Page 26 of Duress (Birch Falls #3)

EVERLY

“Bryce, please. Talk to me.” Cupping his face in my hands, I force him to look at me.

I stare at my husband’s face, studying his expression for clues to this bizarre riddle.

His eyes are bloodshot, his nose red, cheeks wet with tears.

I’ve never seen him cry before. Ever. He said once he stopped crying after his dad left and he realized he wasn’t coming back.

He said he’d never let himself get so attached to someone ever again, because he never wanted to feel that kind of pain when they left.

That was, until he met me. He even included a line in his vows to me that being with me was worth the risk of feeling that kind of pain, because he couldn’t imagine a life without my love.

It was so romantic. It was the moment I lost my battle to keep the tears at bay until after the ceremony, and my mascara was a mess as we walked back down the aisle, arm in arm.

Bryce closes his eyes and lets out a heavy sigh.

“Jake came by the office. Said he needed to talk to me, man to man. Said it was important. He asked me to go on a drive with him so we could talk. Richard and I had just been sharing some fancy new bourbon he picked up while in Kentucky, so I guess I was tipsy enough to agree to go with Jake.”

Richard is one of the partners at Bryce’s law firm. Bryce has been working his ass off day and night to get on Richard’s radar so he will be recommended for higher profile cases. That explains why Bryce didn’t come home right after work.

“Where did you go?” I ask, gently prodding Bryce to continue with his story.

“Went to the quarry. It’s where Jake used to take Dane and me when we were kids, to go fishing.

When he tried to make me like him by doing normal dad stuff, in an attempt to make me forget he was the reason my dad left.

” Bryce lets out a derisive snort at the memory.

“Guess he thought maybe being there would make it easy to break the news to me.” His voice takes on a bitter, acerbic edge .

“What news?”

“That my dad is dead.” Bryce looks away from me as he spits out the words, laced with the kind of anger one has when they know they’ve lost their chance at something for good.

“Oh god, baby. I’m so sorry.” Fresh tears spring to my eyes.

I wrap my arms around Bryce and pull him into a hug.

I squeeze him, trying to give him some sort of comfort.

I know he had hoped one day his dad would reach out and reconnect with him.

He never gave up on that dream. Now it would never happen.

“He showed me the obituary. Dad died from a sudden heart attack. He was fifty-two. Left behind a wife and three kids, all younger than Dane. No mention of his first son…” Bryce’s voice cracks as he chokes back a sob.

I finally understand why he’s crying and so broken.

It’s because his dad is dead. He’s dead and had a whole new family.

He had never planned on reaching out to his first son.

Bryce buries his face in my hair, and I feel his tears on my scalp.

I just hold him, stroking his back, trying to comfort him while he falls apart in my arms.

It’s an eternity before Bryce speaks again.

His voice cold and detached. He doesn’t lift his head up or move away.

He just mumbles his confession into my hair.

“Jake drove us to the quarry and we sat and talked. He spun some bullshit about how he always wanted to do right by me and my mom and he never wanted to replace my dad. He said he always thought of me as a son, even when I was angry with him. Then he pulled out the sheet of paper with the obituary. I read it and…I don’t know.

Saw red. I got so an gry. I’d lost my chance to reconnect with my dad forever.

If it wasn’t for Jake, I would still have a dad.

I hit him. I just fucking lost it. Jake tried to wrestle me to the ground, but I overpowered him.

When we went down his head hit a rock. I didn’t notice at first. I was so lost to my anger. Then I saw the blood…”

Bryce pulls away from me. My arms fall limply by my sides, letting him go. I’m too shocked by his confession to move. He turns, leaning against the kitchen island, giving me his back. Like he’s too ashamed to face me.

“He was just lying there. His eyes open. Staring at me. But there was nothing there. I fucked up, Everly. I didn’t mean to kill him. I was just so angry. So hurt. I didn’t mean to do it.”

I watch his shoulders shake, as sobs wrack through his body.

Nausea roils in my stomach, the reality of how dire this situation is settling over me.

Then I realize I picked Bryce up by the road.

There was no sign of Jake’s car. Bryce looked like he had been in an accident.

This isn’t adding up. I have to know the truth. “Bryce… Where’s Jake?”

“I put him in his car and drove it down an embankment just off the road. Put him in the driver’s seat. Made it look like a car accident.”

My world turns sideways. Then I’m sitting on the floor, my back to the cabinets. My head between my knees as I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth, fighting the urge to vomit or pass out.

“Everly. Hey. Look at me. Look at me, baby. You can’t tell anyone.” Bryce is kneeling in front of me. This time he is cupping my face, forcing my eyes to meet his .

“You killed him!”

“It was an accident. God, baby, you know me. I’m not a murderer.

I just lost my temper, and it was a tragic accident.

If you go to the police, they’ll arrest me.

They’ll charge me with murder. Then my mom will lose her first husband, second husband, and son in the same day.

She will lose everything. You can’t say anything.

Promise me. Promise me you won’t say anything, baby. Please.”

I see the fear in Bryce’s eyes as he pleads for my understanding.

My compassion. My silence. My heart and my mind are at war.

I don’t know what the right thing to do is.

The only thing I know is I don’t want to cause any more pain, so I nod.

Bryce lets out a relieved sigh and scoops me into his arms. We sit on the floor in silence, both lost to our own thoughts.

Reconciling ourselves to the fact that our lives are now forever changed.