Page 13 of Her Greatest Mistake

The main floor is one wide-open space with the living room on one side of the house and the kitchen on the other. The dining area is tucked in between, with a six-person glass table and a set of luxury, high-back fabric chairs with silver buttons down the front and back. The kitchen has dark cabinets that match the floor and bright marble countertops. All of the appliances are new, despite the reality that neither of my parents spends a lot of time in the kitchen.

I head up the stairs and scour the second level for my parents. Raised, muffled voices behind Dad’s office door draw me in that direction. My stomach sours.

“You know how she was after, Roy. I can’t believe that you would do this to her again,” my mom scolds.

“She’s an adult now. It’s different.”

What?

A feeling of uneasiness grows as I knock on the door and the voices quiet instantly.

Footsteps, and then the door is pulled open. Mom’s cheeks are flushed as she attempts a smile and ushers me into the room. She’s a small woman, a bit shorter than me, but we share the same deep blue eyes.

“Hi, sweetheart. Sorry, we didn’t hear you get in.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to over all that fighting,” I reply.

Dad’s words are stern. “Watch the attitude, Braxton.”

I bite my tongue and paint on a fake smile. “Right. My apologies.”

“It’s okay, honey,” Mom says.

Dad is leaning back against the front of his desk with his arms crossed and his legs outstretched, crossed at the ankles. He’s a tall man, towering over both Mom and me, with a beefy build and a full head of dark curly hair. When I was a little girl, my sister and I used to pretend we were princesses and that our dad was our personal knight in shining armour, keeping the bad guys far, far away from our royal family.

That little girl would be heartbroken if she knew her dad would turn out to be the villain in her story.

Bitterness has me fighting back a frown. “What is this about? Why isn’t Annalise here?”

“This doesn’t involve your sister. Please, sit.” Dad gestures to the long leather couch against the wall opposite his desk.

“So this is a family meeting but without Anna?” I scoff.

Mom touches my arm softly. “Please, just sit. I don’t want to be in the middle of a fight between you two today.”

“Fine.”

For my mom and her alone, I sit on the cold couch in the tense, uncomfortable office. My father and I have been at odds for nearly a decade, and I know it wears on Mom. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough of a reason for me to build a bridge over the past and walk across it.

Silently, she sits beside me, and the exhaustion radiating from her has me glaring at my dad.

He ignores my anger. “There’s something coming to light this afternoon that might upset you, so I wanted to give you enough notice to prepare.”

My breath skips. “What did you do?”

“Nothing that I shouldn’t have done years ago.”

Mom sets her hand on my knee, and I sneak a glance at her to find her chewing nervously on her bottom lip. I snap my spine straight and look back at my father.

“What did you do?” I ask again.

“I told them all about Maddox Hutton. He’s going to pay for what he did to our family,” he declares, chin tilted high.

I squeeze my eyes shut as a fierce pain rips through my chest. The sudden dryness in my mouth makes it hard to get my next words out. “The only thing he did to this family was trust us.” Trustme.

“He ruined my career. He’s the reason your mother has had to work herself to the bone at the hospital, picking up extra shifts and sleeping in the on-call room more often than in our bed. I haven’t worked for another hockey player since he ruined me, and it was about time he got what was coming.”

I grind my teeth. “You ruined your own career. We were all bystanders who were brought down with your sinking ship.”

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