Page 31 of Rage’s Rose

“Are they in the family barn or are they in the other barns?”

She looks at me like I am crazy when I ask that as we start walking.

“You have more than one barn?”

“Well, yeah, we need to have barns for all the different horses.”

“Do you know how many horses you really have?”

“Yeah we have a lot. Maybe almost one hundred. But we have horses for show, working horses, breeding horses, just a bunch of them. Plus you know all the horses that are just mine, I do plan on taking them back to Virginia. I will also be looking into trying to find more horses that are geared towards therapy.”

“Wow, you are a fantastic woman Rose. What was that man thinking?”

“I could say the same thing about your mystery man.”

I look at her and her eyes look sad, but she is trying to put on a brave face.

“You miss him don’t you?”

She looks at me and gives me a sad smile.

“Every single day.”

We get up to the private family barn where I am assuming her daughter is and this is where I have been spending a good amount of time since I have been here. It is a cream limestone with dark wood stall doors and a black metal roof. I notice the door is open and know that we came to the right place.

“So who all did you bring with you?”

Walking inside I am hit with a whole army of my family, my large beautiful family.

“Dia duit, mo Rós milis. Hello there my sweet Rose. ” My Uncle Declan was the first to come up to me and pull me in for a hug. “Tá tú caillte againn. We have missed you.”

“Uncail, tá mé caillte agat freisin. Uncle, I have missed you too.” I sigh into his hug.

Now with all of them here I feel at peace for the first time in a long time. I have felt so out of control these last few months, but seeing all my family makes me remember where I came from. Where my strong Irish roots came from. My daddy might have left the family business, but that did not take away that I was Rose Callahan, my uncle was the head of the Callahan Irish Family. Badass runs in our family, no biker boy or stupid whores can take away who I am.

“Mamaí, cé hé seo? Mama, who is this?” I hear a tiny little voice ask and I look down standing next to Lizzy is a beautiful little girl. As I look at her my eyes widen because I know what family this girl is from and who her daddy is.

Chapter Fifteen

Rage

Weeks have gone by since I last saw Rose or even talked to her. That conversation we had on the phone was the last time I heard her voice and it is probably one of the worst memories I have. Having to tell the woman that I know I truly love that I fucked up was horrible. Knowing that she doesn’t believe me makes it all worse.

The saddest part is that I haven’t really been able to focus on everything going on between her and I because that phone call I got a few weeks ago led me to this apartment I am renting in the city. I’m hiding so many secrets I feel like I am going to blow. I haven’t even told any of my best friends what has been going on. I’ve been trying to work everything out for myself and really, I don’t want to bring up any of this to my dad. I don’t need him to know that I am exactly like he is. That a woman had my kid and kept him from me for ten years. Sure from what I have found out about Mason, his life with his mama wasn’t like mine at all. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I knocked up a decent woman, both times I guess.

When I received that phone call and the social worker told me there was a ten year old boy who had my name on a birth certificate, I decided that a paternity test had to be done. This boy needed me. His mother was killed in a car accident, Scarlett Cross. I had dated her on and off as a teenager. When she left I just thought her parents moved her, turns out her family was not very thrilled that the son of a biker knocked up their daughter so they sent her away. I will never know why once she was away from her family she didn’t bother to get in touch with me and tell me I had a fucking son.

This whole thing has brought up more issues with women. I never gave Scarlett any reason to be afraid of me or think that I would do wrong by my son. But none of that really matters now because these past few weeks we got the paternity test done and he is mine. I moved us into the apartment so that we can get familiar with each other and I have not told anyone because I know that my family can be overwhelming. It might not make sense, but I want to be able to figure this out with him without anyone in my business.

Footsteps coming into the kitchen snap me out of my thoughts when I look over and see my boy.

“Hey buddy, how are you doing?”

I know it's a stupid question, his mama died. He’s getting shoved into a place where he is living with a man he has never met being told he’s his father. But looking at this boy I didn’t need to get a DNA test, he is a mini version of me and when my dad sees him he is going to know right away too. He is a mini Devil.

“I’m fine.” He whispers.

“Do you want some breakfast?”