Wrong for You (Before You #3)(51)

“What?” He never heard any of that information before, but it made sense.

Brad took a deep breath, apparently fortifying himself. “I understand why your mom picked Jim over me and why she tricked him into believing you were his.”

Alec locked eyes with Brad, cocking one eyebrow, refusing to ask the obvious question hanging between them.

“I was in college, but I was a total f*ck up then. I drank. I cheated on Cecilia. I smoked pot all day long. I barely passed my classes and I didn’t give a shit about anyone except me and my band.”

“You played in a band?” Alec asked, feeling a mixture of emotions rushing through him at the discovery that Brad played in a band once, too.

He nodded, but didn’t say anything further about his band. “I thought I loved Cecilia, but I didn’t…not really, anyway. We’d been together since the ninth grade. I took her for granted and assumed she’d be waiting when I was ready to clean up my act. Unfortunately, it took her marrying Jim for that to happen. Jim was my polar opposite. He stayed close to home for college. He was responsible and got good grades and he’d been in love with Cecilia for a long as I could remember. For her, marrying him was a no-brainer.”

“So why did you interfere?” Alec spoke in a low tone, feigning indifference.

“I didn’t realize you were mine until Cecilia drunkenly confessed it to me at my wedding. Two weeks later, I forced her to get a paternity test and I confronted her about custody the day after I received the results—the day Jim…died.” His voice dropped on the last word and sadness flashed across his face.

Alec’s stomach rolled at the reference to that day. In his mind, he still couldn’t process that he didn’t cause Jim’s death. It didn’t matter what the Foundation’s counselors said to him as a kid and it didn’t matter what the five hundred dollar an hour therapists told him in LA. Jim would still be alive and Taylor would still have her dad if it weren’t for him and his big mouth. “You should’ve left us alone.”

“Maybe, but from the minute I found out you were mine for sure, I wanted you to be a part of my life. I couldn’t stand the idea of Jim raising my son.” His eyes met Alec’s and Alec studied his face, the same nose, the same chin and so many little things that resembled his except the eyes. Those were identical to his mom’s.

Alec looked toward the entrance of the restaurant. “That’s total bullshit. If you cared, you would have fought for me after Jim died.”

“I thought I’d already caused enough harm, so I didn’t fight…I gave up too easily.”

“You know, I don’t think I’m hungry after all. I think I’ll take my breakfast to go.” Alec pulled out his wallet and slapped a fifty on the table. “This should cover it.”

“Wait,” Brad said, grabbing his wrist. “Your brothers want to meet you. They love music just like you, and I think it’d be good for all of you to get to know each other.”

“Wait. Let me think about this. You want to apologize to me for being too big of a coward to be a father to me, but now you want me to be a part of your sons’ lives. The same sons who probably had regular meals on their table, who didn’t have a mother who told them she should have aborted him, who didn’t have a mother who dragged drunken *s back to the house to physically abuse him and his sister.” He took a deep breath, trying to calm the fire rushing through his veins.

“I didn’t know any of that. When I gave Cecilia her check every month, she told me you were both fine.”

Alec stood up. At least he knew how his mom managed to keep the house and maintain her addiction despite her joblessness. “You gave her money?”

“Of course I did.” Brad sighed. “If I had any idea she wasn’t the mother she pretended to be, I would have fought for you and your sister with everything I had.”

“Maybe you didn’t want to know. I’m sure it made your life and your marriage a lot less complicated without Taylor and me in it. I was an inconvenient fact that you wanted to sweep under the rug with a couple dollars every month.”

Just then the waitress placed their food on the table. “Can I get that to go?” Alec asked, his eyes never leaving Brad’s.

“Sure thing.” She picked up his plate and left.

Brad grabbed an envelope from inside his briefcase. “This is from Jayden, one of your brothers.”

Alec looked at the crisp white envelope with his name on it. For a second, he wanted to throw it back in Brad’s face, but he didn’t have the energy. “What does it say?”

Brad shrugged. “He didn’t tell me.”

“Thanks.” He slipped it into his back pocket.

“You ready?” Violet said in her soft, almost angelic voice as she laced her fingers between his. The tension that had been building over the last forty minutes melted away and he felt a million times better, but Violet always made him feel that way. Within a matter of weeks, she had wormed her way into his heart so deep, he didn’t think he’d ever get her out and maybe that wasn’t so bad. He could get used to having her there.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Alec, I’m proud of you and everything you’ve accomplished, even more so now that I know what you faced,” Brad said.