Chapter 8

Sage

"I had no idea Kid" Joey, my manager says over the call.

I finally called him on my way to Adrian's office, Ari wanted to buy him lunch so here we are in the elevator almost to the last floor.

Joey was pretty worried about me and why I wasn't answering his calls or texts. He was like that favorite Uncle and mentor, he really liked Malcolm though, so did I, but that's over now.

"It's okay, I'm getting over it" I answer nodding my head.

"You sound okay, so babysitting?" he asks in a teasing tone. "You left a boxing ring to join a parade?" he asks lauging.

"I just needed to get my mind off of it, and these kids are great" I chuckle, "plus, I didn't give up on boxing" I roll my eyes.

"I know I know, look, I have some really important people I want you to meet soon, so I'll call them and call you" he says in a hurry.

Joey, always running around doing something.

"Yeah yeah, bye" I say before hanging up.

I look at the kids and they were busy talking with each other about what they wanted to get for lunch. I don't even know what I wanted, I was feeling so far under the weather today, all I wanted was to go home and lay in my bed.

We get off the elevator just as my phone started to ring again, I look at it and I see its one of those numbers Malcolm used to call me. I wasn't in the mood today but I answered anyway, he's been calling and texting non stop, no matter how many times I've blocked him, he still just finds another way to contact me.

I think I'm just going to change my number soon, hopefully that might save me.

"You guys go ahead" I say releasing Ari's hand.

I walk slowly behind them as they ran ahead of me, a few of the employees gave me weird looks but some others waved, I waved back because they were polite enough, they've seen me here with the kids before so I'm not new.

"Malcolm" I say once I answer the call, taking a deep breath.

"Happy, I've been trying to get to you for days!" he exclaims.

"I'm aware, you have some nerve calling me" I answer.

"I know, I'm sorry okay, I just wanna talk to you" he says in a low voice, "can you please tell me where you are?" he asks.

"No, what do you want Malcolm?" I ask getting frustrated.

He started to say something but my phone beeped a couple of times letting me know I received a message, I look at it with creased eyebrows seeing that it's my sister's number.

Olivia: Happy, I'm pregnant

Olivia: Please talk to me, I need your help

Olivia: Malcolm won't answer my calls or texts, he doesn't know, please tell him to call me back

I stand frozen in the spot, I could hear Malcolm calling my name but I was too stunned. My whole body was frozen as my eyes situated on the text messages, she had the nerve to want me to tell him to call her back.

Firstly, I don't even know how she got his number in the first place for them to even get acquainted to end up in bed together. They both had the nerve to be contacting me after all that, I was already in a bad mood and this just crumbled my entire day.

My phone fell from my hands and flat on its face, I hear it crack but I don't pay that any mind. If I hadn't felt betrayed before, I felt betrayed now, the person who was supposed to be my sister, my role model, slept with my boyfriend, the one I would do anything for.

This was far worst than just a stab in the back.

I never trusted Liv, but I trusted Malcolm, I trusted him so darn much.

I still loved him.

I know I do, but I would never would have looked back.

"Can I get you anything sweetheart?" Dad asks.

I could feel the other side of my bed dip down as he sat to rub my back. I came home immediately after that message. I came home immediately after I got the messages, feeling my whole world just fall apart again, tears blinding my eyes and pain in my throat.

My father is the only person home with me right now, my Mom and brother are out and Emily is at school. He was surprised I came home just in the middle of the day but when he saw how I looked, he hugged me and just let me cry until I told him what was wrong.

"A ticket to a different country" I sniffed wiping my eyes.

"You already left me once Happy, I don't think I can let that happen again" he says rubbing my back.

"I just....I don't understand why she had to do it" I say softly.

"I know, if I could make you forget I would gladly do, but sometimes everything happens for a reason" he says with a sigh. "Just take all the time you need okay, I'll be downstairs".

Once again, I'm left to cry myself to sleep. I didn't even care about my phone, I left it where it fell, I was better off without it but I'll have to buy a new one soon. I can't deal with it right now, the last thing I needed was either of them calling and texting me all day and night again.

I'll have to call Joey from the house phone and talk to him, I already told him earlier that if he couldn't get to me he should call either my Mom's phone or the house phone, I gave him both numbers so he'll know what to do if he needs me.

I made a lot of money kickboxing, I've met a lot of people in the past few years that I've been doing it. It was the third best thing to ever happen to me, college was the first and Malcolm was the second, now that both are over I only have kickboxing. I'm not even sure if I'll still do the sport, but it wasn't just a sport to me, it was my career and hobby, it was the greatest distraction from life.

Whenever I felt down, I went to a fight club. It was like my safe haven, especially because I wasn't close to my family anymore, Joey was my family through those times when I couldn't come home for holidays, when I needed a shoulder to cry on, he understood me because he groomed me ever since we met.

He always said, if your passion for fighting doesn't push you to go on then let your pain be the new passion.

Which meant if I ever felt lost and like I couldn't go on, I should use my pain as an encouragement and that's exactly what I've been doing.