CHAPTER 5: RAGE AND FURY

Andrew’s POV

The ride back to the hospital felt like a haze. I was losing my mind, my hair was a mess and my fingers were starting to hurt as they turned white from how hard I was gripping my steering wheel. My mother stole four years of my life away from me. Four years without my son that I was never going to get back because my own flesh and blood betrayed me.

I still thought I was dreaming.

I was a strong man. I never cried, never showed emotion. From the minute I was born it was like I was carved from steel, never letting anyone in long enough to be vulnerable with them. But now, I felt tears stain my cheeks as I sped back to the hospital. Damn whatever responsibilities I had today. I had to be with my son!

Nancy and I were together for only two months, and what a wonderful two months those were. We were still getting to know each other but she was a ray of sunshine. I was ready to see how far I could take things with her. I felt myself opening up more and more to her because she made it so damn easy. She was real and she was with me not because she was looking for something to gain but because she genuinely liked me.

When I saw her again in my office, when I talked to her again after four years, I could see how the hardships of life had changed her, morphed her into something that I could barely recognize. She said my mother made her brother and her mother lose their jobs. She said her brother almost got blacklisted and she was forced to be a single mother for four years. All because my mother chose wickedness instead of kindness.

I am billionaire, my mother had her own businesses. We lacked nothing. We had more money than we would ever need or use, but my mother had a greediness in her that I only just discovered. All this time I thought it was ambition, but now I see. No amount of wealth or status will ever be enough for my mother.

She would only want more and more and more.

I told her she was dead to me, but deep down I knew I didn’t mean it. This was the woman who after my father died of cancer, had raised me through poverty. She made sure I had an education.

You would think her past would make her more sympathetic towards Nancy, but all it did was make her bitter, and I was disappointed beyond what I could express with words.

I pulled up in front of the hospital, wiping the tears of my cheeks and giving myself a few minutes to take in deep breaths to calm and compose myself.

I found Nancy in the little hospital chapel. She was sitting between her mother and brother, crying.

The sight made my heart beat painfully and I shifted on my feet uncomfortably, wondering if I should interrupt the intimate moment. In the two months we had been together, I hadn’t had the chance to meet Nancy’s brother or her mother. Her mother looked like she was in her late forties, still young so she must have had children at a very young age.

I took in a deep breath and walked towards them. As soon as her brother spotted me, his face became one of rage and fury. He was a big man, almost as tall as I was, with broad shoulders, a muscular build and dark hair. Nancy’s mother stood quickly, a nervous look on her face.

“You!” Nancy’s brother’s voice echoed in the chapel as he basically stomped towards me. I startled, my brows rising in surprise at the look on his face. I knew what he was about to do, and I let him do it. Not because I didn’t have the power to stop him but because I didn’t have the will. And also, because I needed to feel something other than this pain exploding in my chest.

“Stop! Adrian!” I heard Nancy scream, a sob breaking out of her and before she could get another word out, Adrian was in front of me and his fist connected with my nose.

“Shit!” I cursed as I took a few steps backwards. My nerves tingled with pain and I cupped my face in my palms as my nose started bleeding. I let the pain distract me from the hurt in my chest.

“You’ve got some nerve showing up here!” Adrian barked at me. His mother, Victoria, and Nancy ran towards us.

“What the hell are you doing Adrian!? We are in a hospital! Calm yourself!” His mother scolded.

“Adrian please, this isn’t the time alright?” Nancy said in a soft voice as tears continued falling from her eyes. She looked so tired.

Adrian ignored them and pointed a finger at me. “I promised myself if I ever saw your stupid face, I was going to bury my fist in it! This is all your fault! You ruined my sister’s life! You ruined all our lives!”

“Adrian…” Nancy called to him softly, trying desperately to pull him backwards and out of my face. Suddenly I didn’t even feel the pain anymore. I just wanted Nancy to stop crying. Seeing her like this tore at my chest.

I took out a handkerchief and cleaned the blood from my face. I knew I looked a mess but I didn’t care.

“A few hours ago, I didn’t know I had a son.” I said in a dark voice. “I know what my mother did to your family and I know there is nothing I can say to change what happened or make you feel better. But I have a son and right now that is all that matters to me! So, forgive me if my presence makes you uncomfortable but I am in Nancy’s life now whether you like it or not! She is the mother of my child!”

“Nancy doesn’t need you!” Adrian said bitterly, an angry vein popping on his forehead as his voice grew louder and louder. Victoria was trembling, not knowing what to do to calm her son and I saw Nancy getting angrier and angrier as the seconds went by.

“You don’t deserve to be back in her life. All you and your psychotic mother will do is make her life more miserable.”

“My mother did this!” I barked back at him. “Not me!”

“It’s the same damn fucking thing.” Adrian roared bitterly. “Now I want you out of this hospital and out of our lives forever or so help me God I will break every single bone in your body, which is less than what you deserve after everything your family has put us through!”

I took a step towards him and stood to my full height, towering over him. “Go ahead and try. Put your hands on me one more time and you will wake up tomorrow without those hands.”

His eyes widened at my threat.

“ENOUGH!” Nancy’s voice pulled us out of the moment. “Both of you! Enough! Liam almost died! He is still in the operating room, fighting for his life! I don’t need this right now okay! I don’t have time to babysit two grown men in the freaking chapel of a hospital!”

Her shoulders rose up and down as she wiped angrily at her tears, trying to catch her breath. No one said anything for a few seconds. Then she turned towards her brother and mother.

“Mom, Adrian. Please I need some time alone with Andrew.”

Her mother nodded softly, then gave Nancy a long hug, kissing her on the forehead before leaving the room. Adrian didn’t say anything as he hit my shoulder with his, walking past me and out of the chapel with venom in his eyes.