Mark (Next Generation Carter Brother #9)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Freya

Eight Days Later

I glance up from the television that is playing Charlie St. Cloud. I went into this movie thinking it would be a romance, not that I would be a sobbing mess on the sofa.

Damn this film for making me cry.

Not that it takes much nowadays.

The door clicks open and I glance up to find Summer walking in with a selfcare gift basket. A sigh slips past my lips, my heart jolting for a moment. Because I know who the gift is from.

Mark.

It’s been three days since he returned from the Bahamas, and each day, I’ve received a gift from him. First it was a mini figurine of our cruise. Yesterday it was flowers. Today it’s a gift basket, and damn him for actually putting the products I use inside.

I won’t admit this out loud, but I waited in the living room the day I knew he was due back. I held my breath as I listened to the suitcase roll down the hallway, and my heart stopped when he didn’t immediately go inside and instead knocked on my door.

“He’s persistent, I’ll give him that,” Summer mutters as she drops it down on the coffee table. “Are you going to hear him out? I’m not saying you should, but with how your mum and gran have been calling off the hook, I feel like you’re missing a huge chunk of the story.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I saw what I saw.”

She holds her hands up. “Hey, I’ll hate him on principle if that’s what we are doing,” she declares as she takes a seat on the sofa next to me. “But I know you, babe. He means something to you. I think he means more to you than anyone else ever has before.”

Tears gather in my eyes as I lower my gaze to the floor. I’ve been too afraid to tell her, to say the words out loud. Until now. Because I don’t think I can live here every day with him across the hall. I can’t stay locked away in here forever. I’m going to have to come out at some point and face him. And I don’t think my heart can take that kind of pain again. Not after that dreadful day. Not after what I saw.

“I love him,” I whisper.

“Which is why I’ve called your gran and mum,” she admits. “Please don’t hate me, but you need to know the truth. And you aren’t going to get it hiding away in here.”

I groan. “Why did you invite my mum?”

“Because I’m pretty sure she hates my guts and would rather ignore I exist than message me and call multiple times a day to check in on you.”

I scoff. “She doesn’t hate you.”

Maybe.

I never really know what mum is feeling towards another.

She arches her perfectly shaped brow. “Say it again but like you mean it.”

I snort out a laugh. “She just never bothered to really get to know you.”

“Puh-lease, she hated me from the moment I turned up wearing that god-awful mini skirt and crop top. And let’s not forget her parting words when I went in to get that last box of yours.”

“She didn’t mean it. She was just worried about me moving home. If she didn’t like you, she would never have allowed you in the house.”

“Then I’ll remind you of the time she told me I had to wait outside,” she reminds me.

I grimace. “Babe, I didn’t want to tell you this because I knew you’d fret over your shoes. But that night, you had dog shit on your shoe. Mum didn’t want you walking it into the house.”

Her eyes widen as she leans forward. “Are you kidding me? You let me go to a party with dog shit on my shoe? I thought we were friends.”

I throw up my hands quickly. “Hey, I was going to tell you before we got in the car, but by the time you walked over the grass, it was gone.”

She glances away. “I feel less shitty for inviting your mum and gran over now.”

“I really was going to tell you about the dog poop.”

“Five years too late, babe. Five years.” She sniffs.

“At least tell me I have time to look presentable because I don’t want to listen to Mum go on about the salsa stain on my top or that I have Dorito stains on my trousers.”

“I still think it’s weird you don’t lick your fingers clean.”

She must think I was born yesterday. “Stop avoiding the question and answer me. She’d better not be bringing my sister, Summer. I mean it.”

Placing her hands in her lap, her shoulders drop. “Okay. Okay. I didn’t technically invite them over. Your mum called me since your phone is still off and she told me she was on her way to pick up your gran to come here. I didn’t even get a chance to say not tonight. I swear. You know what your mum is like; she can never let anyone get a word in when she’s on one.”

“They… They are—” I stop short when there’s a knock on the door. Summer goes to get up to answer but I move before my brain can register what I’m about to do. Which is tackle Summer to the floor.

