Page 118 of Marcus

He still didn’t have the courage to listen. He was going to turn thirty at the end of the month, in a week, actually, and here he was acting like a teenage boy who was afraid of a breakup. What was that bullshit?

Whatever.

Fuck my whole life.

But tonight was not about his personal problems, so Marcus pushed the thoughts to the side and decided to focus on his father’s surprise for his mother. Peeking in the rearview mirror, he found Gian smiling at Cara while she tried to pry yet more information from him about the evening. Gian wasn’t giving her a damn thing. Not that it mattered because soon his mother would know everything anyway.

They were almost at the penthouse.

Tonight was the big reveal.

As it was, the rest of his brothers and a few close friends of his mother and father were already waiting at the penthouse to celebrate with them when they arrived. A cold-plate lunch had been set up for everyone to enjoy while they walked around and admired the newly designed rooms and all the hard work that had gone into this surprise for Cara.

He knew his mother would love it.

Of course, she would.

For him, though, the penthouse didn’t bring very many good feelings for him. Oh, there were certainly good memories. That was the place which really started it all for him and Cella despite the fact he’d met her years earlier, but that didn’t matter.

It was there that he really saw her.

“Almost there,” Marcus murmured from the front seat.

“Almost where?” his mother asked. “This is the way to the old penthouse—did that sell yet?”

Gian simply chuckled. “No, it didn’t.”

“What?”

“I said, it didn’t sell yet, Cara. In fact, I never put it on the market.”

“Why not? I thought that’s what you wanted to do?”

“No, that’s what you seemed to settle on when nothing else satisfied you when it came to the penthouse. I had … a different idea,” his father said.

Marcus smiled again.

His mother had gone silent.

Soon, Marcus had pulled the Mercedes into the underground parking garage of the building where his parents’ penthouse was located at the very top. Putting the vehicle in park, he couldn’t help but shake his head at the million and one questions that his mother started to ask after her short bout of silence. All it took was a look from his father from the back seat for Marcus to step out of the car.

Everybody needed their privacy, after all.

He also felt like his father was due a moment with his mother before this whole day really began for Cara. While Gian hadn’t been the one working on the penthouse behind the scenes, he did expend great effort to make sure this all happened just the same.

Outside the car, Marcus fiddled with the phone in his hand. He didn’t pay much attention to the other vehicles parked in the garage, or even the passersby on the street just beyond the cement walls. His mind was too distracted; his heart was still fucking empty.

He had no reason to decide that moment was the one when he would finally listen to Cella’s message but for whatever reason, he decided to just do it. Get it over with, and if the message was what he thought it was, then today could be the point where he started over. Not that he wanted to do that, but this had always been about her from the beginning anyway. What she wanted, he would be there to give.

Even if that meant she didn’t want him.

Marcus hit the number one on the screen, holding it until it dialed through to his messaging service. Putting the phone to his ear, he listened as the recording played through its standard message before he hit one again to play the only message on his phone.

“Hey, Marcus, it’s Cella,” she greeted in his ear. “I’m sorry it took me this long to call. At first, I just didn’t have the right number but then I wasn’t sure if what I needed to say would be better said on the phone or face to face. Anyway, if you call me back, we can chat. If you’d rather wait until we can see each other, that’s okay, too. Your father invited me to your mother’s surprise party for the penthouse. It’s just me coming. I wish I had better reasons for why I needed time, but I don’t. I just needed it. I hope you understand. Tiff says hi, by the way. Asks about you all the time. Talk soon, okay? Bye.”

He pulled the phone away from his ear, suddenly feeling like his feet weren’t even on the ground. She’s here. That’s all he could think about—it was the only thing that seemed to make any sense at all to him.

She was there.