Love and Hate (6 page)

 The family doctor is someone on
my father’s payroll to make house calls for special reasons. We had one in the
city, Dr. Woo. I remember once, entering into a room without knocking and saw
Dr. Woo pulling a bullet out of my dad’s back. So, I guess once we moved back
here it was easy to get Stabler back on the job.

Stabler bandaged my arm and
checked to make sure I didn’t have a concussion. Although I knew I didn’t.

There isn’t any police, because
Rick didn’t make the call. He knew it was too late so he just called Dr. Stabler.
When he told my parents that my mother slapped him hard across his face.

She should slap me. My phone died
because I didn’t charge it before we left. If it had been charged, Christian
would have had a chance.

            “Donovan? You okay in there?” I hear
Benny outside the door.

“I’ll be out in a minute.” Am I
okay? No, I’m not okay. I saw my brother die about thirty minutes ago. I’m not
okay.

I open the door and see Benny in
the hallway in his leather coat. He wears the same leather coat no matter what.
He even wears it in the summer. My brother always laughed at that.

I walk pass Benny and head to my
room. I throw on gray sweats and a white t shirt then head downstairs towards
my father’s office.

I told Benny what all happened. I
told him about the man in the mask. The car crash, the gun, the ring, and how I
shot him. I wish I killed him. I wish I killed him the same way I killed that
psycho when I was eight.

I see my sister outside my
father’s office door. I can hear my mother yelling. My sister turns around and
looks at me. Her eyes are red from crying. I walk towards her and we hug
instantly. Ironically, my sister and I don’t hug much. Christian always told us
we should stop fighting and get along more, but we never listened. We’re both
stubborn like that.

I let go of her and walk closer
to dad’s office door. The closer I get the clearer my parent’s heated conversation
becomes.

“You’re out of your mind!” My
mother yells.

“This is the only way, Vera.” My
father says calmly.

“How could you say that? It’s not
the only way Roman. There is no way I’m going to let you ship my son off to
another country!”

What?

“When the police get here, their
already going to wonder why it took so long for us to call. If I know Stonem,
he is going to use this! He is going to use Donovan. We have to protect him.
There are no other shooters. There is just my sons and I don’t even know where
that gun came from.” 

I did wonder where Christian got
the gun from. Christian was not big on guns at all. He must have known he would
need it.

“We can tell them the truth,
Roman”

“Vera, you and I both know they
will switch it! They don’t care about us! They won’t do anything! They won’t
search for the son of bitches that killed my son!”

“Oh and you will?!”

“Damn right! I will!”

There is a long pause between
them.

“Christian” My mother chokes up.
“He’s dead. Roman, Christian is dead. My son! Is dead!”

“I know.” I hear the pain in
dad’s voice. “Vera, I know. For all we know the men out there will be after
Donovan and I won’t lose him. I can’t lose him too.”

I can’t take this anymore. I
quickly burst into my father’s office. “I’ll go.”

My mother turns to me in
disbelief. Her eyes are red and puffy like Ella’s. I look at my father. He
clenches his jaw trying to hold back the tears. I wonder what he thinks of me.
Does he blame me? I know I do.

“Dad’s right. I’m seventeen, the
legal adult age and his son. I’m not stupid, I know how the police will do
anything to get who they want and Stonem wants dad. Mom, remember the Delaney
family? Joe Delaney and his wife were attacked and shot at and his wife died.
Than all of sudden the cops find out the gun on Delaney was the same one that
shot his wife? They’ll do anything.”

“Donovan, you don’t have to do
this. We will find a way.” My mom pleads to me.

I see the need in her eyes. She
needs me to stay, but I have to go.

“Mom I have to. I can’t stay
here. Not now.” I turn to my father. “Where do you want me to go?”

He sighs. “You can go stay with
your aunt in London.” I figured that’s where he wanted me to go. My aunt Lana is
my father’s older sister. London is where my grandfather was from. He was a big
time gangster there before he came to the states to take over New York. “You’ll
stay there until things settle down.”

