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“I didn’t want you to find out like this,” she murmurs eventually.
“Find out what?” I demand, uncertainty settling in my stomach.
Pushing her shoulders back in a faux show of confidence, she turns toward me, but she won’t meet my eyes. She rests them over my shoulder, too afraid to meet my stare head-on.
“Derrick isn’t exactly your father.”
My chin tips back. “What are you talking about?” I scoff at the ridiculousness of her accusation.
“Biologically, he has no link to you.”
I stare at her blankly, my eyes refusing to blink.
“I had an affair.” She brushes imaginary lint from her skirt once again. “Many affairs. We both did. I’m not proud of it, but it is what it is.”
I watch her, dumbfounded. “That’s not true.” My argument is weak, my doubt peeking through my words.
My whole life is crumbling apart around me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
“It is. I’ve lived the façade for long enough. It was time to leave. You should know by now that Derrick is dangerous. I’ve taken out an order of protection for us both.”
I scratch my head, confusion settling in my bones.
“That’s crap. He’s never hit you. Never threatened your safety.Youhit him.Youthreatenhim.”
She says nothing. She doesn’t have to.
“You’re evil.” I swallow the acid in my throat, my panic sliding down like poison, killing my hope that this nightmare will come to an end second-by-second.
“I am a mother who loves my child,” she spits. “A woman who would doanythingto protect and love that child.”
She’s crazy. It’s the only reasonable explanation.
“That’s not love,” I tell her quietly. “As always, you’re thinking about yourself. Not me. You don’t actually give a flying fuck about what’s right for me, about what’s good for me.”
“Watch your tone.”
“I’ll scream kidnap at the airport,” I tell her, the vehemence in my tone enough to cause a frown line to appear on her forehead. “I’ll tell anyone who will listen that you’ve taken me against my will.”
She sighs, feigning nonchalance. “So dramatic. You’re a minor, Henley. You have no choice.”
I hate that she’s right.
“I’ll just call Dad when I get there. I’ll jump on a bus, a plane, anything.”
“You’d choose him over me?”
I wish I had the balls to slap her in the way she looks like I’ve done. My palm twitches with the incessant need to feel her flesh and cause her physical pain.
I almost don’t answer. She’ll never get it, but I can’t help myself. “I’d chooseme.”
“Selfish.”
“I learned it from the best.”
She rolls her eyes. “That man has no right to you. You’remychild, and the recent paternity test confirms that.”
“What?” I don’t know this woman. This vile, vindictive,unstablewoman. “I don’t believe you. You despised him. You would never have stayed if you didn’t have to.”
