ENTANGLED: A McCarthy Love Story

CHAPTER 021

“So you’re just gonna come back home?” it was Luca who asked
“I’m going to Milan, dad’s renovation project still needs supervision” Nick replied, he hadn’t spoken to his dad since he left Texas, he wasn’t even sure he was still had employment with Luxury, Richard could’ve maybe decided to punish him with that. But in all honesty that didn’t matter to him anymore.
“I told you he was going to chicken out” Charlie told her husband and Nick frowned into the computer screen where Charlie was lying on her back with a bowl of grapes resting on her now gigantic belly and Luca was sitting rubbing her feet.
“I’m not chickening out” maybe calling them was a bad idea after all.
“Yes you are, you are running away” she said as casually tossed a grape into her mouth.
“I am not. You said to tell her how I feel and I did and she told me she never wanted to see me again, so I’m leaving” his heart still felt like it was still being stomped on hours later.
“I did tell you he was a coward now” Luca told his wife and she laughed. They were obviously just goading him, it wasn’t hard to see that. He should have just slapped the laptop shut and be done with them but he honestly needed to talk about it even if that meant they were going to rag on him.
“She said she hates me” it felt just as awful to say as it had been to hear.
“what am I supposed to do with that?” he asked feeling defeated.
“She doesn’t hate you” Charlie told Nick and then to her husband,
“help me sit up” she wanted to get closer to the tablet so she could see Nick’s face better
“You don’t know that” Nick told her
“I know Samantha. She might be angry right now but there’s no way that girl hates you”
“do my back next” she told Luca who was now done with her feet.
“She seemed different, not just because of the hair. She was cold and distant, it was horrible”
“What happened to her hair?” Charlie asked
“It was grown out, it looked nice”
“Are you smiling?” it was Luca that asked
“Fuck you!” he replied. Had he really smiled?
“So, what are you planning to do now?” Charlie asked
“I already told you, I’m going back to Europe. I’m gonna start working again”
“You’re not giving up” Charlie told him stubbornly.
“What would you rather I did? Force her to be with me? I hurt her and now she hates me”
“If you leave New York right now you are going to regret it for the rest of your life. Not fighting for what you want is simply just losing” Luca told him.
Nick sighed,
“Then what should I do?” he needed someone to tell him what to do and that was why he had called the only two people in the world who could.
“She’s hurting and quite frankly it was stupid of you to tell her you loved her the same time you told her what Jason did” Luca told him
“It just happened, I didn’t plan it. Just like I didn’t plan to feel this way about her”
“Love is the easiest thing in the world when it happens by accident, Nicky. But it doesn’t get real until you do it on purpose. So, fix it”
“How?” he hated that he sounded desperate.
“By showing and not telling. Show her how much she means to you instead of just saying it and expecting she’d understand”
“Okay we have to go now, I think I’m in labour” Charlie told them
“What?! You’re in labour?” Nick asked he could feel himself already starting to panic so he wondered how his brother was feeling. But Luca was as calm as ever.
“No, she not” Luca said, he rolled his eyes and Charlie smiled, mischievously.
“she’s been lying about it all week. Almost shit my pants the first time she said it” he narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head at her. She kissed him, which earned her a smile from him even though he tried hard not to.
“We really do have to go, I gotta pee” she said and then hung up before Nick could say anything else.

