to get dirt on him, and then how he’d hit her tonight, and how she’d overheard him tell Jack and Tess that she wasn’t his biological daughter.
“So that’s why you went to your mom’s?” I asked. “To find out who your real father is?”
She bit her lip and nodded, and the mix of emotions in her eyes was overwhelming to see.
“And?” I prompted.
She let out a long breath. “I have no idea how to say this, so I’m just going to say it.”
I nodded.
“She told me that your dad, Frank MacMillan… that he was my dad too.”
I stared at her as the world shifted around me. As the earth seemed to flip in one direction and then another, all while her gaze held me fixed in place, like her eyes were my very own axis.
They were my father’s eyes. I’d looked into her eyes a million times before, but I’d never seen it before.
But now…
Now, I couldn’t unsee it.
She had his eyes.
“Do you… did she…” I swallowed. Crap. I had no idea what to make of this.
She patted my shoulder. “It’s okay. Take your time.”
And so, we sat there. Collapsed there, more like. I fell back against the sofa beside her as I tried to process this.
“So, my dad cheated on my mom with yours,” I said after a while.
“That’s what she claimed.” Her wary tone had me turning toward her.
“I think it’s true,” I said.
Her brows hitched up, no doubt at the certainty in my tone. “You do?”
I just nodded. I didn’t really care to explain that looking into her eyes made it feel undeniable. Like… how had I not seen it before? But too many thoughts were jostling to get out, to be reasoned and rationalized.
“And the man who raised you as your father had an affair with my mom,” I said.
She gave a little sigh like she was exhausted just thinking about the mess our parents had made.
A whole new thought occurred to me, and I turned to her in horror. “Does your dad know? I mean your Devereaux dad?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Good, because…” My mind raced with the way she’d hit on me back in Pinedale. I mean, nothing had happened because that wasn’t my thing, but I knew he’d sent her with that purpose and… “If he had, that’s just—”
“Disgusting,” she finished. “Yeah. I know.”
I looked over to see her crossing her arms over her chest like she was recoiling in revulsion.
“And now, the world thinks…” I couldn’t even finish the thought.
“Yup.” She was staring straight ahead, her hands balled up inside the hoodie she’d found in the backseat of my car and thrown over her fancy dress.
I exhaled loudly in relief. “At least we never—”
“Exactly.”
I let out a loud exhale as we both faced straight ahead, each lost in thought. Maybe it was hysteria or whatever, but I felt a totally inappropriate grin forming. “You did totally come on to me, though. You basically tried to seduce me.”
She threw her hands over her face with a groan. I laughed as she sank down into the couch. “Don’t remind me.”
I rubbed a hand over my own eyes at the memory, as if I could erase it with a wave of my hand. “This is so messed up.”
I was relieved to hear a soft chuckle escape from behind her hands beside me. “You think?” she shot back.
“But also…” I nudged her arm with an elbow, and she let her hands slip down so she could face me. “I’ve always wanted a sister.”
“I’ve always wanted a brother,” she said, a little smile curving up one corner of her mouth.
“Too bad the rest of the world thinks you’re my girlfriend.”
She let her head drop back against the sofa. “You have no idea how much that sucks.”
That was when she told me the rest. The part about how Jack and his father were at risk, and how the secret that Tess had been so hopeful would bring about his downfall was now ammunition that he could use against us.
Or that anyone could use against us if they found out.
“So now…” I rubbed at my eyes again. My brain couldn’t handle much more news. “We couldn’t use that secret against your dad even if we wanted to.”
“We would be the ones humiliated, not him. If he even suspects that I’m Frank MacMillan’s daughter, he’ll—” She wrapped her arms tighter around herself. “Well, he’ll hate me even more than he already does.”
He doesn’t hate you. I wanted to say that.