Page 68 of Off Limits

“Your dad wasn’t the first time my mom cheated on my dad,” he continued, his eyes fixed on the wall across from him. “He’s just the one that stuck around.”

“Does your dad know about the others?”

He shook his head.

“But you know about them?”

“I caught her with his best friend a few years before she started working for your dad. She made me promise not to tell anyone. She said it was a mistake, that it only happened that one time, and it would never happen again.” He shifted his gaze to mine. “I know of two other men before your dad. Who knows how many there actually were.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“What about your parents? Were they happy?”

“Not really.” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the couch. “They didn’t fight or anything, they were just really…detached from each other. Like Mom had her thing and Dad had his, and they didn’t really talk or do stuff together. The only time I really saw them act like a married couple was when she’d go with Dad to work things and play the dutiful wife.”

“Do you think your dad messed around before he met my mom?”

“Probably. I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised, considering he was never home and was always off on work trips or working late.”

Asa snickered, but there was no humor behind it. “My mom worked late a lot too, especially after she started working for your dad.” He paused. “What happened with your mom?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just noticed that she hasn’t really been part of your life for the last few years, not since you went away to college. You used to spend a lot of time with her and now you never see her.”

My throat tightened. I should have realized he’d notice the rift between us. Sadly, he was the only person who had.

“You know she got remarried, right?”

He nodded.

“Did you know I have two half siblings?”

His eyes widened comically.

“Twins. They’re three.”

“How did I not know that?”

“I don’t even think my dad knows.” I pulled off my ball cap and spun it around in my hand a few times. “It’s not like they talk or have any sort of contact with each other now that I’m an adult.”

“Is that why you don’t see her? Because she has a new family?” Something in Asa’s voice was off, like there was a heaviness in it that said he knew exactly what that felt like.

I nodded and slipped my hat back on. “It started when she got engaged. I’d just turned eighteen, so I guess she figured that meant I didn’t need her anymore and she should dedicate all of her time to her future husband. She really started to pull away after they got married, but she didn’t cut me off until she found out she was pregnant.”

“She cut you off?”

“Yup. I went to see her because she said she had something important to talk to me about. I hadn’t seen her in almost a year at that point, and that’s when she told me she was pregnant. I was happy for her and excited to have a new sibling, or siblings,in this case. But that wasn’t all she wanted to talk to me about.” I let out a bitter laugh. “She basically said that Brendan, her husband, wanted to move closer to his family, and that she needed to put her focus on the twins now that I was grown and didn’t need her like they would. That was the last time I saw her. I’ve talked to her on the phone a few times, and she sends me emails with updates about their lives and pictures of the twins, but I’ve never met them.”

“Where did they move?”

“Boston.”

“Boston? You haven’t seen her in years because she moved across the country? I know that’s a long plane ride, but it’s not like she moved to New Zealand or somewhere crazy far.”

“Brendan doesn’t like being reminded that my mom had a life before him, and his family refuses to acknowledge that I even exist. It’s not about distance.”

He nodded, another understanding look crossing his features.

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