Page 48 of Ruining Hattie

HATTIE

“ M om, what’s wrong?” I rush out of the pool, water sluicing down my body, but she pays me no mind, her entire focus on Bast.

I glance in his direction and see that he’s staring at her too, rage etched into every line of his face.

“Tyler?” my mom asks again, her tone more urgent, more demanding.

My vision shifts to my dad, wanting him to explain why she’s calling Bastion Tyler and what happened at the doctor’s appointment, but all the color has drained from his face as he looks between my mom and Bast.

“What’s going on? Who’s Tyler?” Panic flares like a living, breathing being inside me, suffocating me. When no one answers me, I tug on Bast’s arm. “What’s going on?”

He doesn’t turn to me, not removing his eyes from my mom. “Why don’t you ask Mother Dearest?”

I turn imploring eyes in my mom’s direction. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” It’s obvious I’m the only one who doesn’t have a clue what’s happening here and who Tyler is.

Bast’s back straightens, and he slides his arm out of my grip, crossing his arms and widening his stance as if he’s preparing for a fight. “Carla is my mother.”

His voice doesn’t waver or shake. It’s cool and smooth and devoid of emotion. This isn’t the Bast I know.

I understand each of the four words that came out of Bast’s mouth, but they make no sense the way they were strung together. My mom is Bast’s mom? How is that even possible?

My head whips in my mom’s direction. “I don’t understand.”

Tears slip down her face, and she does nothing to wipe them away, her eyes still on Bast.

“Carla,” my dad says, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, “maybe we go inside to talk. Or I’ll take Hattie…”

She shakes her head. “Before I met your father, I had a child. Tyler.” She sobs at his name before taking a few breaths to compose herself. “He ran away, and I never saw him again. Until right now.”

I turn to look at Bast, and his eyes are locked with my mom’s. “Is that true?”

He finally turns his gaze from my mom to me, giving me a single nod.

Oh my god. My mom is his mom. The drug-addicted horrible mom who neglected him as a child? My hands fly up, covering my mouth as tears prick the corners of my eyes.

Wait. Then the thought occurs to me. How he wasn’t surprised when Mom said his name.

Has Bast known this whole time?

I tug at his arm. “Did you… did you know already?” My voice is a whisper.

Regret fills his eyes, and he doesn’t have to answer. He did. My heart cracks.

“I hired a private investigator to track down what happened to Carla,” he says. “I figured she’d be long dead of her addiction, but it turns out she wasn’t. In fact, she had a pretty cushy life after I was gone. She even replaced me with another child.”

My stomach bottoms out, and the tightness in my chest causes me to struggle for a breath.

“No, Tyler, I?—”

Bast’s hands fist at his sides, and he gives my mom a murderous look. “Do not call me that. My name isn’t Tyler.” His voice is cold. I’ve never seen or heard him like this.

Was this all a game? Is he even the Bast I’ve fallen in love with?

“So this… us…” I motion between us. “It was all just…” I can’t even say the words as my heart splinters further.

His eyes soften the smallest amount when he looks at me.

“At first you were a means to an end. I came to Wisconsin to see her, and when I saw the relationship she had with you, I wanted her to feel the pain she caused me. I ruin you, which ruins dear old Mom. I purposely met you at the coffee shop, I bought the company you work for, and I’m the one who laid you off.

All to get you to Seattle so I could… but then…

” He swallows hard, and his deep blue eyes gloss over.

“My feelings for you are real, Hattie. I fell in love with you.”

I shake my head.

No. No. This is Rich all over again.

He lied.

Pretended.

None of this was real.

He wanted to ruin me.

Nausea overtakes me, and I race over to the grass, collapsing on all fours, and throw up. My tears mix with the vomit in the green grass as they drip from my cheeks.

A large hand rubs my back, and I flinch away from the touch until I glance to my right to see my dad. He helps me up. I fall into the safety of his arms, sobbing against his shirt.

“None of this changes how I feel about you,” Bastion says from behind me.

I let go of my dad and whip around to face the man who has succeeded in ruining me, just as he planned. “It changes everything! You lied to me. Over and over again. Did you ever plan to tell me?”

He doesn’t answer. It’s not as if I would have believed him had he said yes anyway.

I glance at my mom. She’s still staring at Bastion in disbelief.

“You need to go.” My voice is hollow, as though all the emotion has been scooped out of me.

“No, Hattie.” Bastion takes a few steps toward me with his hands up, but my dad puts himself between the two of us.

“I believe my daughter asked you to leave, young man.”

I shouldn’t let my dad fight my battles for me, but he feels like the only safe place at the moment. The man I loved has deceived me in the worst way, and the woman who raised me is not the woman I thought she was. My head spins. I can’t make sense of anything that’s happening right now.

“Just leave, Bastion.” The words are full of desperation and pleading.

“Bastion?” he clarifies, hurt lining his eyes from me using his full name. His shoulders sag, and he walks toward the pool, gathering his things. Once he’s done, he comes to stand before my dad and me. “This might have started as one thing, but it ended as another.”

He makes his way through the shattered glass sprawled across the deck-slash-patio, crunching it under the soles of his shoes, until he stops right in front of my mother. “You deserve to suffer for what I had to endure. My only regret is that Hattie now will as well.”

Bastion disappears into the house and out of my life, forever.