"What are you thinking?" he finally asks, leaning against the counter opposite me.
I stare down at the glass, watching how the crystal reflects the overhead lights. "Right now, I'm torn between hating you and hating that I understand you."
The words come out more honest than I intended. I take a long pull off the tequila, welcoming the burn that tears down my throat. He responds with another slow nod then takes his own measured drink. His jaw works as he swallows, and for a beat, we just stand there in silence, two men drowning in different decades of the same fear.
"Did you know Maya was sick before you married her?" I ask, needing to understand how he survived this.
"No." He sets his glass down with deliberate care and stares blankly across the kitchen, his dark eyes unfocused, like he'swatching a memory play out on the wall. "We were young. I met her on a family trip. My parents came to Bardstown with friends for the summer, for a vacation."
"In Bardstown?" I raise a brow. "There's nothing here but bars and land."
His lips quirk into the ghost of a smile. "That's what I told them when I said I wasn't going." He picks up his glass again and swirls the liquid. "At eighteen, this place had nothing for me. But one of my father's friends wanted to look at buying land. He was a businessman with a vast portfolio and convinced my parents they should look into investing. Told them if they sat on it long enough, it would be worth enough to retire them when this place became the next hot spot."
He pauses to take another drink. "On one of the many property tours, I met Maya. While my parents spent the next month looking at land they didn't plan to buy, I spent my time falling for the farmer's daughter." A soft smile tugs at his mouth. "And then a few months later, after I returned home, she called me. She was hysterical, crying, and apologizing because she was pregnant."
I watch his fingers tighten around the glass.
"By the end of that week, I packed up the car my parents had given me for my birthday, and I moved to Kentucky." He looks up and meets my eyes. "She was so scared, and I'd just found out I was going to have a family."
She was scared, and I just found out I was going to have a family.The words echo through my mind, and my chest tightens. I'm in the exact same shoes he was. History is repeating itself in the worst possible way. I down the rest of my tequila and push my glass toward him. He refills it without comment.
"We were young, had no clue how we were going to make ends meet," he continues, his voice growing distant. "When her father found out, he was upset. He didn't like the idea of hisdaughter falling pregnant so young, but what could he do?" He shrugs. "He needed help on the farm. I needed money and a place to stay. So, I worked relentlessly. For every problem he had, I identified a solution. Built on his legacy."
He takes another drink, and I notice his hand isn't quite steady.
"By the time Asha was five years old, we'd made our first million-dollar sale on a Thoroughbred. We were on cloud nine. All the hard work we had been putting in had finally paid off," he says, before his expression darkens. "Later that year, Maya received her diagnosis."
Of course she did.
"She thought she was overdoing it around the ranch, working too much, not getting enough sleep. The symptoms she had in the beginning went hand in hand with a hard day's work. But when her speech started to slur..." He trails off, his jaw clenching. "I knew something was wrong. A lot of things went downhill quickly from there. We were able to hide it from Asha in the beginning, but we knew it wouldn't be long until we couldn't."
He drains his glass and pours himself another, heavier this time.
"She had fast-acting juvenile ALS, and we had hard decisions to make."
I grip my glass tighter, and a chill that has nothing to do with my wet clothes runs down my spine. "That's why you used the accident at school to send Asha away." The pieces are clicking into place. "But why did you make me the enemy? Why my father?"
Warrick's shoulders tense, and he turns away, bracing his hands on the counter.
"Maya was friends with Baylor. Admittedly, I was always jealous of their friendship, even though deep down I knew sheloved me. But I'm human. My insecurities are no different from yours. They had a history, a relationship for years, before I ever came into the picture. And when I found out she confided in him about her diagnosis..." He stops and pulls in a shuddered breath. "I lost it. I questioned if she only loved me because we accidentally got pregnant. When she gave him something so personal, I worried it was because he was the one she wanted. Not me."
"My father said they never had romantic feelings for each other," I say quietly. "I believe him."
"I know." Warrick turns back to face me, and there's something raw in his expression now. "But I think you can relate a little bit to how I was feeling then, given what you're going through now." He leans forward, his dark eyes boring into mine. "If you found out Asha was sitting in another man's arms right now, seeking comfort with something so deeply fragile and personal instead of you, her husband, how do you think that would make you feel?"
His words strike a chord.I'd lose my fucking mind.It's taken every ounce of my sanity to keep my shit together and not go off the deep end. I'd fall apart if I knew I wasn't the only person she wanted in this moment.
"It wasn't her fault," Warrick continues, his voice rough with regret. "It was mine. I didn't handle the news well. Finding out my wife had months to live wasn't an easy fucking pill to swallow." His hands flatten against the counter. "I loved her, but my heart wasn't the only one about to be broken. I had a little girl who was about to lose her mother, a little girl who might be destined to live the same fate."
He looks down at his glass, and I see the pain he's kept to himself all these years.
"I couldn't talk about it. I couldn't talk about it because it was taking everything I had to hold it together and be strong for her.I was weak, and in that weakness, I pushed her into your father's arms." His lips pinch together with regret before he adds, "She couldn't talk to me. So she talked to him."
The silence that follows is heavy. I set my glass down, the sound too loud in the quiet kitchen. "And that's why you didn't want Asha and me to be friends. You were worried he'd tell her the truth about Maya."
"Yes." The word comes out flat, honest. He meets my eyes without flinching. "It's the reason I was distracted and wrecked my vehicle during your senior year." His voice drops lower. "I didn't know Baylor had sent you to Ridgewood, and when I saw the two of you in that picture together..." He closes his eyes briefly. "My mind went from zero to fear in the blink of an eye. I wasn't paying attention to the road. Just kept thinking about how close you were getting to her, how you'd eventually be the link, how it would all unravel."
He pauses, his fingers drumming once against the counter before stilling. "I thought if I could keep you apart, keep our families separated, I could keep the secret buried."
