Choosing You: The Pierced Hearts Duet: Book Two Read online

  “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 then… then you kicked me out! There was no asking, more like forcing—”

  I cocked my head to the side, shutting her up. “I’d never put my hands on you.”

  Journey screeched, “Ma! Ma! Ma!” louder.

  Camila took another step into the nursery, but I halted her once again.

  “She’s going to make herself sick if someone doesn’t go to her! You want to make me the villain, then go pick up your daughter! Because she needs you more than she needs me!”

  As if proving Camila wrong, Journey wailed, “Ma! Ma! Ma!” in a pleading, desolate tone with tears streaming down her chubby little cheeks. Ripping through my core and my conscience.

  “Well? Don’t just stand there! Go to her!”

  Sweat pooled at my temples, my hands suddenly became clammy, and my body locked up. I couldn’t fucking move. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t get my feet to move out from under me.

  “Ma! Ma! Ma!”

  “Oh, screw this! You may be able to hear her cry and not comfort her, but I sure as hell can’t!” With that she stepped aside, forcefully shoving me out of the way.

  “It’s okay, Journey! It’s okay!” she coaxed to my baby girl, picking her up from the crib. “Hey… Little Miss, that’s enough of that… come on, you’re okay. I got you… you’re okay… I got you… you’re safe… I got you, baby.”

  I snapped around, unable to continue to hear her comfort Journey with the same words I used all the time with Bailey. “I got you.”

  I reached for her. “Give her to me!”

  I swear they both looked at me with nothing but panic, especially my baby girl. She instantly threw her whole body onto Camila, locking her arms around her neck, holding onto her person for dear life.

  “Ma! Ma! Ma!”

  “I said, give her to me! Now!”

  Camila backed away, shaking her head. “No. You need to calm down first.”

  “You don’t tell me what to do! Give me my daughter!”

  She held onto her tighter. “No! She’s fine, and you’re scaring her. Just calm down and then she will go to you.”

  “Ma! Ma! Ma!”

  I softly grabbed Journey’s arm and she screamed bloody murder.

  “This is what you wanted all along, isn’t it?! To take my family from me!”

  “That’s absurd! I’m just trying to help, and you’re doing the exact opposite of that right now!”

  “Journey, come to Daddy!”

  “Ma! Ma! Ma!”

  “She’s not your mother!”

  I never expected what happened next.

  What was left of my world came tumbling down when I heard my son come to Camila’s defense, spewing, “She’s the only mother Journey’s ever known!”

  Except, it wasn’t Jagger who knocked the fucking wind out of me like I would have expected…

  It was Jackson.

  <>Camila<>

  This wasn’t supposed to happen.

  Any of it.

  I should have just left. I should have walked away from this house and never looked back. But I couldn’t get my feet to move when I heard Journey crying so desperately, so wholeheartedly, so unforgivingly through their front door.

  She needed me.

  My girl needed me.

  I wasn’t her mother by any means, though that didn’t stop me from opening the door and making my way to her as if I was being pulled by a string. Before I knew what I was doing, an urgency inside of me took over.

  Seizing.

  Yanking.

  Controlling my every move.

  Her cries resonated in my soul, in my blood running through my veins. A magnetic pull, drawing me toward her.

  My feet started moving, one in front of the other, swiftly striding down the hall to her nursery where all I could hear were her cries.

  Then suddenly, it was his voice.

  “Baby, I’m sorry… Daddy is so sorry.”

  Another subconscious step in the wrong direction, or maybe, just maybe, it was the right one?

  “I never wanted this life for you, Journey. It was never supposed to be like this. Please forgive me, I need you to forgive me.”

  More crying.

  More subconscious steps.

  More stabs at my heart.

  “God, is this what you wanted for me all along? I get it, okay? I hear you! Please I am begging you to make her stop. Please help me move on … I can’t live like this anymore. I can’t go on.”

  I didn’t contemplate the consequences of my actions because as soon as I stepped into her nursery all I could see, all I could feel, all I could breathe, was them.

  Journey’s eyes lit up right when she saw me, and her little chubby arms reached out.

  “Please, God, just send me a sign … please, I need something to hold onto…”

  As if right on cue, God chose this moment to bring us together in ways that might haunt us forever.

  Journey called out for me, “Ma!”

  It was as much of a shock to me, as it was to her father. I didn’t want this. I didn’t ask for this, but I’d be lying if I said that one little word didn’t cause everything to fade out. Just leaving us. Like I was supposed to be there. Like God wanted me there.

