Page 69 of Regrets

He was even hesitant to kiss me.

“No.”

“P, I saw the kid.”

“She’s lying. There’s no way in hell he would do that to me. He wasn’t like that. He wasn’t like . . .”

“Us?” Now he’s starting to get fired up, and I feed off his anger.

“Yes. Like us. He would never do that. He was good.”

“Yeah well,” he cracks his neck and then grabs the back of it, “we all have our breaking points. He had so much fucking pressure on him his whole life.”

I stare at Linc in astonishment. “Are you seriously defending him?”

“No. I’m not. It was shitty, but he’s not fucking here to yell at.”

“I don’t believe it, Linc. He would never do that.”Would he? No. This is Colt. He never lost control. Not ever. Not even with me. Not even when I begged him to. I feel sick and wrap my arms around my waist.

“She’s willing to do a DNA test. And the kid looks just like his baby pictures.”

I shake my head, gripping my stomach and trying not to get physically ill, my eyes lifting to meet his as I lash out, “Are you the father? Are you putting this off on Colt because you don’t want to face it? I mean, you two looked an awful lot alike.”

He doesn’t entertain my outburst. “No. I’ve never fucked her, but my brother did.”

“Fuck you, Linc. You’re lying.”

“No. I’m not.” He takes a step closer to me, his head dipping down to look me directly in the eyes. “And you know I’m not.”

I start to walk away from him, dropping my hands to the side, fury swelling up inside of me. When he grabs for my hand, I yank it away and pull back, smacking him across the face. “Don’t touch me.”

He looks hurt, but not physically, his eyes registering all the pain I’ve caused him as I struggle to breathe, standing there panting. Linc never backs down from me, but this time he walks down the stairs and climbs into his car, driving away.

I sink down to the wooden porch and hold onto my stomach, sobbing and hating the world.

How could he do this to me?

37

LINC

Ipush through the doors of the building and start toward the location of my dad’s office. It’s been a long time, and when I reach the door where his office was, it has someone else’s name on it.

“Linc?”

I turn at the sound of my sister’s voice and look at her as she stares in shock.

“What are you doing here?”

“When did Dad move offices?”

Her eyebrows pinch together. “When they remodeled around four years ago.

“Oh. Where is his office now?”

Of course, she won’t let me off that easily. Lola is a real pain in the ass sometimes. “Why are you here?”

“I need to talk to Dad.”

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