“Okay. I’ll go pack a bag.”

I turn back and face my mother.

 “I’m sorry I have to do this,
but I can’t stay here anymore mom. I’m so sorry.”

Her eyes tear up. She grabs on to
me tightly, pulling me into a hug. I feel the wet tears on my shoulder. I
quickly release her grip and leave out of my dad’s office. My mother’s crying
gets louder and louder the farther I walk away.

Claudia

I love watching the night sky.
It’s something beautiful about the dark, blue surface hovering over me. There’s
a half moon tonight, well this morning. It’s almost 3 am. Why am I even up?
Well because I can’t stop thinking about the boy of my dreams. I wonder what
he’s doing right now. Is he up like me? Is he thinking about me? Are his feelings
the same as mine because if not…I’m a fool.

“Where the hell are you?” I look
down under my balcony to see my dad. He is on the phone in the back yard.

“No one gave you that order! You
answer to me, not him… What do you mean you can’t? Well when did they report
it?... He’s stalling, I’m telling you. I know Roman Pierce he will do anything
to protect them.”

Roman Pierce. Since I was born,
my father has been after this guy. I’ve heard on the news how he’s a gangster
and a mob boss. Although I heard things, I’ve never invested myself into my
father’s work.

Now it might change because the children
of Roman Pierce are going to be attending my school. Just great. I’m going to
be in school with the kids of the man who hates my father. I mean he wants to
put him in prison, the hatred is inevitable. Hopefully it won’t start any drama
for me.

“I want you to bring him in. You
hear me?” I guess my dad has something on him again. Either way, as long as my
dad takes down the bad guys, I’m happy.

Donovan

I stare at the long white aircraft
as my father’s workers move around. All I’m feeling right now is numbness. Is
this the feeling you get when people you love die? For a son of a mobster you
would think I would be use to it, but see that’s the difference between my
father and all the other criminals. My father made sure to protect everyone.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t tonight. His choice of life finally caught up to
him.

I should’ve been there for my
brother. Whatever he found out tonight, I should have been right there when he
did. I heard Benny asking my father if he thought it could be the Russians or
the Irish. My father said no, but to still investigate it. Really it could be
anyone of my father’s former enemies. I say former because he made peace. He even
gave New York back to the Irish, but who knows. Maybe someone got greedy or
didn’t want to take the chance that Roman Pierce would return. Or maybe someone
finally got their revenge on my father, for whatever he did. Either way, I’m
still to blame.

“Now you said no one really
noticed you at the party, and seeing you hadn’t started school yet, no one
should know your face. If anyone questions, you’ve been staying with your aunt
all summer, okay?” My father says.

“Okay” I answer still staring out
the window at the private jet.

I know I’m lying about talking to
anyone at the party, but I don’t care. All I care about is getting out of here.

“Roman we have to go; the police
are at your house.” Benny says from the passenger’s seat of the limo.

“Okay”

I start to get out the car until
my dad grabs my arm. I turn to see his face in pure pain from holding back his
emotions. His anger, sadness, and guilt are all the things he is keeping
bottled up inside right now. I know this because I do the same thing. I learned
from him.

 “I love you” He rarely says
that. He’s always about showing his love rather than saying it.

“Love you too.” I know this is
hard for him. Most people wouldn’t understand, but I do.

I step out of the limo and head
to the jet without even looking back.

Once I enter, I sit all the way
in the back in the last seat. I see the mini bar has been restocked since our
last ride. I definitely plan to take advantage of it. Alcohol will take all the
problems away.

“Donovan?” I turn to see Reggie,
one of my father’s men, looking like he just woke up. He probably did, after
all it is pretty late. He’s about ten years older than me. He was 20 when he
first started working for my father. Ella use to have a crush on him when we
were younger. Probably still does. “The pilot said he’s lifting off now. You
have to put your seatbelt on.”

I take off my jacket and throw it
against the seat across from me and buckle up my seat belt. I grab my IPOD out
of my duffel bag and sit back against the soft leather seat.

