Page 135 of Lee

“Yeah, I would never have imagined it.”

“Me, either.”

“So where’s your mind at? Are you really sick? Or is this tied to what you’ve learned about yourself?”

“It’s tied to that,” Lee confessed. “A very physical reaction to finding out such horrifying details of my early life. When I’m not being sick, I have no appetite, and I can’t sleep. The nightmares stress me out so much.”

“Have you talked to Rori about it?”

Lee shook his head. “I’ve only told you, and I don’t plan to tell anyone else.”

“You can’t keep a secret of this magnitude from Rori, especially since you’re in a relationship with her.”

Gareth wasn’t wrong, which is why it had taken Lee until that moment to acknowledge what he had to do. “I need to end our relationship.”

“No. You don’t,” Gareth responded sharply. “I understand this information has changed how you view your past, but nothing about you has fundamentally changed.”

That was so easy for Gareth to say. He was secure in the knowledge that his parents were who they said they were and that they’d never hurt him. He hadn’t inherited a genetic makeup that was filled with all kinds of wretchedness.

Had he been in Lee’s shoes, Lee had a feeling that Gareth wouldn’t have risked marrying Aria. He would have loved her enough to protect her from himself.

“You owe Rori an explanation,” Gareth said. “And you need to let her have a say in the decision you’re making.”

“I feel it’s much more common for one person to end a relationship without needing the other person’s permission.”

“But you’re basing your decision on the assumption that Rori wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with you if she knew about everything.”

“I don’t want my history out there,” Lee said. “Especially if she decides to walk away.”

“I really don’t think she’ll break up with you, and even if I’m wrong and she does, I doubt she’d tell anyone, especially if you asked her to keep it a secret.”

Lee wasn’t sure what to do.

His mind told him that he and Rori would both be better off if they broke up. If they waited until something snapped inside of him, it might be too late.

His heart didn’t want Rori to get hurt, but it also didn’t want to lose her.

“Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?”

“I don’t know. Part of me thinks they know what happened.”

Gareth hesitated. “You think they lied to you?”

“Yes.” The more he considered it, the more convinced he was.

“I don’t think they’d do that. They wouldn’t lie.”

“They would if they thought it was a better choice than revealing the awful truth. And it was probably the right thing to do when we were kids,” Lee said. “However, I would have appreciated the truth when I asked them as an adult.”

“Talk to them about it again,” Gareth urged. “If they don’t actually know, I think they should now that you do. They would be a great support.”

“I just don’t want the whole family knowing. They’ll look at me differently.”

“I doubt that,” Gareth said. “But I’ll respect what you decide. It’s not my story to tell.”

“Not even to Aria?”

“Not even to Aria. She wouldn’t watch the documentary with me. Said just hearing what it was about hurt her heart.”

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