“What?” He sounds like he was asleep, but I don’t care.
“Listen, I’m not home, and I need you to find an address for me.”
“If this is about that taco truck, I told you, they change locations every week.”
“Damn it, Mack, just help me.”
Maybe he hears the panic in my voice, but when he talks again, it’s clearer and he’s on alert. “What do you need?”
“Fuck, I don’t know where to go first.” I’m driving toward the city, but I have no clue where Sadie would go after she saw. “Give me the address of Richard Delanito.”
I don’t think Sadie would go back to her university; at least that wouldn’t be the first place she would go. I’m taking a guess, but I think she would go straight to her dad to confront him or have him explain if it’s true or not.
“He’s not there,” Mack says. “Shit, I called him yesterday or the day before, I can’t remember. I forgot to send him the transcripts from our last meeting, and I was going to have the hard copies couriered to her house. He said he was out of town until…” Mack goes quiet for so long I’m worried he’s hung up. “Sorry, he’ll be back today, but his flight doesn’t land for another couple of hours.”
“Damn it.” I hit my hands on the steering wheel. “Okay then, give me Megan Delanito’s address.”
“Why the hell do you need to go there?”
“It’s the only place I can think of. Sadie saw the file and ran out on me. She knows about Jeffrey Collins.”
“Wait a second, back up. Why was Sadie with you?” Mack asks, and I want to roll my eyes.
“I’ll explain everything later. I don’t have time for this right now, so just give me the fucking address!” My voice is getting more frantic with every second that passes, and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold it together.
“I got you.” My phone buzzes and then the text comes across the screen in my car. I hit the location, and it gives me directions. “Do you want me to meet you there?”
“No,” I sigh because right now all I can do is hope Sadie is there so I can make sure she’s okay. As much as I’d love having my brother with me, I can do this on my own. ‘Will you do me a favor?”
“Anything you need, just ask.” Mack is quick to agree, and as much shit as we give our baby brother about slacking off, he’s always there for us when it counts.
“Can you try to get in touch with Richard Delanito and tell him what’s going on? I don’t know if he’ll be able to get it while he’s flying, but I’m sure he’ll want to get to Sadie as soon as he lands.”
“I’m on it,” Mack says, and I give him my thanks before I end the call.
Now all I have to do is hope I find Sadie before something happens between her and her mother that can’t be undone.
Chapter Fifteen
SADIE
I’m standing outside my mother’s building with a war raging inside of me. What’s the point of confronting her?
A million questions ran through my mind as I drove, but now that I’m here, I find myself not moving. I want to scream at her, but where has that ever gotten me in life? She’ll have a long list of excuses for why she did what she did.
This has to be the reason the divorce is dragging out as long as it has. Is she threatening my dad with telling me? That means he already knows. Thinking about the other side of the coin, I swallow hard. What if he only just found out, and now he’s fighting her so she’ll get nothing because my mother lied to him about me for two decades?
That would hurt worse than finding out he wasn’t my biological father. After the divorce, he won’t even be my stepfather.
“Sadie?” I spin around to see my mother standing on the sidewalk.
She’s dressed in a sparkly gold dress and heels. Her makeup is smudged around her eyes, and her hair is tousled. I’m sure I don’t appear much better since I only pulled on yoga pants and sneakers before I got out of my stolen vehicle.
“Walk of shame?” I ask, and my mother rolls her eyes at me.
“Do you always have to be a smartass?”
“Do you always have to be a liar?” I toss back at her.
