Page 122 of Their Greatest Strength

Lifting my left hand, I wiggle my ring finger. “I’m afraid that there’s no scaring me away now.”

“That ring is gorgeous,” Braxton says between bites of her desserts.

Addie leans over the table to get a closer look. “Did you help Jamie pick it out, or does he just actually have great taste?”

“I didn’t help him at all.”

“That’s my boy,” Gracie says, chin high.

“At least you don’t have anything to worry about with Bateman sperm. You’ll most likely end up with two boys. That seems to be their tradition,” Addie sings.

Gracie hums. “That’s not technically right. Tyler has two brothers.”

“He does?” I ask before slamming my mouth shut with a wince.

There isn’t time to worry about overstepping before Gracie’s reaching across the table to pat my hand.

“Yes. His older brother isn’t welcome in our family, so we forget about him more often than not. However, he is still blood,” she explains.

Ava drinks some of her cocktail before adding, “Half-blood.”

“If we’re being that specific, yes. Both of Tyler’s brothers areonly half related to him. But in the same way his older brother isn’t, his mother was never welcomed in our family.”

My confusion must be obvious because Gracie offers me a sad smile and squeezes my hand.

“His mother was an addict for a long, long time. She didn’t want help, and nobody had seen her in years to ask her to try again. A few years back, she overdosed. It was all a big hurdle to work past, but what’s life without a little turbulence?”

It’s a sucker punch to the gut. Emotion blurs my vision before I blink past it and gently push away from the table, smiling past the sudden pain in my chest.

“Excuse me, I just need to use the bathroom.” I force the words up before retracing my steps out of the kitchen and down the hall to where I remember the bathroom being.

Taking the first left, I struggle to keep my gait slow and controlled when what I want is to run. I come to a dead end in front of a window and stop so fast I almost trip. The Bateman house isn’t huge, but it’s not all that easy to navigate when you’ve only been here once before.

“Fuck,” I whisper, rubbing my palms against my forehead.

“I’m going to guess you’re not in this hallway to stare out that specific window?” a deep voice asks from behind me.

It’s like the universe is out to get me today because there’s no other reason as to why it would be Jamie’s father who found me.

“I was looking for the bathroom. It must have been right instead of left.”

“Coming from the dining room, it actually would have been straight.”

I blow out a tight breath. “Even better.”

“Jamie’s in the basement if you want to talk to him.”

“Do I sound that bad?” I ask, letting my mask slip an inch.

“No. You sound fine.”

I risk turning around. Tyler’s leaning against the wall, his arms crossed and dark eyes peeling my skin back layer by layer in an attempt to see inside my head.

“In that case, I don’t need Jamie to help me go to the bathroom,” I say.

“I said that you sounded fine. Not that you were.”

“Did he tell you about my mom, or does everyone only know about her from when Nate mentioned her to Gracie?” I blurt out, assuming he knows without having to be explicitly told.

---