“Get off me, you heifer,” she growls.

I slap my hand over her mouth. “Shush.”

“Freya, I know you’re in there,” Mum calls out.

I glare down at my best friend who arches an eyebrow.

“Get off Summer and come answer the door for your nanna. I got lucky last night and my hips are so stiff today.”

Summer grins beneath my mouth, wagging her eyebrows. I snort, shaking my head.

“Mother,” Mum exclaims loudly. “Freya doesn’t need to know about your extracurricular activities.”

“Why? She’s not a virgin,” she remarks, and I can picture her giving Mum a dirty look, like she’s talking nonsense.

“It’s still not a topic you bring up to your grandchild.”

“I wasn’t asking for a conversation,” Nanna snorts, as another bang shakes the door. “Open up, sweetie. You know you’ll only get grossed out when—”

I pull my hand back when Summer licks it. “Eww, that is gross.”

“Come on, Freya,” Nanna coos.

“Come back tomorrow,” I yell. “I’m in the middle of trying to figure out where to bury my best friend’s body.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Summer taunts.

“Lick me again and we’ll see.”

Mum sighs. “This is beneath you, Freya. What would you tell those kids you teach?”

“I’d say let them have free will.”

“Open the door,”Mum orders.

“I will, providing you let me know who is with you.”

“It’s just us, munchkin.”

I lean down into my best friend’s face. “You can bath Mellow later.”

“No, I’ll do anything but that. My arms and chest are still recovering from the last time I bathed him.”

“You owe me,” I point out.

She lets out a heavy breath. “Fine. But don’t ask me again.”

I snort as I get to my feet. I head to the door, yanking it open with more force than necessary, and since I’m hiding behind it in case Mark decides to walk out, it nearly hits me in the face.

“Really, Freya.”

“Mother,” I greet.

I leave her glancing around our cosy living room and force a smile at my nanna. She places her hand on my cheek before leaning in to kiss my other cheek. “You’ve looked better.”

“Nice to see you too, Nanna.”

“Hi, Mrs Baker,” Summer greets.

“You really should keep your phone on loud in case of an emergency,” Mum states in her way of a greeting.

“Of course. Please, take a seat,” Summer offers, shoving off the throw blanket and empty packets of crisps.

“Did you two do all of this?” Mum asks, inspecting the mantel and walls.

Summer forces out a laugh. “Yep. We had the bruises and aches to prove it. Couldn’t move for days after.”

“You’ve done well. I like it. Makes me want to do our living room again. All the neutral colours make it feel warm yet soft.”

My jaw hangs open at the compliment. Summer must be as shocked as me because she’s mirroring my expression. She comes out of it quicker than me. “Um, thank you. Freya designed it and I fell in love with it.”

“Mum, what are you doing here?” I ask, because I can’t handle all the pleasantries. It’s freaking me out. I close the door and fold my arms across my stomach.

Mum runs her gaze over me, and I know when she spots the stains because her eyes widen. “When did you last shower and change?”

“Mum, just please get to the reason as to why you are here.”

“We need to talk,” she announces, as she elegantly takes a seat in the spot I’ve been keeping warm all day.

“Mum, if this is about Esther, I really don’t want to hear it. I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted trip, but I just can’t, Mum. Even saying her name makes my blood boil.”

“She isn’t why I’m here,” she declares.

I drop down on the cream pouffe, needing to release the tension out of my legs and shoulders. “Then I don’t get it. Why are you here?”

“Because there is a boy who fought for you, and by the looks of that basket, is still fighting for you.”

And there goes my jaw again.

“You’re here… you’re here to talk about Mark? Seriously?” I glance at Summer. “Am I dreaming?”

She shakes her head.

“You’d shake your head in my dream. It’s my dream, right?”

“Blooming heck,” she retorts and walks over to pinch the inside of my arm.

“Hey, you psycho! That hurt.”

“You wanted to know if you were dreaming so I thought I’d cut to the chase and prove it so you don’t start rambling.”

