“Telling her about us won’t make me come crawling back toyou,” Jesse was quick to answer. “We are done.”
“Please. That ship has sailed.” Bea scoffed. “But I’m running low on funds, and I need your support. You got me into this situation, so the least you can do is help me out while I figure out what to do.”
Jesse stared down at her for a long moment. He scratched his elbow. He blinked. Then he laughed.
Her face twisted in an instant, no smoke and mirrors quick enough to hide her darkening fury in the face of his humor. “What the fuck are you laughing at?”
“Is that what you came here to do? Blackmail me?” Jesse asked instead, shaking his head as the humor subsided.
“Laugh it up, cough it up, I don’t care.” Bea seethed. “Youwillhelp me, or I willtakewhat I amowed.”
“I don’t have any fucking money,” Jesse snapped, all traces of humor gone in an instant.
“But—” Bea floundered, her gaze bewildered. “The jewelry and the trips . . .”
“Credit. And I’m maxed out.” Jesse threw his hands widebefore turning away, walking back towards the house. “Have fun taking what doesn’t exist, you gold-digging bitch.”
Jesse didn’t look back as he stepped back up the steps and snatched the bags off the porch. He shouldered through the door and hurried to the kitchen to put away the cold groceries before they spoiled. It didn’t dawn on him, not until he’d laid the bags down, that the lights were still on.
He turned on the spot and asked aloud, “Anyone home?”
“Mom said I could stay . . . since you told Zoey you were almost home,” Abby answered, making Jesse jump.
He spun around, his eyes flying wide as he found his daughter sitting on the barstool at the opposite end of the island. Her arms lay folded on the countertop, her head cocked to one side as she studied him. There was something so suspicious, sowary, in her expression—the mirror image of Eliana’s. His blood ran cold as a sense of inevitable foreboding gripped his heart in a vice.
“Does Mom know?” Abby asked. Unlike Zoey, Abby was shy and quiet and typically chose to keep to herself—but she’d never been one to beat around the bush. “About Bea?”
“I—”
“That’s why the two of you are fighting, right? Because you told her?”
Jesse stared, horrified. Unable to process the quickly unfolding disaster before him. He stared at his daughter and his mind blanked. Why did she lookhopefulas she stared back?
Her hands tightened their grip around her elbows as she leaned forward and pressed, “Please, Dad. Did you tell her?”
“How— what do you mean?” Jesse began, his mind reeling.
“I saw you kiss Bea the night Mom went on the trip,” Abby clarified, the words crisp and direct, landing like anarrow through his chest. “And I thought you told her. Mom. I thought that’s why you’ve been fighting. But I just saw Bea outside. Why is she here? Did you tell her to come?”
“I–I wasn’t–you don’t–”
Abby hung her head as she released a fractured sigh. “You didn’t tell her,” she whispered, a note of horror in her tone. “She doesn’t know.”
“Abby, baby?—”
Abby leapt off the stool, her gentle eyes furious and glistening. “How could you not tell Mom? Did you kiss Bea again?”
“No—” Jesse shook his head quickly. “I was just telling her to leave.”
“Why would she have come here?”
“It’s . . . complicated.”
“I don’t believe you,” Abby answered, her eyes narrowed. The words pierced deep and true, curdling the contents of his stomach. He’d never seen one of his girls look at him with heartbreak in their eyes, and it stole the very words from his mouth, knowing he’d been the cause. “Bea came to seeyou. Because you’re a liar. And now I’m a liar,” she gasped, “because I didn’t tell Mom either.”
“No—”
“Why didn’t you tell her?” Abby asked, her desperation as tangible as Jesse’s in that moment. A lone tear broke free, sliding over a freckled cheek.
