Page 14 of Ember (Royal Harlots: Yonkers, NY Chapter #1)

Epilogue:

She looked around the room and back to the group of women who were watching her. “We do have our work cut out for us, don’t we?” she asked.

“It’s okay, guys,” she breathed. “I’ll be fine.

Just meet the guys in the parking lot and help them bring in the tools and stuff.

” She had heard Jack’s pickup pull into the empty lot behind the church, that they were turning into the parking lot once the building permits came through.

The state of New York loved its permits and sure took a long time to approve them.

There was so much red tape and hoops to jump through, she wasn’t sure that she’d ever be able to open the doors to the Harlots.

For now, they were all meeting at Hurricane’s House, but she didn’t want to impose on them forever. The guys needed their privacy, too.

“The other women all listen to you,” Lillith observed, “are you in charge of them or something?”

“Kind of,” Ember said, wrinkling her nose at the thought of being in charge of anyone. “I’m this club’s Prez. Well, I will be just as soon as we have a building to house our little MC. We’re the Royal Harlots.”

“What’s an MC?” Lillith asked. She wanted to giggle at the thought of never knowing what MC meant, but when Ember got to New York, she had no clue that biker clubs even existed.

She thought that a bunch of people just got together to ride bikes.

She never imagined that they had a clubhouse and rules with members and all that stuff.

“It means motorcycle club. We’re bikers and most of us are bikers’ Ol’ladies. This church will be where we meet, if we can get it all fixed up.” Ember looked around the room, and Lillith did the same.

“You have your work cut out for you,” she said.

Ember didn’t miss the look of concern on Jack’s face as he walked into the back of the church.

She nodded at him, silently letting him know that she was all right.

They had developed such an easy way with each other that it didn’t take much to know what the other was thinking without words.

Lillith cleared her throat, garnering Ember’s attention. “Sorry, but I have to tell you something, and I need to just say it before I chicken out again.”

“Again,” Ember repeated.

“Yeah, I’ve been here six times now. Tonight was the first time that I’ve gotten up the nerve to actually come in to talk to you.

” Ember worried that she had another stalker on her hands, but Lillith looked harmless enough.

Her eyes were dark and stormy, but the rest of her seemed generally relaxed.

She took a deep breath and let it out. “I think that I’m your sister,” she admitted.

Ember smiled at the young woman and shook her head.

“That’s not possible. My mother and father only had one kid—me.

Honestly, it’s a good thing because neither was very well equipped to be parents.

” Ember hadn’t spoken to her father in years, and the few conversations that she had with her mother were short and to the point.

They really didn’t exchange pleasantries, and why would they?

That would mean that they actually liked each other, and they didn’t.

She still had the emotional scars from her mother telling her how much she disliked her.

Lillith handed Ember a photo of their father and the note that had his name and number on it and said, “Just call me when you’re ready.”

“Oh,” Ember breathed. “How did you get this photo?” she asked.

“Our father gave it to me, along with his information. I tracked you down first. You were pretty easy to find after they did a news article on you about your stalker. You're kind of famous,” Lillith teased. Ember hated that Hurricane and Jack talked her into doing that fucking interview. They said that it would be good for both the Bastards and the Harlots, but she hated being in the spotlight. Especially for something like having some asshole stalk her. They tried to focus on women in abusive relationships and how to get out of them safely, but the news story went a bit off topic, and she couldn’t even watch herself on television.

Jack assured her that it wasn’t that bad, but she knew the truth.

They had used her as a human-interest fluff story, and she hated that.

There was nothing fluffy or cute about being an abused woman.

“How’s good old Ben doing?” Ember asked, not really caring to know the answer.

Lillith shrugged, “I’m not really sure. He tracked me down at the diner that I worked in and told me that he got the letter that I sent him.

Once I found your name in my mother’s box of things she left for me, I started searching for you and found an address for him.

All I had to go on was his last name and address, but that was enough to be able to send him a letter.

