Choosing Us: The Pierced Hearts Duet: Book One Read online

  The expression on my face was enough to render her speechless. “I’m just saying…” she muttered loud enough for me to hear.

  “I know what you’re saying, and I’m sorry, Bay, but I don’t give a fuck. I’m going to give you money, and you’re going to take it. Just because you’re wearing layers of clothing, doesn’t mean I can’t tell you’ve lost more weight. Are those motherfuckers even feeding you?”

  “There’s ten of us in the house now, and—”

  “Ten?! They took in more kids? Of course, they did, greedy fucks,” I breathed out, trying to control my temper. Not letting the reality of our lives ruin the moment I wanted to have with her.

  The one I’d been dreaming of since the first time she shared her plate of food with me under the green slide.

  “Aiden, they’re younger and need more food than I do.”

  “You know what I need, Bay? I need you alive.”

  “You’re exaggerating.”

  “And you’re downplaying the situation like you always do with everything.”

  She took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes at me. “Fine. I’ll eat more, will that make you stop giving me money?”

  “No, but nice try.”

  “Oh. My. God! You’re impossible! Do you even hear yourself? We’re supposed to take care of each other, remember? But all you do is take care of me. How’s that fair to you?”

  “Since when is anything fair to us? I take care of you because I can, because I want to, because one day, we won’t live in this bullshit, and you’ll always know I took care of you because I lo—” I stopped myself. This wasn’t how I envisioned the night going down. Not by a longshot. I rubbed the back of my neck, my muscles tensed immediately. “Bailey, you know that shit doesn’t matter to me. It’s money. You, matter to me.”

  Her deep stare was so penetrating, so intense, that I couldn’t break it. I couldn’t move my eyes from hers even if I wanted to, and I didn’t want to. I never did. The times with Bailey, whether good or bad, were the only ones I had to look back on when I needed a sense of hope.

  A sense of belonging.

  When I needed love.

  When I just needed…

  Her.

  “Come on.” I nodded toward the faint glow of lights in the distance. Smiling back at her, breaking the sudden tension between us. “We’re almost there.”

  “This isn’t over.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  Before she could reply, I started walking the uneven ground again, tugging her behind me. I spent all my money, from working jobs that paid me under the table, on this surprise and didn’t think twice about it. I wanted her to have this special moment, to see it, to feel it, for her to experience Christmas for once in her life.

  It didn’t take long until we approached a small clearing where the snow continued to raise beneath our feet. The look on her face the second she saw I had turned part of the woods into a winter wonderland was the only gift I needed this Christmas.

  “Aiden, I can’t believe you did this,” she whispered, completely caught off guard. Her eyes shifted from all the colorful lights strung around the trees, to the makeshift Christmas tree I found thrown away on a curb. Decorated with soda cans and string lights. To the plastic snowman I found thrown away on another curb.

  I watched her walk around the open space, grazing her bare fingers along the lights with a beaming smile on her face. Twirling around as the snow fell upon her. Bailey captivated me all the time, consuming me with her beauty, her quirks, her loving personality that shined through since we were young.

  Making her presence known whether she realized it or not. Part of me knew she was conscious of the effect she had on me. It didn’t matter what she was doing, my eyes followed her everywhere, constantly waiting for her to do something else that would make me fall in love with her just a little bit more.

  There was no one else in this world like Bailey, and I knew that the second I laid eyes on her almost seven years ago.

  Sometimes I would watch her from across the room and just the vision of her left me breathless. She was turning into a beautiful young woman. There was nothing left to resemble the scared little girl, who hid with me in the closets of the shithole homes we were placed in.

  “Aiden, don’t let your mind go there,” she stated, bringing my thoughts back to the present. Placing her cold hand on my warm cheek. You see, she had the ability to see right through me too.

  “Just thinking about your pretty face.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Mmm hmm.” Knowing I was lying. “For someone who always wants me to be honest, you should follow your own advice.”

  “You want honesty, Bay? That’s what you’re looking for?”

  “Always.”

  “Well then, look up.”

  She did. Realizing there was a wrapped gift dangling from the tree branch we were standing under.

  “Oh, come on. This was enough. You didn’t have to get me something too.”

  “That’s my gift.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “You got yourself a present for me to open?”

  I grinned. “Open the gift, Bailey.”

  She eyed me skeptically then did just that. Jerking back when she realized what it was. “Aiden, why did you—”

  Before the next word left her mouth, I gripped onto the back of her neck and pulled her to me.

  They say the smallest decisions can change your life forever.

  I would eternally remember this moment for the rest of my days. This was the instant that changed everything between us. Exactly the way I wanted it to.

  Standing right then and there, under the mistletoe I wrapped for her.

  I rasped, “To kiss you,” against her lips. “I don’t see myself when I’m with you because all I ever see… is you, Bay.”

  Not knowing what the fuck I was doing, I kissed her with everything I had inside of me. Making her knees buckle and my heart pound. I sought out her tongue, and she moaned in my mouth as both of my hands found the sides of her face and her hands found my hair, pulling at it almost instantly.

