Chapter Seven

 

Ella

I don’t know what’s going on, but everyone is looking at me. I know that they are all trying to be subtle about it. but they really aren’t doing a very good job.

The way everyone stared at me when I walked in, and when the President of this club looked like he was going to be sick seeing me, I was sure that there was something wrong with me. I recognized him from the picture, but I never knew who he was. I always thought it was mom’s old boyfriend. I had hoped it was a picture of my dad which was why I carried it around. I had a feeling all of that stuff meant something to her, so I never got rid of it and always carried it with me.

It’s not until I am almost halfway through my plate when he comes back outside. He looks so pissed that I immediately stiffen. It’s not until he makes eye contact with me that his eyes go soft. What is that about?

He grabs a plate and sits down at the table with me. I notice a lot of the brothers come and sit close to me. I look at Damien, and he just nods his head at me. I have a feeling that there’s something going on that they aren’t tell me.

“Ella, tell me what happened when your mom died. Where did you end up?” he asks looking at me curiously.

“Well, I ended up in a group home, and then to a couple foster homes until I aged out. I met my husband in a foster home, and when we were both eighteen, we found a place and moved in together.” He is looking at me in a certain way that makes me feel like there’s something specific that he wants to know, but he’s not going to directly ask me. He nods his head.

“You didn’t have any other family?”  I shake my head and start picking at my food looking down. There are too many eyes on me, and if I look at anyone I will become nervous. They all seem to want to know about me. Is this normal?

“No, it was just me and my mom growing up. We never really left the house, so we didn’t have many friends.”

“Wh-what about your father?” he asks clearing his throat. I look up at him, and he is looking at me with sadness in his eyes. That can’t be right, is that for me? If he knew her then maybe he knew my father. A tiny sliver of hope comes to me.

“Well, I never knew him. My mom told me that when he found out she was pregnant that he told her to get an abortion because he already had a son, so she left,” I tell him, and I hear a few gasps. I look around and notice most of the men look pissed, and the woman look shocked and horrified.

I look at the president, and he looks murderous. I can tell with the tension in his shoulders and arms that he is clenching his fists. I look at Damien, and he actually looks pretty pissed as well.

“What?” I ask when no one speaks.

I can’t look at everyone at once, but I see a bunch of head nods.

“Ella,” the president say softly. Everyone else is silent.

I look up at him. He has a pained expression on his face indicating that I’m probably not going to like what he is about to say.

“I’m Derek Knight. That is me in the picture, that is my key chain, and the letter is from your mom. It says you’re my daughter.”

I feel tears well up in my eyes, and put a hand over my mouth.  I realize that I am shaking my head.

“B-but…” My lips are trembling. I can barely talk.

“I’m so sorry. I never said that to your mom. I still search for you every day. Your mom took off while I was gone- the day after she heard I was having a boy with Lily, my old lady. I was seeing your mom before I met Lily, so they both ended up being pregnant close together. I never even knew what she was having because she said she wanted it to be a surprise.” I know I’m shaking when he hands me the letter. It’s already crumpled, so I know that he was mad after he read it.

I read the letter and I can feel the anger bubble up inside of me. How could she? She not only took something from him, but from me too. Growing up, I had always asked her where my daddy was because other kids had daddies. I mean, the main reason I gave Damien a chance was because everyone deserves a chance if they want one. I had went on thinking that my dad didn’t want one, but this whole time he did.

I don’t even know how to process everything. I’m angry at my mom for taking something from me that I wanted. He wanted it too. He wanted me. He didn’t want her to get rid of me. When that thought comes to mind, I burst into tears. Immediately he comes over, sits beside me, and puts an arm around my shoulders. He starts whispering in my ear.

