"Mom, you knew Adrianna would never fight back and disrespect you, that's not who she is, and you know that. You went for her jugular knowing she had no defense," Xavier gritted out.
"You want to talk about respect?" Mom said hoarsely. Standing tall, she dropped her hand. A lick of fire still blazed in her eyes, and a deep red mark marred her cheek.
She fixed her stare on Xavier.
"You want to talk about respect," Mom said again, her brows raised high. She pulled her shoulders back. She wasn't finished with us.
"Why don't you tell your sister," she spat, "how you respected her friend so much that you got her pregnant. Why don't you tell Adrianna about you and Avery? About how I had to cover up your mess for this family and the Herons." She sneered, shaking her head. She pointed to her chest, sloppily stabbing herself with her index finger. "About the abortion I paid for?" she spat with a bite. She still had fight in her. "And you want to talk about respect?" Mom scoffed. "What a joke." She pointed at all of us. "You all are a joke with not an ounce of respect in any of you. You should be bowing down and kissing the ground I walk on for all I've done for you."
She strode from the formal dining room without so much as a falter in her step, leaving us all speechless.
Fifty-Five
Chills trickled down my arms.
I was stone cold and in shock.
"Is it true?" I asked, not recognizing my voice.
Both my dad and brother looked at each other, their eyes shifted back and forth at one another, searching for an answer. They looked confused as to who I was talking to, and truth be told, I wasn't sure which one of them I questioned. I just knew I needed answers. They both had lied to me so bad that I didn't know where to begin.
I stood and took a few steps until we were all standing face-to-face. My stomach was heavy and twisting with cramps, like my intestines were wrapped around stones with gritty edges. I pressed a hand to my belly. God, I felt so small staring up at them, wishing on a prayer it wasn't true. Hoping that what Mom said was all a drunk lie to hurt me because of something Dad did to her, or Xavier getting on her bad side.
But deep down, I knew the answer. I wasn't a fool.
"It's true, isn't it?" I asked again, looking my father in the eye. I started with him. I'd never seen him so torn with guilt. He'd always been so strong and sure of everything. Now he looked shattered, too devastated to speak. Not the father I knew. He couldn't give me the satisfaction of an answer either, even if it was a bittersweet one.
I turned toward Xavier. "Did you know?"
He shook his head frantically, innocent in the shocking reveal. "No. I had no idea until just now."
"He didn't know. No one knew except for me and your mother."
"But she's not my mom."
His eyes hardened. "She is your mother."
"Were you ever planning on telling me?"
"No."
My mouth parted, a faint gasp rolled off my lips. My heart began to speed up at the thought of being lied to my entire life by the one person who I thought I could trust and would support me.
"Why? Why wouldn't you tell me."
"To protect you," he stated like it was obvious.
I tilted my head to the side. "Protect me from what exactly?"
"To protect you from the backlash you would receive. You must understand something, Rossi Enterprises was on the rise at the time; our name was everywhere. Investors were coming out of the woods. Everyone wanted a piece of what I was building because anything I touched turned to gold. I'm a phenomenal businessman, but one slip up, one mistake that shed a negative light on our family, and we could've lost it all. It was a different time. What happened in the dark never saw the light. It was a game of politics and it had to be played a certain way."
"So you did it for yourself, not me."
"I did it for us."
"No." I shook my head. "You did it because you love power, but you love money more. If your slip up"—I almost choked saying the word—"got out, you'd lose everything. I was a risk you couldn't chance. You needed the picture-perfect family to keep everything intact, and Mom