Page 87 of Scoring Grey

His lips thin, and he looks out the window. I can tell he has a story to tell.

“Dad, I need to know. I can’t have my happy ever after until I know what happened.”

He nods in agreement and looks at Dash. “Do you think you and Adler can grab me a coffee from the cafeteria?”

“Yeah, sure, no problem.” He stands. “What do you say, bruh? Want to help me grab a coffee for Gramps here and maybe raid the dessert case?”

“Yes,” Adler says eagerly. He hastily gets off the bed and then turns back to me. “Mom, do you want a special treat?”

“Surprise me, buddy,” I say with a smile.

The second Dash and Adler are out of earshot, he says, “Did Lucas Balfour threaten you? Is that what the two of you were insinuating earlier when you said I had something to do with all of this?”

“Not recently, but he did six years ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demands, his face pained before it softens, meeting mine. “Eloise, you’re my daughter. I would have protected you.”

“I know, Dad. I know you would have, but what’s done is done. I made my choices, and maybe they weren’t the right ones, but I’m here asking for your help now.” I reach for Cal, inviting him to sit beside me on the bed. “Can you tell us now so we can make the right choices for our family?”

His eyes flick between ours as resignation replaces his anger. “I’ll tell you a story, but you must realize I am only one half.” His brown eyes hold ours, ensuring we understand what he’s saying. He can’t speak for my mother. There are some things only she’ll be able to tell us. We nod in understanding, and Cal picks up my hand and interlaces our fingers. “You two now know that your mothers were best friends. That detail wasn’t intentionally held from you, at least not by me. I assumed it had come up between the two of you, but I know why your mother never talks about it. Losing Virginia broke her and she wasn’t heartless the way you believe. Ada tried to stay in Callum’s life by befriending Keely, even though doing so felt like a betrayal of the worst kind. She thought Lucas moved on too quick, and marrying one of Virginia’s labor and delivery nurses felt?—”

“Hold on. Repeat that… Keely was a nurse? I thought she’s always been a kept woman,” Cal questions in disbelief.

My father rolls his lips and crosses his arms. I can tell he has feelings about sharing these details. “She wasn’t a nurse for very long. If I recall correctly, she had just graduated from college a few months before being your mother’s nurse. Not long after Virginia’s death, she moved in with Lucas and never returned to work.”

Cal’s hand squeezes mine tight, and I know his mind is traveling in the same dark, twisted hallways mine is. Keely played a part in his mother’s death, but what of my mom?

“You said Mom tried to stay around for Cal. What happened? Why did your friendship with the Balfours fall apart?”

“That’s a story you need to talk to your mother about. It’s not mine to tell.” He shakes his head and drops his gaze to his lap.

“Were you there?”

“I was,” he answers, running the tips of his fingers over the calluses on his opposite hand.

“Then it sounds like you have part of a story to tell.”

“Not all secrets are kept in vain. Some are simply kept in hopes of forgetting.” He pauses to collect his thoughts, and I feel it in my bones. Whatever story I’m about to hear irrevocably transformed his relationship with my mother. “A few months after you were born, we went to a party Keely and Lucas hosted at their home. Your mother typically accepted all invitations Keely sent. She used them as an excuse to see Callum, but this party was different. Callum wasn’t there, and Keely had been hard to corner for most of the night. She was too busy playing the role of host, and it was getting late. Ada was ready to leave. We had you and your brother back home and she wasn’t interested in small talk with the guests in attendance. By the time we were walking out the door to leave, Keely rushed over with two drinks in hand, apologizing for being such a terrible friend and asking us to stay for just one more drink.” He exhales long and deep. “If there was ever a drink we should have turned down, it was that one. One minute, we were mingling, and the next, we were, well…”

He gets choked up, and Cal finishes his sentence. “You were drugged, weren’t you?”

My dad’s eyes shoot up to Cal’s, his look one of cautious recognition. There’s only one reason Cal could finish that sentence: because he experienced it, too. “Yes,” my father confirms slowly.

Cal is off the bed in a flash. “I knew it. I fucking knew it.” He hisses as he starts pacing the bed. “The night I threw that party, I smelled his cigars as soon as I opened the door to my room. I stupidly assumed someone stole one from his office because there was no way he would have let that party go down. Blair may have given me the drink, but my father handed it to her.”

“What are you talking about?” my father questions, not following Cal’s sudden outrage.

“The night I was going to tell Cal I was pregnant with Adler, I found another girl on his lap at a party. I turned on my heel and left, thinking Cal wasn’t serious about me. As it turns out, that night, he was drugged, which is how the girl got onto his lap and?—”

“And nothing happened,” Cal firmly adds. “I knew something was wrong and stumbled into the sauna in our gym, where I knew no one would come looking for me until I could think straight.”

My dad inhales deeply through his nose and slowly nods before saying, “Ada and I weren’t so lucky.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, my stomach sinking, believing I already know the answer.

“Let’s just say this. There’s a reason your mother and I never returned and cut all ties with Lucas and Keely.”

“That must be why my mom wrote that check I was telling you about. It was hush money,” I say to Cal.

---