** ** **

The moment Vicky stepped into Sammy’s apartment she knew something was off. Even before she began to hear her friend sobbing from the sofa, she could already tell that the everything was off. The good news on her lips died as well as the smile she wore.
“Sam?” she called softly coming to her side. She really thought that the days of finding her friend like this was over.
“Sammy?” she called again kneeling down next to the sofa. Sammy raised her face, she sniffled.
“What’s wrong honey?” Vicky asked
“He came here” she said.
Well that was vague,
“Who sweety? Who came here?” she asked mentally preparing herself for battle, if someone had come here and hurt her friend then…
“Nick”
“Nick McCarthy?” What the hell?!
“Yes”
“Oh I swear to God, if he said anything to hurt you then I’m…”
“Jason did it. He killed my baby”
wow. That was unexpected news.
“What?”
“Nick told me. He said they found out months ago”
“What a minute, are you saying Jason drugged you?” this was so hard to comprehend, hadn’t Jason been the nice one?
“He pretended to be my friend so he could get close to me and force me to have an abortion, Vicky I don’t know how I’m gonna get over this” Sammy said and then she put her face into the arm of the chair and began to sob again.
Vicky rubbed her friend’s back, she shocked speechless but she knew her friend needed some encouraging words right now, she wanted to give them to her but nothing came to her head.
“You are gonna get over this” Vicky said as she rubbed Sammy’s back
“How Vicky?” Sammy raised her face to ask, she genuinely needed an answer to that question
“I feel like someone reached into my chest to rip my heart out but they kept it so they can stomp on it every few minutes.” She sniffled,
“not someone. Nick” it was breaking Vicky’s heart to watch her friend like this and not be able to do anything about it.
“Come here” Vicky said coming to sit on the sofa so Sammy rested her head on her laps, she stroked her hair softly.
“You are going to more than recover from this, you are going to thrive” she whispered. Sammy closed her eyes as she enjoyed the hands combing through her hair and the very much needed soft words that accompanied it. She wanted to believe Vicky, she badly did but she couldn’t because deep down she knew there was no coming out of this for her, no recovering. Niklaus McCarthy had ruined her forever.
How was it that in all of this she still couldn’t get the strength to be mad at Jason but somehow hated Nick with every fibre of her being?
“I hate him so much” she muttered and sniffled again
“I know, baby” Vicky replied as she kept stroking her hair softly. She wasn’t sure her friend meant what she was saying but Sammy needed to hate right now and so she was going to let her.
“He said he loves me” Sammy said and then scoffed, the hand that had been stroking her hair paused,
“What?”
“When he came over, he said he loves me”
“Wow” Vicky said because she her brain couldn’t process that information fast enough. If Nick McCarthy loved Sammy then that was… what was it? Vicky couldn’t tell if it was good news or bad news but it was certainly new.
“And the cheque, it wasn’t a mistake. It’s compensation for what Jason did”
“Oh” could we please go back to the part about Nick being in love with you?
Not that she would ever bring it up again until Sammy stopped feeling like the world was upside down, but she really, really wanted to know everything.
“I’m not going to take their money. I don’t want anything from them, I don’t need it” Sammy said stubbornly.
She reached for the cheque where it sat on the table, she didn’t think twice about it before tearing it in half. This was the last thing binding her to the McCarthys and now that was over.
Vicky was totally going to agree with her friend but maybe saying she didn’t need their money was a bit of an overstatement. The girl didn’t have any job or any money and she would have probably been kicked out of this apartment if Vicky didn’t step up to handle her bills.
Which reminded Vicky why she had been so excited coming here today, she didn’t know if now was the right moment to bring it up but Sammy wasn’t crying anymore and a change of topic might do her some good,
“Momma said you could come work at the diner until you find something better”
“Really?” she asked and sniffled,
“Yeah. She also said we could come for dinner tonight but don’t worry about it, we can reschedule” Vicky told her and she nodded. Sammy didn’t honestly think she had it in her to go anywhere tonight even if it was dinner with Vicky’s lovely family.
“I miss your mom” Sammy told her with a sigh. The woman was an angel, she hadn’t hesitated to take Sammy in after her mom had passed. And she was nice and kind to Sammy even till now.
“I miss her too. I haven’t had time to visit home in weeks”
“Because you’ve been taking care of me” Sammy said sadly. She felt guilty that she had robbed Vicky of her life by robbing herself of her life. And at the end of the day it hadn’t even been worth it. Nick hadn’t even been worth it.
“Yes, because I’ve been taking care of you. But that’s okay cause you take care of me all the time. Have you had something to eat?”
“Yes I made a sandwich and everything” Sammy said and then looking over to the kitchen counter to show her before she remembered she had tossed it in the trash
“You did?” Vicky asked in excitement, a sandwich wasn’t a big deal but the fact that her friend whom she had practically been force feeding the past couple of months made something to eat without having to be told, filled her with pride.
“Yes” Sammy said and smiled which warmed Vicky’s heart, no matter what had happened today with Nick she was sure that her friend would be alright.
“I’m super proud of you” she said and then gave Sammy a peck on the forehead.
“I knew you would be”