I cleared my throat. “The guys all know. They’re coming over in the morning.”
She nodded. “I know. We have a group text.”
I smiled, warmed by how accepting my friends’ wives had been to Hana. We stayed connected and silent, soaking in the comfort the other offered. “How are you doing?” I asked finally.
“I’m confused and tired, Pax. I’m just…” Her chin trembled, and she bit her lip.
“I’ve got you, Hana. I’ll be here for you.” I rubbed her back and rested my cheek against her hair. She felt fantastic in my arms.So right. There was no possible way she was anything other than the love of my life. My dad would not take that from me. But my muscles tensed as the possibilities leaped and sped through my mind. “No matter what happens, you’re such an important part of my life.”
“Yeah, because we’re family, right? I mean, no matter how we splice it…” Her face crumpled, and her eyes filled with tears. “We’re family.”
“You’remorethan family, Hana. My father’s family, and he sucks.”
She released a watery chuckle, but it was half-hearted. I understood. At least she stayed in my arms. I needed this—needed her. My heart ached at the possibility that we couldn’t be us.
Damn my father to hell.
“If Iamour parents’ child, that would make any child of ours too closely related. Maybe that’s why I miscarried. I mean, that makes sense…”
As much as I’d wanted to talk to her about the baby, this wasn’t the context for it. We needed to deal with that loss, but not now. Not intermixed with the shock of this news. “Hana,” I said, my voice rising as she gave words to my gravest fear. “It’s not true. Stop it.”
Hana slipped from my arms and moved across the kitchen. Heat flowed through me. I was possibly angrier than I’d ever been.
“It’s possible. Probable, even, based on when they were having an affair.”
“Don’t go searching for trouble,” I said.
Her jaw was set, and her eyes blazed as she glared at me. She was beautiful. I loved her fire, though I didn’t love her anger and hurt and frustration pointed toward me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, but my hands still fisted at my sides. Like a fool, I blurted, “I can’t believe you could ever consider us as anything other than what we were—what we should be—a couple!”
“I can’t believe you listened to your lying father instead of talking to me!” she yelled.
And it hit me, then, the full weight of every single one of my father’s machinations. At his urging, I’d broken Hana’s heart and disrespected our lovefor random hookups. Just like my piece of shit, lying, scumbag of a father. I shuddered as that reality crashed over me. Could this night get any worse?
“I’m not in a good headspace,” Hana muttered. She turned on her heel, stumbling as her left leg gave out. But she righted herself quickly and fled.
I stood there, my heart ripped to shreds as Hana’s words reverberated through my mind. I dropped my forearms to the counter and let my head follow. I closed my eyes and groaned.
“Well, that was tense in what has turned out to be a really tense twenty-four hours,” my mother said as she walked in from the hallway. She studied me for a long moment. “How are you holding up?”
I blew out a breath and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m really angry. At Dad, of course. At you for going along with him and his lies. At myself. Even at Hana for believing we could be…”Nope. I still can’t say the words. I would not believe them.
But I understood why she’d snapped at me. We were at a breaking point. Our relationship wouldn’t be the same, not that it had been sturdy enough to withstand such a seismic explosion anyway. When I’d chosen to reach out again, I never could have fathomed the possibility of Hana being my half-sister…
I should have left her alone. We were all in so much agony because I’d wanted another shot with her. I shuddered and stifled yet another gag, as I’d done periodically since my mother had called me earlier. Hours later, I was beyond exhausted. My body ached from the pounding it had taken during the game, but it was my mind that refused to calm.
There wasno possible way… Yet my dad had been sure enough about his relationship to Hana to force us apart.
“I’m sorry, Pax,” my mother said.
“This is a nightmare,” I rasped.
“It’s…not good,” my mother said. “I’m fairly sure Hana isn’t… Never mind. We need facts.” She cleared her throat and straightened. “Paloma said that was something either her husband or the team owner could facilitate.”
“Yeah, Gunnar and Millie—that’s Stolly’s wife—are on the hospital board. They don’t like to pull strings, but they’ve already done so for us. We’re headed to the lab as soon as it opens tomorrow.”
“You should probably tell Hana that,” Mom said.