“I don’t ramble. And you didn’t need to do it that hard.”

“It’s payback for tackling me to the floor. I think you’ve bruised my coccyx.”

“You are such a drama queen. You landed on the rug.”

“I landed on my arse,” she argues.

“My gosh, are you two always like this?” Mum questions.

“Kind of,” Summer answers as I say, “Yes.”

“Now can we all get back on the subject because I have a booty call later tonight.”

Summer grins. “Look at you living life.”

“That is what life is for, beautiful,” Nanna replies before arching her brow at me. “Now back to you.”

“Do we have to? We could talk about your booty call instead.”

She rolls her eyes as Mum hisses, “Freya, don’t encourage your nanna.”

“You know he cares about you just as much as you care about him,” Nanna states.

“Are you really going to play that card after what I saw?”

“Are you really going to keep pretending you didn’t hear me say Esther orchestrated the entire thing?”

Okay, we’re doing this.

We’re really going to talk about this .

“I don’t even know what that means, Nanna. Because I’ve had it going around in my head for over a week. Did she orchestrate seducing him? What? What did she orchestrate?”

“She orchestrated the entire thing. None of it is what you think it is,” Nanna replies.

I run my fingers through my hair, swallowing past the lump in my throat.

I will not cry. I will not cry.

“I’m not following. Please, stop talking in riddles and just tell me.”

Summer drops down next to me, placing her hand on my back. I keep my gaze on Nanna, expecting her to be the one who answers. Instead, Mum does, and her tone is surprisingly soft.

“I’m not sure what her plan was or how much was improvised. I’m not even sure how far she was willing to go. Whatever her plan was, it may have been messed up by Mark not being interested, but the end result was still what she wanted,” Mum begins. “I can run you through what happened though. Mark found her loitering outside your room.”

“Well, they bumped into each other,” Nanna interrupts.

Mum gives her a pointed look to shut up before turning back to me. “Which resulted in her cutting her leg on the glass that had been broke.”

Nanna leans forward. “But Mark didn’t break it bumping into her. She had that planned and had previously smashed the glass on the doorframe and cut her own leg.”

“I was getting to that bit, Mother.”

Nanna holds out her hand. “Then continue.”

“Whilst he didn’t want to help her or invite her inside his cabin, he couldn’t just leave her in good conscience because of her being your sister.”

“His sister, Lily; she, um, she was treated badly by her mother as an infant,” I whisper. He would never want to be the reason a woman is hurt, despite who she was.

Nanna’s face crumbles. “You let me dine with that woman? Teagan was so sweet. Why do they still allow her to be around them?”

“Not Teagan. She’s not Lily’s birth mother. Lily’s dad is biologically her brother, but that’s a long story and I really shouldn’t be telling you this,” I groan, closing my eyes.

Why did I open my mouth?

I just needed to voice my reasons as to why Mark would help her. I don’t know why, but I needed to explain why he is like that.

“And Esther hurt her,” Mum whispers. “I thought they were being overdramatic. My gosh.”

Nanna surprises me by taking Mum’s hand. “It’s okay, Maggie.”

Mum shakes her head gently. “He helped her because blood was running down her leg. He handed her the stuff she needed, but then she got squeamish, so he knelt down and helped. He didn’t know she had taken her bikini top off. He went ballistic when he looked up and saw she had removed it. She told him it had slipped off, but he knew without a doubt what she had done. She tried telling him you were flirting with Danny the night before, and that you were trying to make him feel guilty about breaking you up.”

“That’s a fucking lie. I heard…” I glance down, not wanting them to witness my embarrassment.

“We know what was said but I’ll get to that after. She thought she had something over him, something he didn’t know, but he knew you,” she replies, then lowers her voice. “He knows you better than any of us. He didn’t believe her.”

He didn’t touch my sister.

He didn’t betray my trust.

He is exactly who I thought he was.

I bow my head further, tears rolling down my cheeks. He believed me over Esther. And I couldn’t even give him a chance to explain what happened to me. I just ran.

