Unexpected Arrivals(44)

Thoughts raced through my head, my brain unable to complete any of them before diverting to another. “W-what intentions?”

He let out a heavy sigh, stood from his chair, and rounded the desk to sit on the edge. For the first time in my life, my dad stared at me like a concerned friend instead of an overbearing, absent parent. “There’s no doubt you’ve heard the stories of Drake’s escapades with younger women, several of which worked for him.”

I barely managed to move my head in a semblance of a nod, unsure I could bear to hear what he wanted to share.

“She wasn’t one of those women, James.”

My jaw finally clamped, and my mind shut down. She wasn’t one of those women. It was the only thing that replayed like an echo bouncing off the walls of my skull.

“And Drake tried. She’s a beautiful girl.” He paused and stared at me as though he waited for me to catch up mentally in the conversation. “Her heart belonged to you.”

I should have been elated, seeing fireworks behind my eyelids, rejoicing that Cora hadn’t involved herself with Drake Halifax, but instead, my heart squeezed painfully just as my lungs constricted, preventing air from flowing freely. I hadn’t believed in her. I hadn’t trusted her enough to believe she was mine. Even if I’d never questioned it verbally, I’d thought it all in my head—and then I’d played out my retribution, using two other women’s bodies as my targets. She hadn’t failed me; I’d given up on her.

“James?”

My hand clutched my shirt, and the other pulled at the tie around my neck, desperate to loosen the hold it had on my airway. “How do you know?” It was all I managed to utter, but I needed confirmation before I found the nearest Catholic church to start confessing my sins and reciting Hail Marys.

“He told me. He didn’t have a clue what he was admitting to when he brought her up. Or that the beau she fancied was my son.”

“Did you tell him?” The sentence came out raspy and desperate, although I wasn’t sure why.

“Not until I was certain she was loyal.”

I wanted to hate him for the sentiment, but the truth was, if it were my child we were talking about, I probably would have done the same.

“Women like that are hard to find when you come from the life you do.”

“What?” That was the dumbest thing I’d heard since Chelsea telling me my mom made the staff use the back door.

“Whether you believe it or not, you’re privileged, and people will use you to raise their station—”

“She’s a Chase, Dad. If anything, she’d be elevating my social status, not the other way around.”

“Don’t fool yourself, son. Lots of women prefer to marry into the life they were raised in with little respect for the sanctity of the union. And I didn’t know Cora from Eve.”

“That’s because you were never around.” I’d mumbled it, yet it had been loud enough for him to hear.

He unfolded his arms from his chest and rested his palms on either side of him, just before his shoulders and face fell slightly. “I deserve that.”

Jesus, I didn’t have a clue who this man was or what he’d done with my dad. I was starting to wonder if he'd been diagnosed with some terminal disease and was trying to right the wrongs of his past.

“I hope you make better choices if you have children. It’s easy to point a finger after the fact, but I did the best I knew how. I mirrored what I’d seen my father do. Those were different times, back when mothers, even those who had nannies, stayed home while fathers worked to provide for their family. It’s what my grandfather did and my father after. I wanted you to have the best of everything. I just never considered—until it was too late—that I’d sacrificed the only thing you cared about having the best of…a father.”

I’d entered the Twilight Zone. Soon, my mother would come through the door in a prim dress with a belt cinched at the waist, pearls around her neck, and a plate of freshly baked cookies in her hand.

“I can’t change our past. I can only hope you have a better future. And I hoped to make sure this Cora girl was it.”

“That’s it?”

He let out a hearty chuckle before clapping my shoulder and helping me up from the seat I sat in.

“If you don’t want to end up just like me, stop taking life so seriously…and maybe find time to make your way to Paris.”

I felt my brow draw down, and my lip curl up; I could only imagine what my confusion looked like from the outside. I was lost with this whimsical man who stood before me and wondered if someone had slipped a hallucinogen into my morning coffee.

***

“James, I swear, dating men in Paris is like dating hell in the United States. For a city that’s filled with love, these guys have no idea how to treat a lady.”

I abhorred hearing her talk about other men, although I secretly smiled each time she told me about a date gone wrong. None of them had been horrible; they just weren’t me. Cora had yet to figure that part out; she assumed it was the men, when in fact, most women would have swooned at the accent alone.

“They dress like pop stars, James. A guy shouldn’t look better in skinny jeans than his date. And they pair them with fitted shirts. It’s like boy band gone wrong.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Cora, not every guy in France dresses like Justin Bieber.”