AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I turn back to face him. “Well, she had a daughter.”
“Harriet,” Xavier recalls impatiently. “The real reason why you crashed Ryan’s wedding. I know.”
Thanks, Brooke, I make a mental note to remind myself that Brooke and Xavier tell each other everything.
“What about Harriet?” He presses.
“I–uh, had reason to believe that Ryan is her father,” I admit finally and tell him about the ring.
Xavier remains silent throughout my story. Then, he wearily drops into a nearby chair, raking his fingers through his hair. He looks up at me, his green eyes filled with accusation. “I see. So that’s why you left without talking to him. You believed he could have done something so despicable.”
Tears spring to my eyes. “I was in shock. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“You could have asked him,” Xavier suggests, a hint of disappointment in his tone.
“All I could think about was my sister. I feel responsible for her death because I didn’t believe her back then. And I couldn’t just ask Ryan. He says he doesn’t remember his entire time in college.”
“One thing you should know about Ryan is he doesn’t need more than a few brain cells to remember details. Yes, he had no clue which way was up most of the time, but he still graduated summa cum laude. He would have been able to tell you if he did it or not.”
I nod, a wave of guilt washing over me.
Xavier probes further. “So, when was this Greenhouse party that Vivian went to?”
“November first. It was a Halloween-themed party, I think.”
“Now see, that’s fucking interesting.”
“What do you mean?”
Xavier shakes his head, not elaborating, but continues to question, “And, the DNA test? What did it then reveal?”
Feeling awful I confess, “I... I haven’t checked it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I know he didn’t do it.”
Xavier looks at me, one eyebrow raised, his tone almost mocking, “Really! How can you be so sure?”
Ethan was right. “I just knew it in my gut it couldn’t be, only I had no proof.”
“I can give you the proof you need,” Xavier states, rising from the chair and coming toward me. “Ryan wasn’t anywhere near New York that day. He was in Seattle. Grieving.”
“Grieving?” I echo, confused.
“Ivy, his former wife, was dying. Slowly and painfully. Nothing helped, and she had to be terminally sedated, it became too much for her. Too much for Ryan. It ended on November the first. Every year, for an entire week, Ryan isolates himself at the lake house to mourn. It didn’t matter if the sky was falling, or in the middle of semester exams, he’d just up and leave.”
The realization slowly dawns on me as hot tears cloud my vision.
Xavier continues, “He’s an incredibly loving man Stella, but he was damaged goods after Ivy. He locked his real self far beyond each and offered the shell all too generously to women.”
It suddenly all makes sense why Ryan was the way he was. Why he’d blow hot and cold and seem to switch off with certain topics.
“But he’s healing now. And I dare say more so in the past year since he’s met you.”
I raised my puzzled gaze to his, a silent question in my tear-filled eyes.
Xavier shrugs. “How I know that is because last Halloween, Ryan wasn’t in Seattle, was he?”
