Choosing You(Pierced Hearts Duet #2) - M Robinson Page 0,1
clubhouse, drinking away my wife.
I stumbled toward them with the bottle of Jack still clutched in my grip.
How did I get here?
When did I get out of the car?
Noah quickly made his way over to me and grabbed onto my arm. “Aiden, what’s goin’ on? Did you drive here like this?”
“Bailey…” I slurred, staggering all over the place. Barely able to stand on my own two feet.
“Jesus Christ, man. What the fuck?”
Taking another swig from the bottle, I tried shoving him away. “Bailey… Bailey… Bailey...”
“For fuck’s sake, Aiden.”
He’d never seen me like this, and I was going to knock him on his ass when I said,
“She’s gone… My Bailey… left me. Forever.”
Chapter 1
<>Aiden<>
“Please, God, just send me a sign… please, I need something to hold onto…”
And just as I wanted to give up, surrender my goddamn flag, I heard Journey cry out, “Ma! Ma! Ma!”
My heart stopped.
My stomach dropped.
The room started to spin.
I felt her.
She was there with me.
With us.
The woman I couldn’t for the life of me forget…
Vowing, “I’m here, Aiden, I’m here.”
I shut my eyes.
I had to.
I was dragged back to the place and time when Bailey announced, “Aiden, I’m pregnant.”
“Ma! Ma! Ma!”
If I wasn’t already on the ground, that one little word that flew out of Journey’s mouth for the first time would have had the power to bring me to my knees.
It was like taking a bullet to the heart, then and now…
“Bailey,” I cautioned, fully aware of where she was going with this. She took one look at me and knew as well.
“Ma! Ma! Ma!” Journey yelled it over and over again, hysterically trying to keep me there in the present.
With her.
With them.
“Don’t,” Bailey countered with tears already swelling up in her eyes. “She’s the baby girl we’ve always wanted. The one you always wanted. I can feel it, I can feel her.”
“Bay, it’s not the right time.”
“Ma! Ma! Ma!”
Each time Journey screamed, it felt harsher than the last.
Each time she bawled, I died a little more inside.
“What?” Bailey jerked back, the hurt and devastation eating her alive. “How can you say that to me? How can you stand there and say that to me, Aiden?”
“Because it’s the truth. It’s the truth and you know it.”
Journey’s voice echoed around the room, filling the space, “Ma! Ma! Ma!”
Her heartbreaking pleas bounced along the walls, into my mind, my heart, scorching my fucking soul.
One moment.
One word.
One syllable changed it all for me in the end.
Bailey reasoned, “I don’t know anything anymore.” The expression on her face was identical to the one that made me fall in love with her to begin with.
With a heavy heart and cluttered mind, I brushed the hair away from her cheek and placed it behind her ear. Murmuring, “I know, Beauty. I know.”
Journey wept, “Ma, Ma, Ma!” and I couldn’t take it anymore.
This was my breaking point.
This was where I lost myself completely.
I did the only thing that made sense.
The only thing I had left to give.
I lashed out.
Through a clenched jaw that felt as if it was going to snap the fuck off, I snarled, “I thought I told you to leave.”
“Ma! Ma! Ma!”
Right as I heard Camila step toward Journey, I hastily stood. Towering over her with the beast on my back, casting a hideous shadow in the moonlight on the wall. Getting right in her face, I spewed, “Who the fuck do you think you are?!”
She swallowed hard, her lips trembled, and her stare remained wide and vigilant. It was like she could see right through me.
My pain.
My misery.
The truth that lived in my eyes.
“I asked you a question, and trust me, I won’t ask again.”
She winced, except it wasn’t because of what I’d just warned.
Camila…
This woman.
This soul.
She was hurting for me.
She felt me.
Only pissing me off further. “You wanted this all along, didn’t you? You wanted Journey to think you were her mother?”
“What?” she breathed out, jerking back from the impact of my accusation. Never expecting me to follow up with that.
Only provoking me further. “What, Cami? Can’t have kids of your own, so you’re trying to take mine?”
“Oh. My. God,” she bellowed. “You know that’s not true. You have to know that’s not true! I would never do that. Ever! Please tell me you’re just being cruel, and you know—”
“All I know is I asked you to leave, and here you are still in my face giving me more of your bull—”
“You didn’t ask me to leave! You threw my stuff outside and broke my phone, and