Page 21 of Love Sick

“No one’s,” Joy replies. “Jonathan wouldn’t commit to anyone. He didn’t have to because he had women who were willing to do anything for him. He strung us all along without any promises because we wanted to be the one who ‘fixed’ him. Alanna and I are the perfect example of this.”

What she adds next brings me one step closer to solving this mystery.

“All but one woman, that is.”

“Who?”

Joy’s sadness turns to scorn. “You know who.”

Misha’s gasp resonates loudly in my mind.

Not much shocks me anymore, but this, this just gets worse. “Luna?”

“…Yes.”

She was always the final piece to this puzzle.

So the three women are connected because of Jonathan, and he is dead because I assume of Alanna.

“How is he connected to Luna?” I question and now, my heart really begins to ache.

“Oh my god…no.”

I feel every shred of Misha’s pain.

“Tell me!” I demand Joy when she has the audacity to cry.

“Jonathan is…he is Misha’s father,” she whispers, tears spilling onto her trembling lips.

Clearer than day, I see Misha slump onto the floor, head hung in shame. He’s finally got the answers he sought out his entire life. But now that he does, can he really move on?

It takes me a minute to process over what Joy just shared. I don’t think there is a filthier act than what she committed. She had sex with Luna’s ex, who is Misha’s dad, and then proceeded to have sex with MishaandJonathan because it seems she likes to keep it in the family.

Now I totally understand her comment.

“The money wasn’t for me…it was for him. So we could be one big happy family.”

No doubt, Jonathan thought he was entitled to Luna’s money. Were they all working together? Is that why Misha is dead? Did he convince Joy to run Luna off the road that night, but unbeknownst to him, he killed his son instead?

But by the looks of Jonathan, I think he’s been dead for a while.

“When did you last see him?”

Joy shrugs. “Over a year ago. But he texted me throughout that time.”

No, he didn’t.

The messages may have come from his phone, but he didn’t send them. No guessing who did.

“Jonathan got sick. His heart,” she shares sadly, which explains the tie to Alanna. “He promised me he was coming back to marry me, but had to take care of a few things. He was in debt for his gambling and other…addictions. He didn’t have any money, but—”

“But if you could get it for him, you could live happily ever after?” I fill in the blanks sarcastically as everything is starting to make sense.

“Yes. I met him when he was trying to see Misha when he was a baby, but Luna refused.”

“She was trying to protect me. That’s all she ever wanted to do.”Misha realizes why Luna never wanted him to meet his father.

She was trying to protect him from a man who would prove to cause him nothing but pain.

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