God, I am so stupid. So fucking stupid.

How can I face him after this? Do I approach him and be like, hey, I know my sister fucked up and I ran away, but can we go back to fucking? It sounds ridiculous in my head. I also don’t see how he can forgive me for running away without an explanation or confrontation. He had faith in me, and whilst I didn’t know the full story, I immediately jumped to him cheating. That isn’t fair on him.

“He didn’t cheat on you, lovely,” Nanna adds softly.

Yet it doesn’t make any of this better. “It’s too late now. I ran away. I didn’t even give him a chance to explain.”

Mum’s gaze goes to the gift basket on the table. “Seems to me he’s not ready to give up.”

“Then he has more screws loose than I thought he did. For fuck’s sake, my sister… God, I don’t even know what to call what she did. But it certainly doesn’t make me attractive. What happened is so messed up.”

“Babe, you just said his sister is biologically his aunt. I’m pretty sure if anyone can deal with it, it’s Mark,” Summer comments.

“That’s a bit different. It’s bad enough he had to witness my entire family ghost and belittle me the entire time. I mean, come on, that’s a red flag right there if your own family doesn’t like you.”

“I love you,” Mum whispers. The pain in her eyes has me looking away. I can’t deal with her guilt or pity. “I may not show it, but I love you. That will never change. And I am deeply sorry for ever making you feel like I don’t. I haven’t been fair to you, and I see that now. I can’t promise to be perfect, but I do promise to keep trying. I love you, Freya, and I hate how we’ve made you feel. How I’ve made you feel.”

“Darn tootins,” Nanna remarks before turning to me. “Honey, from what I’ve learnt from that family, they don’t judge. They understand that sometimes a person is perfectly imperfect. And it’s okay to be imperfect.”

I know what they are doing. I love them for it, but it doesn’t make me feel any less embarrassed or ashamed. I’m ashamed I let my sister win. I’m ashamed he had to see just how much I cared for him. I’m ashamed I let myself down. And I’m embarrassed over my sister and how much I let her get to me.

God, what have I done?

I may have just lost the best thing to have happened to me in a long time.

“I don’t know if I can face him. I really don’t. I messed up and left him to deal with the consequences.”

“Babe, you literally thought he did the naughty with your sister. Your actions are justified.”

They don’t understand. How can they? Neither knows what it feels like to be humiliated by their sibling in that way.

“Can we please not mention her in my home,” I plead. “And before you stand up for her, Mum, I don’t want to hear it. I understand she’s your daughter, and I know this must be an impossible situation for you to be in, but right now, this isn’t about her or how she’s feeling. It’s about me.”

Mum gets to her feet and drops down to her knees on the carpet. I tense at the move, unsure of what to feel. My mum always maintains her dignity and strength. The only time she’ll ever be caught on the floor like this is if she is cleaning a stain from the carpet.

Summer must feel the same as me, and since she hates being in awkward situations, she gets up, leaving me to face whatever this is.

“I know what you heard in the bathroom. And, sweetie, I know I’ve given you no reason to believe me with the way I have acted towards you, but those words did not come out of my mouth. I won’t deny the conversation happened because it did. We were having drinks up on the deck. You were brought up, and I told them to change the subject. And I merely said, Freya is happy and enjoying her life. Something else was said, and it was so insignificant I don’t remember what it was, but I do remember saying, Freya doesn’t take much seriously, but she seems serious about this boy, and that I hoped you would still be in contact once the holiday was over. I have already had words with your cousin.”

“You really expect me to believe that?” I question.

“My love, I might have said some things to make you think otherwise, but I promise, you can trust me when I say I did not say those things. I’ve always wanted the best for you, and there was a time when I thought you didn’t take anything seriously. You wanted to be a nurse but ended up a teacher. You begged us to join that football club as a teenager, but a week into it, you got bored. But I’ve come to realise a few things about you during this getaway, and that is, you aren’t indecisive. You do know what you want. You didn’t settle for what you thought you should be doing and instead settled for something you love. It just took the holiday for me to see that. This home is more proof of that. I thought you would be living with piles of dirty washing and unclean floors and sides. I thought you weren’t ready. But you were, and it was I who was holding you back. I should have listened to you when you told me you were over Danny, but all I could think about was you crying in my arms the night you broke up. That is my fault.”

