The Contract

Chapter 30

Donovan's parent's house was picture perfect on the outside, and the inside wasn't any different, it belonged in a cottage brochure for 'the perfect getaway', but there was one thing that stood out that I noticed.

The walls were completely empty, there were no photos of Alex or any photos at all of the family, it was really weird, considering how friendly they were and family-orientated they seem.

His mom Mary had been nice ever since I stepped inside their house, and his dad, Jacob had just prepared lunch and drinks for all of us, silently in the kitchen, that was overlooking the lounge area we sat in.

His mom was beautiful for her age, I could see that she really kept care of herself and her appearance, and Donovan's dad... was the spitting image of Donovan, yet older, with the same color eyes but they both had completely different personalities from what I had seen so far.

We sat in silence, it felt like someone was sucking all the air out of the room as the tension quietly grew.

That was until both his parents look at each other, and his dad Jacob gets up from the sofa opposite me and heads off into the other room.

"You must have a lot of questions Evan." His mom, Mary says.

"My husband and I thought this was long behind us, but it seems... not." She says, a troubled look on her face.

I was about to ask what she meant, but her husband, Jacob walks back into the room.

He was holding a file in his hands, which he passed to me before he sat back next to his wife.

"What's this?" I ask, holding up the file.

"You said you'd come clean, we had an agreement." Donovan says roughly, glaring at his parents next to me.

Sighing with a strange look on her face, his mom smiles sadly.

"Inside is everything I have of that night, it's the whole truth of what really happened to your dad, Richard." She simply said.

"Please." She urged me to open the file.

I open the file and the first thing I see is a report, specifically a postmortem report on my dad's body.

What I read next, has me completely shocked.

'The victim had a heart attack'

Heart attack? How the hell is that possible? He was healthy, he was... it doesn't make sense, if he had a heart attack, I would've known from the report that was done after his death.

But... if he had a heart attack... then...

"Your dad died before Alex's car hit him." Donovan's dad, Jacob says.

"Richard died and his car lost control, we had professionals look into his death, to be absolutely sure." His mom says.

I swallow hard as I read further into the report, but it has no saying of the car crash and Alex hitting him...

Even so, she hit him and left the scene.

I put the file back on the coffee table in front of me.

"Why was Alex kept from the police report? She hit him with her car, even if he died, there was a chance she could have saved him."

His mom's eyes lower sadly as she holds one hand in the other tightly. "We wanted to protect her."

"Evan, your dad was already gone, Alex couldn't have saved him, that's a proven fact, he was dead two minutes before impact with Alex's car, we showed your mom everything, and we thought this was over."

My ears start ringing... what the fuck did he just say?

"My mom knew about this?" I breathe out, hands shaking.

I shake my heart and laugh, there's no way, she would have told me if this was true, she wouldn't hide this from me...

Would she..?

"We all agreed Alex deserved a second chance to get clean and try and get her life in order, so we kept her name out of it." His dad, Jacob says.

"Alex had her troubles, she was a difficult child at times, but she didn't kill Richard." His mom assures me.

I clench my fists and close my eyes. "Then why..." I breathe out. "Why did she kill herself if she was as innocent as you portrait her to be?"

The room falls silent until Donovan puts his hand on mine, making me open my eyes and look at him.

"Because of me."

"Now son, you didn't-"

Donovan turns and glares at his dad, stopping him from saying another word.

"Alex wasn't my real sister, she was my half-sister." He said, making his mom look away, with a twisted expression on her face.

"She was sick, and you both knew it the moment she put a knife on Rebecca, my girlfriend at the time." He told them, eyes blazing. "She didn't need rehab, she needed to be hospitalized."

His mom starts crying as Donovan's dad stands up, pain in his eyes.

"We already spoke about this Don, Alex didn't know-"

"She knew what she was doing, just like she knew what she was doing when she locked herself in my room." He interrupted his dad.

"Donovan-" His did whimpers out, a look of horror on his face.

Shaking his head, he laughs. "You brought her into this house, knowing how she was, how she looked at me like I belonged to her like I was hers."

"She was sick, mentally disturbed, and you fed her the bullshit that kept her insane, but once I shut it down and left... " He sighs heavily and gets up from the sofa and walks away.

"I hated her." His voice was venom. "I warned you both that this would happen, and it did, and look at the mess it's caused."

I look between Donovan and his parents and then it hit me...

I finally understood what had happened.

"She was in love with you?" I say, not needing an answer from the look on his parent's faces.

Guilt, shame... regret.

"She was never my sister." He laughs out bitterly, staring at his dad with hate-filled eyes. "You hid the truth from us until her mother died, then you brought her here, knowing exactly how she was, and that she needed help."

"You hid Alex from the accident to hide the truth, that the great Jacob Steele had a mistress and a child, who had an addiction." He said, turning to glare at his father, who was glaring right back.

"You didn't protect her, you simply protected yourselfs."

"Donovan, Jacob, stop this now." His mother pleaded, her voice trembling.

"She killed herself because I felt nothing for her and despised her entire existence." Donovan says, not an ounce of regret in his voice. "And this fucked up family."

With that, his mom starts crying uncontrollably as his dad lowers his head and clenches his jaw and fists, with tears in his eyes.

"Come on Evan, we're leaving." He tells me, holding out his hand for me.

I take it and look back at his parents, to see them staring at me, and our hands, then look away in disgust.

It all came to me then, why Donovan did what he did to get away from his family.

Their kind faces were simply a disguise and their gentle voices hid nothing from the way their eyes looked at us as if we were nothing but dirt on the bottom of their feet, inside their lovely home.

Before we leave, Donovan stops and turns to face his parents, with cold dead eyes and a hateful glare.

"This is the last time you'll see me, so take a good hard look, because if you show yourself in front of me again, you'll regret it."

With that, his hand in mine, he leads us out of the house, slamming the door shut behind us, he walks me back to his car, parked near the gate, at the end of the driveway.