Her face fell into her hands, hysterical again.
“Babe, breathe.” I reached out, stroking her shoulder at a total loss.
“He kept me from you to protect his precious reputation while he was screwing some girl!” she cried.
“He did it because he was afraid I’d tell you,” I admitted, finally growing the balls I needed. I couldn’t let her keep thinking she was to blame. That we were to blame. It sat squarely on my shoulders.
If I hadn’t approached his car, he would never have arranged the traffic stop. He never would have sent her away.
She stiffened beneath my hand. “Tell me what?”
“That I saw them together.”
“When?” she asked, her voice low.
“A few weeks before I got pulled over on the way to Briley.”
And that was all the time he needed to pay off the right people to ruin our lives. To make sure enough people thought I was a sleaze. To make sure a Barrett wouldn’t be the one who brought him down.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she gasped, looking at me like I was a monster.
“I couldn’t hurt you.”
“But if I’d known that…” she started choking on her words, gripping the pillows around her for strength. “If I’d known, I never would have left willingly. I would’ve known he was a liar.”
“Trish had just gotten the all-clear. I couldn’t do that to you guys.”
Years of cancer’s torment had finally come to an end. I couldn’t blow their family up again.
“So you let him dog my mother for the past eleven years?” she sneered.
“I don’t think it’s lasted that long…”
The disgusting duo seemed to fade out fast after I saw them, actually. It was only a few weeks later when she moved north with some billionaire, likely when she found out she was knocked up with Ed’s kid.
Ed was a thrill. He wasn’t worth billions.
“And you KNEW I had a brother and didn’t tell me?”
And the other foot dropped.
But I wouldn’t lie. It was all out there.
I had nothing left to protect her from.
“Not at the time.”
She flinched as if I’d slapped her, sinking away from my touch. “When did you know, Luke?”
“I saw the boy on the Fourth of July. I ran into them in line for Lincoln’s whale.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” she cried, hands flying up to cover her face.
“I couldn’t tell you.”
“No, you didn’t want to tell me.” She pulled herself to her feet. “You kept it from me.”
“Josie…” I trailed, reaching for her.
She spun out of range, glaring down at me. “You don’t keep things from people you love.”
“Josie, it isn’t that simple.”
“But it is, Luke. You don’t keep secrets, no matter how ugly they are. That’s not love. That’s manipulating the truth.”
“Baby…” I tried to grab her hand again, but she slapped mine out of the air.
“Don’t!” she snapped. “Don’t you dare! I need to go!
“You’re upset! Just sit down and talk to me!”
“It’s too late! You’ve had eleven years to talk to me, and you haven’t! You let my family look like fools!”
She rushed to the side table, snatching her purse. “Linc!” she called, grabbing the door handle. “Lincoln, it’s time to go!”
I heard his room’s door open, his little feet tapping across the wood with Tally’s nails behind his. “What’s going on, Mommy?”
“We’re leaving.”
He looked my way, sadness haunting his eyes, seeming to know she wasn’t crying over a bee sting.
“Lincoln, now!”
He walked towards me first, giving me a handshake. “I’ll see ya later, Luke.”
And she left me again.
Perhaps, for the last time.
A final truth proving too much to bear.
Josie
There isn’t a how-to guide on confronting your lying, cheating, rotten son-of-a-bitch father.
I know because I searched into the wee hours of the morning to prepare myself for detonating a truth bomb in my parents’ living room.
Armed with a whole lot of nothing and nerves, I stuck Linc in a last-minute karate class while I set out to kick ass myself on Collins Ave.
Olivia was already there waiting, and she let me in while Mom and Dad were distracted with reruns of Jeopardy. She came alone at my insistence, knowing that whatever it was, it was ultra-personal.
I headed straight for the rear living room, and walked in and shut off the television just as the final clue came onscreen.
“Josephine, what the hell do you think you’re doing? What are you doing in my house? You’re not welcome here. You’re no longer part of this family.” Dad slowly climbed to his feet with a clenched hand, his voice rising along with him.
I pointed a trembling finger at him. “Sit the fuck down, Ed.”
He turned nearly purple with rage. “Excuse me?”
I held my ground, refusing to back down.
The time had come. The Roberts dynasty would be no more.
“You heard me.”
He took a menacing step toward me, and for a split-second, I thought he was going to hit me. “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to? You shacked up with some low-life trash, and now you think you’re somebody?”
“Sit down, Ed!” Mom snapped, her cheeks flushed red as her eyes bounced between us from the couch.
Dad grunted, but obeyed, slinking back to his recliner. It was the first time I’d ever seen him actually listen to her.
Olivia hovered near the door, but I waved her in and gestured for her to sit beside Mom. She’d need the support. They both would. I’d already ridden through hell with the news I had to deliver.
Dad crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, what is? You came barging into my house talking to me like the white trash.”
I studied his face, hoping to see a sliver of the man I’d grown up loving but found nothing. “Do you want to tell them, or do I have to?”
“Tell them what?” There was a cruel laugh at the end, twisting the knife deeper in my gut.
“You know what. This is your last chance.”
He rolled his eyes as he pressed a finger to his
