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I pull a face. “Thanks.”
“Big night?” Hayden wrinkles his nose at my messy hair and rumpled clothes I’d worn yesterday. I’d slept in these clothes and hadn’t bothered changing.
“You could say that.”
“I thought you’d come to the hospital to see Dad. They released him early this morning. All the tests came back clear,” Hayden informs me.
With my head messed up with Harper, I hadn’t given my father being in the hospital a second thought. Fuck, what kind of son am I? “Had a lot to do. I’m glad he’s fine.”
Hayden and Lucas exchange a curious look. “Everything okay?” Lucas asks. They’d been getting coffee in the hospital cafeteria when I received the message with the photo. I haven’t seen them since. They don’t know what happened.
“I broke things off with Harper.”
“Why?” Hayden asks at the same time Lucas says, “You’re joking?”
I wish I was joking. Instead, I’m living a fucking nightmare. One I’d promised myself I’d never star in again.
I push off from the chair, walk to the window, and stare sightlessly to the street below. I tell them about receiving a photo of Harper and our father in an intimate embrace. How when I approached him about it, he admitted that she’d been pursuing him, and he succumbed to a moment of weakness. “Of course she denied it. Even tried telling me one hell of a story about Dad.” I tell them about the affair while our mother lay dying in the hospital. God, did Harper really think I’d fall for that?
“Holy shit! Is it true?” Lucas says.
I spin around. “Of course not! Dad would never cheat on Mom. Especially when she got diagnosed with brain cancer. He loved her.” How can Lucas even question it?
“Why the hell would she make something like that up?” Lucas asked. Can he not see that it’s bullshit?
“To get out of the hole she’d dug for herself,” I reply.
“She’d make up lies about Dad cheating on Mom to cover up the affair she’s having with him?” Lucas pulls a disbelieving face. “He’s…old.”
I link my fingers at the back of my head. “Didn’t stop her before. Derek wasn’t much younger than Dad.” Last night’s whiskey churns in my gut at the thought of them together. I notice Hayden sitting quietly, not saying a word. “You have nothing to say?”
Hayden hooks an ankle over his knee. “I have lots to say. I’m not sure you’ll want to hear it.”
I drop my hands. “Tell me.”
Hayden’s foot hits the floor, he cups his hands and lets them fall between his knees as he leans forward. “I believe Harper.”
If Hayden hit me over the head with a sledgehammer, I’d be less surprised. “You believe Dad was cheating on Mom?”
“Yes.” How can Hayden sit there so calmly? Like we’re discussing nothing more important than the weather.
“You knew?” Lucas yells and stands beside me.
Hayden blows out a rough breath. “I’ve known for years. Dad was screwing around with many different women. About ten years ago, without either of us knowing, we were staying at the same hotel in Paris. I stepped into an elevator and found him sucking face with a twenty-something-year-old blonde.” Scrubbing his hands over his eyes like he wanted to remove the image, he lifts his head. He screws up his face with disgust. “He made me promise not to tell Mom. Said it wouldn’t happen again. At first, I believed him. But as time went on, I watched him closely and saw through the lies he told Mom. He was telling Mom he was away on business, but I know he was fucking other women. It made me sick. I couldn’t understand how he could do such a thing. Mom adored him. When I couldn’t take it anymore, and wanted to tell her, she got sick. How could I tell her about Dad’s affairs while she was fighting for her life? Would that have killed her sooner? I couldn’t take the risk. I wanted her last moments to be happy ones. So when Dad didn’t make it to the hospital, I knew where he was. When he finally arrived after she’d passed, he couldn’t look me in the eye. Fuck, I wanted to punch him in the face.”
The room becomes so quiet I can hear the pounding of my heart. Icy tentacles trail up and down my spine. My breathing is erratic. I clench my fists. Everything I believed about my family is a fucking lie.
Lucas speaks up first. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us?”
Hayden rubs his palms on his thighs. “What good would that have done? You both think his shit don’t stink. You believed you had parents who loved each other—maybe Dad loved Mom in a sick, twisted way. I didn’t want to ruin it for you.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make. We had a right to know what was happening under our noses.” I clench onto the top of a chair.
Hayden drops his head down. “I was trying to save you from the hurt. It fucking killed me to know about it. What good would it have done if we all knew? We all would have hated the bastard for what he did.”
I ground my teeth together and say through tight lips, “I wouldn’t have accused Harper of lying!” My shoulders sag. Oh God. What have I done? I put my trust in the wrong person. A sudden urgency grips me. I swipe my keys and phone off the desk. “I have to go.”
“Where?” Lucas asks with a worried expression.
