Page 38 of Thicker Than Blood

I smiled at her but it faltered when she glared at me. She pushed me back, and I stumbled on the step. She stepped outside, closing the front door behind her, but it didn’t fully close.

“You are lucky that you are Christos’s son or I would slit your throat and bury you in my back garden to ensure my tomatoes have a decent fertiliser this year,” she snapped viciously at me.

I held my hands up.

“I come in peace,” I said softly before checking her hands for weapons.

“What did you do to my daughter?” she asked with her nostrils flaring while she stabbed her finger into my chest with each word.

I gulped at her question because there was no way on this earth that I could tell her what I did to her daughter.

“I-I made a mistake, Ms Jenson. I—”

“Are you here to hurt my daughter again?” she snapped, interrupting me.

My twisted mind went to all the times that Amari got off from pain and I hesitated before answering.

“I will never harm your daughter emotionally and only physically if she wants me to,” I answered honestly but my cheeks burned when she looked confused.

“What do you mean if she—” she began to ask but the penny dropped and she looked flustered. “God, never mind. I don't want to know what you young people get up to nowadays.”

Thank God.

“Why are you here?” she asked looking me up and down with narrowed eyes as she crossed her arms. “What do you want from her?”

This was harder than I thought it was going to be, but I thought of Amari and my resolve strengthened.

“Ms Jenson, I never knew about any of you until my father passed away. I was under the misconception that you sought to ruin my family. There is no excuse for the manner in which I behaved, but the news came while I was grieving the loss of my father. It wasn't until I spoke to my mother and she told me what she did to ensure my father never divorced her. I am truly sorry for everything,” I said lowering my head to look away from her. “I should never have presumed the things that I did and Amari bore the brunt of my anger.”

“How dare you?” she whispered causing me to look up.

My heart plummeted at the sight of her eyes glazed with tears. The same deep dark eyes as Amari’s.

“Your father always talked about how proud he was of your accomplishments, your character. Today, he would be ashamed of you,” she said quietly wiping the tears away from her cheeks. “He was a good man. A good man who had to make difficult choices for you.”

“Ms Jen—”

“Call me Thema, you’re making me sound old,” she said with a sniffle.

“Thema,” I said softly, appealing to her with my eyes, pleading. “Please give me a chance to make amends, to let me get to know Alcina, to know you.”

Her lips trembled and more tears rolled down her cheeks. She had lost her partner that could never fully be hers because of meand my mother. A love that became forbidden in the eyes of the world.

“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to become fertiliser,” she said with another sniff.

I was about to reply when the door flew open and another Jenson set of eyes was trying to murder me.

Amari.

Chapter 28

Amari

It had been so good catching up with Tara a few nights ago. I couldn’t remember the last time I had got all dressed up to go out. It had been the perfect distraction from my inner turmoil. When I went to make a cup of tea, I looked around for my Mum to ask her who was at the door but I couldn’t find her.

“Mum?” I shouted out.

I walked out of the kitchen and went into the living room, which was empty. That was when I saw the front door was ajar. That was when I heard Stefanos’s voice. It had been almost five weeks since he threw me out of his house. I froze before I began to have heat palpitations.

---