Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
“Dragon loved his kids enough to be there for them, for you, but couldn’t be bothered to fool with the child he fathered with a club whore. He walked away from me like I was nothing, like I didn’t matter and that’s not something you just get over,” I tell him.
It’s one thing to accept that your father just isn’t cut out to be a father for one reason or another, but this is on a whole different level. Dragon is cut out to be a father. He was a great father to his other kids and to T, which made it all that more bitter of a pill for me to swallow.
My mom swore she told him about me and that he told her pack up. He wanted her to take me with her. She kept to that my whole damn life. Hell, I didn’t even know I had brothers until she spilled the beans about being the other woman and getting pregnant, close to the same time that Dragon’s old lady was. I didn’t take that news well. What kind of man can kick a pregnant woman out knowing he fathered that baby? Not a man I need to claim as my father.
I don’t tell T all this. It’s not his business to hash out and not his burden to carry. All he has to know is that instead of being just a friend or my brother because of the club, he’s my brother through blood too. It doesn’t change anything, but it’s there and why I was able to save his life when he was in the hospital. It was just something we needed to put out there so we could put this talk behind us.
T sits there for a long time thinking it over. I’m waiting for him to tell me to fuck off or something, but when he finally talks, I’m caught off guard.
“S-so, you are?” T asks, his eyebrows raising. “For r-r-real? D-Don’t fuck with me, King.”
“I’m not, man. I’m really the bastard big brother you never wanted,” I tell him, clapping him on the back as I laugh at my own joke.
“Y-y-you’re wrong. You’re the brother I-I-I never knew of, but definitely want,” T says, pausing. He looks thoughtful for a moment. “I-I-I don’t know what h-h-happened in the past, but I know my d-d-dad- our dad enough to-to be able to say he’d want y-y-you too.”
“Now you’re just dreaming,” I tell him, shaking my head as I laugh. It’s lacking humor and hallow in my ears. I use it to block the tiny shred of hope that T could be right. The hope that I held as a little boy that everything my mom told me was wrong and that he did want me. I’m just glad we don’t have secrets anymore and that’s all this talk was supposed to do.
Everything feels like its falling into place. I have a beautiful woman to go home to every night. My best friend knows he’s actually my brothers and shit with the club is calm enough I don’t feel like I have a giant target on my back anymore. The last thing I need to add to that is daddy issues.
“When dragon comes to town next week you need to talk to him,” T insists.
I feel accomplished with getting this talk done and out of the way. But I’m over digging through my painful scars. I need to get out of here. I turn to talk to T over my shoulder. “I don’t have a damn thing to say to him and never will.”
Chapter 35 Shelby
Lying in bed with King, he talked me into sleeping with him in his room at the compound for a while. While Mason is no longer someone I need to worry about, King isn’t sure what his disappearance will lead to. Making him worry less while being able to be in his arms was all I needed to hear to want to stay.
“So, you finally talked to T?” I ask, rubbing circles into his chest lazily with my finger. I can still feel the lingering tension in his body and don’t like that he’s stressed out. “You did put that off for as long as possible.”
King couldn’t hide the stress from me and eventually admitted to me that he knew they were brothers, which explains some of their resemblances. Mostly the hardheadedness that they both seem to have when it comes to protecting their families.
King was a bit embarrassed to tell me how all that worked between his mom and Dragon, T’s dad. I kept insisting what went down between his parents had nothing to do with him and that maybe it didn’t quite go the way he heard. Everyone has their side of the story. That was easy to s4ee just from the altercation of Mason showing up and spitting lies. Of course, I followed that up with not everyone goes to that extreme but it’s not unheard of. With the way his mom left, I’m thinking Dragon might have been painted the bad guy to keep a younger King from asking questions she didn’t want to answer.