The Law of Motion (Law Series) (82 page)

             
“Hell…” Ross muttered. “Tink could have warned us she was coming.”

             
“You think?” Macon muttered.

             
Alyssa never really talked much about her family, and from what I knew they were all living in the Dominican Republic; but I was aware that she never faced them once she came back from Cuba. With good reason, she didn’t want to retell what happened to her. But she’s been getting a lot better, so it wasn’t easy to predict how she would react to seeing this cousin after five years.

             
“What is all the noise about?” Alyssa demanded coming into the lobby. She froze the instant she saw Carmen sitting on the crooked chair.

             
“Alyssa!” Carmen screamed launching herself at her, the same way she did with Hunter, except this time with tears in her eyes.

             
Alyssa didn’t return her embrace at first, still shocked herself she just stood there. Compared to Alyssa’s five foot two height and Carmen’s five foot nine with heels it looked like an off embrace. Alyssa exhaled closing her eyes, “Carmen…it’s ok, and I’m alright.”

             
“You just disappeared and no one knew where you were, and Mom kept sending everyone to look for you, and no one could help us. We thought you were
dead
.” Carmen continued crying, ignoring us completely, even though the lobby was now full, with the girls coming out to witness what was happening.

             
“Where is Tia Alta? Is she with you?” Alyssa asked, her eyes almost panicked for a second, and I didn’t understand why.

             
Carmen shook her head, “She is in Puerto Plata waiting for me to call if there was news. Where have you been this whole time?”

             
“It’s a little complicated Carmen.” Alyssa replied hesitantly.

             
Carmen pulled back, wiping her eyes. “Complicated or not you need to explain. We have all been worried for years, not days Alyssa
years
. We didn’t know if you were dead, alive, hurt, and the military didn’t tell us anything. If you’ve been fine this whole time, when
were you going to tell us where you were?”

             
Alyssa had no answer. In most cases, with a reunion like this, there would be the first initial shock, then happiness that the person was alright, and then anger.  “Do you
know
what you put everyone through Alyssa? Do you know how
hard
it’s been for all of us? We had just lost Tia Marisol, and then to lose you not even a year after. How can you be that
selfish
?”

             
“Ok, let’s calm down, you have no idea what she’s been through and until you know it’s completely unfair for you to just—” Kristen loyalty drove her to Alyssa’s defense immediately.

             
“
No Kristen,” Alyssa halted, “Carmen has a right to be angry.”

             
“Maybe you two should take this in your office.” Doc suggested.

             
Alyssa nodded. “Come back here with me Carmen, and I’ll try my best to explain.”

             
“I’ll bring you both some tea.” Joanne offered.

             
“Thank you Joanne.” Alyssa breathed,leading Carmen to the back. Her cousin took her han
d
despite the fact she was obviously angr
y
she wasn’t quite ready to let her go.

             
When the door closed all of us on the outside stayed frozen for a bit, in fact no one melted from their positions until my dad came into the building. “Who died?” My dad joked, but his face grew serious when nobody answered. “Oh shit… who died?”

             
I could see his eyes doing a nervous head count, so I decided to answer before he panicked too much. Not that it wasn’t a perfectly probable thing when it came to our group, “No one’s dead Dad.”

             
“Alyssa’s cousin showed up today.”

             
My dad rose an eyebrow, “Oh, how did she find her?”

             
“Tink.” Kristen muttered almost bitterly. Tink took a seat next to Jackson, either she didn’t notice Kristen’s displeasure, or she did and chose to ignore it. Either way it just pissed Kristen off more. “Why in the hell did you do that?”

             
“It needed to be done.” She answered simply, taking a tea cup that Doc sat in front of her.

             
That wasn’t a good enough answer for Kristen. “So you decide to tell this woman where Chance was, giving none of us a warning,
including her
?”

             
“I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t know how Chance would react if she had a heads up. She could have avoided it, or ran.” She excused.

             
Kristen fell onto a chair across from Tink and crossed her legs. “And that makes it
ok
? If you didn’t know how she would react, the smart thing would have been to
not do it at all
.”

             
“Baby… it’s ok, it’s over now.” Macon tried to soothe, rubbing his hand on her leg but she was too irritated and brushed it away.

             
“No it’s not ok, and it’s not over.” She snapped, “Just because you have a ‘profoundly gifted’ IQ doesn’t give you the right to play and interfere with people’s lives Margaux.”

             
“Ladies, ladies,” Dario tried to calm, no one had ever really seen the girls go at each other; they were always a united front even when they didn’t all agree.

             
Margaux took another sip of her tea and put the cup back on the saucer. “No let her finish it’s obvious she has issues with what I did so she should get them out.”

             
“Damn right I have issues! What gives you the
right,
Tink?” She demanded.

             
Tink, for the first time ever, looked older than Kristen, her face serious, “It’s ‘Immeasurable genius’”

             
“What?” Kristen scoffed.

