Trinity (Moonstone Book 1) (22 page)

Around them sat hundreds of wedding guests, their eyes fixed on the bride and groom as mine were. Suddenly the celebrant told them they could kiss and I couldn’t bring myself to look away as he pulled his bride into his arms and locked his mouth to hers.

Everything was just so perfect.

Tears pricked my eyes but I blinked them back. I wanted that, I realized, I wanted the perfect, the happily ever after. My eyes went the older couples in the front rows. His family and hers. I tried to imagine something like this for Luke and me but it was impossible. I couldn’t have my mother at my wedding, if I ever had one, and Luke’s family would never clap and look so happy at the prospect of him and I marrying.

Suddenly an overwhelming sadness settled in my chest and I bit my lip to stop for crying out as I realized for the first time how pointless Luke and I were. I loved him, of this I was sure, and he loved me, I was sure of that too. Truth be told, I knew he loved me long before he told me that morning. I knew it in the way he looked at me, the way he touched me and the way he had protected me on more than one occasion.

But so what? What did that love matter if we couldn’t have this? If we couldn’t have a future together? Luke would graduate from college soon and probably move to a big city for work. I couldn’t go, I couldn’t leave Moonstone, they were my family and my future. We were just beginning and I couldn’t give up our dreams now, not that Luke had even asked me to. All we had was now. And whilst now was fucking awesome, not was not going to be enough. There was a future out there that I couldn’t imagine how would work for us.

“Trin?” I heard Molly mutter beside me, “What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

I nodded and brushed away the single tear that had escaped my rapid blinking. I straightened. “Sorry. I guess I am just a big romantic at heart.”

She smiled. “Aren’t we all, hon?”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Luke

Opening the door I stepped into my parents’ home, calling out a hello as I did.

Brooke appeared from the living room, a smile on her face. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit,” I told her, “they here?”

She shook her head, “Nope. They’ve left already.”

That’s right. I remembered now that they had the Newton function on, something I was supposed to go to but had reneged on. I didn’t want to be around that family at all. I didn’t want to be around him.

“They’ve gone early haven’t they?” I said. It was barely six p.m., most of the society functions didn’t start until much later.

“They had to drive to the country club,” Brooke told me with a shrug, “that’s where the wedding is.”

“Wedding?” I repeated, my heart stammering to a halt in my chest.

“The Newtons’ wedding.”

I shook my head. “Hang on. Bianca’s wedding isn’t for another few weeks,” I corrected, referring to Melissa’s cousin, “I thought tonight was something to do with a merger.”

“Duh,” Brooke rolled her eyes, “the merge of the Newtons with the Houghton’s. The merger through the wedding. They brought forward the date because Bianca is pregnant and they didn’t want her showing. It’s a secret.”

Fuck
. My mind was racing to join together all the dots that I already knew were connected. The Newtons and my parents were at a wedding at a country club. Trinity was performing at a wedding in a country club. It was not possible that there were two different weddings or two different country clubs.

“Wait,” I said, “how did you know Bianca is pregnant if it’s a secret?”

She grinned. “When will you learn Luke? I. Know. Everything.”

I stared at her. “Is Trinity playing at the wedding?”

“Sure. Moonstone is the entertainment. I don’t think Mom and Dad realize it’s her band,” she giggled, “but I reckon Melissa is going to be real pissed when she realizes who it is.”

“What do you know Brooke?”

“I know that there is another reason why Melissa hates Trinity so much,” she said casually, “a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with you either.”

“Little sister,” I began, “you are going to get yourself into serious trouble one day with your gossiping.”

I turned to go.

“Wait!” she called, “where are you going?”

“I have to get to the wedding,” I told her, “before the shit hits the fan.”

“Wait for me!” she ran upstairs and then emerged a few minutes later having pulled on some shoes. “There is no way I am missing this.”

“Brooke,” I groaned, “this is not fodder for your gossip. This is real life. This is Trinity’s life.”

“And we need to make sure that Melissa doesn’t do something to ruin it,” she agreed as she ran past me and out the door.

I nodded, my chest tight as I followed her. She was damn right. I had no idea what I would be walking into but I was scared.

There was something not right about this. Not right at all.

