Their Beautiful Broken Queen

Chapter 1

Tulip

Since moving to New York, my life has been busy. I spend the majority of my time working. And when I'm not at work, then I'm at home painting. I work full-time for a company that designs clothes. And on the side, I paint and sell them through a local gallery. Both jobs are passions of mine. And both of them are making me a good bit of money.

I've been up here for over a year now, and as much as I love my jobs, I really miss home. New York is way busier than I'm used to. Not only is it busy, but it really is the city that never sleeps. There is always something going on up here. And even at night, it's so damn bright that it seems like it's daytime. I've not seen the stars since I moved up here, and I miss them as well.

Since moving up here, I've only spoken to my family on the phone. I talk to my mom and dad, Boulder, every day. And my brothers, I talk to them a couple of times a week. Well, I talk to Rubble and Rock a few times a week. My oldest brother, Stone, has a girlfriend now, so I don't hear from him as much.

Honestly, I think that he's pissed at me for taking off on Shadow while he was gone. He gave me hell about it when he found out because Shadow is one of his friends. Stone seems to think that I didn't love Shadow and that it was easy for me to just take off on him. He doesn't know how hard that it was on me.

My brother, like the rest of my family, doesn't know what all I had been through. None of them knows about the abuse that I suffered from my dad, Sean. And none of them knows about the car accident. So they don't know about my legs or me losing my baby.

I got so used to keeping s**t to myself growing up that it became normal for me not to let anyone in.

I know that if Stone knew about what had happened to me that he would understand. As it stands, since he doesn't know, he thinks that I left Shadow because of that b***h who claimed she was carrying his kid. Stone made sure that he let me know that the baby wasn't his. That Shadow never cheated on me, and he even has the DNA test that was done to prove the kid wasn't his. Stone didn't have to tell me s**t. I know that Shadow never cheated on me. He loved me as much as I loved him.

So I'm lucky I talk to Stone once a week anymore. And most of the time, I don't even get that call. And when I call him, he ignores it. So, I stopped calling him and started to ignore him as well. I didn't want to be petty, but with the way that he's been, I finally had enough. And I decided that two could play that game.

My mom was, of course, upset that I never came home to visit. At first, she didn't understand why I didn't. But once Shadow was discharged from the military and home, she understood. I told her that some, but not all, of the reason that I didn't come home was that it would be too hard to be around him. While true, it also wasn't the complete truth.

My boss was all about family. So, for the holidays last year, she gave us time off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I spent Thanksgiving here, not wanting to go home. And at Christmas, I flew down home for a couple of days. I got a hotel room and rented a car so that I didn't have to stay at home.

I reasoned that if I wasn't at home, then no one would notice that I was missing my legs. I made sure that I packed nothing but loose-fitting pants or really long skirts to wear while I was down there. And I only wore tennis shoes.

Thankfully, I managed to avoid my family finding out about my legs. And I managed to sneak in and out of Texas without seeing Shadow. And that meant that I didn't see any of the club family while I was down there. And I missed all of them, but it was necessary.

But the holidays are slowly sneaking up on me again. And I know that Mom's going to want me to come visit since I haven't been down there since last year. My grandparents are all getting older, and my one grandpa's not been doing too well. So, it's a trip that I know I'm going to have to make.

I've also sat and done a lot of thinking about it, and I think that I'm going to have to move back home. I don't want something to happen to any of my grandparents and me not be there. Or I guess that I should say that I don't want to miss out on spending time with them. I want to be able to visit and see them and spend whatever time that they have left with them.

I've not made up my mind yet, but it's something that I've been thinking about a lot. But I know that moving down there means that at least one of my secrets will come out. And I don't know if I'm ready for that yet or not. Because I know my family. They will be pissed that I kept it from them. And then they will hover and be overprotective of me.

But it ends up that the decision gets taken out of my hands. Today I'm at work, trying to get ready for the launch of a new line that's coming out in a couple of days. The team and I have been working hard on this new set of clothes for months, and I'm excited that it's finally coming out.

Today, we are double-checking that everything is ready to go. The day of the launch, the team and I, as well as the company owner, will all be wearing clothes from the new line. And we have models who will be wearing our clothes as well.

