No, I don’t think I do…
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
“He’s getting connections out of it. Invites. Status.”
I closed my eyes, tilting my head toward the sky.
The parties.
The influx of patients.
Every time I talked to my mom, there was some new bash. Some elite event. Some in-demand invite they’d somehow landed.
It wasn’t a deadly illness that’d driven Dad’s actions. It wasn’t that he was hovering on the edge of financial destitution. Itwasn’t even that his naive stupidity was being taken advantage of by patient lies and exaggerations to score more prescriptions.
My dad put everything on the line to bepopular.
The bubble of hope popped, spreading pain through my aching chest like it was made of jagged shards of glass.
It stole my breath as the truth rocked through my head.
I have my answers.
But what should I do with them?
Tell my mom? Have Maddie tell her parents? Go to my dad and plead with him to stop while he was ahead?
As awkward and horrific as it sounded, the last one seemed like the only feasible option.
I was vaguely aware of Josh still rambling his assurances that all would be okay, but I didn’t catch the specifics until he said, “It’ll be weird with them together, but we’ll make it work. I have two auditions this week. Once I start landing roles myself, I won’t need Chase. I’ll be on my way to the top, and then I’ll be able to take care of you.”
I didn’t need anyone to take care of me, but that wasn’t where I was stuck. “Weird with who together?”
“Weren’t you paying attention?”
“My signal isn’t great,” I lied before adding a double whopper of one. “And I was focused on the stuff with you and me, babe.”
“That’s how it needs to be. Focused on us. Not your friends or school or all that shit that’s in your head.”
So I need to give up all my stuff, and you stay glued to your phone like an overgrown iPad kid?
Got it.
“Okay, sure,” I rushed out. “Awkward with who, though?”
“Your dad and my mom. I promised I wouldn’t say anything until the divorce was finalized, but like you said, we need to be honest if this is going to work. And fuck, I was sick of holding that in.”
For the second time on that hike, I was forced to collapse to the ground before my trembling legs gave out.
A jolt of pain went up my spine from the impact, but I barely noticed.
Mom was right.
He is having an affair.
An affair with fuckingGloriaof all people.
I might’ve been able to keep the prescription shit to myself if Dad agreed to stop.