  The taste of her.

  The warmth, the need, the longing to make her mine.

  The sensation of her pouty lips while framing her face I adored so goddamn much. My hands found their way down her body, and I wanted nothing more than to keep going, but not here.

  Not like this.

  This kiss would have to be enough to hold me over until the time was right to prove she was made just for me and only me.

  Our lips devoured each other, both of us making a memory to take with us, not knowing when another chance would come along again where we could feel whole in one another’s love. I wish I could describe the intensity I found myself going through with her in my arms. Only I couldn’t even do it justice. I couldn’t even put it into words what was in my heart.

  What had always been there.

  What would always be there.

  It overpowered me.

  She overpowered me.

  I let it take control, and a huge part of me wanted to throw caution to the wind and just go with it.

  I didn’t.

  Because she deserved better.

  She deserved it all.

  And I would be the one to give it to her.

  No one else, but me.

  Enjoying the sensation of her lips against mine one last time, I pulled away and she instantly whimpered at the loss.

  “Bailey,” I huskily groaned inches away from her mouth. Placing my forehead on hers with my hands still holding onto the sides of her face.

  She immediately opened her dark, dilated eyes. Looking so fucking beautiful, so fucking innocent, so everything I ever needed and wanted.

  “Aiden,” she panted back, luring me in again.

  I softly pecked her lips, rubbing mine back and forth on hers. Gazing deep into her eyes, murmuring, “I love you. I love you so much it hurts,” saying it for the first time when I’d been wanting to express it all
along. “You’re mine, Bailey, and don’t you ever forget that.”

  Except, I was wrong…

  Her Christmas gift to me wasn’t her reaction to my surprise or this kiss, her present to me was the second…

  The moment…

  The instant…

  She revealed,

  “I love you too.”

  Making this the day, we became a couple.

  Chapter 13

  <>Camila<>

  Now

  __________

  Sixty days.

  Eight-and-a-half weeks.

  Two whole months since I started working at the Pierce residence, and despite everything Jackson was still putting me through, nothing compared to the stunt he pulled on me today.

  I grabbed my phone from my purse and dialed the first person who came to mind.

  “Hola, chica, que paso, mamita?”

  “Danté! Oh my God, I don’t know what to do! I have no idea how to get this smell out of the house!”

  “Gurl, calm down. What’s goin’ on? You’re talkin’ in circles.”

  “I’m so screwed! How am I going to explain this? There’s no way she’d believe me over him. Not about this!”

  “Camila, where are you?”

  “The Pierces,” I muttered, feeling at a loss.

  “Text me the address. I’m on my way.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Always, mamita. I got you, gurl.”

  I hung up and texted him the address immediately and waited on pins and needles for the next two hours for him to arrive. Killing time, keeping Journey busy outside in the backyard.

  Meanwhile, trying to create a plan of action and figure out what the hell I was going to do next.

  Jackson really screwed me this time.

  As soon as my phone pinged with a new text message from Danté saying he was at the front door, I rushed inside with Journey in my arms.

  With an amused expression on his face, he jerked back when he saw us standing there.

  Imploring, “Why does that baby look like she belongs to Michael Jackson hangin’ out of a window, and not a rich ass white doctor who lives in the suburbs?” he questioned, taking in the surgical mask I put on her that I found in the kitchen drawer.

  I didn’t hesitate in replying, “Because the house reeks of weed!”

  “Gurl, since when you start tokin’?”

  “Not funny!” I opened the door wider, nodding at him. “Come on, come inside.”

  As soon as he stepped over the threshold, he breathed out, “Dayum…” Looking all over the foyer and into the rest of the house. The amazed expression on his face mirrored the one I had the first time I walked into this house as well. “Daddy Pierce got a lot of money,” he sang out loud, rocking his head side to side.

  “Danté…” I coaxed, not having the patience to deal with him too. “I’m being serious. Can’t you smell that?”

  “Gurl,” he countered with nothing but attitude in that Danté sort of way. “Ain’t no one here right now, but you, me, and baby Paris.”

  “Her name is Journey.”

  “Gah!” she added for good measure.

  “Damn, gurl. I drove all this way to help you, the least you could do is let me live my best life for a few minutes.” He grabbed a picture of Dr. Pierce off the entry table, bringing it up to his face. “What do you think? We look good together?”

  “Danté!”

  “You know what they say … once you go black, you never go back. I could be his by Tuesday.”

  “Oh my God.” I rubbed my face. “Why did I call you?” My eyes shifted toward him rushing away. “Where are you going?”

  “To see how my future sugar daddy lives! Gurl, I got this! Now keep up!”

  In a matter of a few seconds, I was chasing him around the house with Journey in my arms and it made it hard to keep up. He scurried around every room at warp speed, trying to take in as much as he could.

  Singing, “I’m so fancy! Yes so, so fancy! In my new Barbie house! With my new Doctor Daddy!”

