The Hardest Fall(50)

My heart hammering, I forced myself to walk with stiff legs and sat on the edge of the chair farthest away from him. A result of the anger I felt toward him, my fingertips bit into my palms the entire time. When I was finished telling him about the night before, making sure to keep the parts about me and Dylan out, he started pacing—angry steps, angry eyes, sharp, angry words.

“He doesn’t know about your mom. How many times do—”

“Our mom, you mean,” I muttered.

His eyes narrowed at me. “Danielle has never been his mom. We adopted him. His mom is Emily.”

It was right on the tip of my tongue to say something, but I decided to let it go. When it came to Mark, I knew it was better to pick my battles. I wanted to reason with him. Technically he was my father and I wished I could manage to call him by that title one day, but every time I thought about doing exactly that, I felt like gagging. This was one of those times.

“Mom called you before she passed away and told you about me. I wasn’t the one to call you. You said you wanted to meet me, you said you wanted to get to know me. You were the one who invited me to come here, so I came. I came because I wanted to get to know you too, not just Chris. My freshman year, you said it should be just us for a while, said we should have the time to get to know each other, and I agreed because I was already nervous about how and why—”

“What are you getting at Zoe? I don’t have time to go over the last three years.”

“Don’t put all this on my mom. She was your wife’s friend and you both cheated behind her back. She didn’t get pregnant on her own, and twice at that. I have no idea how you talked your wife into adopting Chris—I guess maybe she was really desperate to have a kid and forgave you for cheating on her—but I know the lies you told my mom to convince her to give him up.”

He just stared at me, anger burning in his eyes. I rose from my seat and forced my hands to relax at my sides.

“At first, I thought you liked me,” I said in a controlled voice. “I might have been a surprise that came, what, eighteen, nineteen years later, but you acted like you cared about it, cared about learning more about me. I thought we were getting closer. I never assumed I’d be like a daughter to you, but I thought we would have some kind of relationship.” I gripped my bag tighter. Why did I think he’d interrupt me to say something to ease my hurt? Surely he could see it with his own eyes, but he said nothing. “Never mind. I already have a dad, right? I couldn’t ask for a better one. You don’t have to like me, I don’t mind that at all”—that was something I no longer cared about—“but I want to get to know Chris. That’s what I said from the very beginning. Other than my dad, I have no family. No one. He is my brother, not half-brother. He is my brother, and I want the chance to get to know him.”

Something must have made it through because his eyes softened, the angry lines on his forehead slowly decreasing, at least I thought so. “We can’t tell him about your mother.” He sighed. “And Emily doesn’t know about you. She won’t handle it well if she learns that Chris knows she’s not his mother.”

My mom had been sleeping with Mark behind his wife’s back when she got pregnant with Chris. Just two months before she passed away, she sat me down and told me all about their toxic relationship. She hadn’t thought of it as toxic, but that was exactly what it had been. Initially, Mark wanted her to get an abortion, but when my mom refused to do so, Mark came up with a better idea. Since his wife couldn’t have a baby because of her health issues, why not adopt the one Danielle was going to have and kill two birds with one stone? My mom didn’t know what he had told his wife, but to her, he’d promised to leave the wife when the time was right. Only problem was, the right time never came. A scandal would affect his football career. His coach at the time was his wife’s father, and surely he’d have done everything he could to get Mark fired if he learned that he was cheating on his daughter. If she didn’t let them adopt the baby, he’d never acknowledge it, never see her again. However, if she did, they’d keep seeing each other behind the wife’s back, and when he left her, they’d raise Chris together. I’m not sure if my mom was so naive because of her young age or because of love, but she went along with his plan.

“What do you mean we can’t tell him about his mother?”

“I’ll only agree to tell him you’re his half-sister, and you’ll wait for me to tell him, Zoe. You’re not going to say one word to him without my knowing. That’s the best you’ll get from me.”

Jesus. Was he actually negotiating with me about this?

“This is his last season, and I’m going to wait till it’s over. I can’t afford for him to lose his focus and screw up his future over this. If you care about him, you’ll wait till the season ends.”

I wanted to ask so many questions, but I simply nodded. I’d waited three years to meet him after all; a few more months was nothing.

When he didn’t move his eyes off me, I gave him a tight nod and turned around to leave. The air inside the room was becoming stifling.

“One more thing, Zoe.”

I stopped with my fingers on the handle.

“I don’t want you to be friends with Dylan Reed.”

My brows drew together in confusion and I faced him. “What? Why?”