For the first time since he’d started with his accusations I saw a flicker of doubt cross his face. I’d be damned if I was going to stand and defend myself. If he loved me he would have asked me and gave me the benefit of the doubt, but he hadn’t, and it hurt. I felt as though he’d crushed my heart and blown away the pieces.
Donovan was still standing in the doorway so I turned to him. “Take him with you,” I looked back to Phoenix with tears rolling down my face. “Get out.”
He hesitated, reaching a hand out to me. I shook my head and backed up. “Don’t touch me; just leave,” I cried.
“Why, Thalia? I need to know.”
I looked between Phoenix and Donovan and couldn’t stem the flow of tears, which were falling faster than I could wipe them away. “I can’t tell you anything, because I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“What’s going on?” Callie asked pushing past Donovan into the room.
“Get them out,” I whispered to Callie.
“Okay, I don’t know what’s going on, but you both need to leave. Now.”
“Callie, I haven’t finished talking to her.”
“Yes. You. Have,” I told him. “I don’t have anything else to say, Jack.” I told him, then turned and walked to the window with my back to him.
He’d noticed the emphasis on his name. The name I hadn’t called him since I’d discovered him as Phoenix. A name I wouldn’t use again.
I heard movement behind me then the door closed. I turned to check they’d gone before I broke down in tears. Callie came running over to me, wrapping me in her arms.
“Talk to me,” she demanded, pulling me over to the bed.
Sitting next to her on the bed, I placed my head on her shoulder and cried. Callie just held me until my cries became sniffles.
After wiping my eyes and blowing my nose, I turned to her, “He accused me of telling Lewis, Mia’s dad, about his tattoos and the fact that he’s in a band. Apparently Lewis threatened to shut Kix down if they didn’t stop because he’s pissed Jack isn’t marrying Mia. Jack didn’t ask me about it, he just assumed whatever he’d heard was fact. I would never do that to him.” I started crying again. “Why would he do that to me?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to phone Donovan and get him to tell us what the hell is going on.”
Chapter 59
Jack
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How the hell could Thalia have gone behind my back and told Lewis about my tattoos and Deception? Did she do it in the hope he’d put a stop to the wedding if he knew about me?
Earlier when we’d arrived at Mia’s house, just her father had been home, and he sure hadn’t seemed happy to see us.
No sooner had he shown us into the sitting room, I’d turned around and told him I wasn’t going to marry Mia. You could see the steam coming out of his ears. Liam had then jumped in by telling him that there was still going to be a wedding, but he was the groom. He’d told him that he loved Mia and would take good care of her. To say Lewis had been pissed was an understatement; he’d been furious.
He’d practically been frothing at the mouth when he’d spat out about me, and my body art, which had my dad looking at me as though I had two heads. My dad had shocked both Liam and me; by telling me the body art didn’t matter, regardless of what he’d previously said. The fact was, I was his son and he loved me anyway.
Lewis had blown his lid at how accepting our dad was being and then had sneered and dropped the bomb shell about Deception and Kix. Yeah, that had been a shocker; one, which Dad tried to hide, and had carried on supporting me, but the real punch to the gut was when he announced that Thalia, had thought it would be of interest to him in knowing about my secret and recent activities.
I hadn’t believed him at first, but the things he’d told us had to have come from Thalia. I’d been left speechless, and had finally let Liam drag me out of the house and into the car.
As my dad had started driving to town, I’d asked him to take us home. I’d needed to think before I saw Thalia. Dad after a few choice words had said I was old enough to make my own decision and that this mess wouldn’t have happened if he’d left me alone, instead of trying to interfere in my life.
My dad was pissed to put it mildly and had been mumbling about sorting the law offices out, and about what a fucking mess Lewis had made. I guess he was going to dissolve the partnership from what he’d been mumbling about.
What none of us, Dad included, could understand was what Lewis had against our family. He’d been a partner with my dad for around twenty-six years, and like Dad had pointed out it felt like he was pissed with us for something. Dad hadn’t a clue.
While I’d been at home there was no conclusion to come to. Thalia had betrayed my trust and gone behind my back. I just couldn’t get it out of my head. After everything we’d done together, how the hell could she have done that?