“Can someone enlighten us on why you’re all losing your shit?” Dex asks, brows raised as Saint roughly runs his hands through his hair.
“That ain't Richard McDonald. Well, I mean, it could be now, but when we knew him, his name was Nathaniel Mercy,” Justice says, his jaw tight.
“And I’m meant to marry him.”
Sage
As soon as the words leave my mouth Chef goes off. Slamming his fist on the table, growling, barking at Dex to do something. I should feel better about the situation that he’s worried about me, but for some reason it falls flat. This whole time we’ve been apart, coming up close to a year now, he’s shown no emotion whatsoever. He hasn't reached out except for a letter at Valentine’s with two fucking words in it. I knew he meant more by it. I knew he meant that I should take his advice and move on. So I did. Or at least I tried. When you give your heart to someone, it’s hard to try and claw all the pieces of yourself back together in a way that makes sense. I was doing that, and then he was shot in the gut and now I’ve dropped this bomb. The only time this man has shown any emotion around me is when it looks like another man wants me.
“Sage, what do you mean you’re meant to marry him?” Sniper asks, the calm in the storm.
Looking around the table I stall for a moment to get my thoughts in order. “I’m guessing you all know a little about Eden’s Keep?”
“We know what we’ve been told. The general hierarchy, the abuse,” Dex says, his eyes darting toward Justice who sits proud in his chair. “Some of the stuff that went on.”
I nod. “So you know how women were treated? That we were belongings, not our own person without a father or husband to own us?” They all nod, some of them avoiding my eye contact. “I don’t remember much of Eden’s Keep. For the most part, I only know what Mom told me.” I look at my Uncle Vex. It’s so hard to only call them by their road names now and not Uncle Dom, Chris or Victory. “Do you know how old I was when Mom got me out?”
My uncles all look at each other, brows furrowed. Unfortunately for us, the Landry’s have strong genes. Meaning we all look like our fathers. I know that mom, Vex, Omen and Saint have the same parents. Aunt Lovely shares the same father and her mom is biologically my mom’s aunt. Then it all gets murky. My father is Royal Landry, my mom’s uncle, the same man that fathered Little Bee with Aunt Lovely and Niko with my mom. He also fathered Elio and Cove with different women making us all half siblings and cousins depending who our moms are because Royal Landry had no problems marrying and impregnating his nieces.
“You were little when your mom took you from Eden’s Keep. Walking, but not talking. I don’t know what age kids do that,” Saint answers.
I nod, figuring I must have been around a year old. “Mom never kept anything from us growing up. I have always known that my real mother smuggled me out of Eden’s Keep to save me from my fate. Which was to marry that man-” I nod toward the screen where Nathaniel Mercy’s face smirks down at me. “And birth his children.”
Chef’s feral snarl sounds out and I tell myself not to look in his direction. I owe him nothing. Instead I keep my eyes glued to Dex.
“Are you worried that he will come for you?” Sniper asks, reading the situation exactly as I read it.
Before I can answer, Justice interrupts, giving me a sad smile. “He will come for her. I think that may have been the whole reason these guys have been messing with the DRMC. Nathaniel was a few years older than me and he was,” Justice hesitates, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows, “cruel. Calculating. Dangerous, especially to the girls in Eden’s Keep.”
Silence hangs heavily over Church and I need to let these men know that I’m not bringing trouble to their door. I’m not here to cower and I’m not here begging for protection. I’m here because something needs to be done about this problem and I want to be the one to end it. My whole life has been working toward this moment. My mom trained me to be strong, to know my mind, but to keep my softness about me. She didn’t want me to be harsh like she had to become. She protected me my whole life while teaching me all I had to know to keep myself safe. I’m no longer a child who needs protection. I am a woman who can fight for herself and now is my time.
“I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m here to end this whole thing.”
“Sagey-girl, what are you talking about?” Omen asks suspiciously.
“Mom wants to kill him, but I’m going to kill him first. And I’m going to do it here, where all this started.”
Everyone is silent for a beat before all hell breaks loose. Vex barks, “Over my dead body!” Chef is banging the table again. Dex is shaking his head and stabbing at his phone screen, probably to call my parents. Damian and Justice give me fist bumpsand Flack is giving me a little smile, nodding his head as if he approves of my plan. Well, I’m glad someone does.
“Sage?” My mom’s voice cuts through the chaos as Dex calmly places his phone in the middle of the Church table.
“Hi, Mom.”
There’s silence and I wait it out. Mom is either going to lose her shit, or she’s going to be eerily calm. “You’re back where it all started,” she says, quietly, thoughtfully.
“Yeah,” I whisper, throat clogged, that Mom knows me so well.
“What’s the plan, baby?”
“I need it to end, Mom. It -” I swallow, “he, Eden’s Keep, has been hanging over my head my whole life.”
“I know baby, I tried-”
“Mom, you gave all of us an amazing life outside Eden’s Keep, but we both know that after the cleansing, when Nathaniel wasn’t one of your victims, that he would come back. You said so yourself.”
Mom sighs long and low down the line. “You’re right. That’s why we upped your training. Started taking precautions. You did so well, baby. And you’re ready. I just - it makes me sad that you thought you needed to run away to do it.”
I shake my head, even though Mom can’t see me. “You’ve done so much for me, this is something I have to do without you. It’s my cross to bear.”