Page 163 of Sugarloaf Ridge Lies

I can’t let Kurt walk away yet.

“Before you go there’s something I need to ask.”

Kurt turns around and folds his arms across his chest. The dark jacket grows tight on his rounded shoulders. “So, thereisa catch.”

Lord give me strength.

“One day, when the child is old enough to understand, I’ll tell them the truth about their father. Like I said, I don’t want anything from you, but if they want to meet you, I need to know if you’ll be a part of that.”

He expels a heavy breath. “I can’t answer that now. Not anytime soon.”

“Okay. I get it.”

Kurt smooths his hands down the front of his jacket. “Keep an eye out for something from Corbin Rosehill. Same spelling.”

A lead weight plummets to the pit of my stomach. “Excuse me?”

“My lawyer. Managing partner at my firm. I recently made associate.”

You have to be shitting me. It can’t be a coincidence. A lawyer with a name like that. I look to the heavens and scream on the inside. How could I sleep with someone so close tohim? I refuse to open old wounds, to have anything to do with the man who crushed my mother’s soul.

“If Corbin Rosehill is your lawyer, you have a problem.”

Kurt hooks a hand on his hip and widens his stance. “Oh yeah?”

He doesn’t need to know we’re estranged, but he must understand he could make life hell for both of us. The last thing I need is him showing up thinking he can waltz into the grandfather role. That’s if he’d even be interested.No thanks.

“Pick another lawyer. Anyone else.”

He scoffs. “He’s the best. Why should I?”

I haven’t given him a thought for the longest time, but there’s no ignoring that Kurt and I are now tied together. Of all the people this guy could work for...

I step towards him and stare deep into his hazel eyes. “He’s my father.”

Colour drains from his face. “For real?”

I nod. “Listen, I know how it works in these firms. It’s a boy’s club. Trophy wives and women on the side. Cocaine and lap dances at Christmas. Corbin Rosehill might not care about your indiscretions, but he cares about hisname. His reputation. So, you understand how this can’t get back to him, right?”

He scales his hand over his mouth. “Fuck.”

“I don’t want him to know we have any connection. None. I want nothing to do with him.”Or you.

Wind whips through the trees as Kurt seems to contemplate the way forward.

“He never spoke of you,” he says, his voice quiet.

My heart cracks at his admission. I shouldn’t be surprised. After the divorce, the only words he’d said to me where at the funeral. And they were just words. I doubt he was sorry to see her go. The settlement was a sting to his pride and his bank account. He’d never forgive her for that, even after her passing. My father is many things, but above all, he is a proud man who will do anything to protect himself and his interests.

Kurt huffs out a breath. “Maybe if he did, or if I saw a photo in his office, something, I would’ve put two and two together.”

I laugh, it’s short and sharp. “We were hardly on a first-name basis.”

He chuckles, almost in relief. “That’s true.” His phone buzzes in his pocket. He presses his hand against the jacket as if to silence it. “You don’t have to worry about Corbin. Leave it with me, ’kay?”

Kurt gets into his car. Gravel crunches beneath his tyres as he reverses and crawls down the road towards the highway.

My heart pounds double time as I comprehend just how close things could’ve got out of hand. I cut my father out of my life for a reason. The toxicity, the way he treated my mother, how he ignored me the better part of my life.

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