Page 33 of #Moonstruck

So maybe I could talk to Piper.

Or Ryan.

If they would be willing to give us an advance, everything would be okay.

“You don’t need to worry about it,” Fitz continued. “We’re going to get the money. I just have to make the administrator understand that.”

While the money situation was certainly stressful and worth freaking out over, that wasn’t really a reason to be talking about me. Cole had specifically said they were talking about me. This was some kind of diversion. I faced Cole. “What were you really talking about?”

Cole let out a huge sigh, like he didn’t know what to say. He stayed quiet for about a minute, shrinking under all our gazes. Then everything came out in one breath, as if he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Dad just announced on his Facebook page that he had another baby.”

Rushing wind filled my ears, making me temporarily unable to hear. My chest constricted, and I could literally feel the rage bubbling up inside me, along with the beginning of an anxiety attack.

I wanted to break something. I wanted to punch a wall.

I also wanted to curl up in a ball and cry until my heart stopped hurting.

Parker reached for me. “You can talk to us, Maze.”

I didn’t want their sympathy right now. Or them telling me how they understood.

I was pissed off at Cole for being Facebook friends with our father.

“I’m going for a walk to cool off,” I told them, grabbing my key card off the dresser. “Don’t follow me.”

I left the room and headed for the elevators, not knowing where I could go to be alone. But I saw the backup dancers all laughing and talking as they waited for the next elevator. I could not make small talk and jokes and smile with the tsunami of grief that had welled up inside me.

So I walked the opposite way, tears blinding me, pain in every step. What was wrong with my father? Why did he keep doing this?

He’d abandoned our family after finally confessing that he’d cheated for the entirety of his relationship with our mother. She’d thought Cole was a onetime deal. She had no idea he was impregnating and carrying on with women all over the country as he toured. He told her he couldn’t help himself. That he loved who he loved and didn’t like using birth control. He literally had dozens of children.

And now he had one more.

At the end of the hallway was a staircase with a notice that an alarm would sound if I opened the door. I noticed a small hallway off to the left leading to a set of double doors recessed into the wall. If I sat here, even if my brothers went looking for me, they wouldn’t be able to find me. I slid down the wall, laid my head on my knees, and let myself sob.

But because this was me, of course one of the doors opened.

“Maisy?”

Three guesses as to whose room it was, and the first two don’t count.

CHAPTER TEN

There I sat, face all red and puffy, snot running down my nose, eyes bloodshot.

And Ryan freaking De Luna looked like a fallen angel sent to tempt all earthbound women to fall desperately in love with him.

“Are you okay?”

Oh yes, Ryan, I’m totally fine. That’s why I’m curled up in the fetal position wailing like a banshee.

I tried to say something, but the words stuck in my throat.

“Do you want me to get your brothers?”

That was the last thing I needed. I shook my head violently. “It’s ... it’s a really long story.”

He crouched down on the floor next to me so that we were eye level. “I’d like to hear it if you want to talk about it.”