Thick & Thin (Thin Love, #3)(56)

“How, dammit!”

“Cass told me. He has a friend who works in PR for ESPN.”

“Of course he does. That son of a bitch.”

“Is it true? The child is yours?”

“Baby…”

“Is it f*cking true?”

I felt sick. Bile rose quick, clogged my throat as I waited to hear Kona’s answer. When it didn’t come, when my mother’s tears did instead, I turned the knob, not surprised when neither of my parents looked at me. Even in this heartache, they were the center of each other’s world. Mom covered her face with her hands, shaking and sobbing as Kona seemed to debate reaching for her. Around them on the floor were papers, print outs of emails from the look of them, but I didn't stop to read them.

“It is,” Mom whispered, huddling against herself, arms moving to wrap themselves around her waist as she continued to cry. I knew that expression. She wasn’t sad. She was in a rage so blinding that tears were the only thing she could use as a release. I took a step, ready to pull her back if she went at him. “Tell me.” The demand came out low, but menacing. She angrily wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand, lifting her chin as she looked at my father. “You tell me right now.”

Kona ground his teeth, eyes narrowed as he watched her, like cornered animal. “When we broke up, Simone was on her period. I remember because…well, it doesn’t matter why I remember. It’s been fourteen years, baby. Why the hell would she come back now after all this time trying to claim I got her pregnant?

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Kona took a step towards her but my mother retreated. That seemed to hurt him more than anything else, her not wanting his comfort. “I…baby, I didn’t want to worry you. I wanted to handle this on my own. You’ve been working so hard on your label. I knew if this came out… If this came out, it would bring a firestorm of bad publicity on this family, and paparazzi and tabloid shills lurking in the bushes, not to mention all the social media uproar...” He exhaled, head shaking when she continued to glare at him. “All the shit that came back on Ransom because of me, I didn’t want this to be a repeat. Not for him, not for the little ones, especially not for you. Not for us.”

“You should have told me...”

“I…I know, but…” This time when he moved toward her, my mother didn’t flinch or shy away from him. “There’s something else.”

“What the hell else can there…” The transformation of her features was immediate, like the flick of a light brightening a dark room. I had no idea what went through her mind then. Scenarios that were likely ridiculous. Assumptions that came from the most paranoid, self-conscious part of her psyche. Whatever it was she was thinking, it certainly was nothing good, and my father seemed to realize it, too. Before either of them spoke, he lifted his hands, a small gesture of supplication that did nothing to soothe the storm that raged behind my mother’s eyes.

“Baby, please…”

“More than one.” Her voice was like ice. My father’s silence, and the way he dropped his eyes confirmed her suspicion.

“Who?”

“I…I don’t know her.”

“Oh my God…my…God.” Her protestation was not just about the new revelation, but also Kona’s seeming unwillingness to admit to it—a double betrayal.

“Baby,” he tried, voice soft, low but the paranoia had already taken root in my mother’s mind. She wouldn’t have his touch. She didn’t seem to want him anywhere near her. Without hearing his explanation, she backed away, swatting at his hand when he seemed to reach for her, as he followed her step for step. “It’s not what you think and I’m telling you now before anything gets out. Baby, please…please…”

“No. No I can’t…” Head shaking as though the movement would block out the sound of his voice, my mother tightened her closed eyes and clasped her hands over her ears, but it seemed like she was trying harder to keep herself from falling apart than to close herself off. She had already been cut to the core.

“I would never…I have never been unfaithful to you. Not once.” Mom jerked her gaze at Kona, lips curling, hands trembling and he noticed, reached for her but didn’t seem to have the nerve to touch her. “I don’t know her, this other woman. It’s a lie. I haven’t even met her, I swear. She’s lying. I promise you.”

“You liar.” She’d become quiet in an instant, her hands dropping to her sides. That anger burned beneath her skin, made her limbs go steely calm. I’d only seen her this way once before in my life. When I was a punk kid with anger issues who’d thrown some * through a plate glass window for attacking my friend. Mom had marched into the office demanding for the admins to let her see me. When she’d walked into that room she’d managed to keep her anger under control. But the threat she’d leveled at the principle to back off and let me go was something that could shake even the toughest adversary. My father was a warrior and still the steel in my mother’s voice rattled him hard. She defied him with the cool anger brimming in her eyes, challenging him with an insult meant to punch below the belt. “You f*cking liar.”

“I am not!” Kona’s voice was deep just then, his own anger slipping from his control with the break in his voice. Still Mom did not waver from the vengeance she seemed to wrap around her like a coat.