Epilogue
~One month later~
Fifteen miles away from my apartment, I stopped in the street at the beginning of a long curvy driveway running up to an upscale red-bricked home in a gated community that seemed too uppity for my taste, just like all the other houses that Chance’s realtor had suggested to me. This was the umpteenth time I entered an atmosphere so stiff the neighbors would probably turn up their nose if I walked to the mailbox hand in hand with Chance. Since he was out of town for the next two days, and it was my day off, I drove myself to this house showing with Majestic for company, and I wasn’t feeling the love here either.
House hunting was started to get tiring, boring, and I was about to pick something just to be done with it, completely sure Chance would approve of this house when he got back from Utah this time. Orion Townsend was just as demanding as Chance, and requesting almost daily meetings about architecture designs for his new cellular companies that he liked one day, then didn’t like something about them the next. I was over that too. The flying back and forth was wearing Chance out, so he decided this morning that he’d come home tomorrow after he either finalized the plans with Orion or referred him to another company. I had three years of missing sleeping next to Chance to make up for, and Orion was getting in the damn way.
My pissiness and already missing my man might be why I can’t pick a house.
“Majestic, what do you think of this house? Is it too big?”
A pretty big question to ask your two-year old, Mahogany. Who else was I going to ask?
I glimpsed back at Majestic kicking her feet while munching apple slices out of a Ziploc bag in the back of the BMW that Chance purchased from the rental company because it was relatively new and I couldn’t decide on what kind of car I wanted.
“Don’t know, Mommy. What’s ‘too big’ mean?”
“You can’t wrap your arms around it, baby.”
“Yep, that house is too big.” Doesn’t mean she didn’t like it.
“It’s a status symbol definitely though.”
“Definitely though, Mommy.”
I turned in my seat to glance back at her. “You know what a status symbol is?”
“No.”
Laughter shot out my nose. “I didn’t think so, but daddy can entertain business associates in comfort here and not bump his head on anything.”
“Don’t want daddy bumping his head. It hurts.”
Majestic shook her head in a serious manner that reminded me of her father who grew sillier by the day, especially when his father was around. And he tinkered around the apartment, fixing things whenever he was there. Our love and Majestic were lightening Chance up and I couldn’t be mad about that. He deserved to have a real home to come to when he wasn’t working though.
“Right, so we’ll go inside and meet the realtor then. I think this is the house. If I view another, I’ll probably shoot somebody.”
“Shoot somebody,” she repeated loudly just as a car with its windows rolled down rode by us slowly.
Nosy neighbor number one was an older white lady who frowned at us then hit the gas.
“Changed my mind, Majestic. This is definitely not where I want to stay. One more house, and then we’re either moving in it or staying put in our apartment and Chance can just stoop down until we luck up on something.”
I drove off. My cell phone’s ringtone cut through the air already filled with Majestic’s crunching on the fruit. Chance’s name displayed on the car’s radio screen. I touched the green icon on it and answered, “Hey, baby.”
“Hey, baby yourself. Where are you?”
“Getting the hell out of the third snobby community that your realtor keeps finding. Can she find something with less houses and more land so if I want to walk to the mailbox hand in hand with you, I don’t have to worry about who we’re making frown up?”
“Curse, Mommy,” Majestic chastised, now an official member of the swear police thanks to Chance, who convinced her that her job was to catch the bad words and remind us we weren’t supposed to say them around her. She has been doing a damn good job so far.
His snickers reverberated through the car’s sound system. “Well, you’re in luck. The realtor just called me with another listing. Park and put this address into the GPS then go check it out and let me know what you think.”
“For you, I’ll do it even though house hunting is not fun anymore.”
I quickly did as he asked then got back on the road. He hung up after we exchanged ‘Love ya, babe’ and Majestic had added hers. Another nine minutes took us into the outskirts of Arrow, to a one-level, sprawling ranch-style home that set a good walking distance back from the street. It was for sale with several acres cleared in the front and on the sides. Thick woods a quarter mile back from the house sat beneath the Sangre de Cristo mountain tops serving as a backdrop. The place was beautiful. Breathtaking. Felt like home immediately, and the long driveway was filled with cars of competitors vying for the same property.
“Shit!” I hissed. “Soon as I find what I like, so does every damn body else.”
“Curse,” Majestic chirped.
“Sorry, baby girl, but I like this house and there’s so many people here, there’s no way we can beat out everyone’s bid.”
“Out, Mommy.”
I assumed she liked the property too.
“Coming, baby.”