“I’m so fucking happy that I finally have my baby girl back. We are going to make up for lost time, don’t you worry. I can’t believe that I’m going to be a grandfather. You were meant to have this mix up at the clinic, you hear me. It brought you to Damien, and it brought you back to me.”  All I can do is nod my head into his chest. I can’t stop crying. I feel relief that I wasn’t unwanted after all. Now I know that my baby will have a family. There is no way that the baby will feel the loneliness that I have always felt because all these people seem to genuinely care.

“How could she do this to me?” I sob harder. I have been alone for so long, with no family to speak of, and my father wanted me this whole time.

“I don’t know, baby girl. I wish we could get the answers we were looking for, but you are here now, and I want to get to know my baby girl. Can you tell me about yourself? Some of the brothers here have been members as long as I have, and have been searching for you too. Give us a chance to get to know you, okay?” he whispers in my ear. I nod my head. I take a couple minutes to collect myself before I am able to look at anyone in the eye. I think they know this since they are making conversation between themselves.

I turn to Damien who looks worried about me. “Are you okay?” He puts his hand on my back, and rubs up and down. I take in the comfort he is giving me.

I nod my head and wipe my eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, I just I never expected this to happen today. I came here worried that your brothers wouldn’t like me. Instead, I end up finding the family I never knew I had.”

He gives me a small smile, and grips my fingers in his large ones giving them a squeeze. I give him a small smile in return.

The two guys from earlier come up to me looking me up and down. “So, this is our sister,” the one on the right remarks.

“It’s about fucking time we met,” the other one says.

“I’m Torch, the oldest. You and I are only a couple months apart. This is Steal, he’s the baby.” The guy on the right points to himself, and then to the man beside him. Brothers. I can’t believe I have brothers. This is a lot to take in.

“And I’m Lily. You are a beautiful young woman. I wish I could have gotten to know you all these years.” She comes up between Derek and I, and Derek automatically puts an arm around her waist. I notice that their eyes are filled with unshed tears.

“Well it’s nice to meet everyone,” I tell them, and a couple of tears end up dropping down my cheeks. I give them a wobbly smile.

“I hate to ask this, but what happened to your husband?” Derek asks.

I feel my lip tremble, and I bite it to stop. I can already see the sympathy in their faces, so I know that Damien must have told his President that there wasn’t a husband in the picture.

“Well the day we left the clinic after we had just found out I was pregnant…” I pause and clear my throat. My voice is already shaky, and I can’t stop the tears falling down my face.

“We were happy that I was finally pregnant, and we weren’t looking where we were walking. The second he stepped on the street, a truck had come out of nowhere and hit him. He died instantly,” I tell them. I know that I’m practically sobbing now. Derek, my dad, wraps me up in his arms as I cry for the second time today.  I never thought I would have this. Taking comfort from someone who’s my family and I instantly feel a connection with. I feel a hand on my back rubbing. I already know that it’s Damien’s.

I don’t know how long I sit like that, but I start falling asleep. The emotions from this day have finally caught up to me and I feel completely drained. I feel like I could sleep for days.

It is only when my dad stands up that I notice I’ve fallen asleep. He picks me up and carries me down one of the hallways. I can barely open my eyes to see where I am going. I am put on a bed, and a blanket is placed over me. Then, there is a kiss on my forehead and a voice telling me that I’m not alone anymore. I fall asleep instantly. I haven’t fallen asleep feeling this safe in a long time.

Damien

Seeing the woman carrying your baby break down is something else. I can’t describe the ache I felt in my chest when everything she knew about her father came crashing down. I was so fucking angry with Bianca for doing that shit. These two people wanted to be in each other’s lives. It’s clear that she has asked about him, or why else would she think that Prez wanted her mom to get an abortion.

When she told all of us what Bianca had said, I could feel anger coming off of everyone in the club. I knew without looking that most of the brothers were clenching their fists trying hard not to yell in front of Ella.

When I was waiting for her in front of the club, I was worried that she wasn’t going to like my life and try to keep my baby from me, but it turns out that she’s Vicious Snakes through and through. Being the president of the club’s daughter means she was born into it as a princess. That automatically puts her under our protection, even if she already had it because she was carrying the VP’s baby. Now she’s going to be a part of the club life because I know that there is no fucking way that Prez will let her go.

