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Then again, her father had died before she was born.
“There were warnings of an incoming storm, but that never stopped Chris. He thought he was invincible.” She drew in a deep breath, appeared torn with memories. “He responded to another ship’s distress flare. He was trying to get the family moved over to his boat, but the two kids ended up in the water. The waves had gotten high. The wind was nasty. Even with their life jackets, they didn’t stand a chance of making it back to the boat. Chris went in after them.” She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, opened them and continued. “He managed to get one of the kids, a little boy, to his boat, where his parents were able to lift him to safety.” She shuddered. “Chris and the girl didn’t make it. There wasn’t anything anyone could do.”
He wrapped his arm tighter around her, kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry, Blair.”
Her pain was palpable.
The man had died saving a kid’s life and trying to save another.
“He died a hero.” No wonder Blair had loved him.
“A hero.” Blair’s lips pursed. “Yes, Chris died a hero.”
The way she said the words made Oz think there was more to the story than what Blair was saying. But he wouldn’t push. Not with her already looking so exposed, with her body trembling against him.
“He wasn’t alone on his sailboat.”
“Not alone?”
“He was with his wife,” she confessed in a hoarse whisper.
Oz pulled back, staring at her in surprise. “His wife?”
“Yes.”
“Addy’s father was married?” Surely he’d somehow misunderstood? “You were having an affair with a married man?”
That didn’t fit with his image of Blair. Didn’t fit with the image she’d painted of Addy’s father.
Tense against him, Blair nodded. “I know that makes me a bad person. I’ve never denied that. But I honestly believed he was divorced.” She swallowed hard. “He wasn’t. When he died, I was devastated. I’m not sure which hurt the most—that he was gone or that he’d been lying to me all along. I loved him so much I thought I wanted to die, too.”
He held her, let her take her time before continuing.
“Like a fool, I went to his funeral. His wife publicly humiliated me in front of his friends and family. His wife.” She spat the words from her pursed lips. “She denied me the right to attend Chris’s funeral. I only wanted to say goodbye. When I broke down, she…” Blair quit speaking, buried her face in her hands. “She had the right to send me away. I know she did, that she was hurting, and I shouldn’t have gone. I understand that now.”
Oz had no right to judge her. Addy’s father was another story altogether. The man’s dishonesty had put the women in his life in a horrible situation. His wife and Blair. “Of course you wanted to pay your last respects to his memory. That was only natural, Blair.”
She wiped at her eyes. “Later, when I discovered my pregnancy, I told his parents. I’d never met them outside of that day at the funeral, but Chris was an only child. I thought they had a right to know.” Raw pain bled from every word. “They told me they wanted nothing to do with me—” Blair’s voice broke “—or my bastard child.”
Oh, hell. Oz’s fingers curled into a fist. How could anyone have been so cruel? Especially when they were talking about the child of their recently killed son? Their grandchild?
When they were talking about Blair’s child?
“I think they were worried I planned to go after child support.” Blair wiped at her eyes.
“They were idiots,” Oz assured her. “Addy is a beautiful child, inside and out. Any man would be proud to call her his kid.”
She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Would Chris have?”
Vulnerability bled from her soft question. Vulnerability that hinted at a need for validation, a need to know that she wasn’t the bad person she’d been cast.
“He hadn’t divorced his wife. He’d told me he was divorced, Oz, that he loved me. I was in love with him, and I was nothing more than a booty call.”
“You can’t know that.”
“I do.” Blair gave an embittered laugh. “If I’d been the only one, I might believe he loved me, that he’d have really filed for divorce when he discovered my pregnancy.” She looked away, clearly embarrassed. “I wasn’t. According to his wife, he had several women on the side, but they had enough class not to show up at his funeral.” She sniffled. “I don’t know how many, just that I wasn’t anything special.”
“He was an idiot.” A complete and total idiot. How could a man have Blair’s love and cheat on her? If Blair loved him, he’d…Hold up. What was he thinking?
