was… good.” I heave out a breath. “Much better than I expected.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s a relief,” I admit. “I’d been so worried, and—”
“I told you, you had nothing to worry about, Mia. I took care of it.”
“I know.”
“You should trust me more.”
“I know,” I concede. “I’m still learning.”
He cracks a smile. “Never stop learning,” he says. “That was one of Mom’s favorite phrases.”
“Yeah?”
He nods, closing in to drop a kiss on my forehead. “Sunday Family Breakfast tomorrow. Everyone will be here. You should call Holden and your parents and get them to come, too.”
“Okay.”
His eyes trail from my head to my toes, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. “You sure you don’t want to come to my room for a little bit?”
Of course I want to. “I’m sure.”
I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep when I’m woken to a hand cupping my cheek and the whispers of, “Mama, Mama, Mama.”
My eyes snap open to see Benny standing beside the bed, his face an inch from mine. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I’m thirsty, and I can’t find my water bottle.”
“Oh.” I sit up, rubbing my eyes. “We didn’t bring your bottle, bud. I’ll go down and get you a glass of water, okay?”
“Okay, Mama.”
“You get back in bed, and I’ll be right back.” I grab my phone off the nightstand to use as a flashlight, not knowing if there are going to be any lights on downstairs. Then I wait until Benny’s back in bed before exiting the room, closing the door behind me. It’s only now I realize that I’m just wearing a T-shirt Leo had lent me. I check the time on my phone. It’s just past two. The likelihood of anyone seeing me is low. A soft glow from a lamp left on downstairs gives me enough light to find my way. I make it all the way down the stairs and toward the closed kitchen door when I first hear the voices. “He should take a paternity test.” I don’t know the Preston boys well enough to decipher their voices, but I stop in my tracks, my heart falling to my feet. And even though I know I shouldn’t, that what I’m about to hear could possibly ruin me, I creep closer, my ear to the door.
“Are you kidding? The kid looks just like him.”
“No. The kid looks like a generic dark-haired kid. He looks like Mia.”
“I just don’t understand why she wouldn’t tell him.”
“And why now?”
A girl—I think Laney—says something like, “I don’t think we should be talking about this.”
But everyone ignores her. “Maybe she’s after his money.”
“Leo doesn’t have any money.”
“He has the money Mom left him.”
“Didn’t Vagina always try to hit on Dad?”
“For his money, right?”
“Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
I wipe the liquid agony from my cheeks, my throat aching with my withheld sob. I’m fourteen again, hiding beneath the dock. It feels so real, like the waves are crashing into my flesh, making it hard to stand. But there are no waves here. My legs are just weak. I am weak.
“You really think it’s true—what Leo said—about being in love with her since the first summer she was here?”
A scoff, and then: “Why would she leave if that were true? Remember, she was going to stay with us and go to high school.”
“Oh yeah.”
“So why would she leave him?”
“Didn’t Vagina send her to fat camp?”
Chuckles erupt.
A silent sob tears through me, breaking every part of me. Bricks upon bricks of strength annihilated.
“Imagine spending all that time with a guy and not even knowing that he’s your dad.”
With shaky hands, I send Holden a text:
Mia: SOS
His reply is instant.
Holden: I’ll be there in ten.
“I feel sorry for the kid,” one of them says, and before I know what I’m doing, I’ve pushed open the door. All eyes go to me, so many deer in headlights. They’re all here, scraps of candy wrappers on the kitchen table between them. I release a sob—just one. I refuse to give them any more. “Mia…” Logan’s on his feet so fast, his chair scrapes behind him. He looks everywhere but at me.
I stand in the doorway, my heart in my throat, my pain laid bare between us. But I will not hide. I will not shrink under their judgment. They can say what they want about me, but feel sorry for Benny? Fuck them.
“I don’t need Leo’s money,” I tell them, which is such a stupid thing to start with. “My dad is Joseph Kovács. He owns Kovács