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“Then what?” Viola questioned.
“Then I finally got her to go out on a real date with me and a few weeks later, I threw caution aside and told her how I felt.”
“Then he surprised both of us by proposing, and I surprised us by saying yes,” Gabby finished.
“A whirlwind romance for my sister,” Viola said. “Here I thought you’d been dating for years and finally decided to come clean about it.”
“Why would you say that?” Maggie asked.
“She never told us who she was dating and there were plenty of times when we’d stop by and she wouldn’t let us in her apartment,” Viola replied.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gabby said picking at her food with her fork.
“I thought you were having an affair with a married man,” Nate told her.
“I didn’t think anything because I didn’t want to think about you sleeping with someone,” Sam assured her.
“I wasn’t…I might have occasionally had company, and I don’t mean of the male variety. I didn’t want my friends to be run off by my siblings so I’d keep you out of the house.”
“Sure, you were totally sleeping with someone,” Viola said. “But I get it, you’re married to Wyatt now and that’s all in the past.”
“You’d be surprised how far in the past any of that is,” Gabby told her. “And now I think that officially should end any conversation about my personal life, don’t you? Anyone else want more…there’s another pot in the kitchen.”
Chapter 10
Gabby knew the instant they walked through the door later that night that Wyatt wasn’t buying her feigned tiredness. The night had been strange she’d arrived to find her sister still in a mood and her dad oddly distant. She’d been happy to hide in the kitchen cooking while the others talked and then Viola had come in and apologized, admitting that she’d been jealous of the attention she’d gotten from Mom and Dad and that it wasn’t fair to take it out on her.
She hadn’t known what to say or think, the turnaround hadn’t come from nowhere, their parents had to have said something to her, it was the only explanation and it kept going through her mind that maybe, just maybe, her mom had admitted the truth about her real father. Then that recap of her past at dinner and now she could see the questions churning in Wyatt’s head.
Well, I guess I’m about to find out what’s going on in there, she thought as Wyatt guided her to the bedroom and directed her to the chairs in the dressing area.
“Want to tell me the truth now Gabby?”
“The truth about what?” she asked shrugging out of the blouse she wore and smoothing the straps of the camisole beneath it.
“Take your pick…my money, why you kept your family from your apartment, who or where Haley is…” he suggested.
“Your money’s gone, I didn’t want my family in the middle of my personal business, I told you about Haley and have no clue where she is. Does that cover it?”
“Not hardly,” he stated. “Maybe I should tell you what I think the truth is…stop me when I’m wrong.”
“Can I say stop now?” she inquired with an eye roll.
“I think the reason you didn’t want your family around is because you were hiding something from the man you were having an affair with, Donald…and that Haley was actually your daughter and he did something you don’t want anyone to know about.”
“What?” she said laughing until tears streamed down her cheeks. “You think…you think I was sleeping with Donald? Ugh, the thought makes my skin crawl…why would you think Haley was my daughter and not my friend?”
“Because your family doesn’t know about her…I asked Gabby, your mom and dad have never heard about her, never met her, so obviously there’s some reason you kept her hidden. Why?”
“Oh I don’t know maybe because my family is insane. You’ve seen Viola the past few days, one minute she’s a sweet, loving sister the next she resents the hell out of me for some unknown reason,” Gabby stated.
Wyatt heard the conversation between Viola and her parents flash through his mind, he pushed it and the guilty feelings for keeping it from her away. “I can get why you wouldn’t want to introduce her to them, but to not mention her once?”
“I was trying to keep the peace between Vi and me…Haley and I, we had this bond that I’ve never had with Vi and I knew if I told them about Haley they’d want to meet her which would have hurt Vi when she saw us. We were like sisters Wyatt, andI knew that would destroy what little there was with Viola and me.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” he said in surprise.
“I am. I love my sister and I didn’t want to hurt her, and I guess I didn’t want to share Haley. It wasn’t like that,” she stated when he raised an eyebrow in silent question. “We were friends, nothing sexual, I’m pretty sure you know the type of lover I prefer, don’t you Wyatt?”
