Page 100 of Beneath the Surface

No.

“Are you...” I rub my forehead with my fingertips. “Are you telling me you were having an affair with my father?”

She bites her bottom lip, breaking eye contact and looking to the side.

“You wereeighteen!”I snap.

“Fifteen when it started.”

Bile rolls through my stomach, the nausea so overwhelming my mouth sours.

My chin lifts, teeth grinding to keep from spewing the acid off my tongue. I shake my head. “No, that’s... that’s before we started dating. That’s—” My eyes widen, my hand coming to cover my mouth. “That’s the first time he invited your family around.”

Another tear drips down her face. “I thought he loved me,” she whispers.

“My father doesn’t love anyone.”

She scoffs, her eyes blazing as they lock on mine. “I know that now.”

I collapse against the railing of the patio, shock and disgust warring for first place inside of me. I always knew my father was a vile man, but I never knew his sins ran this deep. He took advantage of a fifteen-year-old girl. Hegroomedher. He stuck her to my side so he could keep her close.

This isevil. This is...

Illegal.

Not that it matters, without proof, it would still just be my word against his. And my word doesn’t hold weight like a man who is first in line to run the country.

My mind replays Olivia’s words, and I stand up straighter. “Wait a second. Wait... wait.” I pace back and forth, my chest cavity collapsing from the weight of her truth. “Are you telling me that the baby—my fucking baby—was actually his?” My fingers press against the numbers tattooed on my arm. The one that Lily’s son asked about—the due date for a baby that apparently was never mine to begin with.

She chokes out a sob, her hand coming up to cover her mouth, black tears smearing down her face. “I’m sorry, Alexander.”

Pieces of my heart that I didn’t know still existed shatter, proving there’s always more to lose. Always deeper to fall. Always more to grieve.

“I wanted to keep her!” she bursts out. “I wanted to keep her,” she cries again. “But Thomas knew that people would question the timing.”

I tilt my head. “The timing?”

“Of the baby,” she whimpers, gasping through her tears.

“So, let me get this straight.” I run my hands over my face and light up another cigarette. “He wanted me to marry you to cover uphismistakes, and then when he realized having a grandkid made out of wedlock could hurt him in the polls... you both just decided to just rip it out at the source? Because fuck what anyone else thought, right? Fuck whatIthought.”

She looks up at me, her eyes flaring. “There is nowein that scenario. He didn’t give me a choice. He swept me away for a weekend. I thought he was being romantic,”she scoffs. “But then a doctor came to the hotel, and—” She sniffles, her hands covering her stomach as she collapses in on herself. After a few moments, she lifts her head, staring me in the eyes. “And then, after you left, he told me you were dead.And I have...” she pauses, breathing deep, her eyes closing. “I promised myself I wouldn’t stop until I could make him pay.”

My heart clamps down, squeezing in my chest. “So why haven’t you?”

She shrugs. “Because I’m pathetic? Because I’m weak?” Her hand trembles as she runs it through her hair. “Because I’m a coward.”

I run my tongue over my teeth, flicking the ash from my cigarette. “Did you ever love me?”

She swallows, looking down at the ground. “Eventually.”

Huffing out a laugh, I raise my head to the sky. “You’re unbelievable.”

“I’m sorry, I—” Her voice catches, and she stands up, walking over and grabbing the cigarette from my hand, bringing it to her lips and inhaling. “If there was some way I could go back in time, I would. But Alexander, I thought helovedme.” More tears fall from her eyes. “I didn’t know.”

My hands go to my hips, and I breathe deep, trying to calm the storm that’s raging through my insides. “Yet, here you are.”

She walks to the banister, gripping the edges so tightly her fingertips turn red. “I’m a prisoner in Thomas’s world, the same as everyone else. I hate him,” she whispers, so faint I have to lean in to hear. “I want him to pay for what he’s done.”

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