed. Well, sort of, my belly doesn’t exactly give me room to do much of anything these days.
After two breaks up the stairs, I make it to the bedroom, huffing like a maniac, I open the door to find them both with hands bound to the foot-board, sitting on the ground. “I’m so tired.” I say, letting out another breath. I feel like all I do anymore is take deep breaths. Sometimes it’s like there’s not enough room for my lungs to expand.
“God damn, you’re fucking beautiful.” Kenan says, pulling at the ropes. Awe, that makes my heart happy as I reach over untying him.
“Untie Beck, I need to sit down.” I say, dropping to the bed as I fall to my back with the envelope still clutched in my fingers.
“Hey pretty girl.” Beck says, kissing my forehead as he leans over me.
“Hey puppy. I need a second, but I got the test results back.” I say, holding the paper up.
“What if we don’t want to know which one of us is the father.” Kenan kisses my belly, rubbing a hand up my side.
“Well, that’s your right. But, I have some good news on that front I suppose.” I open the paper, holding it up over my face and look at it again.
“Baby number one has a different daddy to baby number two.” I say.
“Come on, we didn’t want to know, little lamb.” Kenan mumbles.
“What?!” They shout in unison.
“Yup. One of each. Two babies, two daddies.”
“How is that possible?” Beckett asks.
“Well, considering the amount of times you both came inside me, within minutes of each other, I’m surprised there’s not more than two in there.” I let out a sigh, letting my head wrap around the excitement of them both being the fathers while I mull over the bomb Candace dropped on me. What the fuck am I supposed to do about all of this?
The boys jump and cheer as they celebrate the fact that they’re both going to be dads while I just lay here, staring up at the ceiling contemplating my future. I knew I wanted Kenan and Beck, I want my babies, but do I also want the crown?
I guess the first thing we need to do is get ourselves ready for the ceremony that we have tomorrow, and I guess we’ll just go from there. Because without them, I’m not sure I can do anything. They are my life now, my guys and my babies.
I’ve spent months on my own, crying and trying to get over them, finding myself again. When Candace showed up and gave me her fucking speech, I knew what I needed to do, and now that I’ve done that. I must finish it.
Making them mine in every fucking way possible.