Page 85 of Scoring Grey

“But—” she tries.

I shake my head. She might have a head injury, but she knows my name, and her memories are alive and well because I already know what she’s about to say.

“But nothing. We’ll figure this out. What you said doesn’t change anything for me. When I said I loved you, it didn’t come with conditions. And if what you said is true”—I shrug—“call us even.” Her brow furrows. “That brake issue wasn’t a coincidence.”

Her eyebrows rise. “But that wasn’t our car.”

“Nope. It was Blair’s. She was no longer useful to him.”

24

ELOISE

“Adler!” I exclaim excitedly when my little man runs into my room and climbs onto my bed. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I say as I kiss the mop of blond hair on his head and hold him tight. The accident tonight was eye-opening. We never know when our card will get pulled, and I want to spend every day of my life living it to the fullest with the people I love the most. “I’ve missed you so much, buddy. Who brought you?”

“Grandpa,” he says, pulling back to look at me. “Does your head hurt?” he asks as he brings his small hand to the side of my face marred with cuts and bruises.

“It did, but the doctors are taking really good care of me and I’m not in pain.”

“There you are,” my dad says, rushing around the corner. “When the elevator doors opened, he bolted.”

I look at Adler, and he shrugs. “I knew the room number.”

My father enters and comes to my bedside, then places a kiss on my forehead before he examines the side of my face. “That’s a bit more than a scratch. I need to talk with Callum. He wants my daughter’s heart, and then he?—”

“Dad,” I hiss and look at Adler. I don’t want him to hear his grandfather speak ill of his father. Plus, this isn’t Cal’s fault. If anyone has more fault here, it’s likely him.

“No, it’s okay, Eloise.”

“Dad, you’re here too!” Adler bounces off the bed and Cal catches him as he jumps into his arms.

“Hey, champ.” He gives him a bear hug, squeezing him tight like he’s the most precious gift in the world before moving him to his hip and returning his sullen amber gaze back to my father. “I deserve whatever punishment Elias sees fit,” Cal says, stepping into the room from the en suite where I had finally convinced him to clean up his face. “But first, let me say this. Whatever words you’re planning to give me, save them. I’ve already ripped my heart out and stomped on it a thousand times since almost taking a life that could never be replaced. Your daughter and my son are my whole world. They’re my reason for existing. Everything I do is for them. Tonight, I messed up…” His eyes drift to mine, and I see regret before he sets his jaw firmly. “I may have been driving the car tonight, but you were steering our destiny.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

My eyes widen into saucers. “Cal, now is not the time.”

“No.” He points to the floor. “Now is exactly the right time. I refuse to spend one more day living in the past, trying to uncover secrets when we can go directly to the source. My mother might not be able to talk, but your parents can. I almost lost you today. This is nonnegotiable, Eloise.”

“I get it, I do, believe me, but I still think there’s a better”—I cough into my hand—“ahem, time,” and raise my eyebrows as I try to get him to understand why talking with Adler in the room is not it.

He sets Adler down, clearly perturbed, just as Dash enters. “Hey, I got here as fast as I could.” He shoves Cal’s duffle bag into his chest and comes to my side. “Someone had me running errands before coming straight here.”

“Dash,” Adler shrieks with excitement. “It’s a reunion.”

“Hey, bruh.” He musses his hair. It’s their thing. We ran into Dash at the store one afternoon, and out of nowhere, Adler called him, bruh. Dash looked at him quizzically, and Adler just shrugged and said that’s what everybody at school says. Dash laughed and it’s been the way he greets him ever since. “How’ve you been? Taking care of Gramps here?” He squeezes my dad’s shoulder. “Elias, good to see you.”

“Knock, knock,” a nurse says, entering the room.

“Please tell me those are discharge papers in your hand,” I ask hopefully, wanting to go home with my family now that they’re all here.

“Since you did lose consciousness at the accident site and you experienced confusion, getting names mixed up and not remembering you’re married, the doctor wants to keep you overnight for observation.”

“You’re married!” Adler squeals excitedly, and my face falls slightly, not wanting to break his heart.

The nurse pauses as my father and Dash look at me with puzzled expressions. My father reaches for my hand and holds it up, examining the diamond Cal slipped on me in the ambulance, one I didn’t have the foresight to remove before unplanned visitors arrived. The move quickly has me forgetting about the ring and my unmarried status when his hiked-up sleeve has another memory crashing into the forefront of my mind. It can’t be. It’s not possible. Flashbacks of piggybacking down the mountain on Dash’s back as he carried me back to the car a few weeks ago flick across my mind. I close my eyes and try to recall precisely how it looked. I knew the mark I’d seen behind Dash’s ear looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it, and now I know why. I’ve seen it a thousand times, but I never would have thought he’d have it in common with my father. I know I hit my head hard tonight, but this can’t be a coincidence. Can it?

“There must be a mix-up. I never received a call asking for permission.” My father’s comment breaks my trance, and my eyes instinctively dart up to Dash. He said he couldn’t see his birthmark, but he knows it exists and I told him the shape. Does he see what I see, or am I once again spiraling with information overload? His face is impassive, and I’m starting to think that staying here another night for observation wouldn’t be the worst idea. I feel like I knocked a screw loose. Dash is younger than me by a year, and I know my father wouldn’t have cheated on my mother. There’s no damn way we are related. I would have known if my parents had another child. They wouldn’t give up one of their own… Would they?

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