Unspeakable Truths Read online

Her face changes, for a moment she looks angry but not necessarily surprised.

  “My husband is a good man Morgan. I know that’s hard to believe, especially when he does things like this, but he is also misguided at times. He thinks that he can control those around him and that he’s doing the right thing by them. I don’t know where that comes from.”

  “I understand.”

  “It’s what went wrong with Tyler,” she says catching me off guard. “He was a good boy, don’t get me wrong, but when he wanted something he would move heaven and earth to get it. It was that drive that ended up getting him killed.”

  “Mrs. West.” I’m sure she can hear the astonishment in my voice. I don’t even know why I’ve said her name at all.

  “They all think I don’t know the truth, the real reason my son is dead, the issues he had, the trouble he got in, and my husband’s part in all of that. Not helping him soon enough and then covering the truth up. I may be a quiet woman Morgan, but I am not a stupid woman. In fact I’m very observant, and I can see how much Everly loves Luca, so much that she’d be willing to sacrifice her own happiness for his.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well it’s stupid isn’t it? Why should she have to sacrifice anymore because she got herself involved with this family?” she questions, turning to look out the window. It’s like she can’t look at me, like she’s afraid I may judge her for the actions of her son and husband.

  “She would never regret that, she loved Tyler too.”

  “Tell her I’ll take care of this Morgan. Tell her not to let go of Luca, no harm will come to either of them, I give you my word.” Her attention is still focused on what lies outside the window, but her words are sincere. I believe that she’ll take care of Mr. West.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  She turns back to me and gives me a smile before she shows me to the door. There’s something that I’ve been wondering and before I leave, I turn and ask her.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell your husband that you know the truth?”

  “He lives in a special kind of hell all his own Morgan, a hell of his own creation. Why make that any worse for him? He thinks he’s protecting me so I let him have that. There’s nothing I can do or say that could make him feel any worse about Tyler’s death than he already does. Me blaming him doesn’t bring him back, it doesn’t erase any of the things Tyler did to get himself where he ended up. As a mother it kills me, I’ll never be the same again. I’ll never be okay, but neither will Michael, so I chose not to make that any worse and at the end of the day he was all I had left.”

  “I get that. I really do. Thank you for hearing me out.”

  “Thank you for dropping by Morgan, it was lovely to see you again.”

  I contemplate my next move, even though I’m a hundred percent sure that Stella will take care of our little problem with Michael, I’m not sure going to Everly with this is the best idea. I don’t have complete confidence in the fact that she’ll actually use this information to go back to Luca, she’d be too afraid that he’d turn his back on her even though that’s ridiculous. No. Everly is the wrong person to go to with this, there’s only one logical person in this whole scenario, and it’s time that he hears the whole truth.

  ~Luca~

  I spent the majority of my morning in court, God only knows I didn’t want to be there today, but truth be told I don’t have the desire to be most places lately. I get in my car just as I turn on my phone and begin to check messages. I almost drop the phone when I see a text from Morgan. I haven’t heard from her in a long time and when I do it’s usually related to Everly.

  I have to talk to you, are you free for lunch?

  Gotta love the cryptic fucking messages. Do I really want to hear about anything going on with Everly right now? No. I don’t, but I will anyway because that’s just the kind of sucker I am.

  Just got out of court, free now.

  I type out a quick response and hit the send button. Not surprisingly she responds immediately.

  Meet me at Laura’s café. I’ll b there in 10 mins.

  I start my car and point it in the direction of Laura’s café; I’m only about a fifteen minute drive away myself. The whole ride there I’m wondering what exactly Morgan is going to say to me. What could she possibly tell me that she thinks I need to know? I haven’t heard from Everly since the night she left me. I know that she sold the house, that was easy enough to track, but I drew the line there. I don’t need to get myself in stalker territory. I’d like to believe that even I’m not that desperate. Fuck I miss her though, I’ve cared about her for so long, it’s hard not to at least try to get through to her but this was her choice and I need to respect it.

  I pull into the restaurant parking lot, do a quick scan for Morgan’s car, and spot it a few rows over. I shut off the ignition and angle out of the car, spotting Morgan as soon as I walk in the door. I give her a quick nod, and she waves me over to her booth.

  “Hey,” she greets as I take the seat across from her. The waitress is there almost immediately taking our orders which works for me because I really need to get back to the office soon.

  “What’s up?” I question once the waitress is out of earshot.

  She takes a deep breath, looks me square in the eye, and spits it out. “You need to go get Everly.”

  “Where is she?” I ask, unable to hide the confusion in my voice.

  “No,” she says, drawing out the o longer than necessary. “I mean get her back.”

  This gets an eye roll from me, and to think I actually drove out of my way for this shit. “Oh God Morgan I don’t want to deal with this right now. Everly made her choice. If she wants to speak to me, she knows where to find me.”

  “Luca.” She says my name with an unmistakable tone of sadness and pleading in her voice. “I think she’s scared that you’re going to reject her.”

  This gets my attention, but I play it cool. “Why would she think that?”

  “Because deep down she knows she screwed up.”

