Chapter
One
FRANKIE
It was like my brain short-circuited.
No, actually, itexploded. Or imploded. I couldn’t tell which because all I knew was that I couldn’t breathe.
“Eddie is your father.”
I stared at them—athim, still too shocked to say anything. My jaw might have unhinged. My heart was doing something weird, like stumbling through its own steps, unsure whether to race or stop completely.
“Excuse me?” I finally managed. My voice came out small. Croaky. Not mine.
Eddie—Mr. Standish, Archie’s dad—gave me this slow, tentative smile like he was testing how happy he wasallowedto be. “I know this is a lot to take in, Frankie.”
“A lot?” My voice cracked. “Tryinsane.”
I took a step back, hitting the edge of the wall. My breath started to come faster and I couldn’t seem to stop it.
“I know we probably should have told you sooner—” Maddy started.
“Sooner?” I cut her off, every nerve in my body lighting up. “You think this is about timing?”
She blinked at me, clearly not expecting me to go straight for her throat. “Well, yes, sweetheart. Timing is?—”
“No, Mom.No.” I shook my head, hard. “This is not about bad timing. This is aboutyoulying to me mywhole life.”
Her expression flickered, from patient to defensive then irritated in half a second. “I didn’tlieto you.”
“Didn’tlie?” My laugh was ugly. Bitter. “What the hell would you call it, then? You never even told me who my dadwas! I grew up thinking I was some big mistake, or worse—something you couldn’t even talk about. And now you’re standing here, playing Stepford Smiles withArchie’s dad, telling me we’re some happy little family?”
Eddie flinched at the name, but didn’t speak. Good. I didn’t have anything for him yet.
Mom stepped toward me, like she thought proximity would fix it or her stony stare would. “Frankie?—”
“No. No, no, no.” I held up both hands like a shield. “YouknewI was friends with Archie. Youknewwe were close. And you never said a damn thing.”
“You weren’t supposed to meet him?—”
“Oh,my bad. I guess I should’ve stuck to your carefully managed life plan and never gone to public school, huh?”
“Frankie, please don’t twist this into something ugly—” The absolute ice sliding over the words chastised me. Was she for fucking real right now?
“Oh, trust me, it wasalreadyugly. You just kept it covered in designer lies and poor hair dyes.”
Eddie took a step forward. “Frankie, I didn’t know. Not until recently. I would’ve—if I’d known?—”
“You would’ve what?” I turned on him, fire in my chest. “You would’ve swooped in? Played dad of the year? I was in your house.So many times. Ispent the night, and you never even looked at me like—like I was anything but Archie’sfriend.”
He paled, like the words physically hit him. Good. Let them sting.
“I had no idea you were mine,” he said, and for a second, he looked so damn earnest that it almost made me sicker. “I didn’t even know Maddy had a baby after?—”
“Don’t.” My voice dropped. “Don’t try to rewrite this into some sweet story where everything works out in the end. I alreadyhavea life, and guess what? It didn’t include this little reunion tour.”
Mom exhaled, loudly, like she was the one who needed to calm down. “I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t your business.” Then she took a deeper breath. Her green eyes, so like my own, were ice as she slid them towardEddiethen back to me. The anger in her expression rippled as she tried to smooth it over. “I didn’t want to hurt you, Frankie. You werehappy. And I didn’t want to disrupt?—”
