I really don’t see how whatever Hera is hiding could make it worse, but I don’t push her.
It’s not like Chad would listen to a word she says anyway.
“Sorry, but we’ve got to hit the road.” I lean in and kiss her cheek as Chad walks toward his truck. “Tell Dad to call me.” It’s not like we’re going far away. The private university is only a forty-minute drive to the northern tip of my hometown of Lowell. If it’s urgent, he can always come visit.
She chews on her lower lip, opening and closing her mouth, looking conflicted for a few seconds. “Okay, love. I’ll get him to call you.”
I climb into Chad’s truck, waving at Hera as my boyfriend peels out of my driveway.
Tense silence fills the cabin as Chad turns out onto the road, and I hate it. Going to college together is supposed to be a new beginning, and I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot. Reaching across, I rest my hand on Chad’s thigh while I lean over and kiss his cheek. “I don’t want to fight, babe. Not today.”
A heavy sigh pitches from his lips. “I don’t want to either, sweetheart.” He takes his eyes off the road for a split second to look at me. “I love you, and I’m excited to be moving in together. It’s just every time I see that woman, or that fucking asshole she spawned, it puts me in an instant bad mood.”
“Ares does the same to me,” I admit, rubbing my hand up and down his leg in what I hope is a soothing gesture. “But Hera is different. If you got to know her, you’d see.”
“She fucked my family over, Ash!” he bellows, grinding his teeth and gripping the steering wheel tight.
No, your father did.I think it but I don’t say it, silently berating myself for saying anything.
“I know you think she’s great because she lavishes attention on you and your mother is seriously lacking on the maternal skills front, but that doesn’t mean she’s a good person. She’s not.”
I whip my hand back, glaring at my boyfriend. “Fuck you, Chad. Don’t make out like I’m some needy little girl begging for any scraps my stepmom throws my way. It’s not like that with us.” If anything, Hera is the best friend I never had.
“She screwed my dad behind my mom’s back, breaking up their marriage and destroying our family. She was the catalyst that started everything,” he says, his voice rising as his emotions go into overdrive. “My dad is dead because of that woman.”
I can’t let that go. Swiveling on my seat, I turn to face my boyfriend as he takes the entrance for the highway. I work hard to keep my tone quiet and calm. “Your dad is dead because he was involved in trafficking little kids to sick perverts, and when he got caught, he took the easy way out rather than face the truth at his trial.”
Chad’s breath oozes out in exaggerated spurts as he white-knuckles the wheel. He doesn’t retaliate though because you can’t circumvent the truth, and he knows it.
“I’m not saying that to hurt you, babe,” I softly add. “Blame Hera for having an affair with a married man, but you can’t blame her for anything else.” I don’t condone it, and I’m not excusing her actions, but Hera was single when she met Jasper Baldwin. Jasper was the one cheating on his wife of over twenty years, and I’m betting it wasn’t the first time. If he could hide his involvement in sex trafficking for a reputed eight years, he could surely disguise his adultery.
Chad’s chest heaves, and pain glimmers across his face. “I know I’m projecting,” he admits in a cracked tone. “But I can’t look at that woman without seeing how it all started.” He pins troubled eyes on me. “I still don’t believe Dad committed suicide. I still contend it’s shady as fuck.”
Jasper was found hanging in his cell one week before his trial. It’s been almost seven months since he died, and Chad still can’t accept it’s the truth.
Perhaps he’s right and there is more to it. It’s not inconceivable. With all the scandals that have come out in the past year involving corrupt elements within governments, secret elite groups who think they’re above the law, and local gangs involved in drugs, guns, and sex trafficking, it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
My good friend Harlow Westbrook was involved in taking a lot of key players down last year. Her four husbands made up the junior chapter leadership of The Sainthood gang, and they were all pivotal in forcing that organization to its knees. Now the guys have cut all ties with the drastically downsized gang and moved to Rhode Island with their wife to attend school.
I miss her and wish she was attending LU with us. I could use a friend.
Anyway, it just proves that Chad’s suspicions could be correct. I imagine there are plenty of people involved in the sex trafficking ring Jasper controlled who would want to ensure his silence. Who knows how high up it goes? But I don’t articulate those thoughts or do anything to encourage that line of thinking. Chad is struggling enough and already up to his neck in shit he shouldn’t be involved in. I’m really worried about him.
Cupping his handsome face, I lightly sweep my fingers over the dark-blond stubble on his chin and cheeks. “I hate that you’re suffering for your father’s sins. It’s not right.”
He shrugs while leaning into my touch. “It’s not like I can abandon Mom and Tessa. I’m all they’ve got.”
I know discovering the truth about her husband devastated Carole, and I’m not unsympathetic, but she needs to get her act together. She’s a grown-ass woman with a fourteen-year-old daughter to take care of. She needs to dust herself off and go get a fucking job instead of relying on her only son to provide for her. It’s putting way too much pressure on Chad’s shoulders, and he’s digging a bigger hole for himself.
“My offer still stands. I—”
He slams his hands down on the wheel. “Donotoffer me money again! I’m sick of having this same argument with you and Jase. It’s getting old. I’m not some charity case, Ash. Neither is my mom.” A muscle clenches in his jaw, and I wish I could rewind time and start this conversation all over again. “I swallowed a lot of pride agreeing to move in with you as it is.”
Hurt bursts forth on my face before I can stop it. I have been on a countdown to the day we officially live together, yet he makes it sound like a chore.
The truck jerks to the left as Chad pulls it over to the shoulder and kills the engine. “Sweetheart.” He clasps my face in his large palms and his gaze ensnares me. Sincerity radiates from his gorgeous big blue eyes. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. I love that I get to wake up beside you every morning and go to sleep with you every night. But you’re still paying for everything, and that doesn’t sit right with me.”
Technically, my parents are paying. They won’t let me touch my inheritance, stating it’s for my post-college life. Which is why this is hard on me. I have millions sitting in the bank, and I want to give Chad and his family some to ease their burden, but he stubbornly refuses every time I broach the subject.