  “Damn right, she screwed up, but if she thinks I’m going to come back and fix it for her, she has another thing coming to her. She needs to fix it not me.”

  “I understand why you feel that way but you don’t know the whole story, I think that once you’ve heard it you might feel a little differently.”

  The food arrives just as I’m about to reply to her. What does she expect me to do? What does she really think is going to happen in all this, even if I did go after her, Everly is stubborn as fuck. She may hold on to whatever reason she had for breaking things off with me and not let go, that’s just how she operates. Would I fight for her? Yeah, I’d fight for her, I’d die for this girl, but there comes a point for everyone where you just have no more fight left in you. I don’t want to drag myself through those murky waters again only to come up empty handed. Everly has never been a sure thing, she lets her fear get the better of her sometimes and when she does, she has no problem blowing her life up into smithereens.

  “Alright fine. I’ll bite, tell me what happened,” I ask knowing that it won’t make any difference but hoping that it will all the same.

  “Michael West threatened to ruin your career if you didn’t leave Ev.”

  “How do you know that?” I ask with more than a hint of tension in my voice.

  “How do you think I know that?”

  I fight the urge to walk out of this place, find Michael West, and rip his head off. “He went to her?”

  “No, she was there; she was coming to see you and overheard the conversation.”

  “Fuck.” I wish I’d have known this before she left me. “Okay she overheard but then she knows that I told him to do his worst, I told him I didn’t care Morgan.”

  She nods; she knows it’s true, Morgan knows I would do anything for Everly. “In her mind she was protecting you, she thinks that you’ve already sacrificed so much because of her that if you gave up something that you worked so hard for, you would just end up
resenting her later. She thought that maybe one day down the line you’d wake up one morning and think that you threw your life away for her.”

  “She’s crazy to think that. I love her Morgan, how could I ever regret anything that gives me a life with her.”

  “That’s what I told her.”

  “I mean I get it, I can see why she thinks that what she did was the right thing, the noble thing but even still, that was my choice to make.” I’m pissed at her, I want to say screw it and let it all go but I can’t.

  “She said she felt like a hypocrite for doing it, but there’s more.”

  “What else can there be?”

  “I think she has an underlying fear of losing you because you mean so much to her. She’s afraid that something will happen to you, and she’ll have to deal with the loss of someone else that she loves. I think she thought that by letting you go on her own terms it would lessen the pain.”

  “How’s that working out for her?” I ask sarcastically.

  “Don’t be an ass. She’s miserable all right, she puts on a brave face and does what she needs to do but she’s sad and she misses you. I hear her crying all the time, and it’s painful to witness.”

  I sigh, suddenly feeling like a jerk. “I don’t mean to be a dick Morgan. I really don’t, and if what you’re telling me is true then yes, I’d love to go to her, to tell her to stop being a martyr and just come back to me, but if she feels like Michael’s still a threat, she won’t budge.”

  “Which is why I’ve neutralized him.” She swirls her straw around her glass of soda and smirks at me.

  I chuckle knowing that I’m about to hear an earful. “You what?”

  “I took care of the problem.”

  “How did you do that?”

  “I went to the one person who can actually bend someone like him to her will.”

  “You went to his wife? You do know she has no idea what really happened to Tyler right?”

  “Oh Luca, she knows way more than you think. The woman is smarter than anyone gives her credit for. She knows more about what really went down than you know. She just figured her husband was trying to protect her and going through a hard enough time—she didn’t want to add to that so she let him believe she’s clueless.”

  I lean back in my seat. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “No shit?”

  “No shit, and she all but promised me that she would take care of her husband; that you and Everly can be together without his future interference.”

  I shake my head, “I don’t know what to think. I’m sorry, I know you’re expecting me to run out of here in a mad dash to find her and get her back, but I just don’t know.”

  “You’re gun shy,” she says with a shrug.

  “You blame me?”

  “No but I really think if you make it okay for her to come back, she’s truly ready for you now. She’s come a long way, and you started her on that path; it’s only right that you be there at the end to cheer her on.”

  “You’re a good friend Morgan, to both of us. When I was gone you were my only real connection to this place beside my parents and you never give up on Everly. She needs that, she’s lucky to have you in her corner.”

  “She’s lucky to have you too Luca, she knows she fucked up. I really believe that from the beginning, from the moment you two met in that bookstore, you were destined to be together. You just had to get through all the bullshit first, this is your chance, don’t waste it.”

  I walk out of the restaurant feeling more unsure than ever. I want Everly—I know that as clearly as I know my own name—but the roller coaster of emotions is something that I can really do without. The interference from outside parties trying to split us up or dictate our relationship is something that I don’t want to deal with anymore. A part of me wants to kill her for doing this to us, for going behind my back and making decisions for us without consulting me. But the other part of me… the other part of me wants to kiss her senseless and fuck the shit out of her for loving me enough to let me go even though it was the dumbest idea ever. Where do I go from here? I’m standing at a crossroads, and I don’t know which way to go. No… That’s a lie, I know which way I want to go, I just can’t propel myself forward to move there.

  ~Everly~

  “Hey honey, I’m hanging the last picture up in the living room and then I’m out of here.”

