Chapter 22 Sophie
Sophie
“I’m at…” My phone got snatched out of my hand before I could tell the service where to come pick me up. I was so pissed at this moment I felt the veins pulsing in my neck were going to explode.
“Ay, the fuck you think you’re doing?”
“I’m calling a car so I can go home. Now please give me my phone.”
She reached for it, but I slipped it in my pocket followed by both my hands as she looked at me like she wanted to be the reason for me taking my last breath. I had never seen her so upset, and it was really messing with me.
“Sophie, you can be upset, you can even hate me if you want, but—”
“Oh I do, trust me. This right here is why my father was so dead set against me dealing with a man like you,” I snapped.
“Watch that. Real shit, Sophie. This ain’t got shit to do with why he don’t want you with me. Trust me. Not even fucking close, so don’t say things you can’t take back.”
“Wow, you really are something. You’re not going to spin this and make it my fault. When I said you didn’t have to share me, I meant it. Apparently, you didn’t.”
“I meant it when I said it and you haven’t since that day, so don’t tell me what the fuck I meant.”
“Fine, I won’t tell you anything because we don’t have anything further to discuss. May I please have my phone? I really just want to go home. This night has been exhausting and I just want to go to bed.”
“I’ll take you home, let’s go.” He started moving, but I didn’t.
“Sophie, I know you’re pissed right now. You deserve to be and I’m not gonna even try to deny you that right. When I said you were mine, I didn’t take that lightly. I meant it, so I’m not leaving here without you. Now let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you and I’m not yours. Apparently, she is though.”
“Man, fuck her. You think she would be showing her ass if she had any claim to me? Trust me, if I was still giving her what she wanted, she would have sat right next to you, kissing your ass all night to ensure she didn’t lose that privilege.
She ain’t getting shit from me but sent to voicemail when she calls my phone. ”
“Maybe not now, but she was. How is that supposed to make me feel, Trooper?” He just stared at me, so I answered for him.
“Oh, you don’t know? Well, I’ll tell you.
It fucking hurts. I knew who you were, so that’s on me, but you made me believe that things were different with me.
I can’t blame you for that though, because I was the one who fell for it. ”
He still just stared at me, and when he finally spoke, it was so damn random that it pissed me off even more.
“You’re not mine?”
“What?”
He removed his hands from his pockets and folded them across his chest while he just peered at me. The look in his eyes was eerie. “You heard me. I asked if you’re mine or not? You just said you weren’t. So clarify for me.”
“Of everything said, that’s what you focus on?”
“Of all the bullshit just said, that’s the only thing that really matters.
I told you, you can be mad, you can even hate me, but that don’t mean you get to walk.
Because I don’t do that back and forth shit.
It doesn't work like that for me. If you’ll bail over some simple shit like that, what happens when things really get thick?
I’m used to people walking out on me, Sophie.
Shit, I had a lifetime of shit like that, which is why I am the way I am.
But if that’s what I can expect from you, I’ll make it easy for you.
You don’t have to worry, the decision will be mine and not yours.
I fucked up, but truthfully speaking, I didn’t know what this was.
Yeah, I was wrong as fuck and I admit that.
We didn’t have shit back then, but we do now, so if you can just walk, I promise I won’t stop you.
Just make sure you mean it because there’s no second chances. ”
The look he gave me was so serious I knew he meant every word.
I was hurt and even pissed, but he was right, I wasn’t ready to just walk away.
It didn’t mean I was ready to forgive him either.
I didn’t want to be without him. The question was if she was really his past. That was the part I didn’t know.
Trooper’s hand moved down his face before he looked past me then back at me.
“Let’s go, I’ll take you home. You can sit your ass in the back and be mad at me if you want.
I really don’t give a fuck, but I’m not leaving here without you.
After I know you’re safe at home, I’ll let you figure out what you want to do.
” He was a lot calmer but still annoyed.
I wasn’t used to things like this. The men I dealt with didn’t fight for me. They demanded I choose them, but didn’t fight for me. Trooper was different and I had no idea what to do with that.
Once in his truck, I sat in the passenger seat fuming.
How on earth we’d gone from him being wrong and me being mad to him getting pissed with me because I was mad was beyond me.
It was almost like he somehow flipped things and placed the blame on me.
Not for the situation with Orin, but the fallout. I was annoyed by that.
The drive was quiet. No music, no talking, just us sitting here.
Him driving and me trying hard not to pay attention to him.
How could I be so pissed and lusting over him at the same time?
That drove me crazy. His sexy ass sat beside me, face full of tension, looking sexy.
That same type of sexy that had Orin in my face because she knew it intimately.
The sound of my phone, still in his pocket, broke the silence and my thoughts about him, thank goodness.
Trooper glanced at me before he leaned back to get my phone and tossed it into my lap.
I frowned but noticed my father’s name on the screen, so I let it go.
It was late, and him calling concerned me, especially since we weren’t on the best of terms, so I answered.
“Hello?”
“You need to meet me at Lenox Hill. Come now and come alone.”
“Wait, why? Are you okay? Is Mom okay?”
