He owed Nadia more than just a few hours to process this kind of news before she had to fly home to her husband and daughters. He would have to tell her tonight so that they could decide together what to do about it.
The wedding reception ended sooner than Thad had hoped. After following the bride and groom in a second-line parade along the riverfront, he, Ashanti, and Nadia piled into Von’s car. He’d borrowed it, figuring it was more appropriate for the occasion than his truck.
Nadia and Ashanti chatted the entire drive to Ashanti’s house, with his sister dropping more poorly veiled hints about Thad and Ashanti taking their relationship to the next level.
Thad walked Ashanti to her door—and not just because his sister had demanded it—before heading home. Nadia continued with the relationship talk for the remainder of their drive home, balking when Thad told her that he wasn’t sure if he and Ashanti were even in a relationship yet.
“Bullshit,” Nadia said as she unsnapped her seat belt. “You and Ashanti had more chemistry than Reshonda and Michael. You two should have been the ones getting married tonight.”
“Please, don’t do this,” Thad said, thanking God that she hadn’t said this while Ashanti was still in the car.
“You need to settle down, and she is perfect for you. Like, ridiculously perfect for you. And why are you in such a pissy mood tonight?” his sister asked, shoving him in the back as they climbed the steps of their grandparents’ house. “You just spent the evening with one oftheloveliest people I’ve ever met. You should be floating.”
“How does one float?” Thad asked.
“How did your grumpy ass ever manage to talk that amazing woman into going out with you in the first place?”
“I’m charming when I’m not around you,” Thad said.
She shoved him again as he let them into the house.
Nadia took off for her grandparents’ old room, which she’d claimed after telling Thad he was a fool for choosing to sleep in his old, much smaller bedroom.
He kicked off his shoes, hung up his jacket, and loosened his tie, but he didn’t change out of his clothes. The longer he stalled, the more likely he was to come up with an excuse for why he should hold off from telling her about their newfound family in Alabama.
Thad walked over to his grandparents’ room and rapped on the door with his knuckle.
“Nadia, can you come in the dining room for a minute once you’re done?”
He grabbed a beer from the fridge, and not one of those flavored IPAs he’d been sampling for the bar. He needed something with meat for the conversation he was about to engage in. Tonight called for a dark, malty lager.
“You finally ready to tell me why you’ve been moodier than usual?” Nadia asked as she entered the dining room. She’d changed into a Bruno Mars T-shirt and purple sweats. Her face still had makeup from the wedding, but she’d taken out the pins holding up her hair.
“You may want to sit for this,” Thad told her.
Her smile disappeared.
“You’re dying,” she said. “Grams is dying!”
“No one is dying,” Thad said.
His grandfather was already dead, so his sister wouldn’t be able to kill him when she found out what he’d done.
She sat at the table and Thad pushed the laptop in front of her.
He started with the first email, and methodically went through each subsequent correspondence, ending with the picture of the woman’s mother.
Nadia looked shell-shocked as she stared at the screen, her mouth agape. After several heavy moments ticked by, she looked up at him and said, “That son of a bitch.”
Thad grimaced. “Normally, I would say it’s disrespectful to speak of your grandfather in that way, but this time I think it’s warranted.”
“This had to have been going on for decades,” Nadia said.
Thad nodded. “According to what she shared, there’s sixteen years between her mom, the oldest, and her youngest uncle, who is only a few years older than you are, by the way.”
“That son of a bitch!” Nadia grabbed his beer from his hand and took a long drink. “You know if he was still alive I would be charging into that room with a butcher knife, right?”
“Again, warranted,” Thad said.
