Everyone looks to be having a good time, and my heart swells.
Maybe a birthday party wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
“Hi.”
I stiffen, and Marcus stops talking. Slowly, I turn my head to acknowledge the voice beside me. “Hello.”
Priscilla’s eyes shift between Marcus and me, and after a moment of awkward silence, Marcus says, “I’m going to grab us a couple more drinks.”
My glass is several sips from empty, but despite my protests, he walks away.
The fire blazes before my eyes as I focus on deep breaths.
“I’m sorry,” Priscilla finally says. Even though I don’t look in her direction, she continues. “I was seeing Marcus before I broke off the engagement with you. It was wrong of me, and I’m sorry.”
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and ask the only question that I can. “Why?”
“I love him.” She pauses, and I think that’s the only answer I’m going to receive, but then she says, “And more importantly, he loves me.”
Opening my eyes, I turn toward her. Her head is tilted, her blue eyes watering. She truly is sorry. And can I fault her? She’s right… I didn’t love her. At least not in the capacity she deserved. “You didn’t have to cheat like my father did on my—”
“I know, Darcy. I know. I want you to know that I never held his hand, hugged him, kissed him, or did anything physical with him while I was engaged to you. I simply met him and—”
“Fell in love,” we say in unison.
“Yes. Fell in love.” Priscilla folds her hands together as she turns to face the fire. I mimic her pose.
“Thank you for apologizing and telling me the truth. While I still believe emotional cheating is just as bad as physical cheating, I can’t really complain. I didn’t have much emotion to give you to start with. I’m sorry for that.” I chuckle, a sad, distorted sound. While I have Hayden and I would never dream of anyone else, I still put Priscilla through the ringer, to say the least. She fought forme emotionally, but I was closed off to her tighter than a shoe three sizes too small.
“We ended up where we needed to be,” she says, and I follow her gaze back to Hayden, who is still having the time of her life chatting in Japanese with my best friend. Her smile is absolutely radiant, lighting up this night brighter than the stars and the stringed lights.
“Yes, we did.”
“Excellent. Everyone who needs to be here is here,” a loud voice booms through a mic. We all turn our attention to see Richard Loveless, who is holding a champagne flute full to the brim and a manilla envelope, down the entire drink before speaking again. “I have some news to share. Reporters, you might want to record this.”
I look to Priscilla as if to ask what’s going on. She shrugs, though concern paints her face. Marcus runs over to us. “He’s drunk.”
I scoff. “Yeah, I can tell.”
Hayden, Ren, Mother, and members of my campaign team gather around us while reporters drag out phones and notepads.
Whatever is happening, I’m only mildly concerned it will hurt my campaign. He’s obviously drunk, and well, I’m sure people will be more occupied with that than whatever he thinks he has in that folder.
“We should stop him,” Hayden says with more worry in her voice than I feel.
“Let him make a fool of himself,” I state, crossing my arms and waiting.
Loveless continues, “I’ve got news to share with everyone. I think it’s important for political candidates to be honest and upfront about their pasts, and Mr. Marshall’s father left dirty secrets that the family attempted to cover up, as you all know.” He pauses and takes a breath. “One of those dirty secrets involves my family. You all know my son, Marcus,” he points to Marcus, whose face reddens with embarrassment, “and my wife, who is not present tonight.”
My blood begins to run cold as I connect dots.
“Gerald Marshall had an affair with my wife, and Marcus is a result of said affair.” Silence is loud as he opens the manila envelope. “And here are the DNA results for proof.”
Questions rise from reporters as Marcus and I stare at one another.
I don’t think we need to see the DNA results.
He is a younger replica of me. I’ve thought that since I’ve met him.