  Why?

  Causing me to blurt, “I’m here, Aiden. I’m here.”

  I immediately shuddered, knowing I was
about to feel the wrath of his fury.

  Each second I stood there, only added to that familiar longing I felt from the first time I set eyes on him.

  I wanted to comfort him, embrace him, be with him.

  And it messed with my mind.

  The moment he abruptly stood and stepped up in my face, he saw it.

  He felt it.

  Because he could feel me too.

  I wasn’t just imagining things. It was clear as day. We had a connection, and it scared him in the same way it scared me. From the excruciating expression on his face as he looked at me, to the way he watched me gravitate toward his daughter, to the way I witnessed him break down in front of her.

  All of it was fueled by these emotions, these feelings I couldn’t even begin to describe.

  His vicious responses to me.

  His brazen, desolate eyes.

  His, his, his…

  “Ma! Ma! Ma!”

  He faintly grabbed Journey’s arm, and her piercing shriek was enough to break solid glass.

  “This is what you wanted all along, isn’t it?! To take my family from me!”

  “That’s absurd! I’m just trying to help and you’re doing the exact opposite of that right now!”

  He was making things so much worse, but how could I stop him? How could I help this broken man?

  “Journey, come to Daddy!”

  “Ma! Ma! Ma!”

  I was about to correct her, show him I wasn’t trying to take anyone’s place. Especially not her mom’s.

  I opened my mouth, but he cut me off. Booming vigorously, “She’s not your mother!”

  With my heart pounding and my ears ringing, I felt what could be described as a slap in the face when we both heard Jackson counter, “She’s the only mother Journey’s ever known!”

  Rendering me speechless, but at least I was no longer alone.

  Chapter 2

  <>Camila<>

  Aiden turned around, coming face to face with Jackson, who resembled him so much in that moment. There was no denying they were father and son.

  “What did you just say?” Aiden questioned in an eerie, menacing tone. One that had me holding Journey more firmly in my protective arms.

  Her little fingers clung onto me tighter, angling her head to rest on my shoulder. Letting out little whimpers as she watched the scene unfold in front of her with cautious, curious eyes.

  “You heard me, but I have no problem saying it to you again.” He stepped up into Aiden’s face, eyeing him up and down with so much love and so much hate all at once. “She’s the only mother Journey’s ever known. The only father she’s ever known as well.”

  Dr. Pierce grimaced, not hiding his reaction from his son.

  “You don’t know her, and I’m not talking about Camila. Journey loves her, unlike you, who doesn’t know the meaning of the word.”

  My lips parted, and my eyes watered with tears on the brink of spilling over. My heart broke for both of them. Aiden didn’t say a word, not one word. Like he needed this from his son, allowing Jackson’s voice to be heard.

  “You’re nothing like the man I thought you were. My hero, my father, my best fucking friend…”

  Aiden’s jaw clenched as he held his head higher, his strong demeanor crumbling right in front of our eyes.

  Jackson grinned with the knowledge he was hurting his father, savoring the feeling it enticed.

  “After everything you promised Mom, Jagger, me, your family… you’re just like them. You’re exactly like the men who didn’t give a shit about you.”

  Dr. Pierce’s hands fisted at his sides, his temper looming near the surface.

  “How’s it feel to turn out to be a piece of shit like them? Huh? How’s it feel to lose everything you worked so hard for?”

  “Jackson, that’s enough,” I uttered in a soft tone, not wanting this losing battle to reach the point of no return.

  What did he mean by that? What men? Who raised Aiden?

  “You’re not my mother,” Jackson snidely replied, glaring solely at his father. “She’s gone, and she’s not coming back.”

  Aiden was teetering on the edge. I could physically see him hanging on by a thread.

  “Jackson, please, just stop.”

  “Oh, come on, Mary Poppins! Don’t you want to know where she is? I thought that’s what you wanted!”

  We both jerked back when his father finally spoke, “Jackson Pierce, don’t talk to her like that. I raised you better than this. You want to come at me, then you come at me like a man. Leave her out of this!”

  “Oh… for Camila you talk, huh? Mom would love that.”

  “Jacks—”

  “And you haven’t raised me for almost a year! All you give a fuck about is your goddamn hospital!”

  “Watch your mouth,” Aiden warned, getting closer to him.

