Patrice looked over at Tatum with tears in her eyes. “After Jolene left with Montoya, I took her place as she was taking mine. I became Jolene. I kept my nose clean and studied hard and when I turned eighteen, I left the Abbey.” She turned her eyes away briefly then looked at Tatum again. “I went to live in Eau Claire, I found a job and then I found a small apartment.” She looked over at Cheryl with anger in her eyes and nodded towards the other woman. “She gave me some money when I left and I paid for my apartment with that and when I got settled, I began living outside the Abbey walls. I made some bad choices and one of those bad choices was when I met an older man. I was barely eighteen, he was close to thirty.” She shook her head as memories flooded in. “I just couldn’t help myself. He was gorgeous and for just a little while, he was mine. I didn’t know what he did and I didn’t care. I was in love with him from the get go. I just didn’t care about anything but being with him. Then things changed, he changed, he knew I was in love with him and that seemed to amuse him. I soon learned what he did for a living and exactly who he was and what he was capable of doing. To my horror, I found out he was running the underground in the city.”
The room went quiet as they all listened.
“He was just like my father. So when I found out the truth, I didn’t want to stay with him. I didn’t want that kind of life. I knew enough about the danger when I was a child as my parents were murdered in front of me. I didn’t want it back then and I let Jolene take my place with the cartel when they came to collect me. I tried to walk away, but he would find me and drag me right back. He started to beat on me when he would drag me back and then one day after a horrible beating, he told me the only way I would ever be free of him was when death came for me. I belonged to him and it would serve me well to do whatever he told me to do. That lasted a few more weeks. He did try I guess in his own way, gifting me with his time, and flowers and jewelry.” She paused and swiped a tear from her cheek.
Tatum as well as the others in the room, all waited for the rest.
Swallowing heavily she went on, “When I found out I was pregnant, I had a choice to make. I knew he’d never let me go. Family meant something to him and he was very close to his family. He would have loved knowing I was carrying his baby.” She hung her head and sobbed. Looking up at Tatum she got herself under some control and said, “Living that kind of life was not something I wanted for my baby raised in a crime family. I endured that kind of life when I was a kid. I took a chance and snuck out when he was gone one day. I went back to the only place I knew was safe. I went back to the Abbey.” She looked up at Cheryl/Mother Superior. “I made the mistake of telling her everything. Even his name. I should have known she would use it against me. She kept me as a prisoner until I had my baby. The night my daughter was born was nothing but a blur for me. She called in a doctor that gave me something for pain and everything just sort of went fuzzy after that. I was in a lot of pain and all I can remember was someone repeating over and over that I had to pay penance for the sins I’d committed and that I had to suffer for breaking my vow to God. Then I thought I heard a baby crying just before I passed out.” She was full out weeping now and couldn’t seem to speak.
Cat and Luna looked at each other and then over at a stunned looking Tatum.
Patrice hung her head and was still trying to tell her story, “W-when I woke up—the next day… I was told my baby died. S-she told me the cord had been wrapped around my baby’s throat. It cut off the oxygen and my daughter was stillborn. I told her I heard a baby crying, she told me I heard it because I wanted to hear it and that my baby was born dead. She wouldn’t even tell me what she did with her body. She said it was better that I didn’t know.” Patrice raised her head to glare at Cheryl. “She said I had to decide if I wanted to stay or if I wanted to leave and I only had a week to decide. That he was still looking for me, if I wanted to remain alive it was better for me to stay hidden behind the walls of the Abbey. So, being barely nineteen and afraid… I stayed. All these years, I stayed hidden from the world, safe from the one man who I knew would hurt me, or worse—kill me. I stayed hidden from the truth because I was too scared to ask the questions I should have asked.”
The whole room was silent as they listened and reflected on the story they’d just been told.
Hawkins looked over at Cheryl and found her pale but still looking defiant. He so wanted to shake her until she rattled for all the cruelty she’d caused. She deserved to feel the pain she’d inflicted on so many other people.
Tatum stared at Patrice and dared to ask, “So—so, you are my mother?”
Patrice nodded as her eyes blurred with tears. “I am, I was told all these years, you died the night you were born. I would ask where they buried you but Mother Superior would never tell me. The gardener finally told me he buried something small in the corner of the garden. I thought maybe it was you.” She shook her head. “I lived with the fact I gave birth and lost my child, but then she would tell me your father was still looking for me, that he would kill me when he found out I left him because of you. She told me the only way I would be safe was if I stayed at the Abbey. She said she would protect me and I believed her. So I stayed.”
“Who is my father?” Tatum dared to ask. Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
Patrice heard her question though. She stared at the daughter she didn’t know had lived. “His name is Joel Greenaway and he runs the underground in Eau Claire. Back when we were together, he was just starting out but he was dangerous even then. Today, he’s even more dangerous.” She sighed. “You have his eyes. That’s how I knew who you were. You are my daughter, the one I was told died. Lies were told. Too many lies, but now…” She tried to get composed as she kept nodding to herself. “Today, the lies stop. I don’t know what she did with you, or why she kept you hidden all these years but I never knew you were alive.”
Tatum shivered and Brute’s arms wrapped around her to hold her tight. “Did you want me?” she finally asked her mother.
Patrice raised her eyes to her daughter. “God yes, I wanted you. I loved you. I might have left the only man I loved, and was afraid of but I loved the gift he gave me, my child. You gave me the strength I needed to break free from Joel. I realized Joel was not the man I thought he was, the further he got into the underworld, the more cruel he became. He found his niche in life and I-I was in love. I realized I wanted more for me, for my baby. I had lived that life and I wanted more for you. I wanted to give you the world.”
