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“You mean, he made us homeless?”
“Yes. It happened ever so quickly, too, with almost no warning. He didn’t care about us. He just wanted revenge.”
“What did you do?”
“You were only a baby, so I moved us out of state… here to Falmouth. There was a lot of publicity surrounding the case. Theodore Bennett made sure of that, and he painted himself as the victim, too. I didn’t want to be a part of it, and I didn’t want it tainting our lives. I found a job here, and rented a small apartment… and I divorced Ken as soon as I could.” She sighs. “About a year later, I met Connor, and fell in love for real.”
“So did I,” he says, smiling at her, and then he turns to me. “Your mom told me her st—story, right from the beginning. It didn’t change how I felt about her. I still knew I wanted to spend the rest of my l—life with her… so I asked her to marry me.”
I turn to my mom. “You told Dad, but you didn’t tell me?”
She blushes. “We talked about it…”
“And… and we decided against it,” Dad says, finishing her sentence.
“Why?”
“Because we felt you didn’t need to know.”
I stare at him. “Really? Do you still feel that way now?”
“I’m sorry, Livia,” Mom says. “This is my fault, not Connor’s.”
“He’s ‘Dad’ to me, not Connor. He always will be.”
“It’s not your mom’s fault. I—It was a joint decision and if we got it wrong, then we’re sorry,” Dad says, and I look over at him. His eyes are glistening, and I don’t doubt that’s because of what I just said.
I get to my feet and Mom looks up at me, panic filling her eyes.
“Where are you going?”
“To my room. I need some time to think.”
“You don’t want to talk?”
I shake my head.
“L—Let her go,” Dad says.
Mom stands, ignoring him. “Please, Livia… tell me you don’t hate me,” she says.
“I don’t hate you.”
It’s true, I don’t. But as I leave the room and grab my bag, I’m filled with so many conflicting emotions, I’m not sure how I feel.
I’ve gained a past I never even knew existed, and while it doesn’t alter anything about my feelings for my dad, there’s no escaping the fact that the man who came into the office earlier today has changed my life… forever.
***
Hunter
“What’s going on?” Drew appears in my doorway, jolting me out of my nightmare, and then walks straight into my room, his face like thunder.
“How the hell would I know?” The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m never going to trust my judgement again… not after everything Livia’s done. “What are you talking about?”
“Livia.”
I sit up, staring at him. “What about her?”