****

I drove like a madman to the country club. It was a couple of hours drive away and I knew that I wouldn’t get there before the band started playing but hopefully I would get there before anything happened. Not that I knew what to expect.

Melissa and her family were at the wedding.

My parents were at the wedding.

Trinity was at the wedding.

Surely nothing would happen. As far as Trinity was concerned Mr. Newton and Melissa were simply parents of my friends and nothing more. I had kept the secret, as much as I hated it I realized that Mr. Newton was right. There was no point in telling Trinity that I knew who her father was when it wouldn’t change anything. Mr. Newton would never do anything for her, knowing the scumbag he was wouldn’t change a thing in her life.

I didn’t dare admit that the real reason I didn’t tell her was because I didn’t want to lose her. I was doing this for her, I told myself whenever I felt the doubts and guilt creep in, not me.

It was for her.

Brooke prattled on the whole way to the country club but I barely paid her any attention. It was dark by the time we pulled into the car park which was filled with expensive cars. I spotted parents car and Mr. Newton’s, but parked a long way from them by what I suspected were the staff cars, cars of older makes and models. Climbing out I ran a hand through my hair thinking this through for the first time.

Fuck. How was I going to explain my presence to anyone there? Trinity would want to know why I was there, Melissa too, not to mention my parents. What if I had panicked for no reason at all? What if Melissa said nothing, what if she did nothing more than shot daggers Trinity’s way. What if Trinity didn’t even know she was there, I mean, these affairs could be pretty big things. What if I had completely overreacted?

Beside me Brooke giggled and I glanced down at her, having almost forgotten that she was there. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said with amusement, “I’ve never seen anyone that drunk before though. I mean Emma got really drunk at a party once but she just threw up and then fell asleep, but that lady is stumbling and literally falling off her shoes.”

“What lady?”

I glanced around the carpark but didn’t see anyone. Then Brooke nudge me and pointed to the woman who had pulled the entrance door to the club open and was now disappearing inside, tripping over the threshold as she did. A flash of dirty blonde hair was all I saw of her before she disappeared inside and it took me a moment to realize who she was.

“Fuck.”

She was the one person I hadn’t figured in the equation. She was the
only
person I had personally removed as a threat to Trinity’s mental or physical wellbeing but she was the one that had the power to do the most damage. And I had just written her off.

“Luke?”

I was running before I heard Brooke speak, my feet racing across the car park, my heart hammering in chest, straining against my rib cage with fear.

Trinity’s mother was here.

She would ruin everything.

****

Trinity

I had managed to get through three songs before I saw them. One Celine song, a Taylor Swift song about happily ever after, and a version of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. Then just as I was introducing myself and the band to the wedding guests my eyes had fallen on the table toward the back. Luke’s mother was glaring at me as if I was something she would find on the bottom of her shoe whilst his father just watched me impassively.

I hadn’t expected to see them. In honesty I had never expected to see them again.

Heat had immediately colored my face and I had stumbled over my words, which Gwen thankfully stepped in to finish. I had taken a drink of water and even before I stepped up to look out over the wedding guests again I knew I would see Melissa there.

My eyes found her immediately. She sat at the table with Luke’s parents and she was wearing the lilac dress I’d tried on the day she’d seen me in the boutique. My stomach flipped and I wondered if she’d done it on purpose. Did she know I would be here? Did she wear that dress to show me that she could have what I never could?

It didn’t matter though, I told myself, I had Luke and she didn’t.

The girls all saw her too and they understood. From then on Gwen did all the talking, something I normally did, but I was too shaken. I could sing though, only if I wasn’t looking at them, if I tried not to think about them being there watching me. I was dressed in my nice, albeit cheap, green dress and I was wearing a strand of fake pearls around my throat, but I might as well have been naked for the way it made me feel. Vulnerable, exposed. At least when I was in my normal stage gear I was prepared for his, I felt tough. Dressed like this, in a place like this, I was completely out of my element.

My eyes drifted to the happy couple who swayed together on the dance floor and I told myself that I could do this for them. They didn’t deserve to have me fall apart and ruin their wedding. They were paying us good money to perform and perform I would.

