Page 43 of A Touch Charmed

Thora’s face paled. She would’ve been three at the time, too young for any memories, but I could feel her attempting to take this on. Like she expected herself to have known. The energy she pushed into me had the blunt barbs of guilt threaded through it.

I leaned over and whispered, “Don’t go there. Their fault, not yours.”

She swallowed and nodded. As I pushed more reassurance into her, her energy began to flow lighter and clearer. “Did my father find out? Is that why he fired you?”

My dad raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Yeah.”

“This is so fucked.” I pressed my fingers into my temple, where I could feel a headache beginning to form. “You got involved with a married woman? Does Mom know?”

“She knows. This all happened before we met. I still thought there was a chance she might leave me over it. Darla has a pretty specific moral code, but she also understood that Sharon and Warren didn’t have a typical marriage. Not that I’m making excuses for myself.”

“I don’t know what to say.” My dad had always been the guy I looked to as an example. He was the kind of man I wanted to be. He worked hard, he loved his family, he believed in doing the right thing. “It cost you a hell of a lot. Hope it was worth it.”

“Love is always worth it, but sometimes it’s not enough.” My dad’s eyes glazed over. He might’ve been physically present, but his mind had gone somewhere out of his reach.

He’d risked everything. The business he had built from the ground up was gone. All because he screwed around with a woman who should’ve been off-limits. Thora squeezed my hand and her energy flowed through me. She took my disappointment, my confusion, and filled me with her incredible capacity to give love. The strength she always sold herself short on came through to me, filling me with the core of her light.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” My power vibrated on a thin thread, just barely keeping my voice even and my temper in check. “You could’ve told me this years ago.”

Maybe I could’ve been better prepared.

I had no doubt Warren saw my involvement with Thora as a repeat of the past. His ego wouldn’t allow him to leave us in peace. From the moment we started dating, he’d probably been biding his time, waiting for the opportunity to split us up for good.

And I handed him the perfect chance when I got drunk at the bonfire instead of staying with Thora to fight for us and work through our issues. It was the bitterest of pills to swallow. Warren might’ve set us up, but he wasn’t the only one to blame for what happened that night.

Thora leaned over and whispered, “His fault, not yours.”

I squeezed her hand. I couldn’t hide anything when my energy flowed into her. Not that I could hide anything from her on a regular basis either.

“I couldn’t say anything because it wasn’t just about me.” As the sun filtered through the kitchen window and shone over my dad’s face, I caught a glimpse of the man he’d once been. We might not have shared blood, but I was definitely his son in every way. His influence was in every fiber of who I was. No wonder Warren Chase hated me. “He threatened to divorce Sharon and leave her and Thora penniless if word got out about what happened, and I wouldn’t have been any help to them either. I was still picking up the pieces after he destroyed my business and reputation.”

“Come on.” I leaned back and pressed my lips to a thin line. “She might’ve had to get a job, but there would’ve been child support and alimony and half the estate.”

“He had plenty of grounds for an annulment. She would’ve gotten nothing. And there wouldn’t have been child support either.” Hank turned his gaze to Thora. “Warren would’ve demanded a paternity test. He would’ve revealed you were Dante’s.”

Thora’s power whipped through me, sending prickles of panic into me that raised the hair on my arms. She clutched my hand tighter. “What?”

My dad swore under his breath. “Goddamn it. She didn’t tell you?”

“She doesn’t tell me anything. We don’t talk at all.” Her breath came out in short, shallow spurts. “Are you saying my father isn’t my father?”

I held her close, rubbing her arm as I tried to soothe the energy that rushed through her. My gaze hardened on my dad. “Explain this shit. Right now.”

“Your father was Dante Everett.” He pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes. “Sol and Atlas’s brother. He died in an oil rig accident before Sharon knew she was pregnant. Warren always wanted her, so he agreed to marry her and give you both a life of comfort, telling everyone you were his. As long as she remained faithful to him.”

Her magic thrashed and burned as it flowed into me, revealing the truth. The fire of Aries. The fire within her that had never come from Warren Chase.

Because her magic came directly down the Everett line.

Chapter 13

Thora

Finntookmestraighthome. One blink we were in his parents’ kitchen, the next we were in his backyard by the cliffs. He let me go and I walked to the edge of the world, where I sat on a flat rock that overlooked the ocean. Resting my forehead on my clasped hands, I waited to feel something. Sadness, rage, loss… anything, really.

A shadow fell over me where Finn stood, ready to offer support. He didn’t speak. Just provided me with his presence while I took a moment to sort the information. He had a way of giving me what I needed when I needed it.

As the news began to settle, not even my magic stirred within me. I should’ve been upset, or even angry at my mother for lying to me all these years, but I only felt relief that I could walk away without guilt or a sense of duty drawing me back to the place I’d tried so hard to escape. Warren Chase no longer had the power to hurt me.

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