Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
“I did. I should have fought to find you years ago.”
“Wow,” she murmurs.
I watch as her shoulders grow stiff, and she peers over at me. “Mom?”
“I’m fine.” She shakes it off.
“I think the two of you should talk,” Landon says.
Joseph’s eyes flash to where we’re standing, then back to my mom. “Mine?” he asks her.
A sob breaks free from her chest, but she nods. I try to break out of Landon’s hold, but he’s not having it. “Just keep watching, baby,” he whispers soothingly.
“You left,” Joseph says, his voice somber.
“I didn’t want to say goodbye.”
“I never planned to,” he says, taking a step toward her.
“No?”
“Never. I wanted you, for as long as you would have had me.” He takes another step and then another until they’re standing toe-to-toe. His hand shakes as he reaches up and cradles her face. “I loved you, Caroline. I still do.”
Mom is bawling, not even trying to hide her tears. He pulls her into his chest and holds her while she cries. I can do nothing but stand here and watch as it all happens. It’s as if we’re watching a well-rehearsed play.
“Mom?” I ask when her sobs weaken.
She lifts her head and smiles, then looks back at Joseph, who nods. “Tessa, you might want to sit down for this.”
Landon takes her warning and, with my hand in his, takes a seat on the couch, pulling me into his lap. Across from us on the loveseat, Mom and Joseph sit, as well, their hands tightly entwined.
“Spring break, my last year of college,” Mom starts. She tells me how she and Joseph met, how they spent a magical week together, and how she slipped out of his room at dawn with nothing but a note left behind. “I didn’t know his last name, and he didn’t know mine. We had no way to reach one another.”
“That’s why I wasn’t there,” Joseph chimes in.
“I don’t understand. Why you weren’t where?”
Mom takes a deep breath. “Tessa, Joseph is your father.”
My breath stalls in my chest. “W-What?” I couldn’t have possibly heard her correctly.
“I didn’t know about you, Tessa. I didn’t know how to reach your mom. When I met you, you looked just like her, and I decided it was time to find her. I assumed she would be married, and I told myself if she was happy, I’d step back, but she’s here, and she’s not married, and now there’s you. I never could have imagined that I’d find her and my daughter, too.”
She lied to me. “You told me he left us. You lied.”
“I did, and I’m sorry. Honey, I didn’t know how to explain it to you when you were younger so that you would understand. I didn’t know how to tell you I met a man and fell in love in a week, and in that love, we made you. You were so young, and I needed you to understand.”
“Why didn’t you tell me when I got older?”
“I never thought we’d be here. I never thought I’d see him again. By the time you were old enough to understand, I didn’t think it mattered. He wasn’t in our lives, and I couldn’t think of a scenario where he ever would be again.”
“You’re married,” I say to Joseph, and he nods.
“That’s where I come in,” Landon explains. He goes on to tell me about the threats and how Bridgett found the file on my mother and, as a result, about me.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe this is happening.” Everything I thought I knew about my life is wrong. How could she have lied to me all these years? “You should have told me, both of you.” I pull out of Landon’s embrace and stand. “You both should have had enough respect for me to tell me the truth.”
“I wanted to. I just wanted to find out what was going on first. You had such a bad day at work with Buckwheat, and I didn’t want to make it worse when I had no idea what her endgame was. I called you to warn you after talking to Joseph in case she went through with her threats. Thankfully, his team of attorneys was able to stop her.”
“And serve her with divorce papers,” Joseph adds.
“There’s a lot that we need to talk about. It’s late. Why don’t you get some sleep, and we can get back to all of this in the morning?”
“I— I can’t be here.”
“Tessa,” Landon says, reaching for me. “Please, let’s just get some rest.”
“Fine.” I march off down the hall without a second glance at any of them. I climb under the covers and settle myself on the edge of my side of the bed. I squeeze my eyes closed, trying to block it all out. It doesn’t work because I hear Landon come into the room, shutting the door behind him, and climb into bed. I don’t fight him when he snuggles up next to me, wrapping me in his arms.