All I can think about is
Christian. I knew something bad was going to happen. I knew it. The only good
thing that happened was…. the girl. My phone, where is it?

I search through my duffel bag to
find it, but I know it’s not here. I left it. I left it in the bathroom with
all my bloody clothes. I remember giving those clothes to Benny. I remember
Benny throwing all the evidence in a giant garbage bag and handing it to Ricky
to take away. Probably out in the middle of nowhere to set on fire. When Ella
and I were younger, we watched our father destroy evidence by burning it. It’s
the best way to get rid of it, I guess. So yeah, my phone is probably somewhere
getting destroyed. Well, it doesn’t matter now because while my phone is gone
and that girl’s number is lost, my brother is gone…. forever.

Chapter

3

                “I Don’t Know You, But I Miss You”

Claudia

“I hate boys!” I say to Jade. I
really do hate them. They’re stupid liars and cheats!

“I hear you babe. Boys are just
good for two things; sex and money.” Jade says while checking herself out in
the mirror.

“I mean how could he just lie to
me like that? Did he really think I wouldn’t find out?”

“I think he just thought you were
that dumb, but he should have known better. There is no way I would be best
friends with a dumb ass.”

“No, you just date them.” I mumble.

“Exactly, the dumber they are,
the easier it is to manipulate them.”

Jade has never been in a serious
relationship. She didn’t believe in high school romance. I should’ve listened
to her. If I did, I wouldn’t be in this situation.

“Listen, just forget about Eric.
He was lucky you even gave him a chance. Remember you didn’t want him at
first?”

Of course I remember. It was a
year ago.

I didn’t want Eric at all. By
December he finally grew on me. So, I gave him a chance. I was happy for a
while, but then I realized how much of an asshole he really was. Then I found
out he had been cheating on me with half the girls at our school. What a jerk!

“You will meet that one guy,
don’t worry.” Jade says while trying out my scented body lotion.

“Remember when I thought I did.”
I’m referring to the boy I met a year ago at Naomi’s party. The boy who had
made me feel alive for a moment. Boy was I fool. Or maybe I wasn’t. I still
have doubts that he played me. I always like to think something happened. Like
maybe he lost his phone or something. I even thought the worst. I thought he
died. The night of the party Christian Pierce, the son of mobster, Roman Pierce,
was killed. I was scared that maybe the guy I met was the son of the criminal
my father has spent his whole life chasing, but I was wrong. Once I saw his
picture in the paper, I realized he was not the same guy. I even considered
that maybe it was his other son, but it turned out that he was living somewhere
else.

I thought about that guy for
months. I even cried when I realized he was never going to call me. How
pathetic is that? Finally I dropped it. He still crosses my mind sometimes.
It’s like no matter what I do he pops in my head at least once a day.

“Yeah, I remember. That guy was
an ass even though I didn’t meet him” She says while putting on her cherry
flavored lip gloss. “So, what are you going to do when you see him at school?”

“Ignore his cheating ass.”

Christmas break was over and
school was starting back. I spent the whole break avoiding him. He tried to get
me to attend the annual Eastbrook New Year’s celebration with him, but
thankfully I went out of town with Jade and her mom to their cabin in the
mountains.

“Well, just know I’ll be there
right by your side to kick ass if anyone tries to come at you including that
slut, Ella Pierce.”

Ugh! I hate that name!

 Ella Pierce is not only the
daughter of Roman Pierce, but also one of the many girls Eric slept with. She
is the one who actually told me they slept together. She just walked up to us
in front of everyone in school and told me. Eric tried to deny it, but he is a
horrible liar. Soon I found out he slept with half the girls at our school,
including girls I associate with.  Ella Pierce has hated me since she came
here. I didn’t do anything to her but because of who my father is our fate was
already written. Pierces and Stonems don’t mix and that’s that.

“Whatever, hopefully this year
will be drama free.” I flip through the US Weekly magazine, but I’m not
focusing on the latest Kardashian scandal or random pics of Blue Ivy right now.
All I’m thinking about is a plan to avoid any unnecessary drama before I
graduate in six months.