I mounted the three steps connected to the wooden porch with Majestic on my hip. The front door opened as if it had a motion sensor, but no one stepped out to greet me. It was so quiet inside I could hear a pin drop, which was odd considering all the parked vehicles. Since what I could see of the living area was well-lit, I cautiously strolled into a large room with chairs and tables that looked a lot like the ones I bust at work, plus a long table with Tommy’s company’s logo hanging over the side on a tablecloth that he whips out for catering events. It was pressed against the far wall, lined with party supplies, punch bowls, a three-tier cake, and warming pans piled high with food. In the corner of my eye stood the crowd I was looking for. Most had drinks in hand behind a man on bended knee.
The second I turned to them dressed casually in tee and jeans like me, they all screamed ‘Surprise!’ startling and stopping me dead in my tracks. The faces of Kat, Tommy, Amari, Astrid, Lenox, Cena and everyone else I knew because of Tommy and Chance became familiar quickly. When I recognized Chance, he held my gaze because he was the one on bended knee with an opened ring box in his hands.
“You should probably come closer, baby,” he recommended. “It’s just not the ‘it’ thing to do to propose from a mile away.”
“Yes!” I squealed, over-freaking-joyed that everything in my life was coming together simply by joining mine with his.
It was a damn good thing that Dania had squashed her beef with me and we were starting to make regular and pleasant visits to each other’s home because her son was about to officially be mine forever. Nor was I ever letting him go.
Applause exploded in the room.
Chance glanced around. “Wait a minute, people. I didn’t get to say everything I wanted to her.”
I ran to him who had to stand quickly to catch me, then placed the ring on my finger. Everyone that didn’t have a drink kept clapping. The rest sipped from their plastic cups with grins. Whether they were happy to be drinking or because I said yes, who knew?
“Sweetheart, nobody let me tell you about the house.” He was absolutely annoyed and too adorable.
Tommy patted him on the back. “Friend, most of these people are tipsy from drinking while setting up for this occasion. The only words they wanted to hear was yes and where did the bartender go to.” He looked over his shoulder. “Where did my bartender go to? Nevaeh! Jesus Christ, good help is hard to find, literally. Congrats, guys. I gotta go find the damn help… again!”
Tommy vanished, but I couldn’t stop staring at the man who had given me all I needed a month ago: him.
“I have you, Chance, so I don’t need a tour of the house.”
“I do,” he griped, “I worked hard to find something I knew you’d love. It’s spacious but not too big. The street doesn’t get congested with traffic. The houses are hundreds of acres apart. You hated the penthouse, so I searched for something completely different, but they ruined my whole plan and speech by clapping too soon. I had a tour of the house planned and everything.”
“You mean this house is ours when I’ve been on duck runs around the city, looking at houses I hated while you’d bought what we both wanted all along?”
“Yep. Couldn’t let you find it first and it needed some remodeling. Took a month. A lot of the supposed Orion meetings was me supervising the construction crew and sometimes putting in work to get it done on time. The deal has been done with Orion for weeks and he’s here too, going to be here for a while. The first building is already being constructed in Arrow and somebody has already tried to burn it down and he’s declared himself security until it’s completely built.”
“No wonder you’ve been so tired, and are you telling me that was Orion’s building that I heard about on the news three weeks ago?” There wasn’t much information given about the incident except the police already had a suspect who’d been carted off to jail for the crime in the same week.
“Yep, but no shop-talk because I have another surprise for you. We’ll be sleeping right here tonight. The bedrooms are completely furnished and the pieces that go in the rest of the rooms are waiting for you to pick them out tomorrow at whatever store you choose.”
This man and his surprises. I chose him, grinned so hard my damn jaws ached, but who cared? “You did good, baby.”
“I knew I had the minute you spilled coffee on me,” he gloated openly.
“You’re bragging, but you probably should’ve ran away back then.”
“Why, when I’d found what I was looking for? Nothing worth having is easy to get or get to, so what’s a minor burn when it led to this?”
“I guess I can’t complain since I didn’t suffer the minor burn, can I?”
He grinned deviously. “Not all stories have to have a beautiful beginning and middle to have a beautiful ending. The best stories usually don’t. It’s the trials and tribulations in between that make it special, and I have a confession. The suit was water resistant with an inside lining that has the same quality… and your coffee was lukewarm. But who cares? I have you now, Mahogany.”
Oh, the secrets just kept coming to the light. “So I didn’t burn you?”
He hugged me tightly into his side. “No, I just wanted a date so I lied. I told you I’d do anything to date you, and that was true from the start.”
Thank God.
“Well, you don’t have to do a thing to marry me but meet me at the end of the aisle.”
“And meet me,” Majestic joined in, not about to be left out of anything.
Chance took her from me. “Meeting you is how my world became what it was supposed to be, so I’ll meet you on the moon if you want, Majestic.” I seriously thought he’d try to get them both there if that was what she wanted.
