Page 38 of Grumpy Bossy Billionaire Enemy

“Yes,” I replied. “That’s exactly how I feel.”

My father's cheating on his marriage was one betrayal. Mother knowing about this affair and keeping it to herself was another. Father didn’t hurt my mother alone. He hurt me as well. He hurt me even more. Now, I’ve got to accept the result of my parents’ infidelity, and I have to call this stranger my brother.

I held back the part where my parent’s marriage starts the same way ours start. I held back from telling him that I was afraid that the same could happen to us.

Chapter seventeen

The Parents' Hurts

Henry

Troy called me early Sunday morning. “I heard about Amelia’s parents.”

News like that often traveled into the circles of the business. Mother probably knew long before anyone else, and she wouldn’t be surprised to hear this news.

“How is Amelia coping?” Troy asked. “How did she take the news?”

“Fine,” I replied. “She’s trying to accept everything.”

That was all I could tell Troy about Amelia. It was all I knew, all she had showed to me. She’d skipped the hospital today, and I rescheduled my appointments because I needed to stay home with her.

I had brought her a plate of grapes and oranges. She didn’t seem to care about them. The light in Amelia’s eyes had died the night she found out about her father’s infidelity. I knew it was a lot to take in, and I was willing to give her the space she needed.

She glanced at me a few times while in the house. Her distant eyes stayed on mine, but it was easy to know that she was far away from me. She was lost in anger towards her parents. The sunshine in Amelia’s eyes went away by the day; she hadn’t spoken with anyone but me. I tried to get into her head a few times, but Amelia was great at blocking me. She just shoved her feelings under the carpet, and I feared she wouldn't visit them again.

Amelia didn’t say it last night, but I knew Amelia suddenly saw everything for what it really was. Her father did what made him happy even though he had told her that happiness wasn’t what life was about.

Now, she just wanted to be happy. For once, she wanted to do what people didn’t ask her to do.

She wanted to be free.

“I think you should speak with your dad,” I suggested. “I think you should tell him how you feel.”

“I can’t even look him in the eyes,” Amelia answered. “I don’t think I’ve got the right word to say to him yet.”

“There is never going to be the right word,”

“What do you know about him?” Amelia asked, searching my eyes.

“Who? Nolan?”

“Yes,”

“I can get a private investigator if you want.”

“No,” Amelia replied. “I saw you talk to him at my parent’s house. “What do you think of him?”

I sighed heavily, “I think he is a young man who has lived in the shadows all his life. His identity was hidden from him for a long time, and now, he found your family.”

“He just lost his mother, and right now, he needs his family.” I continued, “He is going through the same thing you are going through. Maybe worse.”

“You should talk to him,” I suggested. “I’m sure you will like him, and you’ll get along with him well.”

Amelia never got along with her sisters. Their strained relationship comes from the strict parenting she experienced while growing up. So, she had to find solace in people who were not her parents. She found solace in Camille; and as her husband, I was the next person she found solace in. Amelia’s emotion gave me insight into what Troy must have felt while growing up…or what he even felt right now. Now that I remembered Troy, it hit me that I hadn’t heard from him in a long time.

Amelia relaxed in my arms. She exhaled heavily.

“You can cry if you want.” I stroked her hair. “Let it out, baby.”

---