“Never, Viper. Never.”
I head toward the hall as he moves to the door. Only I pause on the steps when I hear a woman’s voice.
“Is Rain here?” the woman asks softly.
“You’re here.” Ridge sounds relieved.
It has me wondering who it could be. I don’t like how happy he sounds that she is here.
“I know I should have called, but I figured if I thought about it anymore, I might have backed out,” the woman says.
Who the fuck is here?
Without thinking about it, I move to Ridge and the mystery guest.
“Who’s here?” I ask.
Ridge steps to the side, and when I see the woman, my breath catches.
She doesn’t need to introduce herself, because I know just by looking at her who she is.
“What are you doing here? How did you know where I lived?” I ask rapidly.
“Can I come in?” she asks with a brittle smile.
Heidi. My aunt. My dad’s one true love. She is here. Right in front of me.
“Of course. Please take a seat. Would you like something to drink?” I ask automatically.
“If you don’t mind, a glass of water would be great,” she says as she steps inside.
“I got it. You two sit,” Ridge says.
He squeezes my shoulder as he passes by, grounding me, just for a second. Something I desperately need.
Heidi and I walk into the living room and sit down across from each other, me on the couch and her in the chair that Dad used to love that I haven’t been able to part with yet.
“This is a nice place. I thought you might have moved into your dad’s place,” she says after a moment.
“We are planning to renovate it, but we aren’t in a hurry. We plan to make it our home when we are done. This was my husband’s before we married.”
She takes a deep breath and looks at me, really looks at me. “You look so much like me. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were mine.”
“Dad said it hurt to look at me sometimes,” I admit.
Horror washes over her face for a split second. “I’m so sorry. He never should have said something like that.”
I shrug. “It’s the truth, but I’m sorry. I have to know. Why are you here? Why now?”
She looks over my shoulder and smiles. “Your husband called me, and I realized it was time.”
My husband called her. Ridge reached out to her.
I feel him come up next to me and sit down.
“Why?” I ask, turning toward him.
“Because I could tell how much their story bothered you. How you felt guilty for something that was never your fault, and I wanted to make it right. Besides, if she loved your dad even half as much as he loved her, she deserved to know that he was gone,” he informs me.