“Let’s kiss now!” she yelled out suddenly.
As I said, Majestic refused to be left out of anything, so kissing together happened often and meant Chance and I locked lips while Majestic kissed both our cheeks, her favorite thing to do… besides eat chocolate. We even did that together now too, but not often.
The End of Mahogany and Chance’s Story brings the beginning of Nevaeh and Orion’s story.
Mahogany’s love for her daughter forced her to face her past, but Nevaeh Lomax’s past collides with her present when a carefully-laid plan to get someone out of her life for good is unraveled by Orion Townsend.
Snippet from Undone by Deceit 2
Mahogany’s Surprise Engagement Party
~Nevaeh Lomax~
Mahogany Jefferson deserved this beautiful place and so much more after all she had been through in the last few years. Today, life had finally decided that she and her adorable daughter Majestic should have the best and that it was time for me to get what was coming to me who had frozen in place, mind whirling at a thousand miles per hour. My head jerked in the guy’s direction before I thought better of it. Probably should’ve dove forehead-first for the ground and covered my face instead, but his voice was like a magnet. Impossible not to turn toward it.
Holy hell, it was him. As my luck would have it, Mahogany’s fiancé was in business with the poor fool that I nearly killed after he got caught in my web spun to get another fool out of my life. I would recognize the first fool’s voice in the midst of a riot after hearing him speak only twice. Didn’t think he’d find me so quickly at the party full of guests. Not after the women had flocked to him and I had ducked out of the room after spotting him in the crowd that was invited here for Mahogany’s surprise engagement party I should be serving drinks at. I wasn’t and provoking my teddy bear but bear all the same of a boss. Tommy Owens was totally looking for me. Going to curse me out for going AWOL when he found me too, but shitty luck always brought the wolves to my door first. I had no doubts that the man who just noticed me won’t be hesitating to rip into me with his pearly-white teeth.
After clearing my throat on the newly constructed back deck of Mahogany and Chance’s new home apart of the surprise for her, I came face to face with the business owner whose insurance rates were probably sky-high because of me. I won’t be bomb rushing him again however. Apparently, I don’t know my own strength and he might not survive it a second time, but there was nowhere to hide from him again either.
“No, you don’t know me.” Self-preservation demanded I lie to save my ass.
With a bit of luck, denying what he knew was true would be enough to make him go away. In any other circumstances, I’d want him to stay a little while longer. Long enough to get my rocks off but that was it, that was all. Had no interest in tying myself to another man long-term after Jason, who taken my virginity, then ruined the rest of me emotionally. I was completely distrustful of the opposite sex now but not dead, so my hormones still worked properly, and this man was beyond gorgeous.
What races had to mix to produce that extraordinary shade of his pupils and the cool blush tone of his skin. European? Caucasian? Egyptian? African-American maybe? Only thing I was positive of was that he was probably tasty when licked, absolutely beautiful even with his compressed lips and in his eyes snapping in my direction. Should be more terrified of what fate had in store for me now that he had practically busted me, but I wasn’t. Just a sliver of fear snaked through me. Once you had gotten over fearing for you own life, there wasn’t much else to stress about, not even doing a bid upstate for a crime you committed.
He stepped closer for a better look. His expression morphed from puzzled to furious, looking even more attractive while angry, if that were even possible. I could tell he was unconditionally convinced that he recognized me now, and nothing would change his mind about it. His looming nearness, exceptional height, and flawless good looks combined with the tiny bit of anxiety I had from being caught finally was a powerful mixture. It sucked the air right out of my lungs, and I wasn’t a hardened criminal yet, so I still had the ability to dread the unknown.
And you can still spot a fine ass man when you see one. Not the time for browsing for beefcake, but my conscience was determined to speak on behalf of my vagina regardless of the predicament I was in.
His brow furrowed until his eyebrows threatened to form a unibrow. “Yes, I do know you. You’re the woman that almost killed me while my building burned down, but a disgruntled ex-employee went to jail for it because his fingerprints were found on the gas can left at the scene. Jason Leer swears he wasn’t there that night. Thanks to the concussion you gave me, I can’t be sure if he was or wasn’t, but I was there and so were you.”
Oh, Jason was much more than just disgruntled, owner the gas can for sure that I had stolen from his car. At least I had sense enough to not layer his fingerprints on the tin with mine. He was in jail for the wrong crime only because it was much harder to send someone to prison for their real wrongdoings when you were scared half out of your mind of them and what they’d do if you called the cops on them. By the time I had gotten over my fear of being punched, kicked, and struck like a hooker who hadn’t turned in enough money to her pimp, it was me that was about to do time in a penitentiary for planting a blade in his neck for a punch I hadn’t deserved. The night that happened was the only time I was glad to have fresh and old signs of abuse sitting plainly on my body, and didn’t care what Jason was doing time for as long as he was out of my life, which I had committed to making happen by any means necessary. For my methods, the man before me, his noggin, and his building had almost paid the higher price. I regretted that more than I could believe was possible.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr.” Townsend.
