Page 8 of Torment

Hunter snorted. “Definitely not normal, no.”

“Shut up.”

Hunter nodded his head toward her and snorted. “See what I mean?”

“Anyway.” Scarlet turned back to James. “I do want the answers to all those questions as well, but I don’t think right now is the time for that. We’ve got much more important shit to worry about than whether you know my mother’s name or not.”

“Katherine Wolfe.”

Scarlet’s eyes shot up and she stared at him. He reached inside his jacket pocket, and she felt Hunter stiffen but then relax when James pulled out what looked like an old photograph. Scarlet watched as James stared at it.

“Her name was Katherine Wolfe, and I met her when she was nineteen.” He kept staring at the picture. “I loved her from the first moment I laid eyes on her.”

Scarlet leaned back. “Well, you’ve got your numbers crossed because my mother fell pregnant with me when she was in her late twenties.”

“I am your father, Scarlet.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying that in between meeting you and having me, she married some other dude and had a daughter with him? My sister, Willow.”

Scarlet glanced at Hunter and saw him rub the back of his neck. She knew it was something he did when he was nervous, or when he felt uncomfortable. And yeah, the topic of Willow had sure as hell become one uncomfortable subject for the two of them. The subject of a conversation they probably needed to have in the near future.

She turned her focus back to James. James placed the picture in his hand face down on his leg. “Due to the circumstances your mother and I met under, we couldn’t continue seeing each other. So we went our separate ways, and she married Trevor Riley a year later.” There was no way anyone could have missed the pain, the longing, and the regret in his voice. And there was a distinct sneer when he mentioned Willow’s father. “Five years after she married him, your mother and I…we…”

Oh, hell no. “You had an affair, didn’t you?” Scarlet could see it on his face. The guilt was written all over his bald-headed, goateed, Bruce Willis lookalike face. “You and my mother had an affair, and that’s why she divorced Trevor, isn’t it?”

James shifted uncomfortably and looked everywhere but at her.

“Isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Motherfucker,” Scarlet whispered, and fell back in her seat.

“Your mother couldn’t live with the guilt, and that’s why she left him.”

Scarlet shook her head slightly. “Willow always said Mom was hiding something when it came to the reason she split from her dad. But Mom kept on insisting that they just drifted apart.” And then it occurred to her. “So I’m the result of an adulterous affair?”

“No,” Bruce said adamantly. “You were only conceived after she divorced Trevor. For a while after the divorce, we kept on seeing each other, thinking that maybe we could be together. But when your mother told me she was pregnant, I knew I had to leave.”

“Why? Why did you have to leave?”

“To protect you.”

“From what?”

He didn’t answer her. He just kept staring at her like he was willing her to understand. Understand what?

One of those awkward silences fell over all of them as Scarlet and Bruce stared at each other, until Riggs’s voice penetrated the stiff atmosphere.

“Sir, we’re nearing the rendezvous point.”

Hunter reached for his gun.

“There’s no need for that, son,” Bruce said, and Hunter paused.

“Don’t call me son.”

“Fine. Mr. Keaton, then.”

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