Page 74 of Finding Home

“In my final year at USC I got caught up in a scandal. Adam and I, and three of his friends, were implicated in a cheating scheme that involved our final exams.” Her words came in a rush of breath, like she was trying to force them out of her mouth.

And even though he was hearing her very clearly, his brain refused to compute the information.Cheating.It didn’t fit. Hope wasn’t a cheater. She worked hard. She showed up. She had a determined spirit. And he had admired that about her. Had loved it. Loved her.

“When my father found out,” she went on, “he flew my brother Joel down to rescue me. Joel made the allegations against me disappear, but the others were found guilty of cheating and were expelled. Afterward, I couldn’t stay at the school anymore. I was,” she paused, her voice cracking, “too ashamed. So I went home. And finished my degree at a nearby college.”

At some point in her confessional, she’d started pacing again, her voice getting tighter as she spoke, her words more clipped and fragmented. “I don’t know what happened to the others after I left. But obviously the scandal ruined their lives judging by Adam’s outburst tonight. It’s the first time I have seen him or any of them in three years.”

Finally, she turned to face him. Her eyes unreadable, emotionless, while every feeling under the fucking sun screamed through his veins. Of all of them, betrayal beat the loudest.

His mind reeled as her words registered. He thought he knew her, but after all this time there was this huge piece missing. “Why wouldn’t you tell me this before, Hope?”

He came off more accusatory than he’d meant to, and she recoiled at his tone before she said, “I didn’t think it mattered.”

She was lying. He could see it. There was more to this story. Something wasn’t adding up, and frustration simmered when he couldn’t put his finger on it. Everything she’d just told him sounded so unlike her it was laughable.

Look, he got it. People did stupid shit when they were young. He knew that better than anyone else. But Hope was a Morgan. Morgans didn’t cheat. Fuck it, Hope wouldn’t cheat. There had to be more.

“I didn’t not tell you on purpose,” she rushed to continue. “It was more of an—omission, than anything else.” She chewed her bottom lip as she watched him. But only one word sunk in.

“Omission.” He repeated numbly. It still wasn’t registering in his head. He ran a hand through his hair trying to grasp at understanding. “Is there anything else you’reomittinghere, Hope? Anything else I should know?”

He was met with silence as she looked down at her open palms. Little blood red crescents lined the base of her palms, as if she’d clenched her fists so tight her own nails had drawn blood. She stared at those bloody crescent marks, as if in another world.

Her silence killed him more than any omission ever could. He thought they’d built a foundation of communication over these last few months. He’d opened up to her in a way he hadn’t opened himself up to anyone in a damn long time.

From the moment she’d arrived in his life she’d been her most authentic self—open and loving, optimistic and determined. Caring. He’d never once thought she wasn’t being one hundred percent herself.

When she had confided in him all her confusion and turmoil over finding out about her adoption, she had shared herself so beautifully with him it had encouraged him to do the same. And now…

Silence.

And,fuck,that hurt. He let his anger bubble to the surface and dull the ache. Her omissions, as she called them, beat against his trust. What else had she not been fully honest about? Could he trust what he’d come to believe about their relationship? Did she truly want all the things she seemed to want? A life with him, with Ruby? Was that why she freaked about the house the night before? Was she omitting the very important information that maybe, just maybe, he and Ruby weren’t what she wanted?

If there was more she was not telling him he wanted to know.Neededto know.

The last time communication had broken down between him and a woman he loved, she’d gotten behind the wheel of a car and died.

“What else?” he asked again into the deafening silence.

When she continued to say nothing, he slapped his palm down on his desk, making her flinch.

“What else, Hope?” He knew he had no right to demand anything from her, but dammit, her silence was like pouring vinegar on an open wound. He inhaled loudly through flared nostrils, a frustrated sound. “I want to understand, Hope. I feel like there’s a black hole between us right now. I thought we’d created something stronger than this, this—silence.” He gestured between them.

Hope dropped her hands and raised her eyes to meet his. Her gaze was shiny with unshed tears.

“Why would you cheat?”

That was the part that made no sense. She was bright and hardworking; he couldn’t imagine she’d have to cheat for anything.

“I—” She started to speak then abruptly stopped. Her eye contact faltered, and in that moment she looked so helpless.

He watched her closely, unable to shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. Something beyond that fact that she’d just yanked the rug of dreams out from under his fucking feet.

But she stood still, saying nothing, sharing nothing. And the hurt that had been at a simmer started to boil.

“Tell me there was a good reason,” he urged, leveling his gaze with hers, searching for any sign that what they had was salvageable. “Tell me there was a good reason that you had to cheat. A good reason that your family came to bail you out while others had to face the consequences. A good reason you kept it from me, when you knew all I wanted was your honesty. Tell me.”

He realized that he sounded like he was begging, but the desperate part inside of him, the part that ached for her—for what they’d had that felt so goddamn real he could taste his future in it—needed her to throw him a lifeline.

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