“Then make her,” Daniel cuts in, his voice harsh. He takes up residence at my other side, squeezing my opposite shoulder, and my blurry vision finally betrays me. I bat the tears away, but Madeline doesn’t miss them. Something tells me she doesn’t miss much. “If you don’t tell her, I will.”
“I don’t…” She sucks in a harsh breath, her eyes going distant. “I don’t know where to start.”
“At the beginning,” an unfamiliar voice murmurs. Though the voice is soft, I still jump. My head whips toward the door just as it clicks closed, and behind Daniel’s tall frame, I can justmake out a burly man with greying hair and thick, black-framed glasses. “You start at the beginning, my love.”
Madeline’s face goes soft as she watches the man pass the three of us and head straight toward her. He cups her cheeks, wipes away another tear, and murmurs something too quiet for me to hear.
Or maybe I can’t hear because of the thunderous heartbeat resounding in my ears.
My hands are shaking, and Daniel squeezes my shoulder harder as if he knows I’m seconds from falling apart.
My gaze flits between him and Madeline. He steps behind her, wrapping his big hands around her shoulders in support. It’s obvious they’re together, but more than that, it’d be impossible to miss that they’re ateam.
Like Evelyn and Daniel are.
Like me and my guys are.
Were.
Madeline sits taller with this man at her back, and he…he looks down at her with so much love, so much adoration, I feel like I should look away. A feeling that’s only made worse when he kisses the top of her head sweetly.
The man stands to his full height, and I realize then how tall he actually is. Not massive like Nyx or Maddox, but much taller than I am. However, it’s not his height that has my throat clogging and my body swaying.
It’s his eyes.
They’re blue.
So blue, they remind me of the ocean.
“This is Robert,” she says, her voice full of love. “My husband.”
My mother’s husband.
My mother’s….husband.
His oceanic eyes lock onto mine, and the wind almost gets kicked out of me. But then, he smiles, and I gasp at the heavy French accent that flows from his wide mouth.
“Hello, Skye,” he murmurs softly. “Welcome home.”
It feels like the weight of the entire world falls on my shoulders. I try to smile. I try to respond kindly. I try to think of anything civilized, normal thing to say.
But I can’t.
Instead, the one word tumbling around in my head on loop falls from my lips without my permission.
“Dad?”
Chapter 11
His mouth drops open,his glasses-covered eyes going wide, but I can’t take the word back. I don’t want to. The veil’s been lifted. It’s time for secrets to come out. Even if my heart is thundering so hard, it feels like I might pass out.
“W–what?” he stutters. I inhale through my teeth, my gaze flicking between the man, Robert, and my mother. Her eyes are huge, her face red, and her hands are a tangled mess of nerves on the desk. He swallows roughly, his Adam's apple bobbing. “No, Skye, I mean, Ella. I’m not. I’m sorry.”
I don’t know what response I was expecting. I thought I’d been prepared for either, but I wasn’t ready for the sudden burst of pain to spread through my body at his words.
“Robert is my husband, sweetheart. We’ve been married for six years.” She takes a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “We metaftereverything happened.”
Everything being my world, all of our worlds, falling apart.
