Page 61 of Wish You Were Mine (Kings of Eden Falls #3)

OWEN

“It’s not like that, Dad,” Lucy said, standing so fast her chair scraped against the hardwood. “Just let me explain. Please.”

She seemed ready to take this on herself, but every instinct in me still wanted to absorb her dad’s fury instead. I looked to Theo for guidance. He gave me a subtle nod. Lucy needed to do this.

So, I stayed quiet.

But I was ready to step in if she needed me.

“I know how this looks,” Lucy continued, her eyes locked on her dad’s angry eyes.

“But it’s not what you’re imagining. It’s nothing like those stories.

Owen never pressured me. We met before the semester started.

At a New Year’s Eve party in the Hamptons.

I didn’t know he was a professor. He didn’t know I was a student.

I let him believe I was older.” Her voice trembled slightly, but she didn’t look away.

“When we figured it out, we tried to back off. I even looked into switching classes, but nothing else worked with my schedule. And I know you probably think he used his position to manipulate me, but that’s not what happened.

He’s not like that.” She swallowed. “He’s a good man.

You even said so yourself just a few weeks ago. ”

“Yeah, well…” Her dad barked a bitter, humorless laugh. “That was before I realized he was buttering me up so he could get in your pants.”

“ Richard! ” Mrs. Archibald gasped, reaching for his arm. “That’s enough?—”

“No.” He pulled away, fury radiating off him. “You’re defending this? A grown man sleeping with our daughter while she’s still in his class?”

“We never said we were sleeping together, Dad.” Lucy’s voice cracked, but she stood her ground. “And even if we were, I’m not a child. That would still be my choice.”

His gaze cut to me. “And how old are you exactly?”

“I’m twenty-eight,” I said evenly.

“Twenty-eight. You’ve got to be kidding me.

” He shook his head, then turned to me fully.

“My daughter is twenty-one. Did you even stop to think about the consequences? About what kind of fallout this could cause? Did you talk to Dean Harris about the ramifications of dating a student? Of course not. Because you knew it was wrong. You knew once he found out, he’d be on the phone with me before you could blink. ”

“We’re not doing anything wrong,” Lucy said before I could say anything. “We’ve been careful.”

But he wasn’t hearing it.

He wasn’t seeing us.

“Yeah, well, say goodbye to that grant money,” he snarled. “You’ll be lucky to have a job by the time I’m done with you. You took advantage of my daughter. She’s barely an adult.”

“I’ve been an adult for almost four years, Dad,” Lucy said, her voice trembling at the edges .

He scoffed. “You stopped acting like one the second you dumped Josh for some fantasy fling with your professor.”

Lucy flinched. And pain instantly flickered across her face, raw and visible.

“That’s enough.” I stood, my voice rising despite the tight lump forming in my throat. “You can hate me all you want, but don’t you dare talk to her like that. Your daughter is smart and capable of making her own choices. So am I.”

“Oh, don’t flatter yourself,” he spat, eyes sharp. “You’re just the rebound. You think she knows what she wants? She stopped making good decisions the second she threw away someone who actually gave a damn about her future.”

“Stop,” Lucy pleaded, voice cracking. “Just…please stop.” She faced her dad more fully, eyes glassy and blazing.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Dad.

You think Josh was a better choice than Owen?

” she asked, a bitter laugh escaping her lips.

“Then you don’t know what dating him was actually like.

” She took a shaky breath. “He hurt me, Dad.”

“He hurt your feelings?” President Archibald shook his head, clearly missing her meaning. “That happens. We all get our hearts broken. It’s part of being an adult.”

“No.” Her voice broke, and she cut him off.

“He hurt me. Physically. Remember those bruised ribs I had last year? That wasn’t from a bad dismount on the bars.

That was from Josh. He was drunk. Furious.

I said something he didn’t like and he threw me across the kitchen—so hard I couldn’t breathe for a full minute. ”

“What?” Mrs. Archibald gasped, a hand flying to her mouth.

“What the hell?” Theo said, pushing up from his chair, wide-eyed.

“He—” President Archibald asked, his voice barely above a whisper as the color drained from his face. “He hurt you? ”

“Yes,” Lucy said, the word coming out strangled. “He hurt me and made me feel worthless.”

And then she broke.

The dam burst.

Tears spilled down her cheeks as years of silence and shame cracked wide open.

I wanted to reach for her. To pull her into my arms and hold her until the storm passed.

But the air in the room had shifted as her family sat frozen, grappling with the truth that shattered the fairy tale they’d always believed about Lucy’s past relationship—a reality they’d never thought to question.

And sweet little Charlotte, who’d been silent through the storm, sat wide-eyed at the end of the table, her fork suspended in the air, as she tried to make sense of why everyone she loved suddenly looked so broken.

I reached for Lucy’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

She turned to me, her eyes watery and vulnerable in a way that made my chest ache. “So sorry for all of this,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

“Don’t be.” I leaned in, my lips close to her ear. “I just want you to be okay.”

Her eyes closed briefly, as if anchoring herself with those words.

Then, turning toward Theo, I said, “Want me to take Charlotte into the other room? Give you guys a minute?”

“Yes, please,” Theo said, his nod quick and grateful. Then, glancing at my mostly untouched plate, he added, “You can take your food in there if you’d like to finish.”

But I didn’t have an appetite anymore, so I just took Charlotte’s plate and offered her a soft smile. “Wanna build something with blocks? Or maybe watch a show?”

She blinked up at me and nodded. “Otay… ”

At the doorway, I looked back.

Lucy’s eyes found mine, and I hesitated—torn between the instinct to stay and shield her, and the quiet truth that my presence might only be making things worse.

“I’ll just be in the other room, okay?” I said.

She nodded. “Okay.”