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Chapter Eighteen
Abby
“Tell me why you hate my family so much, Damian.” Abby felt him stiffen beneath her so she rushed to explain. “I’m not fishing for information, I swear. I just want to hear your side of the story. I’m so tired of the hearsay.” She wanted it to end. The games, the deceit, everything. It was time to erase the stain from her soul caused by Celeste’s manipulations and her own stupidity and move on with her life, with or without Damian. Of course, she had a sinking feeling that it would be without because he would hate her once he found out what she’d been up to.
But she was done.
The opportunity to invade Damian’s privacy had presented itself when he’d been locked up in the bathroom for so long. The wretched laptop that he’d stared at most nights laid on his office desk but she’d only stood in the doorway and stared at it. She would find something there, she was positive. Elaina’s words had echoed in her mind. We all want Daddy’s company back …
Despite the revelation about Celeste, Abby wanted that, too, for her siblings’ sake. That desire, however, had been overridden by another desire—for Damian. She had a desire for whatever they had to be real and not some sick game that either of them was playing. So, she’d backed away from his office, resolved in her decision to forget about hurting him in any way, no matter if he was the ruthless monster most people claimed he was. Just as he’d stolen everything from her family, he’d also stolen her heart. She’d opted for joining him in the shower instead, to have him intimately close to her before she spilled her guts before she cleared her conscience and lost him forever.
Resting beside him with her head laid on his shoulder, she closed her eyes, “please, Damian. Tell me.”
He sighed, his tense muscles relaxing. “First tell me what happened to you this evening. You were in tears before I arrived at your place. I could tell.”
Abby’s eyes opened and she moaned. “Fine. I discovered that Celeste isn’t my real mother, and she isn’t Wyatt’s either. The story behind the entire mess is so unbelievable. It’s like something out of a ridiculous daytime drama.”
Damian tensed once again. “Oh?”
Abby lifted her head to give him a suspicious look and was taken aback by the obvious guilt on his handsome face. She didn’t understand why guilt would be present so she ignored it. “That’s all you’re going to say? Just oh? Aren’t you going to rejoice in the fact that the Aldridge family is as dysfunctional as families come?”
He cleared his throat lightly. “I would never rejoice in your pain, Abby. You seemed devastated earlier.” His eyes swept over her face. “You look much better now. Are you?”
“I guess,” she said. “I mean, after crying for hours and feeling as if my entire life was a big lie, I realized that maybe I’m better off with Celeste not being my mother.” She didn’t bother to add that she was disappointed in her father as well. “I’m still so hurt by everything I found out and everything she said to me. She was horrible. My biggest concern now is breaking the news to my brother. He doesn’t need the distraction while he’s at school.” Her relationship with Wyatt was still on the rocks but at least he accepted her calls. After she confessed her sins to Damian, the next step was repairing her relationship with her brother.
“You’ll be okay, Abby,” Damian said softly. He trailed a finger over her bruised cheek. “I should have Celeste’s fingers amputated for this,” he said absently.
“Please, don’t prove my theory that you are, or were, a mob boss.”
His brows shot up. “A mob boss?” Damian’s roar of laughter made her smile. “You certainly do have an active imagination, Abby. I’ve haven’t done anything illegal since I was seventeen.”
Abby froze. “What did you do?”
There was a brief moment of hesitation. “I wasn’t really arrested, just taken in by an officer for fighting.”
Intrigued Abby propped herself up on an elbow. She trailed a finger over the scar on his upper lip, the one that added to his tough guy demeanor. “Is that how you got this?”
“Yes, along with a broken nose. Mother was livid, but she calmed down a bit when she found out why I got into that fight. She did raise me to be a gentleman after all.”
The mention of the warm woman whom Abby liked quite a bit made her grin. She could picture the fiery Cuban lecturing a young Damian in rapid Spanish. “What were you fighting for?”
“A lady’s honor,” he said with a boyish grin. “I couldn’t very well stand by and watch a lady get harassed by a group of idiots.”
“You fought a group?”
He shrugged. “Hey, I was a hot-headed teen, I wasn’t big on logical thinking. And, I thought the girl was hot.”
Abby punched his arm playfully and he chuckled. “How noble of you.” Her smile faded as she held his gaze. “But you would have fought to protect a girl even if you didn’t find her hot, wouldn’t you?” She knew he would. Getting to know Damian, the little she did know about him, she’d found him to be a good man. He was a walking contradiction to what Celeste and Elaina said about him.
“I would,” he said. “I hate bullies and people who think they can hurt whomever they want and get away with it.” The chill in his tone and the way his eyes became stormy made her shiver. Clearly, they were no longer talking about him fighting for a cute girl as a teenager.
Abby swallowed and slowly pulled away from him. Her heartbeat accelerated and her hands became clammy. She was about to lose Damian. “Is that what happened with your father? Did my father …?” She felt sick and couldn’t continue.
Damian’s eyes locked with hers. “Let’s not do this now. You’ve already been hit with bad news today.”
“It’s okay. I can take it. After the small insight into my parent’s relationship, I’m starting to see that maybe my father wasn’t the saint I thought he was. I really need to know, Damian.”
Reluctantly, he sat up. “I didn’t see this coming.” He laughed, but there wasn’t the slightest bit of humor in his eyes. “I never thought I’d ever be in bed with Caleb’s daughter dishing out his sins.” Damian seemed to turn into himself while Abby studied his vacant expression. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said, more to himself than to her.