The situation I am already in with Ella was messed up to begin with. I don’t fucking know her at all, but to find out she is the daughter that Prez has been searching for all along just messes it up even more.

She grew up in fucking foster care when she could have had this whole fucking family at her back. Her mom knew that, and knew where the Vicious Snakes were; yet even when she knew she was dying, she couldn’t bring herself to fucking get in contact with us so that we could take her. That just sends rage through me.

Prez had laid her in his bed so that she could rest. I’ve never seen someone genuinely break down before. I mean you have women who break down in fake hysterics to get your attention, but only prove instead that they’re fucking crazy. Then, there are the women who swear they never fucking cry and they break down the moment the door shuts. They never stop and think that the door isn’t sound proof.

The way Ella lost it fucking gutted me and my brothers. This woman, fuck. She’s fucking strong. She sat there clueless while Prez read the letter, but she looked around curiously. Not once did she turn her face up in disgust. I knew then that she was going to give this a shot- give me a shot, and not judge me for my club. Then her world fucking changed.

I couldn’t help but admire her. She lost her mom, the only person she knew as her fucking family, and then went into foster care. She is just now going through the loss of her husband which sounds fucking painful. By the way she broke down talking about him, I could tell that she really loved him. Fuck, being in the club, I see the killing and torturing of those that deserve it, but to watch the one you love, the only family you have, die? Fuck, I couldn’t imagine the pain of that. To top it all off, she ended up with me, and then met her father she thought never wanted her. She needed to fucking break down. I ignored the part of me that wished she broke down in my arms instead of Prez’s.

We walk back outside. Everyone else is silently waiting for us. I know that everyone needs to get it all out there.

“Fuck, what are the fucking chances?” Torch asks as we sit down in the same spot that we were at before.

“Fuck, I don’t know. I’m so fucking pissed, but also so fucking happy that I have my questions answered, and I have my daughter here in my club where she has always belonged,” Prez says while Lily leans against him. He puts an arm around her shoulder, and kisses her on the head.

“If Bianca wasn’t fucking dead already, I would fucking kill her myself. I can’t believe she fucking said that shit so that Ella wouldn’t look for you. You know that’s why she did it,” Bear says. Everyone nods in agreement.

“Fuck, you’re right. I know that’s why she did it. She knew that if Ella thought that her father never wanted her then why would she come looking for me,” Prez says with a pained expression.

“It’s alright now, brother. We have her here. What are the odds that the woman carrying Damien’s baby is your daughter,” Bear says and then laughs.

“Shit’s weird, but I’m more than fucking happy to add her into our club. You’ve been president of this club a long fucking time. That makes her our club princess. I’m just fucking glad we found her before someone found out she had ties to you or this club. She may not have been raised here, but she was born into it. It wasn’t her choice to not be a part of the club. Sure, she looks sweet and innocent, and probably shouldn’t be around us bikers, but we will all protect her with our lives. We were going to protect her anyway knowing that she was carrying VP’s baby, but now she’s extra special, you get me? She not only means something to Prez and VP, but now she means something to the club. Shit, she is carrying the next generation of Vicious Snakes’ prince or princess. We all know we have a lot of enemies that would love to fuck with us, so we need to stay on watch now that we have something precious to us here,” Blade says to everyone with the most serious expression I have ever seen.

 Blade is the oldest member of the club. He says that he would never retire or leave because once a snake always a snake. He is the most loyal brother anyone could ever fucking have. I know he has taken many bullets for brothers and would keep doing so no matter how old he is.

I look around at everyone and see them nod their heads in agreement. “You know, Damien, if you fucking hurt her, we are going to have to kick your ass,” Torch says loudly, and everyone chuckles. I nod my head because I know how important she is now even if she doesn’t. This is about to get interesting.