             
Margaux sighed the continued to explain. “You said that my IQ ranked me as ‘profoundly gifted’, and you’re wrong. An IQ over two hundred is considered ‘immeasurable genius’”

             
Kristen ran her hand through her hair, frustrated “Are you trying to tell me that being smart is the reason you feel you can play with—”

             
“
No Kristen, I did it because it
needed
to be done. Alyssa is family to me, and that’s what families do, we sometime force the people we love to take the steps they need to make them
better
, even when they can’t see it themselves.” She snapped.

             
Yes, I understood her reasons for staying away in the beginning. Her not being ready to face her family and relive what happened, but look at her, she’s
better
now. She has friends, a business, people can touch her, and she can sleep through most of her nights without the need of medication and waking up to nightmares.

             
She puts them off now, not because she’s broken, but out of fear because so much time has gone by that it seems too broken to be fixed.”

             
Kristen sighed insisting, “It’s not up to us to decide when it is the right time for—”

             
“
So when is the right time Kristen? After she’s married? After Adrian and her are raising a family? After her aunts and uncles die of old age leaving her with no way to fix the gap? No, the longer she lets it linger the worse it is to fix. It’s been five years. She’s ready. Yes it may be hard now, but she will be happier when her family is in her life. She will be better for it.”

             
“And if they don’t accept it, don’t understand, and remain angry and unforgiving? That will tear her apart Tink, did you think of that?” Kristen continued.

             
All of us just looked back and forth between the girls unsure of whether to butt in or leave them be, their voices weren’t loud enough to carry towards Alyssa’s office, but for some reason that made it a shit load scarier.

             
“The fact that they held on to hope the last five years, with no reason to believe in a positive outcome shows how much they love her in itself. They won’t get her back just to lose her again by their own hands this time. I expect some apprehension yes, but nothing worth having comes easy and her happiness is worth having. No one deserves that more than her after everything she’s been through. And heaven forbid the anomaly happens where they won’t forgive her absence, I will just love her twice as hard for each one of them that won’t. Just like I am sure everyone else here will.

             
I can live with her giving a hundred percent and still falling short, but I can’t live with her continuing to run from this because she’s afraid of what will happen. Not for their happiness, but for her own. She is worth that effort for herself, after all she gives it to us every day.”

             
Jackson kissed Tink’s temple as she took another sip of her tea catching her breath from her tense rant. “It’s ok sweetheart.”

             
“No, it’s not ok Jackson.” She demanded putting her cup back on the saucer forcefully. “I am so
sick
of us not talking about things. She is getting married, and I am pretty sure that everyone here has thought at least once about who would fill up her side on the guest list.”

             
She was right, I had thought about it, but since she never mentioned it, I assumed that she didn’t want to talk about it.

             
“No one shares what they think outside of Gravity and Bravo, but we are
all
Gravity now. We should be able to share everything with each other. I am closer to the people in this room than I am with my own mother and fathe
r
and
damn it
how long are Joanne and Liam going to dance around the fact that he hasn’t popped the question?

             
She wants to get married, you haven’t asked, she’s too afraid to ask, and whether you talk about it in front of us or in private it needs to be talked about because it’s a time bomb between you two, one that Liam doesn’t even know is there.”

             
My dad’s eyes were definitely shocked; he had no idea that this had been the topic of conversation amongst us all at one point. We had all agreed that it wasn’t our place to say anything, but there Tink was frustrated and angry enough to say everything that was on her mind.

             
“You want to get married Joanne?” Liam asked, looking at no one but her.

             
Joanne was quite for a moment, her caramel colored hair covering her eyes because her head was down. “I… I understand that you have been married before, so I never wanted to press the subject. But it was always a question of why we never had the conversation.”

             
There was a loud exhale and a throaty chuckle from my dad, his way of breaking tension. “Joanne, I would have married you
years
ago, but I assumed that at our age you didn’t see a point in it.”

             
“
Our age
?” She repeated cautiously making Doc and Macon chuckle too. Easing the atmosphere a bit more. “I’m not even old enough to retire, Liam.”

             
He nodded, “So you want to get married?”

             
“Yes you idiot.” She smiled wrapping herself into him and giving him a kiss. “It doesn’t have to be anything big, but yes, I want to be your wife.”

             
“Then let’s get married, Joanne.” Dad grinned kissing her again. His eyes fell on me and he hesitated for a moment. “Wait, how do you feel about this, son?”

             
That threw me for a loop, “I love Joanne, and I love yo
u
make it official.”

             
“Are you sure Adrian,” Joanne hesitated, “I don’t want you to feel like I am trying to replace the mother you already have.”

             
I shrugged. I’m pretty sure if I was still a kid the shit would have bothered me, but at thirty with my own adult life, him having his own wasn’t even a thought. “Last time I checked she was remarried and happy, and I think Dad deserves the same. You make him happy Joanne, so please don’t hesitate to say yes on my account.”

             
Joanne kissed him on the cheek again, “Then yes, let’s get married.”