Page 76 of The Prodigal

I give her the side-eye, but I doubt she sees it. “The only thing I bury myself in is nicotine.”

“But is that because you haven’t found the right woman?”

She’s searching for answers that will destroy her.

“The right woman destroyed my father for nearly two decades. I might enjoy a little misery every now and again, but I’m not sold on the whole lifetime idea yet. I’m sure it has perks, but right now, I enjoy a little variety of painful experiences.”

“Something is wrong with you.” She laughs. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

I know what she meant, but it still doesn’t change my opinion. A decade is too long—two is impossible.

“So, what happened? With your parents, I mean. Obviously, they found their happily ever after.”

“Did they?” I challenge. “I’m not exactly a ten-carat diamond and a honeymoon in Milan.”

I can’t see her smile in the dark, but I can feel it. “Something tells me your parents prefer something a little more exciting than trips and jewelry.”

Maybe, but I hope not.

They deserve a happy ending—one they should have been given years ago.

“My father knocked up my mother their senior year of high school.”

“How romantic,” Eden whispers.

“They seemed to think so,” I agree. “But their fathers? Not so much—especially when they ran away during their last semester of school to birth their unplanned baby in an abandoned cabin.”

Turning my head, I breathe her in. “My mother is a dreamer. She thought their love could conquer any obstacle that stood in the way of the family she wanted.”

I don’t need to add that she was wrong; we already know how this story ends.

“I was born not breathing in an abandoned cabin as my mother frantically called for help, watching in horror as my eighteen-year-old father breathed life into me—something his ass will never let me forget.” I shake my head. “He seems to think he deserves some kind of an award for restarting my heart.”

Eden chuckles softly. “I can’t blame him. No wonder you go around saving motel clerks. Heroism is in your DNA.”

“You’re delusional.”

I’m no one’s hero.

“Anyway…” I change the subject. “When the ambulance arrived and took us to the hospital, the medical staff notified my grandparents, who weren’t all that excited to expand their respective families. My mother’s father was a congressman and couldn’t afford another scandal, and my father’s father didn’t need his son dropping out of school to play Daddy. So, they called Congressman Albrecht, a friend of the family, and walked away, telling my parents that I died.”

My heart beats faster as I think of the pain my mother endured and the devastation that followed my father over the years. They were victims—destroyed by the very love they thought would save them. “Congressman Albrecht knew of a colleague and his wife who wished for a child.”

I chuckle darkly. “But what isn’t written in my baby book is that Congressman Tooney and his wifehadanother child—and they killed him.”

Eden gasps, rubbing my chest comfortingly. “What did they do to him?”

“Likely, the same thing they did to me: pumped him full of medicines he didn’t need and paraded him in front of the cameras as they pleaded with the community to support their cause by donating money to their many foundations.”

“That’s horrible!” she cries. “Where can we find these people?”

I laugh. “Six feet under. Fate beat me to them.”

“How disappointing.”

It’s like the universe loves to taunt me. No matter how much I want to keep this murderous woman, fate requires my sacrifice. I can’t keep Eden, and once she finds out the truth, she’ll want to kill me.

Eden’s hand finds my tangled hair, fingering the locks that are now dry. “What did Congressman Tooney do to you?”

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