Too bad for him, Joshua didn’t feel like picking it up. That required too much effort, and he was just too tired.
“Do I know you?” Joshua turned, facing the other man, who seemed vaguely familiar, but his mind couldn’t place him. “Because if not, then can you just tell me what your problem is with me so I can go back to my drink?”
A faint snarl curled the corner of his mouth. “Why am I not surprised that you don’t recognize me? Why would you? From that lofty tower you rule from, it would be difficult to distinguish between the peasants. Even the ones you had a hand in destroying.” Before Joshua could reply, the guy stuck his hand out. “Zane Patterson. Maybe you know the last name, if not me.”
Patterson. The whiskey turned to swill in his stomach, roiling. God, yes, he knew that name. It’d been the name of one of the families that had been his father’s clients.
“Oh, so I see you do remember.” Zane nodded. “I guess that makes you somewhat better than your father, who screwed us over and never looked back.”
“Yes, I do, and yes, he did,” Joshua agreed, earning an eyebrow arch from Zane. Had the other man expected him to deny the accusation? To defend Vernon. He silently snorted. Not in this lifetime. Or the next, if his father was indeed there instead of lying around some beach surrounded by younger women and mai tais.
“What are you doing here, Lowell?” Zane asked, picking up the beer the bartender set in front of him. Sipping from the mug, he studied Joshua over the rim. “Drowning your woes, maybe?”
“Listen, I understand why you of all people can’t stand the sight of me. But I’m here, just trying to have a drink. You can hate me from across the room.”
“Still so high and mighty,” Zane murmured. “Even after finding out you’re no better than the rest of us. Worse, I’d say. You wouldn’t catch me abandoning a kid of mine. But like father, like son, I guess.”
Shock slammed into him, nearly toppling him from the stool. “What the hell did you just say to me?” he rasped.
A sardonic smile darkened Zane’s face. “You heard me. Don’t tell me the reporter didn’t give you the DNA test results? I specifically chose Sophie Armstrong to share that with.”
The shock continued to resonate through him like the drone of a thousand bees, but anger started to rush in like a tide, swallowing it. “You paid Sophie to make sure I received it?” he ground out.
“Paid her? Hell no. It was free of charge. And my pleasure.” He again smiled, but it nowhere near reached his icy blue eyes. No, that wasn’t correct. They weren’t icy. Something volatile and...bleak darkened those eyes. Pain. If Joshua wasn’t mired in it, he might not have been able to identify it. “Someone anonymously emailed the results to me,” Zane continued, his level voice not reflecting the turmoil he would probably deny existed in his gaze. “And I just passed them along. The test spoke for itself, so I really didn’t give a damn who sent them. But whoever it was must’ve known I wouldn’t mind paying it forward. Your father and family destroyed my world, my family.” Gravel roughened his tone, and Zane jerked his head away from Joshua. A muscle ticked along his jaw as he visibly battled some emotion he no doubt hated that Joshua glimpsed. After several seconds, the other man returned his regard to Joshua, his expression carefully composed. Too blank. “I was only too happy to return the favor. Everyone believes you’re this perfect guy when you have a child out there that you won’t even take care of. I can’t wait for people to find out just who you really are.”
Oh God.
He’d fucked up.
Numb, Joshua turned back to face the bar, Zane’s hurt scraping Joshua’s skin, his bitter words buzzing in his ears. He’d sent the DNA tests. Free of charge. Sophie had been telling the truth. No one had paid her to show him the results. She hadn’t lied to him.
But... He’d known that, hadn’t he?
Deep down, where that terrified, lonely and angry twenty-two-year-old still existed, he’d known she wouldn’t have been capable of betraying him. She’d been right about him; he was a coward. So scared she would leave him like everyone else he’d loved, he’d jumped on the first obstacle that had presented itself to push her out the door. Save himself the pain of her rejecting him and walking away from him.
Even though he’d known she could never do what he’d accused her of. Not sweet, honorable, honest, strong Sophie. She said that she knew him better than anyone else, but he also knew her. Fear had kept him from acknowledging it in his office, but the truth couldn’t be denied. He did know her.
And he loved her.
He loved her.
She’d seen beyond his tainted past and who his father was and had accepted him, believed in him, when he hadn’t even been able to do the same for himself. She’d seen him as blameless, as a hero for so many people, as an artist with a passion and a dream. Sophie had never given up on him.
Now it was time he didn’t. Time he believed in himself.
In them.
Setting the drink on the bar, Josh reached into his jacket and removed his wallet. He threw down several bills that covered his drinks and a healthy tip before turning back to Zane.
“I’m sorry my father caused you and your family so much pain. He was greedy and selfish and had no thought whatsoever for who he would hurt. But I was every bit as much of a victim as you were. I lost my family, too. But I refuse to apologize or take on his guilt