Suddenly a high pitched shriek filled the air and I immediately stopped singing just as the other girls stopped playing. Everything in the room came a sudden and inexplicable halt. The bride and groom pulled apart and everyone turned, eyes searching for the offending scream who continued.

“That’s it!” she cried, “I give up! I can’t take anymore.”

Even before my eyes found her I knew, from the way my guts twisted into knots who it was. I’d know that drunken screeching anywhere. My mother.

“You’re here! You’re here with
them
and with
her
playing happy families,” she screamed, her voice slurring over her drunken words, “and I’m alone all by myself. Alone. You’ve taken her and left me all alone like I knew you would.”

Finally I located her at the back of the reception venue. She was dressed in her clothes from the diner, her hair a mess around her face, her eyes bloodshot. Swaying on her feet it was obvious she was very, very drunk. I resisted the urge to crawl away and curl up in a ball, instead I kept my feet rooted to the ground. After all, she wasn’t yelling at me.

She was yelling at a man in the back.

“Answer me!” she screamed, “I’ve given up everything for you—you could at least answer me!”

Suddenly the man got to his feet and my blood ran cold as Melissa’s
father
stalked angrily toward my mother. Melissa’s father. I recognized him instantly as the man I’d met all those years ago.
My
father.

Before he reached my mother she lurched away from him, knocking into another guest, knocking her off her chair. “Get away from me! You are never touching me again! You are never fucking me again!”

I cringed at her words as a titter rose up amongst the crowd. Molly appeared at my side, slipping her hand inside mine and squeezing.

“What is she doing here?” I whispered, although I had a feeling I knew the answer.

Suddenly the door behind them opened and Luke appeared in the doorway. He was breathless and panting furiously as his eyes darted around the room surveying the scene. His eyes found my mom and Kent who were glaring at one another before he searched further and found mine, stepping further into the room.

“So after all this time have you accepted her,” my mother was screaming, “are you making her one of yours. Are you shutting me out and choosing her?”

Melissa got to her feet then and went to Luke, putting her hand on his chest. Her voice, although low, carried across the silent and stunned room to me as if she whispered it straight into my ear. “I kept the secret Luke, I swear I did, just like you asked me to. But this woman…”

I glanced around the room and found eyes on me. Everyone’s eyes. Looking between my mom, Kent, Melissa, and Luke understanding dawned on me. I felt as if I was drowning.

“Who is this woman?” I recognized Luke’s mother voice.

“Trinity’s mother,” Melissa told her smugly, “and an alcoholic and a whore.”

Luke’s mom tsked.

“You watch it lady,” my mother rounded on her, “or I will tell you about your husband.”

I blanched, oh god surely not. Suddenly I felt as if I was going to be sick. Turning I raced from the stage pushing over a waiter who was making his way into the room, sending his tray flying. Behind me I heard Luke call my name but I couldn’t look at him, I didn’t stop running until I reached the restrooms, pushing inside to be sick in the toilet.

The door behind me opened and I didn’t need to turn around to know that it was Luke.

“Oh god Trinity, I am so sorry…”

I raised my head and looked at him, waiting for the anger and hate I must surely feel to take over. But it never came. Instead I felt incredibly sad. “You knew?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, “That Melissa’s father was your—father?”

I nodded.

“Yes,” he whispered, “I knew.”

“How long?” I asked. Had he known this forever or was this something that he had just learned tonight? For some reason that made a big difference.

“A few weeks,” he told me and blanched, “when I collected the rest of your things from your house.”

I nodded and made my way over the basis, splashing cold water on my face and rinsing out my mouth. A sudden calmness descended over me. I knew it. I knew this, or at least I knew something, would happen. Something to yank Luke and I apart. I just hadn’t realized what it would be.

“I confronted him about it,” he told me, “and he convinced me to keep it from you. I shouldn’t have listened. I’m sorry.”

“And you told Melissa?”

“No! I never told her. She overheard us, and well, you can imagine how upsetting it was for her…”

I turned to face him. “Yes. I can imagine it was quite traumatic for her. It would be much better to find out this way. This way was just perfect and not humiliating at all.”

He grimaced and reached for me but I flinched back. “Don’t. Don’t touch me.”