Page 47 of Keeping Our Secrets

“I don’t want to talk about it. I just need to get away for a few days.”

After what I saw, I had been up and off of that bench as quickly as my legs could take me.

“I don’t understand what the rush is? Are you upset that you’re not getting out of the house enough?”

“I get out of the house plenty, Mom,” I groaned. “I just want to stay with Dad for a while.”

There was no way I could stay here across the hall from him. What had I been thinking? There was no way he was with me other than for the baby. Miranda had said as much. Had he been dating her the whole time and just stringing me along because of some stupid sense of responsibility?

I had told him time and time again that I didn’t want him to be with me just because I was pregnant. That was the last thing I wanted to happen to our children. Being in a loveless marriage and raising children together just because society deems it necessary was a stupid endeavour.

The child always suffered for it, and I wasn’t about to let that happen to our babies.

They would know that they were loved regardless of whether they had one or two parents in their lives. Hell, now I technically had four set of parents. It didn’t matter what type of family structure you had as long as there was love.

When I pushed open the door, I was elated to see my dad parked outside the house and waiting. Because of the literal distance between us, we hadn't been close over the years. That all changed the moment I’d phoned him. As soon as he heard what was going on, he instantly told me that I’d always have a place with him.

“Hi, Dad,” I greeted him. “Thank you for coming so fast.”

“Honey, it’s so good to see you.” He wrapped his arm around me. “I wish it was under better circumstances, but I’ll take you any way I can get you.”

We loaded my things into his car, and he pulled away from the curb.

The drive over to his house was mostly in silence, which didn’t upset me. I had dropped a lot of information into his lap today. Not only was he becoming a grandfather, but I had gotten myself into a situation that I needed him to extract me from. On top of everything, now he would likely have to deal with my mother.

It was about a thirty-minute drive from where I lived to his neighbourhood. He pulled into a gated community, and into a driveway a couple houses in. The building was a two story with red brick siding and a garage. This was the house he now shared with his third wife Camille. Although I had only met her once at their wedding, I had spoken to her several times through video chat, and thought she was a gem.

She was kind and caring, but part of me was worried that my situation could be problematic for her.

We pulled up into the driveway. When we got out of the vehicle, my dad refused to let me take the bags. During our argument over the bags, Camille had emerged from the house and was standing on the steps. Before we got up to the house, Camille walked to the driveway and embraced me. She actually had tears in her eyes, which made me cry too.

“Ladies, why don't we make our way inside. There are too many onlookers out here,” my dad suggested.

They showed me to a room, which to my utter surprise they had already decorated it in my favourite colour.

Camille whispered, “when your dad said you were moving back to Scotland, I went shopping and got your room ready. We were excited to have you closer to us and hoped you would want to stay with us on a more frequent basis. I hope you like it.”

“I do. Thank you so much.”

“This is your home too… for as long as you'd like,” she responded, squeezing my hand.

I teared up and hugged her.

“There, there.” She patted my back. “Sometimes the men in our lives can be insensitive pricks.”

I snorted at her comment.

CHAPTER 19

Liam

Yesterday had been a shit day.

First, we had to get up at the ass crack of dawn to get to the golf course on time, only to be detoured back to the city because of an accident on the highway. Then, on our way back home, I received a text from Miranda saying that she had seen Mairi at the Princes Street Mall and that she was acting weird.

She said that it sounded like she wanted to move back home and be closer to friends.

I was worried, so I made up an excuse and had my dad drop me off in front of the mall. Then when I showed up to look for Mairi, Miranda latched onto me like some whacked out barnacle. By the time I pushed her away, and did a search through the mall, Mairi was nowhere to be found.

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