“And this is for family. Blood. No one else.” Dad straightened his shoulders, not that they could possibly go back any farther. “No one else needs to know what we talk about here today. Too much gossip is going on the way it is, and Kayla isn’t able to spell discretion, let alone use it.”
I started to defend her, then bit my tongue when I noticed Dustin tighten his lips. Maybe I wasn’t the only one to receive the dictate to come alone.
No Kayla. The one friendly face I knew I could rely on. The whole thing got so much worse.
I sometimes counted on Mom to be an ally, but I doubted she would be in this. No way.
“So first things first.” Dad sounded like he was in front of the board at Microsoft or something. “We need to ascertain how much of the article was true. If there is any cause to threaten a lawsuit about slander and request a retraction and an apology, we need to grasp it.”
He stared at me for several seconds before my brain clicked. “Oh. You’re asking me. Okay.” I dug my thumbnail into the palm of my other hand. It was like there was a screen behind my head, playing a film for my family to see of every man who’d fucked me. “Yeah. It’s true.”
“All of it?”
“Yes, Dad. All of it.”
Dustin leaned forward, a smile teasing over his lips, any resentment he felt about the slight against Kayla apparently forgotten. “So let me get this straight. You used your photography and massage business as a cover to get fucked for money?”
I flinched and looked toward my parents. Dad didn’t say anything, and Mom kept her gaze on her hands folded in her lap. I faced Dustin again. “No. Not like that. I gave legitimate massages and photography sessions. The… rest was supplemental.”
Oh my God. Had I really just said that?
Dustin guffawed. “Supplemental? Is that what whores call their menu? Their list of prices for what they do? Supplemental?”
From my periphery, I noticed Mom wince, but nothing else.
“No, Dustin. I don’t have a menu. It was just something that happened. It wasn’t charged for. It was two consenting adults.”
“Two? From what it sounds like, there wasn’t always just two.”
So much for biting my tongue and trying to dig a hole into my palm. “Wow, Dustin, you seem pretty interested in the details. Trying to live vicariously? Anything you think you might want to come clean to the family about finally?”
Dustin started to rise off the sofa. “You little faggo—”
Dad clamped a veined hand on Dustin’s thigh and kept him on the couch. “Enough. Both of you.” He glared at Dustin, then turned back to me, his gaze dark. “So it is true. You’ve accepted money for sex.”
I straightened my shoulders, trying to match his stance, for all the good it would do. “That’s not how I would put it.”
He curled his top lip back, exposing his teeth. “You do not want to try my patience right now, Randall. Trust me. Did you have sexual interactions with clients, at all?”
The question hung in the air between us, hovering over the long teak coffee table that acted as a barrier. I nearly told him to fuck himself. He was going to threaten me? Using a tone that was better suited to a mob boss than a father? Like there was anything he had I wanted that he could use for leverage?
My gaze flicked to his hand still clamped over Dustin’s thigh, his fingers making divots on Dustin’s slacks and probably his skin underneath.
Yeah. He did have something I wanted.
He had something each of his children wanted.
Millions of dollars.
A relationship with his granddaughter.
I met his eyes again, attempting to grasp on to any scrap of pride I had left. “Yes. I did.”
The outburst didn’t come from him. Not even Dustin.
Mom stood. Tears streaming down her face.
For a moment, guilt riddled me. That I hurt her. That I caused her pain.
