Part 42 (2/2)

”Do you love him?”

”I loved him more than anything alive. He is the only one who has ever been there for me my entire life, and he loved me too. I do still love him, but I don't know if it's enough anymore.”

”I'm sorry, Morgan. I should have let you get on that plane.”

”Yeah. That would have made things easier,” I said it, but I knew that I would have spent the rest of my life wondering the answers to all of these questions.

”Morgan, I know that it's selfish of me to even think, but I want you. I love you.”

”That is pretty selfish. A leopard's spots never changes, Drew.”

”My spots started changing the first time you kissed me.”

”You never kissed me before.”

”I didn't want to be intimate with you. I wanted you to pay for messing everything up.”

”How could I mess something up that I was unaware of?”

”You couldn't, Morgan. Your dad would be so disappointed in me,” Drew said with his head down. He was ashamed of himself. I never thought I would see the day.

”How did he meet my mom?” I couldn't say my dad. I never knew the man existed. I thought that when I heard my dad from back home say that he raised another man's child that he was talking about Justin, not me.

”I don't know the answer to that. I didn't want to know any of the details.”

”You said that your mom was going to marry my dad. Where is your mom?”

”She shot herself in the head the day after Michael's funeral.”

I gasped. ”I'm sorry, Drew.”

”Don't you dare apologize to me. Don't you ever apologize to me. I deserve to feel every bit of pain humanly possible,” he said, getting angrily.

”I have to go to Mr. Callaway.”

Drew only nodded. He knew that I would.

”You're not really going to leave me in here to starve are you?”

”No,” I said getting up, ”but you are going to stay there for a while.”

I didn't need an address. Mr. Callaway's address was programmed into the GPS on Drew's car. I had found it when I was sitting in his air-conditioned car one afternoon waiting for a game to start.

His house was just as extravagant, only newer. I wondered if that would be left to me too. The grounds were meticulously kept, and the blacktop drive looked like it was freshly laid. It wasn't quite as big as the house we lived in, but bigger than the normal mind could imagine.

I walked up to the ma.s.sive door. I'd never seen anything like it. There was an arch built from stone and the double doors were gla.s.s with etched tree branches galore.

It was breathtaking. I rang the doorbell and all of a sudden felt sick.

The nurse that seemed to always be with Mr.

Callaway answered, and I wondered if she was the only one there. She smiled at me.

”He saw you walk up,” she said, gesturing with her hand for me to enter.

Did this man have a camera fetish?

Holy s.h.i.+t...

The house was beyond astonis.h.i.+ng. The ceilings looked like they could go on forever and I wanted to run my fingers across the vibrant marble floor. I followed the nurse as my eyes widely took in the surroundings. I was expecting to be taken to his bedroom, but I wasn't. She led me to a den of some sort. I waited while she opened the wood pocket doors.

Mr. Callaway must have been an advocate hunter.

There was every exotic animal on the planet in that room. I almost jumped when I saw the stuffed Black Panther beside of me. It looked so real, and his eyes looked hungry.

Mr. Callaway did look bad. I had never seen him look so sickly. His eyes were sunk into his skull, and his lips were dry and cracked. The nurse pushed the b.u.t.ton on his bed and he struggled to sit. I got an immediate cold chill. You could feel death lurking in the air. I didn't want him to die. I wanted to know him.

He put his hand out to me, palm side up, and I placed mine in his.

”How are you, Morgan?” he asked. I knew he was talking about Derik and what I had been through with him, and I was going to leave it at that. My intentions all along were to go there and expose Drew. I couldn't do it. I didn't want him to think that he took me out of a bad situation and put me in a worse one.

”I'm good Mr. Callaway. How are you?”

”I have never been better,” he smiled.

My eyes couldn't seem to stop looking around the room at death. I'm sure if I would have counted, I would have counted close to fifty dead animals, including the paintings around the room. I couldn't help but look at the owl straight across from me hanging from a branch that miraculously grew from the wall. His big eyes never left the sight of me.

”You're a hunter,” I stated the stupid fact.

”I used to be. Have you ever been to Africa?”

”No,” I replied. I had only been out of the country once, and that was when Drew took me for our anniversary.

”You tell that boy I said to take you there, beautiful country,” he a.s.sured me.

I dropped my head. I didn't mean to let him see the sadness, but he did. He read me like a book.

”What's wrong, Morgan?”

I looked into his cloying eyes. ”I know who you are,” I said.

He smiled a warm smile.

”Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you give me time to know you?” I pleaded.

”I'm sorry, Morgan. I don't always make the best decisions, I guess,” Mr. Callaway confessed.

<script>