Black Hearted - An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Complete)

Black Hearted: Chapter 30

So this is what it was like to eat a meal with a family. It amazed Jack how easy it was, how at home he felt.

Meals with his uncle were business meetings. James making plans for the future until he took his last breath.

Jack would never forget that day. His uncle, a shell of a man lying in his hospital bed, tubes dripping drugs into his system to ease his pain. Ethan had warned Jack the end was near, yet he couldn't fathom a world without his uncle, his only family member. The man who raised him. With the death of James, Jack became the head of Blackhorne & Caldwell and the Blackhorne fortune. A responsibility he wasn't ready for, chains of accountability weighing him down. Until the last moment, James retained control, barking orders from his sickbed. Jack obeyed. It was expected.

His ex-wife had sat in the lounge, James insisting she shouldn't overhear the business they had to discuss. James dished out his last orders. Jack had to get into politics, bring the Blackhorne name to the White House, hold the highest CEO position in the country. Never mind, Jack had no interest in politics, no desire to be responsible for building bridges, figuratively or literally. But James wanted it and made Jack promise to not let him down.

James also insisted the Blackhorne name had to continue, that the company couldn't be left to any offspring from their insipid backwater cousins in another country. His uncle waxed on about a dynasty, like the Kennedy's. Two sons, like his father had, like Jack's father would have had had he not died in the accident. In his morphine induced state, James spilled the secret that Jack's mother had been pregnant when the plane crashed. He'd have had a sibling. A brother, according to James, but Jack got the impression James was only assuming, making his dreams come true.

Promises given, James had fallen into a coma. Ethan sat vigil with Jack for hours as the machines keeping his uncle alive slowed the beat, measuring out his life until he pronounced his uncle dead. Despite Jack's efforts at pushing the doctor away, Ethan refused to let him go, holding Jack as he cried in that lifeless room.

"More Arepa Jack?"

Ximena held the plate with the still warm concoction of which Jack had already eaten one. "Why not?"

"That's my boy." Ximena's words burned in his chest. He'd not been anyone's boy since Mrs. Winston. She'd let him watch her bake in her kitchen as well. Blew on the hot apples so he could sample the pie fresh from the oven. Nothing in the world tasted as good as her apple pies. Ximena's cornmeal pies were a close second. A very close second.

"Abuela." Solana's fork clattered against her empty dinner plate. "He's stuffed."

Jack shook his head, his mouth too full of melted cheese to speak his denial.

A cherry tomato rolled across the thick china as her grandmother slid another helping of salad onto his plate. "The man is skin and bone. He needs to eat more, put some meat on his frame."

"Jack looks mighty fine as he is." Those eyes he loved widened, and Solana picked up her glass of water and chugged it.

He forced the last bite down. "I agree. But I'm glad to know you think so too."

Solana punched his arm playfully and sparks of delight filtered through him. Quite the opposite of when she'd held his hand in the limo. The frustrating news from Wolfe mixed with the anxiety at Solana's cool reception at the hospital caused torrents of doubt to roll around in his chest, making his bones shake. With her touch, the bashing abated and when she accepted his hand, the problems of the day didn't feel insurmountable anymore.

He rubbed his tingling arm, making a show of being hurt. "Ouch, my delicate frame."

"Oh, don't be such a baby." Her voice mocked him.