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“I just saw the end from the beginning is all,” Milo said, taking a step towards me.
Janus made a scoffing noise from behind me.
I held up a hand. “What does that mean?”
“I knew this is what we were always meant to be. A family.”
I blinked. “Okaaaaay. So… what does that mean?”
“I’ve always loved you,” Milo said like he was starting over. “And I had to fix us.” He gestured at his brothers. “We were broken and you were the only way to fix us.”
What the hell did that mean?
“Stop justifying it and just tell her,” Janus demanded.
Milo glared over my shoulder at him. “I made the hard choice I knew you’d be too cowardly to. It’s not justification. It’s the truth.”
“What choice?” I demanded, stepping forwards.
Milo’s eyes came back to me. “I gave us Diana and Paul.”
What did that—
“For fuck’s sake,” Janus said from behind me. “He switched your birth control pills for sugar pills.”
I felt my mouth drop open as shock hit. I wanted to laugh. “That crazy scheme that Lena—?” I stopped.
Milo shook his head and waved a hand. “Before that.”
“When?” I demanded. “When did you start doing it?”
Milo looked at the floor. “From the very beginning. The morning after pill. And all the ones after.”
I stumbled a step back, into Leander’s chest. My mind felt like it was racing and stuffed full of cotton all at the same time. All I could gasp was, “I trusted you.”
And then I spun on Leander. “How long have you known?”
Leander’s face suddenly went guarded. He knew I wouldn’t like his answer. I pulled away from him as words started spilling out of his mouth. “He only told me at the hospital, after the babies were born. I swear I didn’t know before that. And then we needed so much help with the kids and he was so good with them—”
“So you just lied to me?!”
I shoved Leander hard in the chest. And then spun on Janus. “And you?” I asked accusingly.
He lifted his hands. “I just learned right now, swear,” Janus said. “And I knew we had to tell you right away.”
I was only in a robe from feeding the babies and I’d come out with it open. But I tied it tight now and walked over to the window. I had to get away from all of them for a second and breathe.
It was finally cooling off and the window of the den looked out on a beautiful backyard. Our house was up in the West Hollywood hills. I’d been so busy with the twins, I’d barely been able to take in the beauty of this house.
I’d come a long way from where I grew up. Dirt yard, always pinching pennies to make ends meet. Not cause Daddy didn’t make enough but because he spent it like it was water and then yelled at Mama and me for not being frugal enough with the grocery shopping. Cause that was the problem.
Daddy was a liar and a cheat in his secret life, for all that he was a pious church man.
Secrets and double standards were my whole life growing up and everything I swore I’d escape. Was honesty really so much to ask for?
I rubbed my arms up and down but it wasn’t enough. I felt like there were ants crawling underneath my skin. I had to get out of here.
Ignoring the guys and the worried looks they were shooting each other, I made a beeline for the door to the garage.
“Wait, Hope!” said Milo.
“Where are you going?” called Leander.
I just grabbed the keys off the little rack and shoved through the door to the garage. Then I hopped in the car and locked the door behind me.
I turned the key just enough so I could turn on the music system without making the engine turn over. And I cranked it loud.
Then I let out the scream inside my chest. Like a banshee, I screamed and I screamed and I screamed. I slammed the wheel of the car and I screamed.
Until the driver’s side door was yanked open and Leander tried to pull me out into his arms.
But I fought against him and yelled at all of them, who’d followed me into the garage, “You lied to me!”
And to Milo, “You made me think I was crazy for believing that bitch Lena for even a second when she questioned this exact thing! How dare you? How dare you?”
Milo’s head dropped.
But I was done with these men thinking a drooped head and an apology would ease my wrath. Not that he’d even given me an apology. “Are you even sorry?”
Milo’s eyes flashed up to mine. “Are you? We have Diana and Paul because of me.”
“That’s not the point!” My voice went up an octave. “Of course I wouldn’t trade them for the whole world. But you betrayed my trust! I deserved to have a choice. This is exactly the kind of thing my father would have done. Deciding he knew better. That the little woman needed to be knocked up and in the kitchen with babies on her hip—”
