I blow out my breath.“Gerald wanted to meet me at midnight on the dock.I wasn’t a complete moron, so I told Tom what I was doing.He told me not to go, but this was my chance.Maybe my dad would take me away, and I’d be part of a real family.”
“Wyatt.”My name is soft from her lips, coaxing, comforting.I have to keep going.
“I went out in the middle of the night to meet a stranger.I told my parents I was staying at Tom’s.No one questioned it.Most of the time I stayed at Tom’s because your parents loved you both and by extension they cared for us.They gave us a home.”
I turn and meet Finn’s eyes.“The rebellious heir of a questionable man.”I meet Dante’s.“The unwanted son of a working man.”I meet Sara’s.“The bastard son of a crook.”
She shakes her head, but I turn away.
“But that’s where my plan fell short.I forgot that some people actually cared about me.I forgot that Tom is a good son and best friend.”Resting my head against the glass, I close my eyes remembering that night.“I went to Gerald.I showed up and he said all the things I wanted to hear.How much like him I was.How if he’d known he never would have let me go.I didn’t find out until later that the only reason he’d been with my mother was because she was wealthy and he’d wanted an in.He wanted to use me to get more money from her.”
I hear her gasp but I need to continue.
“Tom told your father where I went.Tom came with your dad to the dock.”I shiver, remembering.“Gerald grabbed me and pulled me toward the boat, but your dad tackled him and told me to run.I went back to Tom, so fucking confused.Why would his dad not want me to have my dad?”
I rub the bridge of my nose.
“I didn’t understand that your dad was trying to save me.My dad never really wanted me.He wanted the estate that was in my name and my mother’s trust fund for me.Your dad and mine fought.Your dad was on the way back to us after telling Gerald he couldn’t take me.”
I can almost smell the ocean air, hear the waves crashing.That realization in my heart that I didn’t need another dad, because Tom and Sara’s dad counted me as one of them.That I had a family.It just wasn’t the one I was born into.
The sharp crack of the gun going off in the silence.The shock on Tom’s dad’s face.His last words,Go home.
My heart rips all over again for the man who would have loved me like a father should.Who did love me.Who died to save me.
“Gerald Wyatt killed your father because of me.”
Chapter17
Forgiveness of Debts
Sara
Wyatt’s head touches the glass and agony fills his voice.I’m stunned.Not sure what to say or do.I lost my dad when I was seven.No one told me what happened.Just one night he tucked me into bed with a kiss, and the next morning he was gone.
Mom was distraught.Tom seemed different, distant as tears ran down his face.I didn’t know what to do to help them when my own heart was torn in two.Lost, I turned to Dante, Finn, and Wyatt.
I let them hold my hand through the mourning period and the grieving that seemed never-ending.Tom started fights with Wyatt, but Wyatt always just took it, like he deserved it.I always thought Tom was angry over our father’s death and taking it out on his friend.But now, it makes sense when I look back on it.
Even Wyatt seemed different after my father died, but he also took care of me and looked out for me more.Like maybe I was his penance too.
In this bedroom now, no one says a word.Had he told me this when I was younger, I might have clung to it.Convinced myself he was the villain of the story.That as a little boy, he made my dad die.Maybe that’s what Tom did.
But as an adult…
“My dad loved you.”I blink back the tears that surge forward at the memories.How my dad always included Wyatt, Finn, and Dante.How he protected them.I lower my feet to the floor and pad across the room.
Wyatt flinches when I stop behind him.Prepared for what?For me to hit him?Berate him?Fuck, I love this man so fucking much.
“You were a child and my dad was protecting you.”I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head against his back, hoping he can feel my love.My dad never would have wanted Wyatt to carry this for so long.“He would have done that for any of us.You made a childish decision based on hope, but that doesn’t mean you were responsible for his death.No matter how it played out, my dad would have done anything to protect you.If he were here, he’d tell you the same thing.”
Tension drains from him as he breathes in and his hand clasps over mine.Carrying that shouldn’t have ever been his responsibility.And Tom is an asshole for doing that to him, even if it was to keep Wyatt from me.I can’t imagine a life without Wyatt in it now.
“Tom shouldn’t have held that over your head.”I breathe in his leather scent and release it because, as much as I hate Tom right now, I also love him.He’s my brother, and maybe he just used it as an excuse to keep us apart.Played into Wyatt’s guilt that Tom never absolved him of.
“No one should have blamed you,” Dante says.
I turn my head to face the three still sitting.Their faces are solemn.The four of us all lost a father that day.My dad loved each of these boys like his own children.Drew’s dark eyes meet mine and he gives me a nod like he understands.
