Page 57 of One Pucking Chance

“Her too.” I swallow hard. “She ignored my calls for a month. She didn’t think I needed to know.” I shrug. “I don’t know how parents deprive their daughter of the most precious thing—time. How could they do that? It’s so awful and cruel that I have to wonder if they have a point. Maybe something is really wrong with me, but I just don’t see it. My whole life, everything that has gone wrong has been my fault. I was always to blame, never good enough. The sad thing is that since my earliest memory, all I tried to be was good enough.”

He takes my hands in his. “Please listen to me and hear me when I tell you that you are good enough. You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met. You are beautiful, smart, kind, funny, and talented. You love with your whole heart. I don’t know your parents, and I’m no expert, but something is really wrong with them. I’m sorry to speak ill of your mother, but that’s just not right, Anna. You have to see that.”

I sigh. “That’s what Miranda says, too.”

“Well, Miranda is right.”

“It’s just that every time I start to believe a different narrative than the one that I was raised with, something else knocks me down and validates everything they’ve ever said.”

“Said about what?”

“About me not being enough.”

He shakes his head. “How, Anna?”

“You said you loved me.” My voice falls to a whisper.

“I do love you.”

“Can you grab that folder on the island?” I point toward the kitchen.

Jaden retrieves the folder and returns to the couch, sitting beside me.

“Open it,” I say.

He does as instructed. The first photo is of his father. “Who is this?”

“Are you serious?” I ask. “Look at the next two pictures.”

He flips through the first three pictures. “Am I supposed to know them? I’m confused.”

“That’s your dad and your grandparents,” I say.

His eyes narrow as he stares at the mug shots. “I don’t know these people, Anna. I’ve never met my father or his parents. Not once. I was raised by my mother, remember? I’m not sure these people are related, but if they are, why does it matter? Whatever they did to end up in jail isn’t on me.”

“What about the rest?”

He flips through the pictures. “Where did you get these?”

“My father. I’m assuming he hired someone to look into you.”

“Why?” he asks.

“To prove to me that I made a mistake in loving you. To show me that I just wanted to embarrass him.”

“He said that? That you dated me to embarrass him?”

I nod.

“Anna, we all have a past. You know you’re not the first woman I’ve been with. If these criminals are indeed related to me and I had known they were in jail, I would’ve told you. I haven’t kept anything from you. I certainly haven’t pretended that no other women have come before you. Why does some woman I went to the beach with three years ago put shade on what we have in any way?”

“Three years ago?”

“Yeah.” He points at himself in the picture. “This was before I went to Japan. I didn’t have my koi tattoo yet. I don’t even remember who this chick was. Probably just someone who wanted a picture with me.”

“These photos aren’t recent?”

“No.” He looks through them. “They’re all old. Your dad’s PI probably got them from the internet or off these girls’ social media or something. Wait…” He looks at me, and realization lights up his eyes. “Did you think I was with other girls after you left?”

---