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She staggered toward the waves, stumbling in the sand and falling to her knees.
I crashed beside her and pulled her into an embrace. She writhed to get out of my hold. Maybe I should let her go, but I couldn’t.
“Don’t.” The word was tear-soaked and angry.
And it ripped me in two.
This was the moment I’d feared.
The one where she’d find out I’d kept the most important secret of her life from her. The one where I might lose her.
I’d had twenty-one years to rehearse the right words.
But I hadn’t.
And now, as realization dawned that there weren’t any right words, it nearly crippled me. I rocked as I held Penelope to my chest. She shook violently as she cried. Her sobs wreaked of loss . . . though I wasn’t sure if it was for me or her father.
I would never regret my daughter or the things I’d done to protect her.
But I had regretted this moment from the time I knew it would happen. Because my daughter would never be the same . . . and that was my fault.
She shoved at me. “Leave me alone.”
“I can’t,” I whispered as tears poured down my cheeks.
“How could you do this?” The anger I expected was absent.
What was in its place was far worse.
Betrayal.
I was the one person on this Earth she was supposed to be able to count on, no matter what. I’d been there for her through everything, her constant.
With one sentence, I’d shattered the lifetime of trust we’d built.
And as much as I wanted to blame Kane for all of it, I couldn’t.
BecauseIwas the one who hadn’t been honest with my daughter.
Iwas the one who’d let it come to this.
He was by no means innocent, but this pain Penelope was in rested completely on my shoulders.
She shivered in the cold. I hugged her more tightly, trying and failing to shield her from the wind.
“I’ve always tried to do what’s best for you.” I sounded as ravaged as my daughter felt.
With every second that ticked by, the distance between us grew. It was acute and painful and I desperately wanted to do anything to stop it, but was powerless to do so.
“Lying to me was best?” she asked incredulously. “You said you didn’t know where he was. But you did. You knew.” She beat my shoulder with her fist. “You knew.” Her scream was captured by the wind and floated away on an echo.
“Sweetheart, I—”
She sat up straight, her cheeks tearstained. “Is that why you hate him? Because he didn’t want me?”
My heart shattered.
The hope in her voice, and the fact that even in this turmoil she tried to see the best in me, tore me apart.
