Rival(44)

I laughed bitterly and finished tying my shoes. “Say what you have to say, and make it quick.”

“You can’t have a relationship with Fallon. It’s just not possible.”

His bluntness threw me for a loop. I guess he knew we’d started up again. Did I want a relationship with her?

I stood up, ready to leave. “You’ve had two failed marriages. You don’t get to give me advice about this kind of stuff.”

He reached behind him and snatched a folder off his desk, shoving it into my chest. “Take a look.”

I sighed but opened the folder anyway.

Jesus.

My heartbeat echoed in my ears as I sifted through picture after picture of my father and Jared’s mom, Katherine. Photos of them entering his apartment together, hugging and kissing in front of his window, him helping her out of cars . . .

“You’re having an affair with Jared’s mom?”

He nodded and headed around his desk to sit down. “Off and on for eighteen years now. There’s nothing you can tell me about wanting something you can’t have that I don’t understand, Madoc. Katherine and I have had a lot of history, a lot of struggles, and bad timing. But we love each other, and I’m going to marry her as soon as possible.”

“Are you serious?” I gasped and laughed at the same time. “What the f*ck?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Hey, I’m having an affair with your best friend’s mom. Hey, we’re getting married. And he talked about it as if he were commenting on the weather. That’s my f*cking father for you. He does what he wants, and you roll with it, or you don’t. He was just like . . .

“Wait.” My gut knotted up. “Eighteen years? You’re not Jared’s dad, are you?”

He looked at me like I was insane. “Of course not. She’d just had Jared when we met.” Rubbing his hands over his face, he changed the subject. “I got this envelope from Fallon. Along with this and one of my business dealings, because for all intents and purposes, she’s blackmailing me, Madoc.”

The file folder crumpled in my fist. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.” He consoled me with his flat voice. “This is all so much more complicated than you realize, but I want you to know that although Fallon came back here with ulterior motives, I don’t think she wanted to hurt you. She could’ve gone to the media with what she has on me. It would’ve hurt this family.”

I stared at the pictures, my breath getting shallower, faster, and my face warming with anger.

“She’s very angry,” he continued softly as if thinking out loud. “But she didn’t go to the media, Madoc. She didn’t want to cause you any pain.”

“Stop trying to protect me,” I bit out, sitting down in the chair again.

If she came back to blackmail my dad, then everything else was a lie, too.

“So what does she have on you?” I asked. “Besides this?” I held up the folder.

He hooded his eyes and spoke hesitantly. “It was a payoff I negotiated. It was illegal and I could lose my license, to say the least. But it wasn’t a decision I made lightly, and I would do it again.” He looked straight at me. “Nonetheless, Fallon’s not asking for much. And I didn’t tell you any of this to hurt you. I told you so you could move forward. I didn’t force Fallon to leave. She texted me last night.”

He tossed me his phone, so I could see his messages. Sure enough, the first text was from Fallon.

“She’s not right for you.” His voice was like a distant echo as I stared at the words on his screen. “Her father, for starters . . .” He trailed off.

And then I lost him. My stomach sank, I dropped the phone on the floor, and then laid my elbows on my knees, burying my face in my hands.

I remembered this feeling. It’s what I felt years ago when they’d told me she was gone all of a sudden. When I saw her empty bed where we lost our virginity together. And when I couldn’t sleep, and I’d storm into the basement to play the piano.

I didn’t want this again. I’d never wanted to feel that again. I inhaled a deep breath until my lungs ached so badly I thought they would burst.

“Stop talking,” I cut him off from whatever he was talking about. “Just stop talking. Eighteen years?” I asked. “That means that you were seeing Katherine Trent when you were married to my mother.”