He probably had the same bug as I did.
There were two sides to our grand staircase, and I always used the left side, because it was closer to my bedroom and I was a lefty, so it was just my thing.
Collin loved to tease me about it and try to force me to take the right side.
I missed my brother being home. I was close to him and his girlfriend Emerson, and the house had felt quieter ever since he’d left.
But Axel’s departure had been the most difficult. We’d ridden horses together daily since we were kids, and now that he’d gone off to school, we just talked on the phone every day, but I missed hanging out with him.
He tried to come home most weekends, and I visited when he didn’t. But his new girlfriend did not seem to be a fan of our friendship, from what I could tell.
“Charles, stop!” a woman’s voice said over a fit of laughter.
I’d just FaceTimed my mom before practice. She was in North Carolina shopping with her sister, so who was this?
“You like that, baby?” my father said, and my stomach twisted with dread.
I tiptoed down the hallway, and the bedroom door was not closed all the way. I peeked inside to see my father naked, and a woman with long blonde hair was naked with her back to me.
“Dad!” I shouted through the opening. The woman turned, and her eyes locked with mine.
Sabrina.
My father’s assistant, who’d started working for him six months earlier.
“Shit,” Dad said as he flipped her off of him, and she squealed. I took off running toward my bedroom.
I set what was left in my orange juice glass and the apple on my nightstand and hurried to the closet for my duffle bag. I tossed in some clean clothes, pulled the strap over my shoulder, and hurried out of my room.
I couldn’t be here.
My father had a lover in his bedroom. The one he shared with my mother.
He came out of his room wearing a gray robe, shaking his head at me. “It’s not what you think.”
“It’s not what I think?” I shrieked. “You are naked with a woman who works for you in the bed you share with Mom! It’s exactly what I think.”
I stormed past him, headed for the stairs.
“Wren,” he called, and his voice boomed through the large foyer as I hit the bottom step. “Look at me.”
I turned around and met his gaze. “I’m leaving.”
He jogged down the stairs and stopped in front of me.
“I made a mistake. It’s a onetime thing. I don’t know what I was thinking.” His eyes watered, and he shook his head. “Please, sweetheart. I love your mother. If you tell her, it will destroy our family. I’m begging you.”
“You need to tell her. This should not be on me,” I hissed as I turned for the door.
“I’m asking you to look the other way, and I promise you it will never happen again. Please don’t destroy our family, Wren. Your mother would be devastated. Do you really want to break her heart?” he asked, his voice pleading.
“You are unbelievable!” I shouted as I slammed the door.
Douglas was standing there, leaning against the car, and he looked at me with what I could only describe as empathetic eyes.
He knew.
Hell, he’d probably had to give them a ride here.
