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Everett shook his head, probably because he didn’t have a good answer for that.
Reese swung his gaze to me. “So how long have you been fucking him?” he asked.
“Does it matter?” I asked.
“Yeah, it does. Because I want to know how many times you lied to my fucking face.”
“None of us expected this to happen, Reese,” Nash cut in. He and I had both moved farther into the living room, since there was little danger of Reese being able to get past us.
“So that makes it okay?” he asked. “I don’t know you,” he said to Nash before turning his attention on me. “But I thought you were smarter than this, Gage. I thought if there was anyone who wouldn’t fall for his act, it’d be you,” Reese said.
“There’s no act, Reese,” I responded.
“He tell you he was fucking around on my mom while they were still married?”
“Yes,” I said. “He also said the marriage was over at that point.”
“For him, maybe,” Reese responded. He turned to Everett, who’d sunk down on the couch. He looked small as he tried to hunch in on himself.
“You want a chance to tell the truth?” Reese asked.
Everett was quiet for a moment before saying, “I’ll tell you anything you want to know, Reese.” He sounded so broken that I just wanted to fold him in my arms and never let go.
“What did you mean when you said you couldn’t tell me about Ronan?” Reese asked. “Tell me what?”
Everett closed his eyes. It was pretty much one of the worst questions to ask, because it just made the case against Everett look even more damning.
“That Ronan and I knew each other before he and his men saved your life.”
I wouldn’t have thought Reese could be shocked any more than he already was, but that statement did it. It took him a full fifteen seconds to say, “You know what he did for me?”
Everett nodded. “He called me when he found out about the contract on your life. I asked him to do whatever he could to help you, since I knew you wouldn’t accept any help from me. When he called me after the job was done, he said he wanted to offer you a job, but he wanted my permission first.”
It was hard to watch the slew of emotions play over Reese’s expression. Confusion, hurt, despair. God, he just looked so fucking devastated. His eyes swung to me as if looking for confirmation that he’d been played from day one. That everything he’d believed for the past year had been based on yet another lie. When I gave him just the tiniest of nods, he closed his eyes. I saw him sway slightly.
“I need to go,” he whispered.
His anger turned to panic as he began to lose control. I knew if we let him go, we’d never see him again.
“Reese—” I began, but he shook his head violently.
“No,” he said. “Please, no more.” He looked at me almost pleadingly. “Don’t you get it, Gage? He ruined my life! Why don’t you give a shit about that?” he asked.
“I do,” I said. “But there are things you don’t know—”
“And you do?” he asked angrily. “So you know what it was like to grow up with everyone watching your every move, waiting for you to say or do something stupid? You know what it was like to live with the constant fear that you’d let down the most important person in your life… who you looked up to like they were some kind of god or something? Like they could do no wrong, but that was all you could do?”
His tormented eyes shifted to his father.
“Do you have any idea how much of myself I gave up to be what you wanted? What you needed? To be the great Everett Shaw’s son? Do you know how many people told me it was a shame I didn’t have what it took to follow in your footsteps? I was a fucking kid, Dad! They wrote me off from the moment I stepped into that hellhole and you didn’t do a damn thing to stop them!”
I waited for Everett to say something, anything, to defend himself, but he remained quiet, his eyes downcast.
“Say something!” Reese shouted.
“That’s enough!” Nash said as he strode around the couch and reached for Everett, but Everett lurched away from him. He looked at his son.
“All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. I know you don’t believe that—”
“You’re right, I don’t,” Reese said quietly. “You know the fucked-up part?” he whispered. “Even after everything you did to me, I still had to protect you.” Reese suddenly grabbed his wallet and pulled out a folded-up piece of paper.
“Protect me?” Everett whispered. “I don’t know what you—”
“My darling, I keep trying to tell myself I can go on without you, but it isn’t true. I’ve loved you every day since the moment we met more than thirty years ago, but I no longer believe the words that you say so often to me – that despite the others, I’m the only one you really want and that we’ll one day have the life you promised me when this farce is all over with. You’ve made a mockery of our love, but I know that even now, I’d forgive every lie you told me about the many nights you spent in the arms of others.”
