Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(62)

I dabbed the ointment on his cut. “You didn’t let him. You didn’t believe he’d hurt me, not until you saw it for yourself. You don’t have to say sorry anymore, Jonah. Your actions spoke louder than your words tonight.”

He looked down and shook his head. “I didn’t want to believe he’d hurt you.”

“Because he’s your father. You were in an impossible position.” As I said the words, I knew they were true, and I couldn’t be angry with him anymore.

His throat worked as he looked down at the floor of the bathroom, and I wondered how it felt to know the man you’d trusted all your life wasn’t who you thought he was. He was who you feared he was.

“Come on,” I said, wanting to break him out of his morose thoughts. “You’re all patched up.”

With Jonah’s cut looking much less gruesome, he silently followed me into the kitchen where Lorraine was waiting. Just like the night I first came here, I sat with her and went through my mother’s medical files, but this time Jonah was with us.

He was quiet, careful, and methodical as he looked everything over. He’d pick up a sheet of paper, scan it slowly, and put it beside him before reaching for the next one. I watched the expression on his face closely, searching for some indication of what he was thinking, but he was too focused to reveal anything.

As Jonah read through it all, I hoped he saw what Lorraine and I did. I also hoped he would realize that my father not only took care of my mother, but he took care of Jonah’s too.

“This is everything?” Jonah asked.

“Everything that was in there.”

I explained what Alison Hoyt told me about how my father passed the information in person to the Chinese each time he took my mother in for her treatment. As far as I knew, he hadn’t kept any other records.

When I thought of Alison Hoyt, I went cold. She never told me that my father asked her to hold the safe for him, but she told Victor. She most likely told him to protect herself and her family, and I supposed I could understand that. But now I couldn’t count on her.

“That’s why you didn’t want me to get into it with Drew,” Jonah said. “You wanted to stay on his good side because you were hoping the same treatment could help Theo, and you needed his mother for that.”

I nodded, but now I wondered if she ever planned to get me any information for Theo.

When I looked over, the small smile playing on Jonah’s lips took me by surprise.

“You’ve been secretly trying to help your father and Theo this whole time?”

“And failing,” I said.

In Jonah’s gaze, I saw something that resembled admiration, but he cut it away too fast to be sure. After moment, he frowned. “Your father wanted to help your mother. I see that,” he said. “But intention doesn’t matter to the organization.”

He stared at the stack of papers before turning his attention to Lorraine. “Does my father know about you and Sebastian Seaborne?”

Lorraine worried her bottom lip. “Yes. I’m afraid that’s why he took this case. Because of me.”

“Did he want you back?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said quietly. “When I left, he expected me to fail on my own. He wanted me to suffer and beg him to take me back. That wasn’t going to happen if Sebastian was helping me. He knew that, and he doesn’t like to lose.”

Jonah rubbed the back of his neck as he absorbed this news, and I could tell it hurt from the fight earlier. I also knew it wasn’t just his body that was hurting.

“Why would your father save all this, Candy?” he asked. “It incriminates him.”

“So she would know why he did it,” Lorraine offered. “He wanted her to understand.”

I looked at all the files spread out on the table. “He had no choice. You see that, don’t you? What choice would you have made? If given the chance to save someone you love, would you take it, no matter the cost to yourself?”

His gaze traveled from my face to my neck and back again. “I think I just did.”

The air stilled in my lungs. He was talking about saving me from his father. Before I could respond, he cleared his throat and looked back down at the files.

I glanced at Lorraine to see her reaction, but her eyes were drinking in the sight of her son, and they had been since we’d walked in here. But my head was reeling from what Jonah had just implied, and what I took it to mean.

Love? For me? No, he couldn’t have meant it that way.

Lorraine reached out and patted Jonah’s arm to comfort him. It was obvious she wanted to do more, but it was also clear he wouldn’t welcome it. Despite all he’d heard tonight, Jonah continued to be standoffish toward her. Without acknowledging her gesture, he picked up the glass of water Lorraine had quietly gotten for him and took a sip.

Each time Lorraine got the cold shoulder from him, it upset her, but she was trying hard not to let it show. I wondered if some time alone together might help. The awkwardness might not be so heavy if I wasn’t there making them feel self-conscious.

Besides, I wanted to see Theo, and I wanted to see him alone. He wouldn’t say anything of significance to me if I brought company. We’d talked all night, and dawn had broken over an hour ago. I glanced at my watch to see it was late enough to drop by his house.