Page 115 of The Work Wife

He looked up at the ceiling as if hoping a meteor would crash through the building and strike him dead. That didn’t happen.

* * * *

Giving up on divine intervention to spare him, Wes flopped down on the sofa next to Jamie, prepared to tell all. She deserved to know the truth.

“My father built Archer Worldwide and made it into a successful design firm. The summer before my junior year of college, he brought me in to start grooming me to take over. I’d been planning for this my entire life. I always knew I would work there with my dad, and one day run the company when he retired.”

“Does Rob know?”

“No.” He shook his head. “He never asked and I never mentioned it.” No doubt his boss would have expected something like interning at the family’s firm would have been splashed all over his résumé, but Wes had purposely omitted it.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t have thought you were related, what with you applying to work for him instead.”

“Maybe.”

“Why aren’t you running the company?” she asked.

“I’m getting there.” He took a deep breath. “While I was working there that last summer, I kind of developed a thing for my father’s assistant. She was only two years older than me and she . . .” He gestured down at his chest. That had been all that mattered back then. How shallow he’d been.

“My dad worked a lot of late hours. I decided one night I would stay later so I could experience the reality, and make sure I was able to handle it.” He wiped his hand over his face and took a breath. He could still see it clear as day.

“I was bored, so I was planning to stop in to hang out with my father. But when I got to the door, I heard noises.”

“Noises?”

“Sex noises. And I knew one of them was my father’s voice and the other belonged to his assistant. I thought I was going to be sick, so I went outside. I was going to leave, but instead I sat in my car. I guess I wanted to be sure. They came out together, and he kissed her before she got in her car and drove off.”

He rubbed a hand over his forehead.

“I was going to confront him. I wanted to make him confess to my mother. But that night he came home and she was so happy to see him. He was her whole world, and I knew it would destroy her if she knew.”

He couldn’t imagine how he would feel if someone told him Jamie had been unfaithful.

“I kept quiet for a while. The relationship between me and my father became strained to the point that I took an internship with Blain and Douglas between my junior and senior year. He approved, saying it was good to learn from the competition.”

She put her hand on his thigh in an effort to comfort him. He picked up her hand to play with her fingers.

“I knew there was no way I would be able to work with my father and his mistress unless I got it out in the open. I was ready to do it. I even wrote out what I wanted to say so I didn’t get emotional and start yelling at him. I wanted to get through graduation and come home so I could be there for my mother. But he died three days before I graduated. I never got to confront him.”

“Oh, God,” Jamie whispered.

“My mother was busy turning him into a saint. I couldn’t tell her, and what good would it do to destroy the marriage she thought she had?” He held out his hands. “But I couldn’t stay there, listening to her praise him anymore. I took the job Blain and Douglas offered and stuck Benji and my uncle with running the firm. My mother still expects me to take over—it’s why she hasn’t let Ben hire anyone to replace me—but I just can’t do it. I don’t want to run the company my father built. Honestly, even if he hadn’t been a liar I wouldn’t want to run it. I like creating things more than managing. Ben does a great job with it, but my mother refuses to let him officially take over.”

He stepped away from her.

“My mother is angry with me for not stepping up. She doesn’t know why I’ve been so distant all these years, and I can’t tell her the truth.”

To his surprise, he felt Jamie’s arms wrap around him from behind.

“I know it will be difficult, but I think you need to tell her. It’s the only way you’ll ever have closure with this. You’ve had practice with Holly.”

“This won’t be like telling a stranger who already had suspicions. This is my mother and the man she put on a pedestal.”

“Still, you’ll feel better when it’s out in the open.”

He turned in her arms and frowned down at her. She was making sense, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

“You can’t hide from this forever. Your father made a mistake,” she said.