Kansas (Ruthless Kings MC Atlantic City #2) - K.L. Savage Page 0,6
life forever, like you said.”
We take the same turn as my father does, down an old abandoned-looking road, where houses are few and far between.
“This is not a work trip,” I whisper, tears in my voice that I can’t hide.
“You don’t know that. Don’t jump to…” his reassurance trails off when my Pops pulls into a driveway. Nigel places the van in park across the street, and I have a clear view of my Pops getting out of his car with a bouquet of roses in his hands.
The house is quaint with a white picket fence. The lawn is mowed. The grass is green. The mailbox isn’t broken. It’s the house I’ve wanted for us for years.
Nigel’s window is rolled down, so when the white-painted front door opens and light spills out, two young kids run out with smiles on their faces.
“Daddy!” they squeal at the same time, and the sound of their childish voices steals the strength and breath right out of my lungs. “Daddy, Daddy!”
The little girl has pigtails that sway as she jumps into my Pops’ arms and he squeezes her tight.
“Oh, I missed you my little munchkin.” Pops places a big kiss on her cheek.
“I missed you too, Daddy,” she says in her cute little girl voice that makes me hate her.
“Dad!” an older kid, a boy, around eight, greets him and gives him a big hug.
“Ah, look at you. I swear, you’ve grown…” Pops pauses as he checks out his kid, analyzes him.
I finish the sentence for him as a tear runs down my cheek and we speak in unison, “You’ve grown like a weed.”
A woman younger than my mom is at the doorway and she’s pregnant. Very pregnant. Her stomach is round, like she’s about to pop.
I feel sick. I’ve been kicked in the stomach.
“Hey sweetie,” she says to him.
Pops wraps an arm around her and kisses her deeply, the way he used to kiss Mom. They walk inside, the little girl on his hip, and he hands the roses to his girlfriend? Wife? I don’t know what she is. They close the door and turn off the porch light.
“Fuck,” Nigel whispers, then rolls up the window with the crank on the side of the door.
“He has an entire other family. That’s where he fucking goes every weekend! This is where he comes? Are you kidding me?” I kick the dash underboard underneath my feet, then punch the seat between my legs and roar at the top of my lungs. “Fuck him. I knew it, Nigel! I knew it. That fucking bastard. I’m going to kill him.”
Nigel pulls me in for a hug, and I try to push away. I don’t need comfort. I’m fine. I don’t need him. Mom won’t need him. We will be okay.
“Let me go. Let me go!” I fight Nigel more, but he holds on tight, and I punch him in the arm weakly. “Let me go,” I sob pathetically for a man I fucking detest.
Why? Why am I wasting my breath on him?
Because deep down, I wanted to be wrong about him.
“He has another family, Nigel. He has everything I’ve wanted for me and Mom. The house, the siblings, the perfect fucking yard. They have everything! He has given them everything.” I kick the dash again, and the hate I felt toward Pops before is nothing like it is now. “We need to get home. I need to pack his stuff and set it on the lawn. No way in hell can my mom stay with him. We are done.”
“Let’s go, then. I’ll help you pack up his shit and burn it,” Nigel says, letting go of my shoulders, then slamming the van into drive. “I am so sorry, Amos.”
The van begins to move, and I stare out the window, staring at the same sky I’ll be looking at when I get to Oklahoma. “I hate Kansas,” I rasp, wiping my cheek on my shoulder. I’m going to give myself this one free pass to break, to be mad, to cry, but when I get home, I refuse to shed another tear for that man.
Is this what he meant by soon? Was he going to leave Mom and expect me to come with him here? I would never choose to be with him.
“Me too, Amos. Me too.”
I remain silent for the entire two-and-a-half-hour ride back home to Tulsa. I still can’t believe what I witnessed. I have half-siblings.
Siblings I have no want or need in knowing ever. My