  My dad dropped by earlier this morning to help me with some of my unpacking, heavy lifting, hanging of frames and such. We’ve always been close but the last four years have really taken a toll on our relationship. I shut him out and he struggled to break through as any father would but I was unresponsive. Now it feels like we finally have a shot to get back some of what’s been lost between us. It’s why I invited him over. Well… that and I need all the help I can get right now. I hate everything involved in moving.

  “Thanks Dad,” I say going in for a quick hug and a kiss. “I’m going to keep putting things away, just lock the door behind you when you go.”

  “Sure thing,” he replies, going back to his level, trying to make sure the painting he’s hanging above the couch is just right.

  I’ve been holed up in my room unpacking my mile high pile of clothes and putting them away in the closet and drawers, for the past hour. I’m about ready to give up and take a nap when I hear the front door open and close. I thought my dad left at least forty-five minutes ago.

  “Dad, are you still here?” I call out to no reply. “You should probably get going, Mom was expecting you home half hour ago.”

  I feel his presence before I can hear or see him. I stand frozen in my spot, my heart racing as I wonder if it’s just my mind playing tricks on me. A rush of warm air hits the back of my neck, his hands come to rest on my waist and my breath hitches. I know those hands, I’d know them anywhere, and I love the way they used to feel all over my body.

  “Luca,” I whisper, because I’m afraid if I speak any louder he’ll disappear like a mirage leaving me cold and alone again.

  “Shut up,” he growls in my ear, gripping my hips tighter and pulling me back into his chest hard. “Do not speak, you are done talking, do you understand me.”

  I know I should be pissed at him for speaking to me like this, but instead my nipples perk up and a pool of heat rushes between my legs—I’m pretty sure I’m soaked. Shit, I want him now more than ever, want him to take me, make me his, do whatever he wants to me I don’t care. All the fight has left me and all that’s left is the overwhelming need to surrender to him.

  “Answer me Everly,” he demands, wrapping one of his hands around my neck.

  “Yes,” I reply on a breath, loving every second of this, loving how he controls my body and bends me to his will. I’ve missed this.

  He begins to walk forward, pushing me with his body until my knees hit the mattress. I say nothing because really there are no words, I’m a little bit stunned that he’s here and a lot turned on. I can’t stop the gasp that escapes my mouth when he practically rips the blue sundress I was wearing right up over my head. He roughly pulls the cups of my bra down, causing my breasts to spill over the top. He’s been rough with me before—wild, crazy—but this is new. The mixture of heat and anger radiating off of him is both scary and exciting.

  His hands slide over my body, stopping to cup my breasts. My head falls back, coming to rest on his shoulder as he begins to knead, pull, and toy with them. My knees turn to Jell-O, forcing me to rest my hands on his hips while he continues his exploration. His lips find the curve of my neckline, sucking and tugging the skin there, placing warm kisses on me until his lips graze my ear.

  “Do you like when people play games with you Everly, do you like when they make decisions for you and lie to you?”

  Shit, he knows. I jerk my head up, trying to break the connection. I have no idea how, but he does and he’s pissed. I have no chance to reply because he grabs my hair, pulling my head back again hard enough to make me stop but not enough to cause any real
pain.

  “You don’t get to run away, in fact you don’t get to do anything else. We’re going to play this shit my way, now you do what I say. Do you get that? Nod for me if you get that,” he commands, sending another rush of wetness between my legs.

  I do my best to nod with his hand still gripping my hair.

  “Good, I’m going to fuck the shit out of you. I’m not going to be gentle, I’m not going to slow, and if you’re lucky I’ll let you come. Then and only then will we talk about what happens next. Say okay Luca.”

  “Okay Luca,” I say because I want that, all of it. I want him to fuck the life out of me, make me forget how stupid I’ve been, make me feel alive in the way I’ve only ever felt with him. And to think that I let that go. I only hope this isn’t just an anger fuck for him, I hope he’ll still wants me when it’s over. He releases my hair, hooks his thumbs into my panties, and slides them down my legs. I step out of them obediently and wait.

  “Get on the bed and kneel, hands behind your back.” His voice sends a shiver through me, the sound alone nearly sends me over the edge. I put one leg on the mattress, then the other until I’m kneeling on the bed just as he ordered. He grabs my wrists and ties them up using the panties he’s just taken off of me as makeshift restraints. Oh my God this is intense, the anticipation is too much, and I’m actually worried I might self-combust.

  “Spread your legs nice and wide for me baby, and bend down, head on the bed, show me your pretty pussy.” What kind of sick person am I that I get off on him talking to me like this in bed? What’s worse is that I never even hesitate to do what he says because I know that he’s about to make me feel so good. I spread open for him as far as I can without toppling over then slowly bend my torso until my head rests on the soft mattress. I close my eyes, let my mind go, and wait for whatever comes next. I haven’t even seen his face yet and he still manages to get me this worked up, the anticipation is torture. I hear the distinct sound of a zipper sliding down, then the swoosh of clothes dropping to the hardwood floor.

  I cry out as a flash of pain hits me when his hand comes down on my ass hard. I breathe through it keeping my eyes closed, that part of me that feeds off of this with him wanting more.