Losing Him (Mitchell Family #8)(38)

Tyler Mitchell was walking toward me with a bouquet of flowers.

I was both shocked and enraged. I may have landed Heather in the hospital, because of what I’d done, but he was the reason that she felt her life was ruined. He had no right to be there.

Without considering the consequences, I crushed the cup in my hands and rushed toward them. Ty threw up his hands and blocked me as I pushed him backward.

Van stepped between us. “Jessie, please! He isn’t here to fight with you.”

Ty got up off the floor and fixed the flowers. “I came to apologize, man. I feel real bad for what happened to Heather. How was I supposed to know she was going to show up like that?”

“You should have stopped her!”

His eyes got big and I could tell he was being sincere. “I did. She ran to her car and it was still running. I grabbed the mirror but she pulled away and floored it. If I could have saved her, I would have.”

“You should have saved a long time ago. She can’t get over it, you know? Every single day she lives with regret. Do you have any idea what that’s done to her? She thinks she can’t have friends because she doesn’t deserve them. She pushed the people that care about her away, because she’s afraid we’ll leave her after learning what she did. She’s got nothing, man.”

He put his arms in the air. “I didn’t make her do any of it. She did it herself. I never asked her to care about me that way. She made it seem like it was okay.”

I turned and shook my head, trying to avoid losing it and punching him in the face. “All I know is that when Heather came back to this town a couple days ago, she feared running into your family. She just wanted to be able to leave before she bothered you. None of this shit was planned. It’s my fault for wanting to know the truth. I should have let it go.” I ran my hands over my face. “Now, she might not ever see her son again. How am I supposed to tell him that it was my fault? How do I tell my kid that I took his mom away?”

Ty handed Van the flowers. He started to put his hand on my shoulder but backed off. “Let’s take a walk?”

I shrugged as we started walking away from Van.

Ty didn’t waste any time breaking the ice. “You know, when I had my accident, I was on this same floor. My ass was here for months. Heather tried to visit all the time, but Van was there and they hated each other. I mean, they wished death on each other. It sucked back then.”

“You had two women that wanted to be with you. It sounds like a college dream.”

He shook his head. “Back then, I knew Van was right for me. She knew what she wanted and that was all that mattered to her. I just wanted to party and have a good time. I didn’t care who I hurt. Losing her killed me, but losing her to my damn cousin, crushed my soul. I never knew what love felt like, until I watched Van walk away from me. Maybe if the timing was better and I wasn’t busy sulking over Van, I could have given Heather a chance. I just wasn’t ready. When I was I wanted to get away from my past and move forward with my life. I wanted to change and be a better person. Miranda changed me. I fell so hard for that girl. Being without her was never an option after that.” He started smiling and leaned against the wall. “I was there when my daughter was born. I’m sure Heather told you that she isn’t my biological daughter. Blood didn’t matter. I had to be her father and I would have done anything to make it happen.”

“So you had Heather’s brother forge some documents?”

“Yeah, I did. I was desperate. Her grandmother was a drunk loser who helped kidnap my cousin. Van miscarried her first child because of that family. I couldn’t let them be a part of my little girl’s life. It wasn’t an option, man.”

I thought about Jacob and what I would do to protect him. “I get it. I didn’t plan my son, but I can’t live without that kid.”

“I’m ashamed of some things that I’ve done in my life, but my family is worth the risk. When Heather manipulated me into thinking we’d slept together, she didn’t just wedge herself between me and my wife. She destroyed me. Miranda left me that night. She was eight months pregnant and took our daughter with her. I didn’t get the call that she’d been in an accident until an hour later. I’ll never forget watching that clock as I drove as fast as I could to get to them.” I watched Ty wipe his eye before he started talking again. “I thought the boys didn’t make it. Nobody would tell me anything. Izzy walked away with a few minor scratches. I found her first. Then she told me about the boys and we got to visit with them. Miranda was a different story. Her body was hemorrhaging and they couldn’t stop it. For a while, we thought she wasn’t going to make it. I went to work that morning happy and by that night I was praying that she’d make it through the night.”

“She pulled through, though.”

“Yeah, she did. After that, Conner went off the deep end. He did what he thought was necessary to learn the truth. We could never forgive Heather after that. I never want to feel that pain again, man. I don’t want to think about losing any of them.” He looked so serious and I finally understand the complexity of the situation. Although Heather didn’t deliberately do it, she’d caused that accident, just as I had caused hers.

I buried my face into my hands. “I don’t want to lose her. She thinks I don’t care about her. The last words I said to her were horrible.”