Harmony's Healing (Downtown Book 2)
Harmony’s Healing
Copyright © 2015 by:
Tiffany J West
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and resemblance to persons; living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Published by:
Tiffany J West
Cover art by:
Cover to Cover Designs
Photographed by:
Kruse Images & Photography: Models & Boudoir
Edited by:
Kendra Johnson
Cover model:
Daniel Wells
eBook and Paperback format:
Champagne Formats
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author
Table of Contents
Other series written by T.J.West
Other series by T. J. West
The Rain Series
November Rain - book 1
Purple Rain - book 2
Rain Street - book 3
Downtown Series
Forbidden Faith - book 1
Judging June - book 1.5
WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYONE
leave their five year old son behind to start another family, and then never return? What kind of person makes that decision? Who would put their kid through that? Did they think about what it meant to destroy their family? How can a person leave a wife, a son - a perfect family. All demolished over night without a thought.
My mind is consumed with lingering questions. Was it me? Was I not well behaved? Was I not smart enough or not a good enough son? I’ll never truly understand what made my father not want me or my mother, what made him leave us. Why he never wanted me in his life at all. Even after he left us, he never tried to contact us again. Did the bastard ever love me?
I keep replaying the vision in my head, seeing him for the last time, grabbing his suitcase and exiting our house without even glancing in my direction. I was nothing to him. He didn’t even have the heart to say goodbye. I’ll never,
ever
forget it. My mother was in tears as she wrapped me up in her arms and told me everything was going to be okay, she was going to take care of me. She said we were going to be happy anyway and would live our life to the fullest. I remember staring at the open front door, completely numb. My mother keeps talking, but her voice is far away. I was completely paralyzed as I felt my life crash in around me. My dad had just walked out of our lives.
My life was never the same after my dad left. Gordon Montgomery no longer existed - I never existed. Hate had started to form in my heart and there was no way I was going to be healed. Not as long as his daughter, Faith was around. I was never going to recover. She’s the one who ruined my chance at having a happy family - the family that I deserved. She took my place with my father. It was supposed to be mine. My father left me because of her. I never wanted to know about her, see her, meet her or hear her name - ever. Unfortunately things have never gone my way. Not only did she take away my father, she took away my best friend, Lucky, too.
I remember the day I first found out Faith existed. I was fourteen years old and I was home alone after school. I was a bored, messed up kid. I used to snoop around my mother’s bedroom when I had nothing to do. I came upon a box one day full of pictures and letters I didn’t understand. In the pictures were my dad and a petite young, raven haired girl standing with a beautiful lady. They were all smiling at each other and seemed so happy. One of letters explained that the little girl in the middle of the happy family was my sister, Faith; she was seven years old in the picture. After reading that letter and discovering I had a sibling I didn’t even know about, I stuffed everything back into the box and never looked at them again. I became angry.
My mom worked two jobs to cover our living expenses and to help pay for my music lessons. She wasn’t around most nights. It wasn’t until a couple years after I found the box of photos that I was brave enough to ask my mom about who was in the photos and who wrote the letters. She came clean about Dad having an affair and how he had another child with his mistress; he left us to marry her, to raise their new baby. This crushed me and angered me even more. With some investigating, I found out where they lived and would drive by constantly, stalking their mansion. It was surrounded by a security gate, massive trees and a giant wall that covered their precious hiding place. I wanted to burn their home down. It sickened me to see their perfect life. My dad left us high and dry with no money or security. How the fuck could someone do that? How could you, love one family only to desert another? My mother deserved to have at least been given a cushion of dough or a house so she wouldn’t have to work so damn much. It didn’t make any sense to me, how could he not feel responsible enough to take care of us too?
One day though….one day I’ll give her that cushion. Even if it takes me years to build my music career, to become someone, I will give her the chance to live comfortably and to be taken care of for the rest of her life. She deserves it.
I’ll never forget the day Faith walked into my life for the very first time. At the time I didn’t realize who she was, just some hot chick Lucky was dating. Lucky and I were living in our first apartment together. He was working in construction and I took a job at an instrument store, giving guitar lessons. We finally had a place all to ourselves; there was nothing better than coming home to a place where we could kick back on the sofa, watch TV or play our music and feel like the King of our castle. I loved my place. Lucky introduced his new hottie and there we were - Faith and I - face to face. I never wanted to come home again after that. When Faith told me her last name was Montgomery, I almost had a total breakdown, right in front of her and Lucky. I didn’t say a word about how she affected me, I blinked a hello and just left. From then on I just gave her the cold shoulder every time I saw her. I really couldn’t fucking believe, of all the people in the world, Lucky was dating Faith, FAITH. He had no clue she was my half-sister. I never told him who she was. I couldn’t. Talking about her as my sister felt more real. I didn’t want to make it more real than it already was, so I never said a word. We never discussed my father either. He knew he abandoned me to live a happy, rich life without me and my mother. Lucky knew to never bring up the wretched past and that was fine by me. But knowing Lucky was dating Faith, I couldn’t even describe how angry and tormented I felt. I wanted to bash my hand through a wall so many times, I couldn’t take it! I hadn’t felt that way in a very long time. The wound that I had kept stitched up for ten years had been torn open; flooding with vile, foul feelings.
Even though I had hurt for my best friend, I was fucking elated that “our” dad had finally broken those two up. I’m a sick bastard, but I thought it was a brilliant move giving a one million dollar check to Lucky, to get him out of Faith’s life. I felt guilty so many times about how this hurt Lucky, but I was very selfish. I needed Faith gone. Leaving Arizona, leaving everything behind was the one of the best decisions for myself. In all honesty, I couldn’t live without Lucky. We were a team. I was sticking by him no matter where we went. San Diego became our destination. We broke up our first band,
Inked
, and formed a new one,
JINKS.
Jason, Wayne, and Slim became part of our family. We worked well together and have been a band for almost six years.
Music was the reason I had been able to suppress my anger and hatred for so long. The vibe of playing an instrument and writing lyrics, I could drown out whatever feelings tried to surface. It is my outlet and my passion. When I turned nine my mother, Lucy signed me up for music classes as soon as I was interested in the guitar. She did everything she could to help ease my pain and she could see music was the solution. I owe my life to my mother. If it weren’t for her and my love for music, I would probably be in jail. I know my anger would have driven me to a worthless, meaningless life where I would have sold drugs on the corner for Lucky’s mom, while getting high or worse I would probably be dead by now from an overdose.