Page 137 of Pucking Rebound

The color drains from her face as Wade runs his finger down the piece of paper and then reads each one aloud. He reels off incomprehensible figures month after month. Ten thousand dollars. Six thousand dollars. Twenty thousand dollars. The list goes on and the amounts get higher.

Wade points to one. “Did that pay for the cruise around the Mediterranean or the month you spent in the Bahamas without me? Although spending it on a personality change or had you bought a soul with it would have been a much better investment. Or a heart.” The venom in his voice is enough to kill an army.

“Don’t do this, please.” Miranda flicks her gaze over to Kali, then me, and back to Wade. “This is a private matter.”

She doesn’t want anyone knowing about her adultery and deceit.

“Marcus is my father,” Wade states deadpan, ignoring her. “M. E. Stands for Marcus Edwards, right?” He points at the paper, almost too calmly.

It’s scary how quiet the rest of the house is. Eerily so.

My mother stands taller. She’s got some gall. “You were never supposed to find out.” Her annoyance gives her nervousness about being exposed away.

“I see where the money came from to pay for all the extra hockey lessons for me now.”

Wade delivers a few truths to her, and silent tears run down my face. I want to run to him and throw my arms around him and tell him everything’s going to be okay, but I can’t. He hasn’t figured out who I am. Yet.

“I look just like him,” Wade says, sounding hurt, and I’m not sure if his pain is because he’s been around his father all this time and never even noticed their similarities.

Alerted to someone entering the house, heavy footsteps grow closer as they race across the wooden flooring of the hall and Marcus appears in the doorway looking like he’s having a nuclear meltdown.

“Hey,Dad,” Wade says sardonically. “I’m so glad you could join us. Better late than never. Although that was the plan, right? To never tell me I was your secret love child. You swore her to secrecy. Paid for her silence.” He throws the bank statements down. “Zane is my brother?” Frown lines wrinkle his brow as if he’s trying to make sense of it all.

Oh, God, this is the part I was dreading.

“I’m you’re fucking what?” Zane, Marcus’s son, and Wade’s half-brother, thunders into the office, only wearing his boxers, his tone murderous.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Marcus and Wade ask in chorus.

I might be sick.Is Miranda sleeping with Zane? Oh, that’s fucking low.

When I look over at my birth mother, she has her head in her hands, and I get the answer I was looking for.She is.

He’s the same age as her son; two years older than me.

My head is spinning like a washing machine on the highest spin setting.

This is humiliating for Wade. And Zane.

And me.

Wade doesn’t hold his tongue. In fact, he goes in for the kill. “Fatherandson. Wow. You’re a piece of work.” He turns his attention to Zane. “Did you get a cab ride here so no one would know you’re fucking your father’s mistress?”

Zane turns a peculiar shade of green. “I think I’m going to vomit.” Grabbing his stomach, he bends at the waist and dry heaves.

“Well, isn’t this lovely? All of us here, together, like one big happy family. Minus Lola and Kali, of course.” Wade points at me, then Kali. I can see through his sardonic tone. He’s secretly hurt and dying inside.

At the mention of my name, I look at Miranda, and count to three…1… 2… 3…

I see the moment it happens, the moment of realization. Miranda figures out who I am.

“Lola?” She sounds shocked. “Lola? Is that you?”

“You know her?” Wade asks like he’s completely baffled. The line between his brow grows hard and thick.

I shake my head, my tears rolling down my face. “She doesn’t know me. She knows nothing about me. She didn’t want me.” I spit out the words one after the other.

“Gladiola,” Miranda whispers.

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