“Oh, really? It doesn’t matter that he walked out on his family?”
There’s an icy chill down my spine. I swallow, willing myself to stay calm. “He… what?”
“Oh, yeah. He didn’t tell you that bit, did he? He left his family to go traveling around the country, to pretend he had no responsibilities. He justleftthem.”
My gut lurches and I glance at Myles again. This can’t be true. Myles told me what happened, he told me—what did he say, exactly? He said things didn’t end well, that’s right. But that’s…
I look back at Cory wide-eyed, forcing myself to keep breathing.
“I’m sorry, but you need to know. That’s who he is. He’s the kind of guy who’s selfish enough to walk away from people who love him. Just like—” Cory breaks off, grimacing, but he doesn’t need to finish, because we both know what he was going to say.
Just like Dad.
Shit.
I glance back at Myles and my vision blurs as I try to make sense of this. This warm, loving, sweet guy walked out on his family? He left his daughter to grow up without a dad, just like our dad? And he kept this from me?
When I turn back to Cory’s solemn face, déjà vu hits me like a freight train. Four years ago he sat me down here to tell me the man I trusted had been lying to me, and now… is this really happening again?
No, I try to tell myself. There has to be more to it than that. Cory has to be wrong. I just need to talk to Myles, to hear it from him. He’ll tell me that Cory is misinformed—that he didn’t do this terrible thing, that he hasn’t been hiding it from me this whole time.
I reach numbly for my purse, wriggling out of the booth. Myles steps out from behind the bar when I approach, his brow scrunching with concern.
“Everything okay?”
I take a deep breath and try to steady my erratic pulse. I trust Myles, I do, but Cory’s words are looping through my head:He didn’t tell you that bit, did he? He just left them.
No. Myles wouldn’t have done that. I just need to hear him say it.
“Is it true?”
“Is what true? What happened?” He reaches out for me but I take a step back, shaking my head.
“Cory told me you walked out on your family. Is it true?”
Myles stares at me, unblinking. Time stands still as I wait for him to say something—anything—to prove Cory wrong.
But he doesn’t. Instead, his face crumples and he drops his head into his hands.
All the air is sucked out of the room.
I can’t believe… Was Cory right?
My voice trembles as I ask, “So it is true?”
Myles can’t even look at me—he just gives a tiny, pathetic nod. And as I absorb the shock of this revelation, I feel humiliation and betrayal burn through me. God, I spent so much time worrying that Myles was like Mark, but he’s even worse. How could I have been so stupid?
“I have to go,” I mutter, turning for the door.
“Cat, wait.” Myles reaches for my arm but I push him off. My chest is seizing up, my lungs tight with hurt as I stumble out onto the curb. There’s a cab right there and I lurch inside, slamming the door against Myles’s anguished face. We peel away and I bury my head in my hands, trying to erase the one image stuck in my mind: Myles at the piano, playing my song.
32
Somehow, don’t ask me how, Myles is sitting on the steps of my building when my cab pulls up. He must have left the bar and taken a cab here at lightning speed. I don’t even notice he’s there until I’m climbing out onto the sidewalk in a daze.
He jumps to his feet when he sees me, wiping his palms on his jeans, and descends until he’s on the street. His eyes are shining as they meet mine. “Cat, I’m sorry. I should have told you. It was a long time ago now, and I fought it for years, but yes—”
“Myles, stop.” I raise a shaking hand. “Don’t try to tell me you had a good reason, because you don’t. You can’t. You’re no better than my dad.”
