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Harry and I talked for a while before we made it to the airport just in time for me to catch the flight to my dad's. I wished Ariane were on that flight with me, but she was back at the office where I’d left her.
When my plane landed at the private airport, I secured for the many back-and-forth trips I took to see my old man; I took a large inhale of the fresh air before stepping onto the concrete. I felt better after the flight, but I was still thinking about how I would move forward with Ariane.
“Hey, son. I didn’t know you’d be here.”
Lucas sat at my father's bedside when I walked in. He was different today. His eyes were brighter, and his gestures were more welcoming than they’d been before.
"Dad...you're here. How are you?" he said.
I was surprised at this sudden yet positive change. "Hello, son," I replied. “I'm doing well. I'm glad to see you today. How are you doing?”
I had never felt so elated as I did during the next few hours, as Lucas and I talked. I let him express his resentment toward me, and he let me do my part. I was pleased to learn he was doing well after several therapy sessions and rehab treatments. I was glad to hear he’d gotten a job and was now seeing someone. I learned about his previous relationship and how it had ended badly, but he was over her. Finally, I was able to speak with my son without getting angry at him. He didn’t turn out to be in as bad a place as I had thought. He had just needed to take his own, arduous path.
"Hey, Dad, how are you?" I approached the other side of my father's bed.
"I'm hanging tough." He let out a weak chuckle. "I'd be a lot better if I could get out of this bed."
Chapter Seventeen
Ariane
Insteadofgoingstraighthome after work, I went to The Golden Apple for a drink. It was Friday and there were no new updates for the weekend on the iPad, so I decided to treat myself. I thought about how I would tell Logan about who I was and about my relationship with Lucas. I still thought I lacked the courage to do so, but I needed to do it before Casey discovered the truth. I had about three apple Martinis and a large order of wings before I called for a Lyft back to my apartment.
After unlocking, I stepped inside and kicked off my heels at the door, hanging up my coat and tossing my keys down on the lamp table near the door. I didn’t bother flicking on any lights, because I was headed straight upstairs to get ready for bed. Until I heard my name.
“Bianca Styles.”
The voice came the dark corner of the living room. My heart began to race in my chest at the sound of my birth name. No one knew me by that name anymore. At least, not anyone who was new in my life.
“I knew there was something you weren’t telling us.”
Casey got up from the chair where she sat and flicked on the lights herself, because I was too shocked to move. She had a slight grin on her face, proud of her detective skills and the chance to out me to her father.
“Not only did you lie to my father about who you were, but you also had relations with him knowing you had previously been involved with his son,” she scoffed. “How sick are you?”
“My name change is legal.” It was the only thing I could muster up the courage to say.
“Oh, screw your name change!” Casey tossed a manila folder onto the coffee table and charged toward me. “How could you do this? How could you come into our lives with so much deceit, so many lies? My brother loved you! You broke his heart and here you are sleeping with his father?”
I gulped loudly. Casey's angry side wasn’t something I was surprised by; it was her actions that made me question whether or not I was truly safe in the apartment alone with her. She looked so much like her brother it scared me; it took me back to a place I never wanted to revisit.
“Is that all you have to say for yourself? Your name change is legal?” She chuckled. “What are you gonna tell my father? My brother? Why did you even come here in the first place? Was it to hurt Lucas even more?”
“No.” I shook my head as I fought away the tears. “That’s not it. Your father reached out to me.”
“Oh! So, it’s his fault? Are you serious right now?”
She was so angry and disgusted she couldn’t even let me finish a sentence before she yelled and grew angrier. I knew things were hard to process for her, they were hard for me as well, but for there to be any resolution she had to calm down and let me tell my side.
“Casey.” I stepped closer to her. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Your brother and I have been broken up for years and while I know it was wrong to become intimate with your dad, things just sort of happened that way. I felt terrible afterward, guilty from day one.”
“And yet you continued.”
“True,” I agreed. “I planned to tell Logan everything. But I was so caught up with trying to move on with my life after such a terrible relationship with Lucas, I lost sight of right and wrong. That's why I backed away.”
That night, I had to come clean to Casey about her twin. I told her how terrible he had been to me. How bitter and angry he was about his relationship with his father, and how badly he had taken that frustration out on me. That was some truth that was too hard for her to believe, so she continued to point fingers at me.
“No.” She shook her head. “Lucas isn’t that kind of guy. He’s a dick at times, yeah, I know. But abusive? That isn’t my brother.”
