dry laugh bursts past my lips. “How is he? I’m surprised you didn’t hear him earlier. And if you couldn’t tell, he’s not good. He hates me,” I mumble.
Dad barks out a gruff chuckle. “Oh, I did. I think everyone in Dunsmuir heard you guys out front.”
“Oh, God,” I groan, dropping my head in my hands. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
My dad’s silent for a beat until he blows out a sigh. “Why didn’t you ever say anything to me, honey? All those times you asked about Endymion, I just thought it was because you still had a crush on him. I never even…I never put the pieces together. And I’m sorry.”
My brows disappear into my hairline. “You’re sorry? Dad…none of this is your fault.”
His mouth twists into a frown. “Maybe a part of it is. I haven’t been a great father or a great husband. I should’ve been around more. I should’ve fought harder for your mother instead of fighting with her. I should’ve done a lot of things differently, but most of all, I’m so damn sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me most.”
My throat closes at his words. We’ve never discussed the rough patch in our relationship. We’ve always avoided the topic, but now that he’s mentioned it, it brings up emotions from the past I thought I’d gotten over. A prick ricochets through my chest, and tears burn the backs of my eyes.
“Dad,” I choke out against the tightness in my throat, falling into his arms. I clutch at my father, crying for the scared eighteen-year-old girl who found out she was pregnant. All those months that girl was ignored by her father. The one man in her life who was supposed to be there through everything. And I’m crying because now the man upstairs is going to take him from me. Just when I barely got him back. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, honey,” he breathes into my hair. “We’ll get through this. Luna is going to be fine, and as for Endymion…he’ll come around and forgive you.”
I laugh without humor. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Selene. He’ll forgive you in his own time. You’re the mother of his child. He’ll never be able to hate you.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” I whisper into the crook of his neck, never wanting to let go.
I have a daughter.
I have a five—no, six—year-old daughter that I never knew about.
On top of all that, I’m still trying to process the fact that I slept with Selene while I was blackout drunk and don’t even remember it happening.
How is that even possible?
I am still trying to unfold the insanity of it all. Before Selene got into town, I hadn’t thought much of her. I didn’t have much reason to. But the times I did think about her, it was always a glimpse of her soft skin and silver moonlight. That was all I could associate with her and my memory. It wasn’t until she showed up back Dunsmuir that I found myself needing to be near her. Something about her called to me. Something I couldn’t get out of my head.
Since seeing her for the first time in years, I’ve had these frequent flashes, quick images that play behind my lids like a movie reel, but I chalked it up to a dream or a newfound fantasy. Never in a million years did I think it was real. Never did I think I was secretly reliving those memories. That the entire time my head was trying to tell me to wake up. Trying to tell me who she really was.
I still don’t know how to process how I feel about Selene, after everything that has happened. I’m angry with her, so fucking angry, but a small part of me understands her logic. It was the logic of a teenager, of a brokenhearted girl who didn’t know any better. I’m still utterly captivated by her beauty. By her heart and soul. By everything that she is, but after this…I don’t know if I can trust her. I don’t know who that woman is anymore.
I can’t help but replay these past few weeks. The way she seemed drawn to me—there was no denying the attraction between us—but for some reason, she always turned me down, and at the time, I thought it was because she’d been hurt before. And I guess, in some way, she had. But not intentionally. I never intentionally set