Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
As soon as the bedroom door had closed and I had set my bag on the bed and started going through everything, un packing my suitcase so that I would be prepared for the vacation that I was having while with Becca and Allegra, the door swung open, and my sister, unfortunately, stood there with her hands upon her hips, and her eyes narrowed in my direction.
“What’s wrong with you, and why are you acting the way you are?”
I didn’t understand how she had seen any of that, considering I hadn’t noticed her outside, and I didn’t even see her anywhere in the common area when Beck and I were having our conversation.
Playing stupid, I gave her a confused glance, furrowing my brows, and shrugged my shoulders. “What are you talking about? I’m perfectly fine.”
“Don’t play dumb with me, I know something is bothering you,” she snapped, her reply catching me off guard and causing me to roll my eyes.
“Nothing’s wrong, Allegra. And I would appreciate it if you’d stop trying to find something where there is nothing.”
“Is that so?” Closing the door behind her, she stepped forward and came toe to toe with me, as she had done many times in the past when she was scolding me. She was a foot shorter, but she had more balls than any man that I had ever met.
“Of course. Everything’s fine now. Will you stop?”
“Who was on the phone, Neal?” she asked me, and with a deer in the headlights kind of look, I realized I had been caught.
“It was just work, that’s all,” I replied, trying to divert the conversation and lying about who I was talking to. The last thing I needed for her to know was that James had reached out to me because, if she did know, she would more than likely lose her shit.
“Neal, you are the worst liar I’ve ever met in my entire life. You were when you were a child, and you still are now, so I don’t understand why you’re trying to hide who you were talking to. So I’m going to ask you one more time. Who was on the phone?”
Staring at her, I took a minute to collect my thoughts. This conversation could continue to go one of two ways. One, I continued to lie, and eventually, she would find out and be more pissed that I was trying to hide it from her. Or two, I could be honest and tell her, let her go ahead and get over her initial phase of shock and get her help on figuring out how to handle this situation.
Groaning with displeasure, I decided to go with option two, but before I did, I walked towards the bedroom door and opened it, peering out into the hallway to make sure that no one was standing around listening.
As soon as I was satisfied with the fact that nobody was around, I closed the door again and walked toward her. “If I tell you, you have to swear to keep this to yourself. The conversation has to stay between us and cannot leave this room.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she rolled her eyes and nodded. “Is it that serious?”
“Yes, Allegra, it is that serious.”
With a small sigh, she nodded again. “Fine, I swear the conversation will stay between us, and it won’t leave this room.”
Taking a moment to process her telling me that she wasn’t going to say anything, I tried to debate whether or not I could actually trust my sister with my life. But she had always been very strict in keeping secrets.
“The person on the phone was James,” I whispered, her eyes going wide as her mouth parted. This was exactly the reaction I expected from her.
“What?” she gasped, shaking her head in disbelief. “That’s not possible, Neal. He isn’t supposed to be contacting us.”
Her whispered tone was stern and angry, just as mine had been when James had called. I knew exactly how she felt because I felt the same way. He wasn’t supposed to be contacting us because, as far as everyone who’d ever met him was concerned, he was supposed to be dead.
“I know this, and I told him that, but he’s telling me that he can’t deal with being away from her, that he wants her back, and he’s going to find a way to make that happen.”
“This will destroy her if she finds out. She can’t find out.”
“Don’t you think that I know this, Allegra? I know the situation at hand, but unfortunately, he doesn’t want to listen,” I replied as I ran my hand through my hair and then down my face. I was frustrated and at a loss for what to do.
“There’s something else. Maybe call somebody. Tell them—”
“No, we can’t do that, Allegra.” I quickly snapped, cutting her off mid-sentence. The last thing that I needed was for the government to find out. He needed to be where he was, and I had to make him see that privately without them knowing.
“If he loses witness protection, he might just disappear,” she replied, trying to plead with me to do something to protect Becca.
I’d contemplated many variations of things that I could do as soon as I got off the phone with him. But all of them led back to Becca getting hurt. There was no right or wrong way in this situation, and deep down, part of me did want to tell her because I didn’t like the fact of hiding this from her.
But what I was doing was for her own safety.
“For now, the best thing that we can do is focus on enjoying this vacation. I will try to think of something that we can do, but I’m hoping I can make James see that him doing this isn’t in her best interest.”
Allegra nodded her head in understanding. “Okay. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
As I watched Allegra leave, that same thought ran through my mind. Did I know what I was doing? Was I making the right choice by keeping this from her?
Part of me could see the reasoning behind why this would be a good idea. She was pregnant and didn’t need to stress more than she already had. Not to mention, I knew if she knew he was alive, she would do everything in her power to go and see him, which could jeopardize her safety and that of her unborn child.
I was being the man in the situation and deciding for her.
Which I didn’t like because I had always included her in everything.
James.
The moment that I got off the phone with Neal, I knew he was going to be a complication. He didn’t seem eager to help me, and I didn’t blame him. After everything that I had put her through, why would he?
What annoyed me the most, though, was he thought that he could actually dictate to me what I was going and not going to do. If I wanted to get to Becca, I could. I knew it was best for me to keep away, to be able to watch from a distance, and hope that she was okay, but the other part of me longed to be next to her again.
I wanted to hold her in my arms, I wanted to get on my knees and beg her forgiveness, and I wanted to be part of my child’s life. I had already lost one child because of my selfishness, and the last thing I needed to do was allow myself to lose another.
Even my grandson wasn’t going to be able to have me as part of his life because of the shit that I pulled. Perhaps it had happened back in the day, back when I was younger, when I made these terrible mistakes of aligning myself with dangerous people.
But I even knew back then that one day this would come back to bite me in the ass, and as I sat in my apartment looking at the various bags of electronics that I had purchased to try and make myself comfortable, I couldn’t help but hold the satellite phone in my hand and wonder if I had made the right choice by contacting Neal.
There was a chance that he could reach out to Greg and tell Greg what I had done and ruin everything, even though I had only just gotten here. There was also a chance that he could turn around and hide Becca from the world. Maybe even marry her, making her his forever to ensure that I would never be able to get her back.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
A sharp knock at the door caught my attention, and quickly standing to my feet, I took the phone and hid it. The last thing I needed was for one of those guys that had been here earlier to see me with the phone that I wasn’t supposed to have.
It would only complicate my situation even further.
As I made my way across the room, opening the door, I spotted a shorter, dark-haired young woman with kind charcoal eyes smiling up at me, holding a platter of food. “Welcome to our apartment building. These are for you.”
Her thick Asian accent twerked the corner of my lips as I stared down at her with hesitation and amusement. “Thanks.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was to say, but as I took the platter leaving, the door open, she stepped inside for a moment, and I gazed over my shoulder, watching how she took in the apartment with very little interest. “Is this something that you usually do? Bring your new guests food?”
“Yes, my mother believes in keeping common decency among the neighbors. It is a tradition that you bring your neighbors a gift.”
“Hmm, interesting,” I muttered to myself as I took in the delicacies upon the plate. A lot of it was stuff that I had never tried before, but I wouldn’t be rude and pass it up just because I was unsure.
As I turned back to her completely, she stood with her hands clasped in front of her, as if waiting for something. I was slightly confused about what that could have been. “Thank you again for all of this. I do appreciate it. It’s nice to feel welcome somewhere.”
“You are very welcome. My mother will be pleased to know that you enjoyed her gift.”
Again, she waited, and I became slightly unsure if she was ever going to leave by the way that she seemed so hesitant. “Was there something else that you needed?”