Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(44)

Jessica had understood that.

“How you feeling? Ready for bed?” she asked, walking back into the room.

I nodded and forced my eyes back open. “Yeah. I am.”

Jessica walked over and sank down beside me, then pulled me into her arms. “I hate seeing my girl so broken,” she whispered into my hair as I curled into her arms.

“Momma,” I said in a whisper. I hadn’t been going to tell her about the baby, but I needed someone to know.

“Yes, sweetheart,” she said, holding me close.

“I’m pregnant.”

She stopped petting my head, and I heard her inhale sharply, then exhale. “Does he know?”

I had been going to tell him. “I was surprising him with the news yesterday. I had it all planned out. I was going to have Barbara make us a picnic in the den downstairs where we have that amazing view at night of the lights outside on the hills. I had even set up candles everywhere that Barbara helped me light. I didn’t tell her what I was doing all this for. I wanted to tell him first. But then he didn’t come home or answer his phone. Three hours later I had blown out the candles and left the picnic downstairs and headed up to our room. That was where he found me.” I stopped and closed my eyes. I wasn’t ready to repeat what he had said.

“He yelled at me. Told me I was like all of ‘them’ and I used him to get things. Then he called me a liar and told me it was over before he left.”

Jessica’s body had gotten tense. I knew she was getting upset over this. “Did he explain why?”

I shook my head. “No. When I asked, he said I knew. Then he told me to shut up. He’s never told me to shut up. So I did.”

My mother’s arms tightened around me. “Oh, baby. I am so sorry. He’s going to regret this, though. You mark my words, he will regret this. It will haunt him and he will figure out he’s made a mistake and come back groveling. You make him beg at your feet for a long time before you give in. You hear me? Don’t forgive him easily for this. But do forgive him. Because he’s made a horrible mistake.”

Relationship advice was something I would never take to heart from my mother. Jessica wasn’t the smartest female when it came to men. Although, Sam had changed her on that, too. But still, she’d made so many mistakes in her life. I was one of her first mistakes.

“I can’t. I won’t ever trust a man that much again. Especially him,” I whispered.

Momma sighed and rested her chin on my head. “He’s really f**ked, then, isn’t he?” she said in a sad tone.

Jax

Sleep never came. All damn night. I had even gotten up and gone to another bedroom and tried to sleep in there. It didn’t work. All I could see was Sadie’s tearstained face as she begged me to tell her what was wrong. Never once had understanding flashed in her eyes. She had been so good at acting innocent.

How f**king long had my Sadie been a manipulative liar?

I made my way to the kitchen because I wasn’t eating in the dining room alone only to remember every good memory with Sadie I had in there. I would grab some food and then get out of this house. Barbara came walking out of the kitchen with a frown on her face. She didn’t smile when she saw me. Had the woman forgotten who she worked for?

“Excuse me, Master Jax,” she replied formally. “I need to finish cleaning up the picnic Sadie had prepared for you downstairs that you never showed up for.”

Picnic? “What?” I asked, annoyed by the fact that my staff was taking Sadie’s side after I’d been the one who was burned.

“The picnic she had prepared with candles and such for you the other night. She was so excited about it too. She’d spent days preparing for it. She wouldn’t tell me what it was about, though. I didn’t have to ask her, really. I already knew. The silly girl forgets I am aware of everything in this house. I know what’s in her trash can.”

Confused, I stood there as Barbara stalked past me, seeming even angrier than before.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I yelled, causing her back to snap straight before she turned around to shoot daggers at me with her eyes.

“I’m talking about the surprise Sadie had for you, sir.”

“What surprise?” I asked, furious that she was making me play this stupid game.

Barbara cocked one of her white eyebrows and tilted her head as she studied me. “It isn’t for me to tell you, sir. It was Sadie’s surprise. Not mine.”

Fuck this! I wasn’t living in a house with people who didn’t respect that fact that I signed their f**king paychecks. “You are aware you don’t work for Sadie, aren’t you, Barbara? You work for me.”

She frowned and then shrugged. “I’ve decided I’m not sure I want to work for you, sir. If you want to let me go, I will pack my bags and leave.”

The anger boiled over and I met her glare with one of my own. “Did you watch the news yesterday? Pick up a paper? Get on the f**king Internet at all?”

Barbara snarled, then looked disgusted with me. “Yes, sir, I did. And I am sure Sadie did as well. Yet she never called you. Even though her phone is here in the office, I am sure she could have found another phone to call you. The thing is, sir, she didn’t do that. My opinion on this is that if Sadie was guilty of what that photo is accusing her of and she was trying to manipulate you, then she’d have woven an excuse and called you, begging you to listen to her. She would have been willing to hear you yell at her and lash out at her if there was hope she could get you back.” Barbara paused and pointed a finger at me. “But she didn’t. Did she? She didn’t call you, not once. Because you told her to leave. You yelled at her and called her names I never in my life imagine that sweet girl has been called. You broke her. She won’t trust you again, and she would never give you another chance. So no, she wouldn’t call and try to explain. She doesn’t think you deserve an explanation.”