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“Quiet. You’ve brought shame on our family, on our name. You won’t say another word. You are no longer my son.”
“But, Dad, I didn’t do it.”
“Don’t ever show your face near your family again. You’re dead to me. To us.”
And now Marlowdidn’t believe me. In me.
“It is serious.”
The expression on her face begged me not to make the article true. There was a mix of doubt and anger in every line. The anger, I wasn’t sure if it was at me or the article, maybe both. The doubt? It nearly killed me.
“You have nothing to say for yourself?”
“Do you think I did it?”
“I don’t want to.”
“But you do.”
She looked away before meeting my eyes. “I—”
She did. The person I’d opened up to more than anyone else. The one I’d stood behind, no matter what she did . . . and she didn’t have any faith in me. That was the death blow.
I pulled up my exterior walls and shut down every emotion that threatened to take me out.She didn’t believe me.She didn’t get to see how much that hurt.
“This arrangement isn’t going to work for me. We will have an agreement regarding our daughter, but this time you were right. We should only communicate through our lawyers.”
I ignored the pain those words caused me. But I couldn’t do this. Especially when she didn’t have faith in me. I was sure the article was damning. And I hadn’t attempted to tell my side. Because I wanted her unconditional belief in me. Now I just needed something concrete to make sure I could have Gummy in my life.
Her face crumpled. “Give me my son.”
I held him close. Fuck. I couldn’t give him up.
“Give him to me now.” Mama bear had come out to play.
I could’ve answered her questions and put the brakes on her leaving.But she. Didn’t. Believe. Me.“That’s all it takes to run you off?”
“Is that what you’re doing?” She gripped Blake. I had no choice but to hand him over.
“You weren’t sticking around anyway.” I shoved my empty hands in my pockets. “Just go.”
She was the one I wanted to believe in me no matter what.
It was too much to ask. Nobody ever would. Apparently, the past was out, and I had no one to stand at my side.
No one whose automatic conclusion wasn’t guilty.
Marlow stared at me. “You aren’t who I thought you were.”
“Likewise.” I loosened my tie and headed toward the closet. “Happy now? You get to go back to that tomb you call a home.” Her gasp was so sharp, I had to turn around to see the damage I’d done. “Truth hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Why did you do it?” she asked my back.
“Rape that little girl?” The words were poison as they came out, burning my throat and my mouth. “Didn’t you accuse me of being an opportunist?”
“I meant the calls, the beach, all of it.”
I faced her. Was she truly trying to kill me? She thought the worst of me. I’d give her the worst, even if it was lie. “Because your father asked me to.”
