AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What had happened the night before?
Parts of it came flooding back. The parts before I started drinking heavily. The call with Dad, mostly. I hadn’t told anyone about it, or how I had been wrong about him not having cheated on Mom. It made sense now that he really had replaced us.
I had to make an apology tour, starting with Mom and Aiden. Good thing we had a few more days together.
As I checked the time I realized how much my head was killing me, and I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed, but I knew I needed to be there for breakfast. I needed to make it up to Mom.
All these years, I had been on Dad’s side and now I saw him in an entirely new light. I still didn’t want to believe it, not fully, but I knew that he had moved on and it was only right for me to apologize to my mom for making her life difficult since the news broke of his affairs.
I went downstairs and found Kat and Harper were the only ones there, which surprised me. Kat wasn’t much of a morning person, but she and Harper were chatting happily about some guy Kat was seeing. She hushed her voice when I stepped in.
“Don’t let me keep you ladies from gossiping about boys,” I teased as I walked over to the drinks and poured an orange juice. I took a sip and realized it was missing something.
Kat rolled her eyes, but their conversation ended, nonetheless.
My gaze fell on the champagne. Mimosas were often a day-after-Christmas tradition, so I poured myself one.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit early to start drinking, Jackson?”
“Mimosas were meant to be drunk before noon,” I said. “Besides, it’s tradition.”
“Dad’s tradition, mostly.”
“Mom too,” I countered. “Not sure why I’m even arguing with you, as it’s none of your business.”
“When you’re passed out on the floor on Christmas, it becomes my business.”
“Whatever,” I mumbled as I sat down and sipped my drink. “I don’t plan to get that drunk again.”
“Sure…” Kat rolled her eyes.
“You know what? Fuck this, I don’t need this today,” I said. I grabbed the bottle of champagne and headed for the door. “I just wanted to talk to Aiden, but I’ll go to his room.”
Harper’s voice piped up. “He already left.”
I stopped short in the doorway. “Left? As in, he went skiing already?”
“No, he left. He said he had business to take care of back home. He left a note for your mom.”
Aiden fucking left before I could apologize to him. The hand holding the champagne began to shake and I put it down. Running a hand through my hair, I realized what I had to do.
“I have to leave too then.”
“What?” Kat exclaimed. “Why?”
“Not that you’ll miss me,” I muttered. “And not like it’s any of your business either, but I promised to help him, and I failed. I need to hold up my end of the bargain.”
I turned on my heels and headed up the stairs. I heard footsteps behind me, and I was afraid I might turn around and have to fight with Kat, but as I turned, I saw Harper standing there instead.
“Jackson, I’m sorry. I didn’t know if I should try to stop him or what. He said it was important to clear his name.”
“I’m not upset at you,” I said. “I’m mad at myself for not manning up sooner and apologizing to him and doing what I promised to do. What time did he leave?”
“Before Kat and I came downstairs. He stopped by to tell us he was on his way out,” she said. “Maybe about an hour ago?”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“He said he had a plane to catch in Paris.”