  “Oh, so you want to try to be my father now? Where the fuck has he been while everyone else has taken care of his responsibilities? Huh?!” He shoved him, but Aiden didn’t waver. “You think I need you? You think I want you in my life? I don’t give a shit about you! Do you hear me?” He pushed him again, much harder. “Do you understand me? I don’t give one flying fuck about you! To hell with you!” Jackson took one last look at his father before sneering, “You’re nothing but a sorry excuse of a man who abandoned his kids when they needed him the most!”

  I gasped with wide eyes. Words had the power to slice you open. He may have not said those words to me, but I still felt them in every inch of my body. And by the stunned look on Aiden’s face, it carved his heart wide open.

  My mouth dropped open at the exact same time Aiden’s hand flew back.

  “No!” I covered Journey’s eyes just as he backhanded Jackson across his face. His head whooshed back, taking half his body with him. Journey burst into a fit of tears, screaming at the top of her lungs again.

  I was about to say something. Come to Jackson’s defense like he had just done for me, but the expression on Aiden’s face after he realized what he’d done, was as if his worst nightmare had just come to life. Rendering me speechless. He instantly reached for his son, but Jackson forcefully shoved his arms away. I didn’t have to say a word, he knew he fucked up.

  “Jackson, I didn’t mean to do that! You know I would never hurt you! I would die before I ever hurt you,” he profoundly stated, his eyes filling with nothing but regret and devastation.

  “Shhh… it’s okay, Journey, it’s alright,” I soothed the screaming baby in my arms.

  My stomach somersaulted, making me weak in the knees. The emotions were running so high you could choke on them. Making it hard to breathe. I waited on pins and needles for someone to say something, anything to make the expression on their faces fade away.

  In the blink of an eye, Aiden’s face changed as if he was scanning his son’s gaze, searching for the boy who once loved him more than anything.

  I bit back the bile rising in my throat. Briefly blinded by the overwhelming agony you could feel in the air. With tears blurring my vision, I was the first to break, shutting my eyes.

  My sanity couldn’t take it anymore.

  They were pulling every sentiment from my body, every last emotion I didn’t even know I had out of me. I strained. The walls were caving in on me, one by one, so I leaned against the window for support.

  Without thinking, I muttered, “Please stop.” Opening my eyes, I locked stares with Jackson. “You have to stop. Your mom wouldn’t have wanted this. No mother would.”

  His eyes glazed over in a way I’d never seen before, triggering something inside of him. It was like his head finally caught up with the feelings he was brutally inflicting for his own peace of mind. He couldn’t process it fast enough. Showing me everything through his eyes.

  Blinking, his intense focus shifted back over to his father, who was taking in what I just said as well.

  Neither spoke.

  Even Journey stopped crying.

  Suddenly, Jackson slo
wly backed away before he turned and left. Leaving open wounds that may never be healed.

  I was more confused now than ever, and without a shadow of a doubt I needed to know where Mrs. Pierce went and why she wasn’t coming back.

  Dr. Pierce turned to look at me. “Don’t,” he simply stated, like he knew what I was thinking.

  In an instant, he followed his son’s footsteps, turned and left too. I stood there for I don’t know how long, lost in the damage they left behind.

  “Ma,” Journey coaxed, grabbing onto my face to look at her.

  “Journey, baby girl, I’m not your—”

  “Ma,” she countered with watery eyes, holding onto my cheeks harder.

  I clutched onto her little hands, kissing them and she smiled.

  “I don’t know where your ma is, Little Miss.”

  “Ma,” she giggled, tearing at my core.

  I took a deep breath, trying to get lost in her laugh instead. I sat down in the rocking chair, unable to hold us up any longer. We stayed just like that until she contently fell asleep in my arms.

  Careful not to wake her, I gently laid her back in her crib and watched her sleep for a few more minutes. The soft lull in her breathing, the way her lips puckered with each breath, had me contemplating the emotional attachment I had for a baby that wasn’t mine.

  The baby who thought I was her mother was killing me inside.

  I wiped away yet another tear falling down my face as I turned on her white noise machine. Hoping it would keep her asleep for the rest of the night. Quietly, I grabbed the monitor and walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.

  From that point forward, I moved around in a trance like state. Before I realized where I was, my knuckles were knocking on Jackson’s bedroom door with a bag of ice in my hand.

  No answer.

  “Jackson!”

  Again, no answer.

  “Oh shit,” I said to myself, opening his door. He was nowhere in sight, but his window was open, and it hadn’t been while I was cleaning up his room earlier that night.

  In a slight panic, I peered out the window, looking every which way for him when I suddenly overheard, “It’s okay, Jackson. I’m here even though you don’t want me to be. I’m still here for you.”