Wrong for You (Before You #3)(49)
Violet leaned back and pushed her spaghetti around on her plate with her fork. “Okay. You’re probably right, but I could wait at a nearby coffee shop if things get crazy.”
“You’d do that?”
“Of course. I don’t want you to feel alone. If you need me, you can text me and I’ll be there in a minute.” He hadn’t talked to his dad in a long time, and from Alec’s behavior, she could tell that the meeting might not be amicable.
Alec rubbed his fingers together, his rings clanking against each other. “You know what, why don’t you come in with me and I’ll introduce you and you can tell me you’ll pick me up in an hour.”
“Sure, but why?”
“It’ll give me an out. I’ll have a definitive ending to the meet and greet with him.”
“Okay, but don’t you think you’ll need longer than an hour? You said you hadn’t seen him for a really long time.”
“Is this still part of the one question?”
“Sure, if that means you’ll answer it.”
He rubbed his face with the palm of his hand and she didn’t think he’d answer.
“The first ten years of my life were pretty normal. I had a mom, a dad, and a younger sister that I loved from the moment my parents brought her home.”
“What happened?” she asked, keeping her voice soft.
Alec chugged the rest of his beer. “I came home after school and my mom was fighting with some man about me. He said he knew I was his.”
“His biological child.”
Alec nodded. “I hid so my mom wouldn’t realize I was home, and when he left I didn’t question her about it. I wanted to ask my dad—or the man I thought was my dad. When I did, he confronted my mom, and while their relationship wasn’t all rosy and easy going, their fight that night was volcanic. My dad finally stormed out of the house. He died less than an hour later in a car accident.” Alec shook his head. “After that, everything fell apart. My mom drank so much she couldn’t hold down a job. I don’t even know how my mom managed to keep a roof over our head. Sometimes she didn’t come home for days at a time and I was left with a little sister to take care of.”
“Alec…” She reached across the table, grabbing his hand and refusing to let go. “I’m so sorry. Did your real dad help you?”
His shook his head, his eyes empty, dark, and swirling with a sinister sadness. “I asked for his help once and his wife told me to never come back.”
“Are you sure you want to see him now?”
“No.” He laughed bitterly. “But my mom claims that she had a restraining order against him so he couldn’t contact me, but that’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
“What do you know about him?”
“Other than the fact that they were brothers…not a lot.”
“Who?”
“My biological dad and the man I thought was my dad.”
For a second she couldn’t say anything—she just chewed her lip as she watched his stoic face. He had carefully wiped his face clean of any emotion as he stared at her. It was shocking, but she’d heard a lot of shocking stories since she’d started working for the Foundation. “Wow. That’s f*cked up. Your mom’s a real piece of work.”
He chuckled and his dark eyes lightened a bit. “I know.” He pulled his hand away from her and dropped it in his lap. “So anyway…will you help me tomorrow?”
She looked into his deep blue eyes and saw a person worth helping. She never walked away from someone in need if it was in her power to help and she wouldn’t start now. “I’ll help any way I can.”
Chapter Twenty
It’d taken Alec nearly a full week to set up a mutually agreeable meeting place and time with Brad. Granted, he canceled the first meeting because he wasn’t ready to talk to him, but now that Jax demanded a band meeting this weekend, he didn’t have a choice. Since Brad hadn’t made any effort to contact him in the last sixteen years of his life, he figured he didn’t have to be too accommodating of Brad’s schedule and he didn’t go out of his way to push the meeting or make it happen.
The only reason why he hadn’t blown off Brad was because he didn’t want this family shit hanging over his head and shifting his focus away from the recording sessions next week. Chasing Ruin needed to pull out all the stops if they wanted their new album to be as successful as their first.
Thus, on Wednesday morning, two days before he planned to drive back to LA, he found himself walking into a small diner, his hand intertwined with Violet’s while having serious second thoughts about meeting Brad or letting Violet leave him alone with Brad for an hour.
Last night, he didn’t go back to his temporary basement and stare at the ceiling waiting for nine in the morning to roll around. Instead, he opted to stay at Violet’s house, in her bed, with his arms holding her next to him. She didn’t press him for answers about his uncharacteristic behavior, but she probably didn’t have to. She knew.
“Brad,” he said, pausing by a table near the back corner. Alec visibly relaxed. At least they’d have some privacy for the conversation, instead of being front and center where someone could recognize him or overhear the impending incredibly awkward conversation. He hadn’t set his eyes on Brad since the day he confronted his mom over sixteen years ago. Unlike his mom, the years had been kind to him. He looked nearly the same with the exception of the deep lines that bracketed his eyes and mouth.