  “Danté, no! I’m not allowed to go in—” Before I could finish what I was about to say, he opened the double doors to the master bedroom. Almost knocking me on my ass.

  I watched the entire thing unfold through one of those out of body experiences. Where you know you shouldn’t be doing something, but your feet move on their own accord. Slowly, I strode into the room that possibly held all the pieces to the puzzle I was still dying to figure out.

  More so now than ever before.

  The logical side of my brain screamed at me to get the hell out of there. To not cross the very thin line I was currently treading on.

  However, the other side of my mind that controlled my curiosity said go screw yourself, we’re going in there.

  So, I did.

  I gradually pushed the heavy wooden door open the rest of the way, cautiously stepping inside. Careful not to make any noises, any sudden movements, any disturbance that could cause … I don’t know what.

  The room was dead silent, not even the sound of a clock ticking to break the stillness in the air.

  Nothing.

  Even Danté stopped singing, overwhelmed with the unexpected turn of events like I was.

  I paid him no mind as he went around the room doing a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree twirl with his mouth wide open. I was on a completely different mission with a one-track mind to find out where Dr. and Mrs. Pierce were.

  Who they were.

  And if they’d be coming back to the family who still needed them.

  In that moment, I thought about a million and one things, picturing a life through their eyes. Sensing their presence in every inch and corner of the extravagant space only added to the ramblings in my mind.

  If I thought the house was exquisite before, nothing compared to the luxury this suite held.

  It was breathtaking.

  Picture-perfect.

  A room where dreams were made of.

  From the huge king-sized mattress that was in between a gray wooden, massive four-poster bed, centered on the far wall. To the colossal posts with intricate carved designs each appeared to have that I ran my fingers over. To the four vast beams towering up toward the vaulted ceiling, connecting above into a square. Draped with white, sheer curtains that fell to the floor near the head of the bed.

  The sheets appeared as if they hadn’t been slept on in months. Not to mention the room was spotless. Nothing was out of place, not a piece of clothing, or a hairbrush. Not even one of the kids’ toys.

  My fingers skimmed the bedding, continuing my descent. I put one foot in front of the other, walking over to the vanity in the adjacent corner. Captivated by the elegant perfume bottles in a perfect line, I brought the one that read Sunflower up to my nose, breathing in the flowery scent until Journey broke the silence.

  “Gah! Gah, gah, gah!”

  “Is that right, Little Miss? You smell your momma?”

  She kicked her chubby little legs in excitement answering my question.

  “Where is she?” I whispered to myself, placing the bottle back down.

  I couldn’t help but wander toward her walk-in closet. Which was just as immaculate as everything else. All her clothes were lined up perfectly in order, all color coordinated by style and design.

  Hundreds of dresses...

  Multiple racks of skirts, shirts, and shoes…

  The tips of my fingers ran along the soft fabrics, wanting to see what they felt like. The expensive pieces were as inviting as anything else in the room.

  I don’t know what got into me, but I had to see his closet next. Except, when I slid open the door, I thought I’d find the same setup as hers.

  I didn’t.

  His closet had very little clothing. It was empty compared to hers. I tried to ignore the masculine scent that still lingered on his casual garments hanging on suede hangers.

  A few t-shirts…

  Some jeans…

  A pair of sneakers h
ere and there.

  All his professional attire was missing.

  No collared shirts.

  No suit jackets.

  No dress pants.

  Nothing was left of the man everyone called Dr. Pierce, as if she stayed in this sanctuary and he was…

  Gone.

  “When was the last time someone was in here?” Danté questioned, asking the same thing that was running wild in my mind.

  “What?”

  “You feel that too, right?”

  “Feel what?”

  “The void. The loneliness. Camila, honey, ain’t no one been in this room in a long time. This ain’t a bedroom, it’s a mausoleum.”

  My eyes shifted every which way, wanting to argue, to put up a fight, to yell at him and rationalize he didn’t know what he was talking about. But I couldn’t get my mouth to say one word. Because in my heart, in my soul, in the core of my body, I knew he was right.

  “Oh, God,” I gasped, my heart breaking with their baby girl firmly placed in my arms. I panted, “We have to get out of here. We can’t be in here.”

  “Camila—”

  “Danté, now!” I yelled, causing Journey to jolt.

  There was this eerie aura surrounding me. Making it hard to breathe. Hard to focus on more than one thing other than the sensation of being watched.

  I felt like a fool. How hadn’t I seen this coming?

  The kids…

  No one talking about her…

  “Hold her. Please hold her.”

  He grabbed the baby out of my arms, and she willingly went. Reading my emotions like a book.

  I retraced my steps, trying to see if I moved something out of place, or if Danté did. This felt wrong, it felt so unbelievably wrong to be in here.

  Their safe haven.

  Their privacy.

  Their love.

  It all hit me like a ton of bricks as my reflection caught the floor length mirror across from the bed. Dr. Pierce didn’t come home for one reason and one reason only.

  He didn’t have one anymore.

  His wife took it all with her.

  Leaving him and their kids behind…

  And all alone.

  Chapter 14