Page 80 of Crude Heir

“I’ll be damned.” Ezequiel grins.

“Let me go get the girls and the champagne—uh, grape juice.” He turns on his heel, disappearing down the hall. “Champagne and grape juice for everyone.”

Keith comes back, looking at Mom thoughtfully.

“Everything went well?” she asks.

“Yes, he’s getting paperwork updated.” He focuses on her hand while she folds her fingers in her lap. “So are you ready for a new ring on that finger?”

“Keith.” That note in her voice says he’s about to be shot down. To his benefit, Keith takes it on the chin, nodding with understanding.

Both Nicole and I turn to her. “Let me up,” she whispers, moving to sit beside me.

Despite the fact he denied who I was all my life, I have to ask. “Why?” After everything that’s happened over the last weeks, because, like always, I need an answer.

“What?” she asks, caught by surprise at my question.

“I didn’t miss when he said you were the love of his life earlier,” I remind her. “And neither did you.”

She lowers her head, her attention on the floor. After a handful of seconds, she starts blinking rapidly. I take her hand, encouraging her to say something. “I’ve taken…so much from him,” she confesses in a ragged whisper.

“Josie—”

“No.” She shakes her head, bringing up her wrist to clear the tears. She turns to me. “I kept you from him,” she explains.

I look to Keith, but he retains a neutral expression.

“I’m sorry,” she says at a full cry. I pull the chair closer and go to her, wrapping my arms around her slender frame. “I know I made mistakes, Derrick. But I did what I thought was bestfor you.” She draws in a ragged breath. “I wanted to protect you from that world…I didn’t want you to end up like-like S-S-Simon.”

“I can understand that.” After everything I’ve gone through since the knowledge became public, I can’t blame her.

“And I couldn’t live with being called a whore.” Tears roll down her face. “My mother…”

I grimace, knowing my grandmother would not have been so understanding. “You certainly aren’t that,” I assure her.

“No,” Keith agrees. “Never that.” He turns to me. “I want you to know the whole story.”

“You don’t have to.” I don’t know that I’m ready to hear what he has to say.

“I think I do.” He presses his lips into a firm line. “My wife at the time figured out I was going to file for divorce,” he recalls. “She must have put something in my food.” He shakes his head. “Because although we were living separate lives by then, I woke up beside her with no memory of what happened or how I got there.”

“What a horrible woman,” Nicole whispers from next to me.

“Well, you saw the product of that night.” He blows out a breath. “Josie discouraged me from leaving, I shouldn’t, not when there was a baby on the way.”

Mom sniffles, nodding her agreement.

“Nine months later, on the day Simon was born, she served me with divorce papers.” He nods his head. “Had the guy find me right in front of the area where you can view the babies.”

“Classy.” The word slips out before I can catch it.

“She’s the one who would have me labeled a whore to anyone who’d listen,” Mom whispers.

Yes, I could see that. Nicole rubs her shoulder, trying to console her.

“But that meant I was free.” he smiles. “I wasn’t the one leaving a wife and child to marry another woman.”

Pressing my lips together, I turn to Mom. “But she didn’t see it that way.”

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