“You stupid fool!” Cheryl growled. “Joel will kill you for keeping this secret if he ever finds out about her. I’ve kept her hidden, so he wouldn’t find her. I kept both of you safe and now, these dirty bikers damn well know everything. What makes you think they won’t turn her over to her father just for the reward?”
“Lady, shut your stupid ass mouth!” Hawkins seethed at her. “That’s not how we roll.”
Cheryl turned her head and spit at him. “That’s how all bikers roll, you bastard. I know firsthand. Bikers only care about themselves.”
Hawkins glared at her, “Maybe that’s all your biker cared about. But you must be a fucking moron if you think we are all the same. Not every biker is as big a prick as he was. You wanted adventure, you got it, then he left you to face the consequences alone. He wasn’t a real man, he was a spoiled boy in a man’s body, and he used you. That’s on him. But what you did after that is strictly on your shoulders.” His eyes widened, as he remembered something that had come to the surface during what they learned today. He turned his head to look at Cat.
“What?” she whispered when she noticed Hawkins staring at her.
“If this bitch is Isobel’s mother, that makes her your grandmother, doesn’t it?” he asked her softly.
Cat paled as she stilled.
Cheryl snarled. “She’s nothing to me, nothing! Do you hear me? I never wanted her mother, why the hell would I want to claim Isobel’s issue?”
Cat just turned her face into Titan’s chest and sobbed quietly. He tightened his hold on her and held her while she cried.
Luna got up, stomped over to the table, picked up the duct tape and ripped off a piece.
Cheryl glared up at Luna.
“These men might not hit you,” Luna snapped. “But I sure as hell have no problems with it. You are a horrible bitch and an even worse human being. You made our lives a living hell while we were at that fucking Abbey. You were always harder on Cat than anyone else and now, the truth comes out. You blamed everything on your daughter… a daughter you never claimed but when Cat showed up at your doorstep, you never stepped up to help her either. You had us beaten and most nights, we went to bed hungry because you made us miss supper or only allowed us scraps. Like we were fucking dogs, animals, caged up by you!” She paused to look around. “These are good men, they won’t lay a hand on you, no matter how much you deserve it. But that doesn’t mean we have to listen to your hateful words.” She stepped closer to Cheryl with the tape stretched out in her hands.
Cheryl sneered at her. “She came from evil, and you became her minion didn’t you? You’re just such a stupid little bitch!”
That tipped Luna over the edge and she hauled her arm back. At the last minute, she curled her fingers in a fist and then she hit Cheryl’s face hard.
Everyone in the room heard the crack as her nose broke.
Cheryl was stunned and then the pain hit as she opened her mouth to scream.
Looking smug, Luna was ready for that and she smashed the tape over Cheryl’s mouth hard. Tapping it on the sides so it would stay there.
Cheryl tried to scream through the tape but the tape held in any sounds she made.
Luna walked away.
Everyone there could see Cheryl’s face. The tape was covering her mouth but Luna’s hit had broken her nose. Blood ran down her face and tears ran down her cheeks but Cheryl couldn’t do anything about it. Not with her hands tied behind her back.
Hawkins slowly shook his head as he looked at his men and ordered, “Get this fucking abomination out of my sight. Don’t untie her, just take her chair and all then lock her in one of the bedrooms. Have a guard at the door. And don’t let her out. Maybe she will think about what she’s done.”
Two of the men sitting there picked up the chair and carried her down the hall.
Everyone could hear her mumblings as Cheryl did not shut up but she couldn’t get herself free and there was no one in the clubhouse that would help her.
Hawkins looked over at Patrice. “Did you tell her the baby daddy’s name?”
Patrice nodded. “Yes, she knew his name. She knew who and what he was. Years later, some kids who had been brought to the Abbey belonged to his brother. He came to get them from the Abbey and she treated him like shit. She wouldn’t let me near the children but I watched from the second floor the day he came for them.” She shook her head. “I may not have wanted him to find me but at that moment, with the way his brother acted over his kids I realized he would have wanted his daughter.” She looked over at Tatum. “I’m so sorry for what she did to you. I should have been stronger and protected you more.”
Brute grunted and held Tatum close. “Don’t you worry about Tatum. I got her back now and this club has mine. I will give her something you never could. I’ll protect her with my life.”
“C-can you tell me when my birthday is?” Tatum blurted out the question. “No one ever told me.”
“Your birthday?” Patrice asked. “No one ever told you the day you were born?”
Tatum shook her head.
“The nineteenth of April, 1998. You’ll be twenty four in a few weeks,” Patrice told her with a smile.
Tatum looked up at Brute. “Did you hear that? I’ll be twenty four in a few weeks. All my life, I never knew how old I was.”
Patrice started to cry again, when she heard this. She hung her head and cried.
Brute nodded at Tatum. “That’s a good thing huh, Baby Girl? At least, you are an adult and you don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Tatum closed her eyes and laid her forehead on his chest. “No, all you have to worry about is what my father will do when he finds out about me.”
Brute grunted. “I ain’t worried about your father, baby. You are old enough to make your own decisions. He’s got no say about your life anymore. He never did.”
“Are you sure about that?” Tatum asked as she looked scared. “Patrice seems to be afraid of him and usually, when someone is afraid, there’s a good reason for them to be.”
Hawkins shook his head. “I think Cheryl used the knowledge she had about your dad to make your mom more afraid of him. Who the hell knows what he’s like now? He’s got a rep for being a bad guy. That’s true enough but he wouldn’t treat his daughter badly.” He turned his head and glared at Patrice. “Now the question that needs asking is would he kill your mother? I don’t have a clue about that. Things happened back then that nobody knows about. But everything that happened after Patrice got back within the walls of the Abbey is on Cheryl’s shoulders. She’s the one he should be mad at.”
Patrice just stared at him with tears running down her face.