“I believe you,” I whisper.

She takes my hands in hers. “I am very proud of you, especially with how you handled everything. As for your sister…”

“I really don’t want to talk about her,” I interrupt, removing my hands from hers.

“Then just listen. I have spoken with your sister, and I have seen a side to her I am not very fond of or proud of. Seeing she wasn’t going to back down made your father and I come to a very difficult decision. We will no longer be supporting her financially and have asked her to move in with Danny until they can find a home of their own.”

“Technically, that wasn’t your first decision,” Nanna interrupts. “She asked her to leave Danny to begin with.”

“Mum, I’ve spent years blaming Danny for everything. For all the cruel remarks, the whispers behind my back or when I walked into a room. I even blamed him for every messed-up, shitty thing Esther spewed at me. But I realised that day, he was just a part of the problem. Everything Esther did, she did on her own accord. I don’t think cutting her off or asking her to move out is going to fix what she has done, Mum.”

“I am hoping it will open her eyes. She is your sister.”

“Which doesn’t give her the green light to treat me like shit,” I snap. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to talk about her. She’s dead to me. I want nothing to do with her.”

“Me and your father will support your decision but it will make Christmas and birthdays a little awkward.”

“You’ll support me? Just like that? No, she’s your sister, it will blow over, crap?”

“Language, and yes, just like that.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“So, about the boy... Are you going to go over to hear him out?” Nanna asks.

“Stop rushing her,” Mum fumes.

“I have a date. And if she’s not going to go over there and get laid, it doesn’t mean I should miss out.”

“I’m fine,” I yell, getting to my feet. I don’t want to hear them arguing. “Nanna, you can go meet your date. Mum, I’m sure you have places you need to be.”

“I don’t. I want to spend time with my daughter.”

“Don’t you have that late dinner with the Henrys today?”

Her eyes widen. “Oh no, I’m going to be late.”

“You won’t if you leave now. If I need to talk, I will call.”

“Are you sure?” Mum asks, getting to her feet.

I kiss her cheek. “Of course. I appreciate you coming here. It means more than you know.”

Nanna kisses my cheek next as we move towards the door. “We will see you in a couple of weeks.”

“A couple of weeks?” I question.

“Yes, it’s your birthday, remember.”

Oh God, it completely slipped my mind. “Oh crap.”

She shakes her head. “Go get the boy back.”

“Love you both.”

“We love you too, sweetie. Now go get showered,” Mum orders.

I close the door behind me and stare at my best friend. She looks just as shaken as I do. “That was seriously weird and disturbing.”

She can say that again. My mum was nice. Nice . I shudder at the reminder.

“Want to watch a horror movie and order takeout?” I ask.

She throws herself down on the sofa. “Fuck yes. I need something to make me laugh after that display of horror.”

“Chinese? Or pizza?”

“Chinese. Duh,” she replies.

I go to head into my bedroom to grab my phone, but then stop in the hallway and turn back to my friend. “That did just happen right? I’m not passed out drunk and asleep.”

“Oh no, it really happened. I’ll be having nightmares for a week so this horror movie had better be good enough to make them go away.”

My nose scrunches at her words. “We’re so weird. Normally people play a happy movie after a horror movie.”

She shudders, grabbing the throw blanket. “None of them witnessed that .”

She’s right.

“Maybe two horror movies then.”

She throws a pillow in my direction. “Then feed me because I am starving.”

I head into the bedroom, picking up my phone before dropping down on the mattress.

He didn’t betray me.

He is everything I thought he was.

Maybe I can face him. After all, he is clearly wanting to see me.

If he can, maybe I can.

Maybe.