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Chapter Thirty-Four
Nate dropsinto the desk chair with a thud, and I pull another one around from the front. I keep it near the edge, not wanting to be in his way but so I can still see what he does.
His hands hover over the keyboard before he turns back to me. "I didn’t think I’d like you much."
What the—?
"Excuse me?" I cock an eyebrow at Lilly’s brother. "I just carried your heavy, injured ass upstairs and—"
"That came out wrong," he interrupts me, chuckling, and wipes a hand over his mouth. "The big brother in me was suspicious about your intentions with Lilly."
I open my mouth to tell him where he can shove his big-brother attitude, but Nate holds up a hand. "Chill, I know I'm the last person who can claim the brother-of-the-year award." He blows out a breath. "What I'm trying to say... I can see why my sister would argue about the existence of a soulmate with me. Everything Lilly told me about you two—your past. Plus, when you and I talked before and now meeting you in person... You're not so bad."
Soulmate? He must be high from the pain meds.
I do a goldfish imitation, no clue how to respond to that.
He focuses back on the monitors and presses the space bar. One of the monitors comes to life, and he's about to hit the other keyboard when he pauses. "What the fuck?"
Nate's face pales, and his eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets. I lean over to see what has him so unhinged and almost fall out of my chair. Brooks's face is paused on the screen.
"What is that?" I ask hesitantly, pulling myself back into the chair and scooting it closer.
Nate ignores me and hovers the curser over the play button. He closes his eyes for several inhales and exhales before they snap open, and he clicks—almost as if he didn't want to give himself a chance to change his mind.
She threatened to tell Payton about the affair. About Lilly. She wanted me to come back to her. Said she’d leave her husband. It was like she had built this fantasy in her head about us. A relationship that never existed. When I didn't change my mind, she started threatening our daughter's life.
Hearing Brooks through the speaker,the fingers of Nate's hand in his lap dig into his leg. The other, still on the trackpad, begins to tremble. Then the words sink in. She started threatening our daughter's life. She. Lilly’s mother. Emily. Emily was threatening Lilly? My stomach rolls, and I wrap one arm around myself.
I saw only one option. I told Payton everything. As you can imagine, your mother didn't take the news well. I had an illegitimate daughter. She left me for a few weeks. You thought your mom took Audrey to stay at your aunt's house during that time.
When Payton came back, we sat down and talked. We talked for days, and by some miracle, your mother forgave me. We agreed that our family would come first, and we would find a way to have Lilly be part of your and Audrey's lives. That’s who your mother was. She loved and cared for everyone. None of this was Lilly’s fault.
Tears streamdown Brooks’s face, and his voice cracks with every other word. A lump forms in my own throat. He recorded this video for his son. Peering at Nate, his eyes are glossed over, and his spine is rigid.
"This is why he mentioned the pipes in his will to be given to me..." Nate mumbles to himself.
"Huh?"
He pauses the video and turns to me. His tone is subdued. "I inherited everything my parents owned, which made the will pretty simple. When they read it to me, my grandfather’s pipes were listed specifically, nothing else. I never thought about it. I didn’t want shit to do with what’s in this house—what my father cared about."
I narrow my eyes. "You think that was his hint for you to find this?" I gesture to the screen.
"Yes," he whispers.
"But why hide it?" This doesn’t make sense.
Nate shrugs. "At this point, who cares? It could’ve been anything. Not wanting for anyone to find out before me, he could’ve been afraid Emily would come after him, or he was simply drugged out of his mind from the antidepressants."
Then why didn’t he hide the letters and pictures Emily sent?
"But he didn’t hide the photos and let—"
"I DON’T CARE, RHYS!" he barks, and I take that as my cue to shut up.
Without another word, Nate restarts the recording, and I focus back on the screen.
Most of the time, Emily acted completely normal. We were two adults who made a mistake and conceived a child.
