Page 89 of Leave Me Broken

So nowhere close. Not that I would go see them tomorrow but if they were in the state, at least there was a chance I could meet them one day. The odds of me going to Florida are slim.

“They would love to meet you one day, Payson. If and when you’re ready.” I take comfort in his words but don’t say anything more on the subject. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to meet them.

“So why are you telling me how shitty of a person you are?”

“Don’t cuss. But I’m telling you because my ex is your mother.”

Jethro never once builds up to a drop, he just randomly pushes you off a cliff just when you think he won’t.

“My mom . . . is your . . . ex.”

“That’s what I said.”

“So that means . . .” I swallow hard, hoping whatever is swimming around in my stomach doesn’t decide to come up. “Jason is your son.”

He nods once. “He is.”

What the hell is going on? “Your brother is my dad and you are the dad to my brother? My brother is also my cousin.”

“Half cousin, half brother.”

Oh my word. “W-well. Well, what the fuck?”

“Payson, language,” he scolds.

I jump off the swing and pace the floor in front of it, shaking my head because what the hell just happened? In the span of ten minutes Jethro Gilbert has uprooted everything I’ve known. “When does your brother come into the picture? I’m only a year younger than Olivia.”

For the first time, an emotion passes over his face and it’s not a good one. “My brother was up for a visit. I was at work and he decided to go to the local restaurant. Your mom had just started working and I guess tripped and dumped water down the front of him. When I got home, I found them naked in my spare bed together.”

I cringe for many reasons. “TMI, Uncle Jet.”

“Excuse me?”

“Too much information.”

“Right. Anyway, skip ahead and my brother announces Anne’s—your mom”—he says like I don’t know my mother’s name—“pregnancy.

“It just so happens that I had recently found out Olivia wasn’t mine around the same time.” He lets me have a moment to gasp, then he continues, more of a growl this time. “She cheated on me and fell pregnant but because I was so happy to finally be getting another family, she didn’t have the heart to tell me.”

Holy karma.

“So she let me believe Olivia was my daughter until I met her boss for the first time. I know it’s hard to believe I hadn’t met him, but I was so busy with my work I never paid attention to Sarah’s enough to notice how Olivia who never really looked like me looked exactly like him. There was a huge fight and we never really recovered from it.”

“Because she died?” I ask timidly.

His sharp eyes flick away from me for the first time. “Yes, because she died. But, also, because she died in the same car with him.”

Oh my God! If this wasn’t real life and if he hadn’t just dropped a huge bomb on me, I might feel bad. But then I remember all the terrible things he did to my mom. My mom and brother. Brother-cousin or whatever. “That’s some rough karma.”

Not bothered by my lack of empathy he shrugs. “Yes, it is.”

The cold is messing with my knee and causing it to lock up, but I don’t want to sit next to him again. So instead, I plop down on the porch and lean against the railings and ignore how freaking cold it is.

“I became obsessed with looking out for your mom. I never liked my half brother, and I hated him more knowing he was living in a house with my ex. My son. He was living the life I should have been. Then he wasn’t. I got a call from my mom days after he left here, left you, saying he just couldn’t do it anymore. He wasn’t cut out to be a dad. Which obviously we both know.”

“No, he wasn’t.”

“Exactly, so when he left, I kicked it up. Started sitting outside the house.”

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