He told me that he and my mom hooked up at a concert, and that he didn’t know about me.

Then, he handed me an envelope full of cash, and well, that’s how I got here. ”

“And why did you want to come here?” Ember asked.

“To meet you,” Lillith said. “My mother never told me about my father,” Lillith almost whispered. “When she died, I thought that I had no family left. But then, I found your name in her things, saying that you could possibly be my sister, and well, here I am.”

“Consider yourself fortunate that you never knew Ben,” Ember grumbled.

“Growing up with a drunk wasn’t the easiest of childhoods.

” Ember had a feeling that was one of the reasons why Lillith’s mom kept her father a secret.

Maybe she didn’t want her daughter to get hurt the way that Ember had been.

She often wondered what it would have been like to grow up with a mother who actually cared for and protected her from her father instead of enabling him.

“I always thought that she was just selfish for not wanting to share me with my father. Then, she told me that he was dead, and I thought that was the end of it,” she admitted. “I mean, I couldn’t beg for a relationship with a dead man, right?”

“Well, no,” Ember said, “that would be difficult, and I won’t tell you that you shouldn’t have a relationship with him now, either. I don’t really have a relationship with Ben,” Ember admitted.

Lillith started fidgeting, and Ember could tell that she was carefully weighing what she was going to say next.

“Would you want a relationship with me?” Lillith almost whispered.

“I know that I just sprang myself on you, and you don’t owe me anything, but I think that it would kind of be nice to have a sister.

” Ember hadn’t really given the whole sibling thing much thought over the years.

She had always been an only child, but the thought of a sister did intrigue her—if Lillith was truly her sibling.

Honestly, she wouldn’t put it past Ben to put this poor girl up to lying to her just to get in with her.

He had reached out over the years to Ember, and she refused his messages and calls, but why send Lillith into her life now?

Maybe Lillith was there of her own accord, and truly wanted a relationship with her, but she never trusted easily, and now would be no different.

“How long will you be in town?” Ember asked.

“A few days for now. I lived in California, but I have no reason to go back there since my mother died. I’m staying at the cheap little motel on the other side of town,” Lillith said.

Ember knew the place. She had stayed a night there when she got to town.

It was a horrible place, and a part of her worried about letting Lillith go back to that hotel for even one more night.

“Hold on a second,” Ember left Lillith sitting in the corner and made her way over to Jack, who was still pretending not to watch her like a hawk.

“You good?” he asked.

“I am,” she breathed. “She says that she’s my sister. My father helped her to find me.”

“Do you think she’s telling the truth?” Jack asked.

“I do, but I need to do some research. That’s where you come in,” she said, smiling up at him. “Can you check her out for me. Her name is Lillith Wolfe and she’s from California.”

“Will do,” he said. “Is she staying in town?”

“Yeah, and that’s why I need you to check her out.

She’s staying at the Motel Eight on the other side of town, and you know how bad that place is, right?

” she asked. She could already see his wheels spinning as he looked over at Lillith sitting alone in the corner.

“I do,” he breathed. “I’m assuming that our guest room will be occupied for a little while, then? ” he asked.

“If she comes back clean, yes,” Ember said.

She knew that she never had to ask Jack a favor like that.

He was an even bigger bleeding heart than she was.

After all, he saved her from a fate much like Lillith’s current situation.

Ember wasn’t sure how she had gotten so lucky to meet a man like Jack, but she had, and now it seemed as though she was going to have more family than she ever dreamed possible.

“We’re going to have a full house with the baby and your sister,” he said, smiling down at her.

“Supposed sister, and we still have six months until the baby comes,” she reminded.

“But a full house sounds perfect to me.” She was the girl who had no one in her corner just a year ago, and now, she had more friends and family than she could have imagined.

The Harlots were that for her now—her family. And Jack, well, he was her forever.

The End

What’s coming next from K.L. Ramsey? You won’t want to miss Lillith (Royal Harlots MC: Yonkers, NY Chapter Book 2)! Coming in June 2026!