“Drama free, huh?” I turn around
to see my dad, standing in my doorway.

“Hey, dad.”

“Hi, Mr. Stonem.” Jade says in a
flirtatious tone. She thinks my dad is hot which is gross. She thinks he favors
Tom Cruise because of his brown hair, that has a few gray strands poking out I
might add, and his height. My dad is 5’9 maybe and Tom Cruise has to be shorter
than that. She also thinks he has perfect teeth like him which he does, but
still that’s gross. Now I can’t look at a picture of Tom Cruise without
thinking of my dad.

“Hello, Jade.” He reverts his
attention to me. “So, I take it you and Eric haven’t made up yet?” The fact
that my dad said yet baffles me.

“Dad, Eric and I are over.”

“Sweetie I know he messed up, but
he really cares about you.”

“Dad, the only person Eric cares
about is himself.” My attitude begins to boil. Can he just drop it?

“Well, Claudia, men mess up. That’s
what we do.” I can’t believe this is my father talking. I love him, but he kind
of sucks sometimes. I understand the real world isn’t all fun and games, but
damn can we at least be a little optimistic here.

“Dad, don’t you want something better
for me? Like you and mom?” My dad’s face falters for a moment.

He doesn’t like talking about my
mom. I wish he did. I wish she was here because at least she brought the
romantic side out of him. Now he’s purely ignorant when it comes to the topic
of romance.

“Sweetheart, sometimes you have
to step into reality, love isn’t like the movies.” And that is the fun fact for
today from Henry Stonem…. My father.

“Well, I’m going to leave this
deep and awkward conversation to you guys. See you tomorrow Claud. Bye, Mr. Stonem.”
Jade says as she leaves out my room. Jade has never really cared about pointing
out the obvious.

I remain standing in front of my dad
while Julia walks in my room.

“Dad, I just want to be alone for
a while, okay? I don’t want to date a guy just because of what his family does
or because you approve of him.” I hope he can understand where I’m coming from
with this.

“Claudia, William and I have
invested a lot into you and Eric’s future together.” And there it is. The real
reason why my father pushes me to be with Eric.

We’re interrupted by my dad’s
cellphone, as always. He reaches into his pocket and pulls it out.

“Yeah” He answers. His face
begins to slowly grin “Okay, I want surveillance on him as soon as he steps off
the plane. I’ll see you in an hour.” He hangs up and slips the phone back into
his pocket.

“What happened?” Julia asks him.

“Roman Pierce’s son has arrived.”

“Why is that important?”

“It’s for Security purposes.”
Security purposes? What does that mean? “Why are you questioning me, you know I
can’t discuss it.” I watch as Julia’s face falters.

My dad talks to her like she’s a
little kid. I have sympathy, but also I’m annoyed by her now. I mean I’m not
perfect when it comes to my dad’s bullshit, but he can’t just talk to me any
kind of way.

“I have to go to the city; we
will finish this conversation later.” He says to me.

“Will you be home for dinner
tonight?” Julia asks as he passes by.

“Probably not, don’t wait up.” He
doesn’t even look at her when he says it.

This past year my dad has been
changing more and more and not only to me, but to Julia. Their marriage isn’t
really going too well, which I kind of predicted would happen, but not like
this. His obsession with Roman Pierce is starting to take a toll on this
family. I mean I get it, he’s supposed to bring down the bad guys, but even I
watch the news. There hasn’t really been any reports on Roman Pierce for a
while. I figure the guy is tired of all the violence and killing. I mean, I
would be if I lost a kid to it. The way Christian Pierce died was really sad
and horrible from what I hear. They say his car was crashed a block away from
his house and the people that did it shot him too. The worst part was that the
kid had to drag himself to his own house where his parents found him.

I remember when Ella Pierce
arrived at our school. I felt bad for her. To lose a brother really has to suck.
So, when she and I made eye contact for the first time, I just simply smiled at
her. Just to let her know that there wasn’t any problems between us. Her
response, “Get out of my way bitch.” And that ladies and gentlemen was the
beginning of a wonderful friendship.

