My knee-jerk reaction was to snatch his arm and yank him back into his seat so that we could talk but again, what could I say?
He paused, grabbing the side of my door before shutting it, ducking down to look at me to say, “I hope, um... whatever’s going on turns out okay.”
My smile was tense. “Thank you. I’ll call you?”
His expression faltered—flickering between uncertain and pained. “Yeah. Sure.”
When he slammed the door shut, the entire car rattled from the force. His steps were quick going up to his front door, unlocking it and disappearing inside without a wave or anything to say goodbye.
I slammed my head back against my seat, groaning.
I’d make it up to him later.
Somehow.
As much as I hated to ruin our plans like this, for now I needed to be there for Carrie and Eva.
CHAPTER 21
Brandon
I supposeI should’ve seen it coming.
A man like Avery McAllister wasn’t meant to stay single, no matter how hard he’d preached about doing so when we were kids. Heirs of billionaires, no matter the estrangement, would always eventually find their way back to the roots that their families had laid out for them—a carefully crafted plan that ensured that the money stayed within the family system and would continue to be reinvested for the next generations to come.
Assets were contingent on the legacy to continue. Letting it die with an unkept heir and redistributed to the government would never be allowed, no matter how much of a fight said heir could theoretically put up.
That’s just how that world worked.
And Avery was no exception to it.
Ex-wife.
That word echoed in my head for so long that now it felt like my mind had been permanently branded with it.
I wondered if he’d left behind a family in the city. He’d never mentioned children before this but then again he never mentioned having an ex-wife, either. How much did I actually know about this man that I’d allowed to get me off in the front seat of his Audi?
Hardly anything now that I thought about it.
Ex-wife.
He’d jumped out of the car at her phone call, which meant that whatever happened was serious. Avery wasn’t one to leave unless necessary, and definitely not when we were in the middle of what we were doing.
That meant she mattered. She wasn’t some fluke—a small blip in his radar that he’d soon forgotten the second the ink dried on their divorce papers. He cared enough to run to her, despite them no longer being together. She’d called and the second he’d picked up, he’d left.
My stomach ached so damn bad. Like a fist had been slammed into my body and it was taking everything in me not to double over and vomit.
Having a life after me was inevitable. Something I’d been expecting to find out eventually when it came down to us actually sitting together and talking about everything. I’d expected to hear about past relationships and the sordid tales of lovers gone by.
This wasn’t one of those things. A marriage meant something. He’d walked down the aisle, promised her a comfortable life, and legally bound himself to her. For how long, I really couldn’t speculate. It wasn’t like I’d been looking at his ring finger searching for a damn tan line.
Kids were another thing.
I had a hard time believing Avery’s willingness to leave a child behind, even if it was to come sort out his father’s affairs. Acustody arrangement could be in place, or the kid could not exist at all.
Both were very real possibilities. Especially with Avery only mentioning himself when it came to fighting his father’s widow for the estate.
At this point, though, anything was possible.