“It’s your mother, just get here and come alone,” he reiterated and ended the call.
“I have to go to the hospital.”
“What’s wrong?” Trooper’s entire mood changed. He was no longer upset, just concerned about me.
“I don’t know, he didn’t say. It’s my mother. He just told me to come now.” I left out the part about coming alone.
I loved my father, but if anything happened to my mother, I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted someone there I could lean on. Right now, that was Trooper. Even with everything that just happened, I wanted him there, and knew he would want to be there. My father would just have to get over it.
“Which one?”
Lenox Hill.”
I saw him processing, likely trying to decide the best way for us to get there. We were in Midtown and Lenox Hill was on the Upper East Side.
“Ay, stop stressing. I’m sure she’s fine. Don’t worry until you have a reason to.” His hand covered mine and he interlocked our fingers before he kissed my wrist and let our hands rest naturally between both seats.
I nodded but didn’t speak. Just having him with me made me feel better. My pulse was still racing, but he would help me through whatever it was.
Twenty minutes later, we were at the hospital. Trooper let me out at the entrance, kissed my cheek, and told me he’d be up as soon as he found a spot. I nodded and jumped out. I stopped at the front desk and asked for my mother. I was really confused when they told me she was in the psych ward.
My heart pounded in my chest as I stepped off the elevator and made my way to her room. Before I could enter, I stopped dead in my tracks at the conversation that they were having.
“She’s on her way. You need to get it together, Alana. You will not mess up that child’s life because you’re weak.”
“I’m not weak. I’m just finally coming to my senses. Why are you fighting this so hard, William? He’s in prison, you made sure of that. He’s not a threat to you now, but you still can’t let it go.”
“Let it go? My wife got pregnant by another man. Not only that, you just tried to kill yourself because of him. How do you expect me to let that go? Do you know how that looks? What will our friends and my colleagues think?”
“Your friends and colleagues? That’s what got us here in the first place. You had too much pride to let Sophie know her own father.”
“It wasn’t about pride, Alana. He’s a fucking criminal.
What could she have gotten from him? I’ve given her everything.
I’ve given you everything, yet you’re still holding on to that man.
Do you think you would have the life you live with him?
If I hadn’t sent him to prison, someone else would have.
I did you a favor. I made you somebody and raised another man’s child.
Sophie is mine; she’s always going to be mine.
I love her more than anything so I will not allow her to ruin her life, to destroy everything I’ve built for her. ”
“You’re so selfish. It’s her life, her fucking life. I let you take mine from me, but she deserves to be happy. You think Lincoln makes her happy? He’s just like you, and if she marries him, she will be miserable just like I was.”
“Miserable? And you have the nerve to call me selfish? You weren’t miserable when I put you in our million dollar home and provided you with cards with no limits.
You seemed perfectly fine to me, but the second you lay eyes on his little protégé you started reminiscing about the life you didn’t have.
Maybe that was good enough for you, but it's not for Sophie.”
“Why, because you said so?”
“Yes, because I said so. You love him so much, then be with him. You can make weekly visits and sit your ass in the visitation room holding hands across the table, but Sophie will never have that life. You better tell him to keep that man away from her or he'll end up in the cell next to him.”
“Why are you out here?”
Trooper’s voice startled me. I was so caught up and confused by my parents’ conversation I hadn’t even noticed him behind me until his hands were on me.
“I… I… was…”
“Didn’t I tell you to come alone?”
My father’s voice caused me to look in his direction. He was speaking to me, but his eyes were on Trooper. I ignored my father and asked what had been on my mind for a while now.
“You two know each other?” I questioned, turning my head to see Trooper looking in my father’s direction.
“No, we don’t,” my father said quickly with a look that exposed his lie.
“Don’t lie to me. I just heard you and Mom.”
This time I turned to Trooper. I would know if he was lying and I prayed he didn’t.
“Do you know him?” I questioned and pointed at my father.
“No, but he knows me.”
“Why would you lie?” I asked, turning to my father.
“I didn’t lie. I know who he is, but I don’t know him, Sophie.”
“But you know my father, right?”
“Sophie, come with me so we can talk, sweetheart.” My father reached for me, but I stepped back.
“No, we’re not doing that. Who is my father? Tell me who the fuck my father is and why you sent him to prison.”
I felt my chest heaving then Trooper’s hands on my shoulders, but I shrugged him off. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but whatever it was, he was part of it.
“Sophie, your father’s name is Sinclair Taylor. They call him Story.”
My mother’s voice brought everyone’s attention to her as she stood in the doorway of her hospital room. She was dressed in a hospital gown covered by a robe. Sadness in her eyes conflicted with love I never saw when she looked at the man I had always known to be my father.
“I warned you, didn’t I? I told you if you ever told her, you’d pay with your life, Alana.”
“Nah, playboy, not like that, not today.”
Where my father’s voice had been erratic, Trooper’s was calm and controlled. They both drew their guns at the same time. My father’s gun, which I never even knew he had, was aimed at my mother and Trooper’s was aimed at my father. How in the hell had we ended up here?