Twinsequences Ivy (Twisted Twin #2)(26)

It was up to me to make sure it happened. I would be the savior Stoshua needed to get through this. He needed time, and we had our whole lives ahead of us.





Chapter 12


Willow was dead, and with time running out we needed to change our travel plans in a hurry. While Stoshua remained in the bathroom, weeping, I sat down with Destiny and bought us tickets to fly to the Bahamas. From there we could catch a flight to another country, some place no one would ever come looking. We could put down roots and forget all about this bump in the road.

Once the travel plans were prepared, we had to get moving if we wanted to make it to the airport in time.

I knocked on the door, hoping he’d let me inside. He cracked it, but didn’t offer for me to come in. I peeked through the small opening. “Are you okay? I know it was hard.”

“You don’t know the half of it, Ivy. Do you even understand what I’ve done? I left my wife for dead after I f*cked her sister in front of her. I can’t live with myself. I’d rather die than look in the mirror and know I was that person. I hate myself.”

“You did it for me. You did it for us to be together. You said you wanted it.”

“You want us to be honest, don’t you?”

It was clear he regretted picking me. “You did it for the kids, right? It wasn’t for me at all. I’m not an idiot. You did it because you don’t trust me to raise your children. You think I’m crazy.”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. I’m here with you. You got what you wanted. Willow is gone, and I’ll have to live with it for the rest of my life.”

I reached my hand up and touched his, hoping he wouldn’t pull away. The look he gave me said it all. I repulsed him. “Do you wish you were in that water with Willow?”

“Why? Do you want to kill me now? You think I selfishly played you? Willow would have wanted me to protect my children, no matter what extremes I had to go through. You want to know the truth, so I’m going to give it to you. I will never love you, Ivy. It’s impossible. I’ve never been yours, and you know it deep down inside. Your sister was and will always be the love of my life. There’s nothing you can do to change it. I’ll go along with this stupid plan, but only because I’d never leave you alone with my kids. I won’t let them turn out the way you did.”

I was so hurt by his words I had to leave the bathroom. It devastated me, so much I considered going in and blowing off his head. I didn’t need his negativity. If he couldn’t trust I’d be a good mother, he didn’t know me at all.

I’d thought I could change him. Maybe I was wrong to assume it. Maybe his love for my late sister was so strong I couldn’t break the barrier. He’d allowed me to be with him in the van out of a desperate attempt to survive. His reminiscing was only a ploy to get me to trust him.

I grabbed the gun out of my bag, prepared to send him to the same cold place my sister was, but Destiny got in the way. “Fairy godmother, why are you sad?”

I tucked the weapon back in the bag and turned to face her. “I’m fine, silly. Daddy didn’t want to go with Mommy, and now he misses her. We’re going to have to work hard to cheer him up.”

“You said he wasn’t allowed to go with us.”

She was too smart for her own good. “I did, but what I meant to say was that only one person could come with us. Is it okay if it’s Daddy?”

She sighed and looked sad. “Yes, but when will Mommy be back?”

Seeing the emptiness in her eyes left me vulnerable. I remembered having my feelings hurt as a child. Willow was always the one to come in and comfort me. She was good at it, where I wanted to bottle up my feelings, or write them in a journal.

“Don’t be sad, kiddo. We’re about to get on an airplane. Isn’t it exciting?”

She seemed amused. “Will we go in the air?”

“Yes. We will be in the sky, just like you see them. Isn’t that cool?”

“Yes,” she seemed giddy.

“Good. Help me change your brother and we’ll be on our way.”

She did as she was told, fetching me a fresh diaper and the wipes. I could tell she’d helped her parents out before. She knew how to do things a normal child her age wouldn’t understand. Willow would have taught her those things.

I thought back to when she hid the pregnancy from me. She risked her life to keep the secret from being discovered. Stoshua had gotten shot and been crippled. When I was locked up they must have gone through a lot of changes. He’d obviously recovered, but I wondered how it affected them mentally. Was their relationship a challenge because of the lies it was built on? Did they have to start over? Did they fight about me? I wondered if my sister hated the fact that I’d been with her man before her? Did she ever feel like her life was a competition? When they made love had she wondered if she was better than me?

I wished I had the answers. Perhaps I’d be able to understand what Stoshua was going through. He was obviously in pain, and I wasn’t able to make it better. For most of my life I’d wanted my sister gone – wished I was an only child. Now it had happened. I suppose I should be celebrating, but my heart ached for him. I felt wretched for forcing him to make a life or death decision based on my own selfish desires.

When I was finished changing Marcus, I knocked on the bathroom door again, this time with him in my arms. Stoshua was still sitting on the closed toilet seat, his head buried in his hands. “I brought someone you might want to see. He has a fresh diaper, and he’s ready to head out.”