 Great, now another Pierce is
coming to my school. Ella is horrible, so imagine what her brother is like.

This is going to be a great year,
Claudia.

Donovan

It’s been a year since I’ve seen
my family. I expected maybe a couple of months, but not a whole year. After I
left, Stonem went into full attack mode on my father.

 A month after I was gone, the
police did a raid at one of my father’s warehouses. This warehouse consisted of
illegal weapons, foreign paintings worth millions of dollars, and counterfeit
money. They charged my father and took him to trial, so I stayed back until
things cleared.

Three months ago, it finally
ended. According to Ella, Stonem lost the case and suffered embarrassment
throughout the state of New York. He couldn’t pin any of it on my father. He couldn’t
even bring him down for fraud because believe it or not my dad does pay his
taxes. You see my great grandfather, Jack Pierce, wasn’t an idiot. When he
started, he started out legit. He developed many fronts in London before
stepping into the real gritty stuff. He created Pierce Manufacturing Company, a
massage parlor, a bar, and a night club. Once my grandfather Dominic took over,
he expanded it all. By the time my father became boss, we already owned three
Manufacturing companies that are located in New York, Los Angeles, and England.
We have probably a hundred bars located in all three locations along with
massage parlors that are really brothels, casinos, and dock loading
enterprises. Also, the fact that my family does not deal in drug trafficking really
helps. The U.S Attorney, William Anderson, decided to leave my father alone and
go after mobsters who do. One of them being Mickey Valentine. He’s a real
psycho, but has had peace with my family for years, which is good. So after all
that, here I am, back at Eastbrook.

London was cool. It was peaceful.
Me and my aunt Lana just watched TV and I read while she painted. I went to
school there and didn’t really have a lot of friends. Everybody wanted to be my
friend. The Pierce Mob is very well loved in London along with the Kray twins.
Hopefully, my family won’t suffer the same fate as those guys. I had girls too.
I figured I might as well use sex as a grief release.

In the end it didn’t matter. Nothing
could take away the fact that my brother was still dead and I was still lost.
If it wasn’t for the books I read and my IPOD, I probably wouldn’t be able to
get through it. Music and books was the only thing that could get my mind off
it. Although they could do that, the pain was still there. It was still there
just spreading all through me. It’s still there and I don’t know what to do
about it. I don’t think I will be able to ever do anything about it.

“We’re here, Mr. Pierce.” The
limo driver informs me.

I look out the window and see the
front gate. A flash of Christian hits me. Shit! I was worried that was going to
happen. I know while I’m here all I’m going to think about is Christian’s
death.

Once we pull up outside the
house, I step out the limo to feel the fresh air. I can’t help but to picture
his face as he was dying outside this house. I hate this house. I hate Eastbrook,
New York.

 I grab my duffel bag out of the
trunk of the limo and walk towards the brown double wide doors to knock. Before
I can knock, the door opens. It’s our maid, Millie. Millie has been with us
since I was twelve. She’s not really our maid, seeing she’s like sixty now, but
she has always been a part of the family. We kind of adopted her.

She smiles at me. “Donovan.”

I smile back. “Millie.”

            She pulls me into a hug. She smells of
her homemade caramel cake. She must have baked one for my arrival; she knows
it’s my favorite.

She releases me and waves me
inside. “Come in.”

“Your mother has been waiting for
this moment.” Millie says to me as she removes my coat. “I’ll go get her.”

I head into the living room. I
look around in the huge beige room and see our family portrait we took a year
and a half ago hanging on the wall. I remember that day. Dad was pissed at me
and Christian for being late, while mom was mad because we had bruised faces
from our fight with some guys from school. Well, really, I started the fight
and Christian jumped in. She had to put her make up on us to cover them up.

I feel someone behind me and turn
around to see who it is. It’s my sister, Ella. She looks different. Older, I
guess. Her hair is a little shorter.