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But there’s only one way to find out.
“You lying, traitorous asshole.” His voice is low and furious, practically trembling across the airwaves.
“I guess that answers my question,” I say too tired to respond in any other way. "You didn’t know either.”
“Didn’t know what? That you were fucking my sister this whole time?”
“Liam -“
“I told you!" His voice is furious, the most furious I’ve ever heard. “I told you to stay away from her. This whole time, you were…”
“I wasn’t,” I tell him. “I did stay away from her for the most part. I made a mistake once.” The lie stings my conscience, but I don't think it would help things to tell Liam that Mia and I slept together again. It's funny because that's what I expected my next conversation with Liam to be about. I knew that once Mia agreed to date me for real, I’d have to talk to Liam. But I assumed that it would be me calling him and explaining the entire timeline of our relationship, calming his fears by telling him that I’m serious about his sister.
Now I don’t know if I can ever have anything honest with Mia again, not after the way she betrayed me. So, I don’t see the point in telling Liam about our recent hookup.
“So what?" Liam says. "I’m supposed to applaud you because you just made a mistake? Because you got her pregnant and abandoned her?" Liam says, his voice a snarl.
“I didn’t even fucking know she was pregnant, Liam." His anger calls to an answering heat within me. “I didn’t know any of this was happening. Fuck Liam, she hid my son from me for years.”
Liam’s silent for a few seconds and then when he speaks, his voice is harsh. “Well, at least now you know how it feels to have a secret kept from you for years.”
“It’s not the same thing, Liam, and you know it.”
“Oh, spare me. You were probably laughing to yourself this whole time, and every time I asked you to watch out for her.“ Liam asked. “Turns out you were the thing she needed protection from."
“That’s not how it is and you know it," I say. “We were both in college party mode and it was a mistake. But nothing’s happened between us since, if that makes you feel any better,” kicking myself internally, for another lie. I figure we have to get over this hump first, then, if Mia and I ever get over this and become a real couple, a real family, we can open up to Liam about it. But he doesn’t need to know, for now.
“Oh, sure, it makes me feel a lot better.” Sarcasm drips from his tone. “You know what buddy? Lose my number. I’m sick of this.”
I sigh. "Liam-"
But the line goes dead in my ear. Great. I've lost my best friend too. My heart is heavy in my chest, and though I expected this would happen, I didn’t know it would hurt this much.
I'll keep trying to get Liam to forgive me but I know it’ll take time. Just like it’ll take time for the kids to adjust to the change when we tell them.
Before breakfast the next day, I stop by Mia’s room and say shortly, "We're not telling the kids anything yet. "
She stares up at me with wide, reddened eyes, and I think she's going to ask me a question but she merely nods.
I leave before I give in to the urge to say something else. Or hug her.
When we all sit at the table, the kids probably feel the tension between us. It’s a quiet breakfast and the tension’s throbbing in the air. Not even Chase says anything, as he stabs at his plate sullenly. Mikey’s even more withdrawn than usual.
At practice later that day, I stay in the bleachers and watch them. Mia pointedly refuses to glance at me, but that may be because the teams take all her attention. They're messing up more than usual, and bickering too. Mia is less patient at dealing with it than usual, and snaps a few times. All this ends up in an almost-fight that ends when I whistle.
The game ends quickly, then, as James halts the whole thing, eyeing Mia carefully. He says something to her, but she shakes her head and follows Chase and Mikey off the court.
After that, we head home in silence again, and I notice Mikey and Chase avoid looking at each other. At home, Chase says nothing to me and brushes off my offer for a game, before dinner.
"They can feel something shifted," she says, coming up behind me as Chase walks away ."Chase thinks that you’re mad at me, and so he’s mad at you, and blames Mikey for the whole thing. He can be pretty protective when he wants to."
I was protective of my mom too. When she divorced my dad, I wanted to go stay with her but she refused, assuring me that I would be better off with dad.
"He needs you,” she whispered to me as she rubbed my hair.
"I think Chase and I should go back to our home," Mia says now, and I shake my head before she can finish her sentence.
"You’re not going anywhere. Not with a maniac still after you."
