More Than Lies (More Than #1)(113)

Oh, my God. Please, someone tell me he is making this stuff up. This can’t be real. This can’t be my reality.

“I’m sorry, Taralynn. At the time I thought I made the right choice. Looking back . . . oh, looking back I wish I had done so many things differently. When I see the way you look at Shawn, it scares the shit out of me.” I look up, leaving my thoughts for a moment.

“What do you mean? What does any of this have to do with Shawn and me?”

“You’ve liked him for so long, and only him, Taralynn. You’ve never wanted to date other guys. It’s not that I necessarily hate that, but I know deep down it’s because you only want Shawn. And if you can’t have him, you can’t bring yourself to settle for another. That was Lynn. Our love was one of a kind, but when I wouldn’t give her all of me, it broke her. She didn’t want to live her life if I wasn’t a part of it. She took her life because of me. I can’t let that happen to you. I won’t let him do to my daughter what I did to your mother.”

He thinks I’m that weak?

Damn it, I’m not.

“Dad, no one has that much power over me. I’d never do that to myself.” I shake my head. “You don’t have to worry, though. Shawn and I are over.” I have so many emotions coming at me right now that I don’t know one from the other.

“Taralynn, look at what happened tonight. You and he had a fight, and you’re so damn broken up over it. I saw that when I walked in the door. He does have that much power over you.”

“A fight? We didn’t have a fight. He ripped my heart out. He broke up with me and not in a ‘let’s call this over and done with’ way. No, he could have sliced me with a knife and it would have hurt less. Shawn and I didn’t have a fight. He . . .” I can’t bring myself to tell my father what Shawn actually did. It’s not that it’s any of his business. Hell, what I just learned from him, I can’t begin to wrap my head around. Why would he keep something like that from me?

“He what?” His tone is angry.

“He . . . nothing. Forget about it. I can’t do this.”

“Sweetheart, I can see the broken woman sitting next to me. Please talk to me. Let me fix it.”

“Fix it? Really, Dad? There is no fixing it.” I throw my hands up. “I can’t deal with any more of this. I’m so tired. If you think I’m that weak, then there isn’t anything I can say at this point that will convince you. I want to go to bed.”

I need to be placed in a coma. I can’t tell him that, though; the way he’s looking at me right now might get me committed to the psychiatric hospital against my own will.

I have to try something else.

“Daddy, please take me home. I’m exhausted. We can talk tomorrow.” If I’m still there when he wakes up. I’m not so sure I want to talk to him ever again after learning everything he’s kept from me for over twenty-two years. He’s the real reason she hates me. Can I blame her?





CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX





SHAWN BRADEN





“Dad, let me in the house.” What’s his problem? Obviously, me. Well, I don’t care at the moment. I need Tara. I need to see her, feel her, hold her, and talk to her. I’m desperate. Can he not see that written all over my face? I thought I lost her forever just a short time ago. I need her now.

“This isn’t up for discussion. Get into the car, Shawn.”

“Dad.” I plead.

“Now.”

I get inside his car. Not because I want to, but because with the look he’s throwing me, I’m almost certain he’ll kick my ass and then put me in the car himself if I don’t do what he says.

“Where are we going?” I cross my arms. Might as well act like a child if he’s going to treat me like one.

“To a goddamn diner. You reek of alcohol, too.”

“Did you just say GD?” My father does not cuss often. He certainly doesn’t take the Lord’s name in vain—ever—and I’m not stupid enough to say it in front of him.

“Now’s not the time to piss me off, son.”

We drive in silence the rest of the way until he pulls into an all-night diner downtown.

When we take our seats, a waitress is at our table before my ass hits the cracked plastic of the booth.

“Can I get you boys something?”

I pick up the menu in front of me but soon realize I won’t be ordering off it.

“Two coffees, please, and he’ll have eggs over medium with lots of bacon and toast.” So I guess I really am five years old again and my daddy is ordering for me. Just fucking fantastic.

The coffee arrives a minute later and he hasn’t breathed a word. He’s just staring. His expression is blank, so I can’t read him. With nothing to say from my side, I take a sip of scalding hot coffee.

“You can start speaking at any time now.”

What the fuck? He dragged me here, not the other way around.

“If I knew what you wanted me to say, I’d say it so that I could get back to my girlfriend.”

“You sure you have a girlfriend?”

I refuse to answer that. I refuse to believe I can’t get Tara back. I love her, and I know she loves me. It’s just a matter of convincing her.