Page 173 of The Puck Stops Here

‘Bloody hell.’ His brother shook his head. ‘What was he like? Dad?’

‘Oh, you know…’ Blake took a slug of his water, trying to wash down the distaste. ‘The same class act, bottle in one hand, fist in the other…’

‘Hedidn’t…?’

‘He wouldn’t dare.’

‘And you?’

‘Give me some credit, bro.’ Though he’d come close. But he hadn’t. Because of her. She’d handled him. Made him believe he was better than his father, better than how the entire world saw him, too. And he’d lapped it up. Desperate to be better. Desperate to be the kind of man that could deserve someone like her. And it had all been an act, a ploy… ‘I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.’

‘I did wonder whether she’d got to him somehow.’

He glanced at his brother. ‘Dad? Why?’

‘The way she talks about him in the article, the way she phrases it. Much better than anything I could have said.’

He swallowed. ‘How so?’

‘You need to read it for yourself.’

He went back to the TV, the black screen as haunting as the noise within him. ‘No.’

He sensed his brother’s frown, his growing confusion. ‘Youhaveto read it. She wants our sign off.’

‘I trust your judgement. You sign it off.’

‘Blake—’

‘I’m not going to read it, okay! I don’t want to read what she has to say about us, about me…’

It was hard enough reliving what she’d said aloud.

‘I still fell in love with you.’

His stomach twisted, the cheesecake threatening to make a return over her biggest lie. What had she been hoping for? Some kind of absolution so she could move on guilt-free? Did she honestly think he’d believe her?

‘She told me she loves me.’

It came out choked and for a second, he wondered whether he’d admitted it at all and then his brother spoke. ‘Astrid?’

‘Who else?’ he threw at him, pained, frustrated, angry, but Aiden didn’t even flinch.

‘Well, that explains the rest.’

‘The rest of what?’

‘Your mood, the article, the last couple of months.’

‘It explains nothing because it’s all a lie.’ Not that his brother would understand. For that he’d have to tell him the full truth. Though there was only one truth that mattered in that moment. ‘She can’t love me.’

‘Why in the hell not?’

‘Because I’m a fucking mess.’

‘No, youwerea mess. Then she came along and untangled all the messy parts to you, helped you understand them, to face them, and you changed. Granted you were asking for it with the Penguins, with Zorro, but seeing Dad would have done that to the both of us.’

‘It had nothing to do with Dad and everything to do with her. I couldn’t get her out of my head.’ He couldn’t get her out of his heart either and that was the problem. Didn’t matter what he knew, he still wanted her. He still… ‘She isn’t all you think she is, you know. She has her secrets.’

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