AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As much as the thought of them meeting to have a chat fills him with dread, having the three women in his life getting on can’t be a bad thing. The fact his mum wants to socialise with Chloe is a big deal.
‘That sounds like something I should be worried about.’
She smirks at him which does nothing to put him at ease.
He runs his hand up her arm as he tries to get the next bit out without fumbling. ‘I’m going to sit down with everyone tomorrow. I need to be honest about... everything I guess.’
Chloe pushes back to look up at him. ‘You are? Are you sure you’re ready?’
‘Probably not but putting it off isn’t going to help. The press are going to be all over this. Without meaning to sound like a prize dick – you can’t kidnap someone like me without someone hearing about it. Even if it’s somehow downplayed to... I don’t know, a family squabble or something like that, it’s still going to come back on all of us. Then there’s the whole possession charge to deal with. It’s only fair everyone close to me knows what really happened.
‘Mum, Dad, and Bria are coming over first thing. I need to get things straight in my head. About Dara and the paperwork he sent me. Can you be there too?’
Chloe squeezes his hand. ‘Of course. Whatever you need.’
‘Thanks.’ He kisses her on the forehead and pulls her against him again. ‘Go back to sleep.’
Tate stares at the ceiling as Chloe snuggles in beside him and falls back asleep. More fun and games tomorrow, but it’s the right thing to do. The problem is he’d prefer to go another few rounds with Dara than talk to any of them about his past.
∞
Tate waits until everyone is sitting down before he joins them in the living room. He’d prefer to do pretty much anything than what he’s got planned but it has to happen. After everything he’s put them through the least he can do is tell them the truth face to face.
He sits on the armchair next to the fireplace and leans forward, resting his arms on his legs. He turns the ring on his thumb as he gets his thoughts in order.
The last hour had been spent with his family and Chloe talking about what he was going to say but his thoughts are still all over the place. After a few minutes he finally convinces himself to look up.
Chloe, Gregg, Dillon, and Luke are on the couch and the other armchair facing him. It’s unusual for them to be so quiet. It’s probably the longest Gregg has gone without making a smart comment.
Fuck it. Better get this over with before he changes his mind. ‘My biological father used to hit me and my mother. Scrap that. He used to beat the shit out of us. I don’t remember a lot of it thank fuck. What I do remember is pushing him too far one day. I don’t know what I did, but I know I did something I shouldn’t have. I tried to apologise, but he wasn’t having any of it. My mother got in between the two of us, but he just turned on her instead.
‘When I came to, she was beside me on the floor.’ He frowns and twists the ring on his thumb again. ‘I tried to get her to wake up, but she wouldn’t. He’d killed her.
He keeps his eyes on his hands and ploughs on, ignoring the quiet curse from one of the guys. If he stops talking, he doubts he’ll be able to convince himself to keep going.
‘That’s all I remember about either of them. Mum and Dad were able to find out other bits for me from my assessments and Gregg’s mates were able to help out with some other information. Apparently, my father is serving life for murdering her. He was caught a few days after he killed her. Some neighbours called the Garda when he ran out of the house covered in blood and I was taken to hospital. I had a few broken bones and a concussion.’
He glances over at Gregg and his friend flashes him a small smile. ‘From what the doctors could tell I had a fair few old injuries. They also reported that he...’ he falters again. He just can’t get himself to say it. ‘He hadn’t just stuck to hitting me. They think he might have... I don’t remember if he did do that...’
‘It’s okay, buddy,’ Luke says. Tate looks up at him, a little surprised at the anger on his friend’s face. Better than pity. Luke shakes his head. ‘You don’t have to say it.’
Tate nods and goes back to concentrating on his ring. ‘I went into foster care when I was better. According to the assessments we could find, I didn’t say a lot for a few weeks. When I did start talking again, I didn’t say anything about what happened. Never did. A year later I was adopted and that was the end of it. I didn’t remember anything, so it wasn’t brought up again.
‘Then last year Dara’s dad bought my grandparent’s old place. Mum had stored some stuff there when they were renovating the farm a few years back. She must have forgotten to get all the boxes back. Dara found one of them and unfortunately for me, it had all my adoption paperwork in it, including some of the assessments.
He’s a damn good lawyer. It didn’t take him long to do a bit of digging and join the dots. When I got that first photo from him it triggered my memories, I guess. I got bad nightmares and couldn’t deal with them. I drank and then I called Eddie and... well, you know the rest.
‘I don’t know if more memories are going to come back to me or if this is it. I’m hoping this is the end of it, but after everything that’s happened who the fuck knows. I’m going to talk to Ellen in a bit and fill her in too. There’s no way to keep this under wraps as much as I’d like to. Dara is being charged with kidnapping among other things.
‘Kidnapping me will keep him in the headlines for a bit. Me too unfortunately. Unless Ellen can work some impressive magic, it’s only a matter of time before what my father did comes out. Bar my family, the four of you are the most important people in my life. I wanted you to know before the shit hits the fan.’
He smiles awkwardly to himself, still unable to look away from his ring which he’s still twisting around his thumb.
Dillon crouches down in front of him, pulling him out of his thoughts. ‘I think we should take the bikes out for a spin.’
Tate wishes he could put into words how fucking grateful he is. He needed to tell them what happened, but that didn’t mean he wanted to have a discussion about it afterwards. If they had looked at him differently it would have killed him. ‘Sounds great.’
Dillon gets up and goes into the spare room. He wheels Tate’s bike out as Luke grabs their helmets off the counter. ‘Get your gear and meet us outside when you’re ready.’
