Page 115 of Broken Grump

Oh, sweet Jesus.If anything could get me out of this funk, I know Addie’s beautiful face could. Grabbing it with hope in my heart, I flip it over but see Noah’s name across the screen instead.

Fuck.I was just with him, so I assumed the worst.But he told me he was also getting a ride home. He wouldn’t be that stupid.

Hesitantly, I answer. “Noah, are you okay?”

The silence on the other end of the line is deafening.

“Noah? Hello?”

“Hayden,” he chirks out.

“Yes, I’m here. What’s going on? Are you hurt? Do you need me to come get you? I can order an Uber—”

I hear an exaggerated sniffle. “No, it isn’t that.” Like he was back at the bar, he’s slurring his words a little.

My heart is either pounding or falling into my stomach, I can’t discern with one. But either way, it doesn’t feel right.

“I . . . I screwed up, baby bro.”

My brow furrows. “Okay. Well, whatever it is, we can get through it together.” We made that pact when we were kids. I’d be damned if I broke it now.

“You say that now, but I promise you won’t feel that way once I tell you the truth.”

Now, I’m even more confused than ever.

“Noah, tell me what’s going on. Now.”

“I robbed you of your happiness, Hayden. I took it from you. I stole any chance you had to build a future with the woman of your dreams. And in doing so, she removed your ability to be a father to little Luna.”

“What in the world are you talking about?” I run a few scenarios in my mind, but none of them come close to explaining howhewould be responsible for how things turned out for me and Addie in the past.

“I’m the one who leaked the story about Dad and his mistress,” he finally admits.

Oh, my God.I was wrong. It’s even worse than I thought.

“I am to blame for our father’s heart attack. It’s my fault, Noah.”

Jesus. He’s so piss drunk that he’s referring to me by his own name now.

When I fail to respond, he says, “Well? Say something. Anything. Please—”

With my jaw clamped shut, I mumble, “What do you expect me to say, Noah?” I exaggerate his name in the hope of him realizing how stupid he’s being.

“I—”

Before he can mutter another word, I end the call and throw my phone across the room. There’s a soft couch to break its fall, so I know it isn’t broken. But still, the distance is enough to put in between me and Noah for the time being. I don’t even want to know if he calls again.

I can’t fucking believe him.Yes, he had just as much of a reason to hate our father as I did, but this?This?It was diabolical and borderline murder. Finishing my first glass, I pour some more of the brown liquid in and scarf it down. My whole body is so numb that it doesn’t even sting my throat on the way down.

And then there is the Addie of it all.Noah may have been to blame, but he didn’t force me to hurt her. No, it was all on me for choosing to break her heart the way I did.

She was innocent all this time, and I never for a second believed her.

I’ll never forget the hurt that flashed in her eyes that night after I accused her of leaking the story. The image still haunts me to this day.

I also unleashed an animal I didn’t know existed in me that same night. The way I was berating and yelling at her reminded me of the man I hated most—my father.

No matter what she said through her tears, I wouldn’t have any of it. My anger just took over and controlled every output of my body, so far as my words, my posture, and everything else. Honestly, it kind of felt like he possessed me. Someway and somehow, his spirit found a detour on its way to heaven or hell. The jury is still out on that one, but it inhabited inside of me.

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