Chapter 34

"I can't do that."

The words slammed into Tapiwa like a kick to the gut. Jadon's response hurt more than everything her father had said and done in the last five minutes.

He wouldn't marry her. That hurt. Not that she had envisioned marriage while she had been taking his cock shamelessly in the backseat of his car. But for Jadon to simply refuse without any hesitation made Tapiwa feel like the whores her father now compared her to.

Suddenly, Tapiwa felt foolish. She released her hold on his shirt and took a step away from him. How stupid could she have been? Had she really thought Jadon saw her more than just an easy lay? What? Had he come to just make sure he had a round with her he could actually remember?  She mused with growing bitterness.

Unshed tears burned the back of her eyes even as the cold air of the night made goosebumps form all over her body. She couldn't look up and meet the gazes of her family. Shame like nothing she had ever felt before swamped her. Tapiwa would have paid anything to turn back time and never sneak out of the house to meet Jadon tonight. Hell, she would have paid a kidney to turn back time and never go to the party or even meet Asher Paterson because that was the point at which the train wreck had started. It had now reached its peak.

Tempers and voices continued to rise around her. "You think you can just sleep with my daughter and walk away!" her father bellowed.

"I will kick your ass if you think you can just use my sister for a cheap lay," Lute chipped in just as angrily.

"I'm not saying she was a cheap lay," Jadon fired back. "But that doesn't mean I will marry her. I don't even know her!"

Tapiwa cringed at the truth in those words. She felt the eyes fall back on her. "What the hell!" Allen cursed. "Tapiwa! You opened your legs for a man you don't even know? Is that what you are doing now? Selling your body?"

Tapiwa shook her head hard. There was no way she would let her family believe that. "No. Jadon is He's Asher's brother."

Silence fell. Tapiwa curled her hands into the hem of her pajama shirt, she still kept her head bent, chin to her chest. She couldn't look up and meet the judgment and disgust in her family's faces. And she knew it was there because if there was one thing Allen Mvula treasured more than going to church every Sunday, it was morals and the perfect reputation. Tapiwa had just taken a dump on both.

"You are Asher Paterson's brother?" Miranda finally asked after a long minute.

Tapiwa didn't hear Jadon respond, but he must have confirmed it because, in the next breath, her mother went off in an anguished voice. "Oh, lord, child! What have you done? Tapiwa! You slept with your boyfriend's brother! How could you?"

"How could she?" Allen gritted out through clenched teeth. "Obviously you have done a poor job of instilling the right moral code in your daughter. That's why she could do this!"

Oh, god. Tapiwa took a step back and wrapped her arms around herself. This kept getting worse and worse. Her mother began to cry as her father continued to declare her an unfit mother responsible for her daughter's misconduct. Tapiwa wanted to go to her mother's defense. It wasn't her mother's fault that any of this had happened.

But she couldn't open her mouth and say anything. Her throat felt tight as though she had a noose wrapped around it. Her feet wouldn't move either. She remained rooted next to Jadon's car.

Then, just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, chaos exploded again. Lute let out an angry growl and before Tapiwa could comprehend what was happening, her brother charged toward Jadon like a football player determined to tackle and take his opponent off his feet. Which was what he did.

Lute bent his body just before he reached Jadon and slammed his shoulder into Jadon's abdomen. Tapiwa let out a shout of shock which was drowned out by the grunts of pain that escaped both men as they both tumbled to the hard ground.

In an instant, both men tried to get the upper hand. They rolled on the ground, exchanging hits. Tapiwa watched in horror as Jadon took an elbow to the nose. A sickening crunch cut through the air and in the next second, blood began to ooze out of his broken nose.

Desperate for someone to do something, Tapiwa looked up at her father, hoping he would stop them before they killed each other. But Allen Mvula didn't look like a man about to stop anything. He stood with his arms folded over his chest, watching the fight with a sneer.

Her mother and sister didn't seem inclined to get involved either. Miranda sobbed quietly beside her husband while Amy looked on with what looked like fascination plastered on her face.

Tapiwa didn't know what to do. The urge to stop her brother from killing Jadon hit her hard, which was a shock considering she wanted to strangle the man herself for using her and humiliating her in front of her family.

However, before she could act on her impulse to save Jadon, the sound of sirens filled the air. In a matter of seconds, they were surrounded by flashing blue and red lights from two police cars parked on either side of Jadon's sleek vehicle.

The moment was surreal. Everything happened so fast. Four police officers rushed forward, shouting something Tapiwa couldn't comprehend. Before she knew it, Jadon and Lute were separated, each held down by two police officers.

In a blink of an eye, handcuffs were then wrapped and secured around each wrist before Jadon and Lute found themselves seated in the back seat of the police car.

"Miss?" An officer said to Tapiwa, snapping her attention away from the sight of Jadon, beaten and bloodied now seated with his arms cuffed behind his back in a police cruiser.

"Yes?" she whispered, vaguely aware that another officer was also talking to her angry father and crying mother.

The young officer in front of Tapiwa gave her a sympathetic smile and then gently took her arm to lead her away from her father's raised voice. They didn't go far, just to the other end of the driveway. Then the officer dropped his hand and took out a small notebook. "Do you want to tell me what happened here tonight?"

Tapiwa blinked, her jaw clenching shut. Oh, she definitely didn't want to tell anyone what had happened. She wished she could erase it from her life permanently. Unfortunately, that wouldn't happen.