Fine.
I’d gone outside to eavesdrop.
But it was out of love and concern, so that made it okay.
It turned out that Kerri was also a lot like her daughter. While helping her husband with paperwork, she’d come across somediscrepancies in my dad’s schedule and procedures. She’d dug in to verify before going to my mom.
There’d been a brief discussion of a possible affair, but Mom cut it off before they’d gotten into any nitty-gritty. Not because she was so trusting of Dad’s loyalty. It was simply because she hadn’t wanted to know.
I hadn’t, either. I’d spent my last couple of weeks at home avoiding my dad so I wouldn’t accidentally discover anything.
What if they were wrong, though?
What ifwewere wrong?
What if we’d assumed he was a philandering asshole, but those inconsistencies were when he was at his own doctors’ appointments for the critical disease that left him looking healthy yet in need of an expensive and experimental treatment that insurance wouldn’t cover?
Thinking it through made it seem even more far-fetched, but it was still a possibility.
One I was trying to cling to because it seemed like the most forgivable of all options.
Noble, even.
Okay, not really, but it was still a better motive than gluttonous greed.
No matter how many times I mulled the situation over, I was left with nothing but question marks.
I could lean into those question marks. Follow in my mom’s footsteps by not digging. Or even better, I could just blame Josh.
Lord knew he deserved it—anda violent kick to the junk.
I disregarded that option immediately. I wasn’t Maddie levels of nosy, but I couldn’t ignore something so major.
The kick part still held merit, though.
Burning tears instantly filled my eyes when I had a fleeting thought about going to the police with what I knew.
I wouldn’t do that, but not because I was a saint of a daughter.
The only evidence I had was a she-said about a he-said that had happened at a rager of a Hollywood party. The police would likely laugh in my face.
If I had a paper trail or bugged his office to get proof, would I turn my own father in?
I didn’t think so, but the fact I’d even thought about it to reach that decision was enough to make me feel like the world’s worst daughter. Guilt slammed into my chest so hard, a giant choking sob tore free. The muffled despair scared whatever wildlife scurried away under the brush.
Betraying my family like something out of a bad mobster movie is out. Where does that leave me?
It left me halfway up a mountain with no answers.
A shit-ton of questions.
And bleeding blisters.
It was too late to do anything about the blisters, but I could get answers. I needed to. There was no way for me to plan until I did.
Going to my dad seemed like the most informative option, but…
I was hesitant.