Orion Townsend, cellular company mogul who I knew all about now. Couldn’t help googling him after our literal run-in that started my recurring nightmares, which won’t let me rest most nights and had me guzzling anything with caffeine to stay awake most days when I was questioning others about him. Finally, I struck gold when I mentioned him to Katara Johnson, who had no clue of the guilt that constantly ate at me for what I had done to her best friend and his property. Now, I was further ahead than I had ever been in my school work and knew more useless facts from surfing the internet than one brain should be able to hold. Facts like Orion had lived in Arrow before he bought a failing cellular phone company in London ten years ago, right after he graduated from the college I was currently attending. The fact that his near-death experience affected me more than Jason’s pending demise ever would came from my own sense of right and wrong, which didn’t mind working overtime on me on Orion’s part. Stupid conscience didn’t know what ‘all about me’ stood for I guessed.
Orion spread his legs apart and crossed his arms over his wide chest, as if barring me from leaving another scene. “Oh, you don’t know what I’m talking about, huh? Maybe the sheriff can fill you in. She’s right in the other room and intimate with my case because I call her every damn day to see if she’s found you yet. You stay right there, and even if you don’t, there’s enough people here for her to question until she finds out your name and arrests you later. Somebody in here will admit to knowing who you are, so it’ll do you no good to run.”
Everybody here knew who I was. All he had to do was describe me as the tallest woman in the room with weird eyes to Astrid, the sheriff. She’d know who he was referring to instantly. If he was telling the truth, and Orion didn’t seem like a liar either, he had already gave her my description. So why had my feet been able to come and go as I pleased for a month if she already knew who was to blame for Orion getting hurt?
Dumb question, Nevaeh. She and I were good friends through my job as bartender at her uncle by heart’s restaurant, Tommy’s Cuisine. Five ten in bare feet with a-little-too-curvy hips for my liking on a thin frame and gray eyes in dark skin didn’t allow me to blend in. Even worse, I was in my thickly-padded work shoes that put me at six feet even. Yet, Orion towered over me. He was at least six five, breathtaking, and determined to see me in an orange jumpsuit. I can’t blame him, not after I had tampered with his livelihood and nearly cost him his life.
He turned away and vanished into the kitchen. I wasn’t going anywhere. It felt like I had been running from one thing or another since leaving Jason. I didn’t have it in me to escape again, if only for a little while, not since failing to get rid of Jason twice and hurting Orion. Running wasn’t solving anything anyway. God only knew why I felt so damn bad about what I did to Orion when I don’t really know him, but I knew I didn’t deserve to be free after what I done to an innocent. If I kept evading my just desserts, I was no better than Jason, who gotten away with multiple counts of assault against me and had no remorse about it.
I’ll be damned if I was ever grouped together with the likes of Jason. Orion was owed justice, and he could get it if I faced the music… or rather jail time. Five years in prison to be exact. It was better than being available to Jason when he was released from his false imprisonment, which I would make sure of. Didn’t even want to be in the same prison system as him who was quite vicious when he was angry and can’t get to me if I’m locked down. Jokingly, I had considered that as my option once, during one of those long nights of having nothing better to do when sleeping wasn’t a choice. My dreams belonged to Orion, which brought no rest for the wicked.
Maybe I should put some real thought into going to jail myself. It seemed like the only avenue left, after things refused to turn out as I had hoped for with my first two tries to separate Jason from his life in some way. Well, the third time was the charm supposedly, and it was whatever worked at this point for me. I was just that damn determined to be free of him. Five years should be enough time for him to get over me giving him fifty stitches a year ago and having him arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. If he should find another woman to beat then stalk when she got tired of the abuse, hopefully, she’ll finish the job I started with trying to kill him. Or do better with framing him.
Mind made up, I waited patiently for Orion to return with Astrid, who would handcuff me in front of my friends and my most important family member, assisting me in destroying Mahogany’s party and tainting her home before she spent the first night in it. If I could pick another place to do this at, I would, but Orion was already snitching on me. If I was going to hit rock bottom, it might as well happen around my family and friends, so they don’t wonder what happened to me or find out from a third party, like they did the abuse I suffered at Jason’s hand for two very long years.
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Read more of the Owens’ clan in the , currently available on Amazon.
The Tycoon's Heart