Page 173 of Vows We Never Made

“And Dad took you back?” I snarl, though the answer seems obvious.

My father’s a kind man at heart, even if a lifetime of money has made him selectively generous.

Infinitely better than the cheating stranger fuck who knocked up my mother.

Then again, how the hell do I know for certain when he’s a ghost?

“Your father blamed your granddad’s interference—and he was right,” she says bitterly. “There’s plenty of blame to go around, but without that old man meddling, making me doubt Scott…” Her nostrils flare and she swallows a sob. “God, it was my fault, but it was his too. And he knew that. Your father understood what a terrible mistake I’d made. He… he knew how much I regretted it.”

“It was rough,” Dad adds with a nod. “But your poor mother was under tremendous strain. Simply awful.”

Ridiculous understatement.

I watch them slowly, trying to process this insanity, every muscle in my body rebelling with stiffness.

“So she slept with someone else and you raised the bastard like a cuck?” I go off.

But it isn’t him I’m angry at.

I can’t hate a man who brought me up when I wasn’t his.

I hate the bastard.

And that bastard is me, the boy whose father Mom will never know.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this livid, this torn up.

Only, I do—the morning after Taylor.

Dad sucks in a rough breath, his eyes narrowing and his shoulders tense.

“Would you rather I hadn’t, Ethan? I knew full well what happened. I made my choice because I love Elvira, and that’s what you do when you love. You work it out. You forgive. You find a way back home.”

I may be glaring, but it’s hard as hell to argue with any of that sentimental shit.

The thought of Hattie sleeping with another man trips my murder instinct, but that’s different.

She doesn’t have a high-class father, blustering and telling her to run away from me.

I chased her away on my own just fine.

We never agreed to a relationship.

Never committed to being exclusive.

If she wanted, she could choose another cock tomorrow, and I’d have no right to get territorial.

With the big revelation, the thought makes me physically sick. But this isn’t about Hattie right now.

This is about how secret, disloyal, and fucked up this family really is.

Plus, the soul-crushing fact that I’m not who I thought I was.

Everybody knew—everyone I loved—and they smiled to my face like it never happened.

Nausea reaches up from my gut, choking me.

“What did Gramps think?” I ask gruffly. “He knew.”