Page 78 of Fate

“Fucking hell. My goddamn cousin. Saint Chase. You tell Chase I want to talk to him. Now.”

The doorto my hospital room opens and Chase enters, my father hot on his heels. “Now, Chase, remember he was drugged and is in no condition for your wrath,” my father says as they both enter. Chase’s blue eyes are an angry blaze.

“Your wrath? I hear you have my woman in lockdown. Away from me. Hurting.” The words seep from my lips, coated in anger.

“That’s right. And you have some explaining to do before you’re ever going to talk to her again.” He throws down the gauntlet with absolutely no fear whatsoever. Whatever it is he thinks I’ve done, he’s going allout.

Againstme.

My best friend.

My fucking blood.

I grind my teeth and lift my chin to the sky. “Chase, tell me what’s going on. All I know right now is both of us were drugged. I ended up in my bed. Kathleen ended up on the freeway in a four-car pileup. What the fuck happened?”

“You cheated on her, you fucking piece of shit.” Chase’s anger is so potent I can feel it pumping off him like an electric current in the smallroom.

“Chase, not that it’s any of your business, but I’d never cheat onher.”

“Ohyeah?”

“Yeah. I’d have my mother strike me down from heaven above before I’d ever fucking cheat on Kathleen. I love her. I want her as my wife. She’s my future, Chase. My every…fucking…thing. You know she is. You know what the woman means to me. Has always meant to me. Now don’t you dare look me in the face and spew this bullshit.”

Chase shakes his head, and my father looks down and to the side. They don’t believe me. An arrow to the heart couldn’t have hit the mark better.

“Someone please tell me what’s going on.” I grind my teeth so hard I can hear it inside myhead.

“You say you’d never cheat. Well, here’s your proof right here.” Chase holds up a phone I don’t recognize and points the display atme.

I squint at the picture and see a mostly naked Misty straddling my thighs, her lips on mine, and me lying underher.

“No…no fucking way. This can’t be me.” If I weren’t seeing this with my own eyes, I’d believe it was Photoshopped, but it’s definitelyme.

“It is you. I’ve verified that already,” Chase says. “Keep clicking. There’s several for you to choosefrom.”

I swipe through the pictures and can’t believe my own eyes. I just can’t. “Chase, I don’t know what to say. I don’t remember this. Any ofit.”

“Convenient,” he mumbles.

“Son. We make mistakes, and Misty is a beautiful woman…” My father starts to make excuses for what I can tell he thinks is me behaving badly.

“No. No. I would never. Not to Kathleen. Not to any woman. It took us forever to get here. Maybe it’s from before. When Misty and I hooked up over two years ago?” My voice sounds desperate, hanging on to any shred of hope I can come up with to explain what I’m seeing.

Chase tilts his head back and laughs. “Look at the fucking picture, asshole. Your daughter’s sippy cup is sitting on the end table in the background. The same one that was on your end table when I picked you up on Saturday morning. Naked and in your bed. Misty was wearing a fucking skimpy-ass robe too. Now what more do you have to say for yourself? At least admit you fuckedup.”

I push the covers out of the way and off to the side so I can turn and get out ofbed.

“Chase, I’m begging you on our blood and our honor as best friends. I was drugged on Friday. I don’t remember anything that happened. Kathleen was drugged on Friday. Does she remember what happened?”

“No, but I’ll tell you what it lookslike.”

“And that is?” I lean over the bed, cock my head to the side, and stare at my cousin with every ounce of humility I have. “I’d never hurt her willingly, man. You have to believeme.”

Chase’s eyes turn hard, and then something clicks as he takes in my defeated posture and gaze. His shoulders fall, and he takes a harsh breath.

“Fuck. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. Only what it is. Kathleen doesn’t remember anything after leaving work. She doesn’t even know where this phone came from or whose it is. But the picture was the first thing Gillian saw when she pulled it out of the pocket of the pants the nurses handed us. She showed it to me, and Kathleen woke up and saw it over our shoulders and demanded to see it. We had no choice.”

“Whose fucking phone is it?” I flip it over and glance at the tiny crack in the right-hand corner. I know that crack. I’ve seen it before because my daughter did it last week while playing with her mommy’s phone. She’d dropped it on the tile, and it cracked. I offered to replace it for Misty, but she said I’d done enough and not to worry. “Jesus Christ. It’s Misty’s. That means she met up with Kathleen after she had dinner withme.”

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