Rebound (Seattle Steelheads #1)(73)

“In what way?”

“Like…” She tugged harder at one of the white threads. “He asked if we’d met Asher.”

Okay, commencing molar grinding. What the fuck. Voice as neutral as I could keep it, I said, “Did he?”

“I mean, I guess he saw something about it online.” She laughed softly. “It’s kind of gotten around.”

“Yeah, it has. I’m not really surprised he knows, but I’m a little concerned about why he’s asking my kids about my boyfriend.”

Her humor vanished in an instant, and she kept working at the thread, wrapping it around her finger and unwrapping it again. “He made these weird comments about how it made sense now why you left. And that with as much money as Asher has, David and I must be living the high life.”

“He seriously said that?”

Claire nodded. “Yeah. He just said a lot of stuff about how you being with Asher explains why you broke up with him, and—” She abruptly looked in my eyes. “Did you break up with Marcus to be with Asher?”

“No! Of course not. I didn’t even meet Asher until months after we moved out of Marcus’s house.” I sighed, shaking my head. “Asher had nothing to do with anything. I needed to break up with Marcus. Period. For me and for you two.”

“I still don’t get it, though.” She fidgeted on the cushion. “You guys always seemed happy. What’s his deal?”

“His deal…” I rubbed my eyes. It really was time to come clean to my kids, wasn’t it? Yeah. Long past time, but if Marcus was still going to insert himself into their lives and poison them against me or my current boyfriend, then they needed to know the truth. They deserved to know it. With a heavy sigh, I rose. “I’m going to get your brother. There are some things I need to explain to both of you.”

Claire watched me, wide-eyed, as I crossed the living room, but she said nothing.

Stomach jittery, I tapped on my son’s door. “David?”

“Yeah?” came the unenthusiastic response.

“Can you come out here for a few minutes? I need to talk to you and your sister.”

Even through the door, I could hear the exasperated, “Jesus, seriously?” that was probably meant to stay under his breath. I let it go, though, especially since he opened the door a moment later.

He followed me into the living room. Claire stayed on her end of the couch. David flopped into the recliner. I took the place I’d been sitting a few minutes ago, and rested my elbows on my knees.

“So.” I cleared my throat. “Claire told me you two had lunch with Marcus, and—”

“You told him?” David snapped at Claire. “He said not to tell Dad!”

I gritted my teeth. “Which should have been a pretty big red flag.”

David scowled and rolled his eyes. Claire didn’t speak.

“Don’t blame her,” I said. “This is on Marcus, and it’s on me for not being honest with you. I need to level with you about Marcus. And why I really left.”

They exchanged uneasy glances before turning their wide-eyed attention back to me.

I wrung my hands. “Let me start by saying this is on Marcus, and it’s on me. I don’t want either of you thinking I’m blaming you for anything. And I didn’t tell you this before because I didn’t want you to get hurt any more than you already were. All right?”

Still visibly uneasy, they both nodded.

“Okay. So.” I took a deep breath. “I did not leave him because of my ego, or because I was too proud to be with someone who made more money than me.” I lowered my gaze. “I left because he was using his money as a weapon. He did for a long time.”

The recliner creaked quietly. “A weapon?” David asked.

I nodded. “When he paid for things, there were strings attached. If he and I got into a fight, or even if we just disagreed on something, he’d tug those strings.” I paused, wracking my brain for a second before I could settle on an example. “Remember a couple of years ago when Marcus and I went through a few months where we’d argue all the time?”

Both kids nodded.

“Okay. Well. That happens. Couples have rough patches. It’s perfectly normal.” I forced back the acid that was trying to climb up my throat. “What’s not normal is when two partners are butting heads, and one starts making noise about repurposing the money he set aside for some… medical issues.” I flicked my eyes toward Claire.

She held my gaze, studying me for a moment, then jumped. “My transition.”

Heart sinking, I nodded. “Yeah. Any time he wanted me to back down.”

She stared at me, lips parted. “And you backed down?”

“Of course,” I whispered. “It was always over relatively minor things. Nothing that was more important than helping you transition, and definitely nothing that was worth slamming on the brakes while you were in the middle of it. It just took me until a long time after that to realize what he was doing—using you to manipulate me. And once I saw that, it was easy to see how often he’d done it.”

“Really?” Claire’s voice was so soft, it was nearly inaudible.

“Yeah.” I made myself look at them. “It got to the point I’d cringe any time he’d pull out his debit card because I knew that would come back and bite me somehow. If I didn’t toe every line he drew, he’d throw anything and everything he’d done for us financially in my face. He especially used any money he spent on the two of you as the big guns. To keep me in line.”