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“Harper?”
She was there with Jackson, and when I entered, she got off the couch and came over to me. I wrapped my arms around her, and on instinct, went to kiss her, but she stopped me.
“Wait. I need to tell all of you something, and well, you may not feel like kissing me after I’m finished.”
“Nonsense,” I said, but she stared up at me with sadness in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I–I need to wait until everyone is here, including Nate and Kat,” she said. “That way I can tell all of you at once.”
39
Nathan
“Harper!” Kat squealed as she ran into the room. We had both been upstairs; Kat in her room and me in the office working when Jackson had asked us to all meet.
Kat ran to her best friend and hugged her tightly. I stood back, surprised and happy to see Harper, but unsure what was going on. Everyone in the room had a worried look on their face. After Kat and Harper hugged it out, I moved in for my turn. I wanted to kiss her, and it felt natural to lean in, but Harper kept a distance between us. I remembered her wishes that what we had was supposed to end once we left France.
“I have something I need to tell all of you,” she said. “Actually, I have a lot I need to tell you, and I don’t think it’s going to go over too well, so please, sit down.”
I took one of the chairs as everyone else sat down in various spots in the room. Only Harper remained standing, her hands in front of her. She was digging her nails into her palms and refused to look at any of us. She was quiet for a long time but none of us rushed her. Clearly whatever she had to tell us was not easy for her to say.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her cheeks were wet with fresh tears. I wanted to run to her, but she held up a hand as if to stop any of us from doing just that.
“First of all, it’s about time I came clean about something. You’ve been wondering who leaked the photos of your dad, tearing your family apart. Well… you’re looking at her.”
Her eyes peeled open, as if trying to gauge a response.
A cacophony of voices all asked the same thing.
“How?”
“What?”
“I don’t understand.”
I remembered what my dad had said about a redheaded teenager, and it all made sense now.
Kat stood up, but Harper once again held up a hand. “I was walking home from my summer job, and I saw your dad on the patio of a bar. He wasn’t alone. I got a bad feeling, so I watched him for a bit and took photos as he and the woman started getting close. But please know, I had no intention of making this public. I only wanted to show the photos to Kat and maybe your mom, because she deserved to know she was being cheated on, so I printed them out and showed Kat, but then I lost them and—”
Before she could finish, Kat cleared her throat loudly. “It wasn’t you that released the photos, Harper. It was me.”
“What?” Harper stared at her best friend with wide eyes. “I don’t understand… how?”
“You didn’t lose them; I took them from you.”
Jackson remarked. “Figures. You always did want to ruin Dad’s life.”
“It wasn’t to ruin Dad’s life, Jackson. He did that all on his own.” Kat’s voice was loud and confident.
Jackson was standing now close to Kat. Too close. I got up and placed myself between my sister and brother, in case things were about to get ugly.
A voice came from the entry to the room. “Your sister is lying.”
Mom was standing in the doorway, a solemn expression on her face.
“Mom, you don’t have to—”
“No, it’s about time the truth came out,” Mom said, coming into the room. She looked straight at Jackson, and there was sadness in her eyes as she spoke. “Kat came to me about the photos, she told me there was proof of his affair. I had long suspected it, but I never had any concrete evidence. I asked her to get the photos from Harper, but to keep everything private. I’m sorry, Harper, I didn’t want to involve you in any of this, but by trying to keep you out of it, you’ve blamed yourself all these years and for that, I am truly sorry.”