I have a nice pantsuit from the collection that I'll be wearing. The pants have wide legs so that they work with my prosthetics. And it is all so comfortable to wear. The girls on the team picked it out in black and red. They said that it looked the best on me and made me look like a badass. So I was all for it.

We had just finished off where we were at and split for lunch. The building where I work has a few places on the bottom of it to grab food. So I went down there with another girl to grab a sandwich and drink at a sub shop.

We got our food and headed back upstairs to eat in the break room. I had just sat down to eat when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked to see that it was my brother Stone calling.

I hit ignore and took a bite of my sub. It wasn't a few seconds later, it rang again, and again it was Stone.

So once again, I hit ignore.

The third time that it rang, I finally answered it.

"What the hell do you want, Stone? I'm at work, and I don't have time to argue and fight with you," I told him.

I could hear him sigh on the other end of the phone. And then he said, "I didn't call to fight with you, either, Pebbles. I called you for a reason, and then you kept hitting the f**k you button on me."

"Yeah, you should know how that's done. After all, you do it to me every time that I call you. You know, I always thought that brothers were supposed to protect their sisters and be on their side always. But you've never been on my side. For three years now, you've been pissed at me for leaving HIM. And you don't let me forget it either. I had my reasons for leaving, and it was more than that b***h showing up claiming that she was pregnant with his kid. s**t happened that I don't talk about and I won't talk about. Now, why the hell did you call me?" I asked him.

"I don't have time to talk about that s**t right now. But we will talk about it. Mom wanted me to call you. She was taking Grandma and Grandpa to Grandpa's doctor's appointment and was in an accident," he told me.

At my sharp intake of breath, he hurried to reassure me. "They are all ok. But Grandma broke her arm, and Grandpa broke his leg. They are going to need some extra help for a while. So, Mom and Dad have moved them into their house. We're all going to pitch in to help take care of them. And moms taking time off from work to be there with them. She's at the hospital with them right now. They'll be in the hospital for a few days before they get out. She asked me to call and let you know. And she wanted to see if you'd be able to take some time off from work to come down and help her. I know that you hate being here for some reason, but we could really use your help right now. You know, Dad's parents are not in the best of shape either, and they help them out as well. Your family could really use you right now. And contrary to what you believe, we all, and I mean ALL, miss you like f*****g crazy. You gotta stop pushing us away and let us in, Pebbles. The boys and I want our sister back, and Mom and Dad want their daughter back. You've been distant since you were a kid, and I think I have an idea why. Come home for a month or two and help Mom out and be with your family again, please."

"I have a launch for a new design coming out in two days. I have to be here for it because I worked hard on this with my team. I'll need to be here for at least a week for that. I'll talk to my boss, but I should be able to come after that. But I'm telling you now, I won't be going around the clubhouse. I'll get a rental for a month or so, and I'll help Mom during the day. But that's it. When Mom doesn't need me anymore, I'll be coming back home," I told him.

"This is your home, Pebbles. Texas is your home. The club is your home. Mom and Dad's house is your home. You don't need to get a rental, Mom and Dad have plenty of room for you to stay there," he told me.

"I'd rather have my own space for my own reasons. The club is not my home. And stop calling me Pebbles. That was my nickname when I was a baby. My name is Tulip. I have to go. I need to finish lunch so that I can get back to work. Tell Mom that I'll call her tonight. I have to talk to my boss before I'll know if I can come down there or not. I gotta go, I'll talk to you later," I said and then hung up without giving him a chance to say anything else.

After getting off of the phone with him, I had to take a few deep breaths in and out. Hearing that my mom and grandparents had been in a car accident brought back memories of my accident. And it was trying to throw me into a panic attack. So I sat there and did my breathing exercises. And worked on calming down.

The girl that I had gone to get lunch with was sitting at the table with me and had heard a little bit of the conversation. So she knew about the accident. She knew about what happened to me a few years ago, at least part of it, so she helped me calm down.

Once I was calm, I thanked her for helping me. And then, I wrapped the rest of my sandwich up, wrote my name on it, and put it in the fridge.

I had lost my appetite, and I now needed to go talk to the boss. I guess that I needed to go back home for a while. I just didn't know if it would be permanent or not. And going home means that there's a chance that my secrets get out. I am NOT looking forward to this.