Chapter 60
Chapter Sixty
BLUE
“You’re exactly the man I thought you were.
” I yanked my arm free and shoved at his chest, the force fueled by every ounce of fury and heartbreak boiling inside me.
My voice cracked, but my words didn’t waver.
“Actually, you’re worse, because you’re all those things and so much more.
Manipulative. Heartless. And stupid enough to think I wouldn’t find out. ”
“Blue…” he tried saying, but I just shook my head as the taste of betrayal burned my throat.
“I don’t want anything from you. You can keep Fiddlers. Hell, you can burn it to the ground for all I care. That bar was the only thing I ever wanted from you, and now it’s nothing but a neon sign flashing the word idiot over my head.”
I stumbled back into the elevator, my chin tilted high, my shoulders locked like armor. He didn’t deserve to see me break. Not him. Not ever.
But the second the doors closed, the dam shattered. A million pieces of me hit the floor at once, my sobs echoing off the mirrored walls as the elevator took me away from the man who had touched parts of me no one else had ever seen.
I raced home in Lisa’s car, tears blurring the road as everything replayed in my head. I had gone there to confront West, to tell him I knew I was the butt of some twisted joke. I thought if I called him out, it would give me back a shred of dignity, maybe help me feel like less of an idiot.
But the second I stepped into his office and heard his lawyer talking in that smug and careless way, I nearly threw up.
It was worse than I’d imagined. So much worse.
“...you were never legally married, so you don’t owe her a thing.
Not the lake house, not a car, not her father’s care.
She’s lucky she’s even getting that shithole bar.
And as for her sister? Don’t lose sleep.
That kid isn’t a kid anymore, and I’m sure this whole sob story is just a ploy to squeeze you for child support.
We’ll handle your little… teenage transgression. Four or five zeros, problem solved.”
Not only had I fallen for West’s game, but the truth clicked in like a blade twisting. It had been about Brittany all along. Like I was a means to his continued punishment. A stand-in for the mistake that ruined him.
By the time I pulled into the driveway, my chest was raw, my eyes swollen. Lisa and Dad were sitting at the dining room table, working on a puzzle. I quietly handed Lisa her car keys and thanked her for being with him. Then I locked myself away in my bedroom.
Dad knocked a few times, asking if I was okay or if I wanted something to eat. I kept answering “no, thank you,” because I couldn’t face him, not yet, not like this. Not when he’d just gotten out of the hospital. He deserved one good day before I dropped the weight of my stupidity on him.
It wasn’t until I heard him call through the door that he was going to bed that I crept out for a snack.
My phone was buzzing nonstop with calls from my sister, a text from Marshal asking if I needed anything, and one from West telling me we needed to talk.
I turned it off and shoved it in a drawer. The world could wait.
I didn’t even care about Fiddlers anymore. It’d be a cold day in hell before I’d ever take that deal from West. I didn’t even know which part of his promises were real and which were lies, but it was safer to assume it was all bullshit.
The rest of the night, I tossed and turned. I’m sure I slept a little, but it didn’t feel like it. My mind wouldn’t shut off as I kept running scenarios, explanations, and ways to make myself feel like less of a fool.
By morning, I heard Dad moving around, so I joined him in the living room with a mug of coffee. He was staring out the window the way he always did. When he finally turned toward me, he gave me that soft, sad smile that always made me feel six years old again.
“What’s going on, Baby Blue?”
It had been a long time since he called me that, not just because of my eyes, but because I’d always be his baby.
I took a few shaky breaths, mustering the courage, and finally told him. About West. About the deal. About the marriage that wasn’t. I spilled it all, bracing for his disappointment.
But he never looked disappointed. He didn’t even look surprised. He just smiled, slow and proud, and nodded like I’d handed him good news.
For a second, I thought maybe he thought I was joking. But when I finished, he tilted his head, eyes soft with understanding.
“Well,” he said simply, “I already knew there was more to the story than you were telling. But it doesn’t feel like a lie, not the way you’re making it out to be.”
Of course he’d find some kind of silver lining. The man could forgive anyone, just like he had my sister and my mother. But it didn’t sit right with me.
“I don’t see how it’s not a lie,” I muttered.
“It’s not,” he said firmly. “Neither of you lied as much as you think you did. Maybe to yourselves, sure. But to each other? No. Anyone who’s seen you two together knows there’s something real there.”
He had officially lost his marbles and rode off into delusional land. There was no sense arguing what happened between West and I, there was more I needed to let Dad know about. More I needed to ask him about.
“Have you spoken to Brittany?”
His brow furrowed. “Not since you went to Virginia Beach. Why?”
“Did you tell her I was seeing West Brooks?”
“I didn’t have to.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “There was a picture of you on Loxley Adams’ Instagram. She called me, asked if that was you. I figured you knew about it, so I didn’t say no.”
“What?” I started to grab my phone, but he pulled his out and faced it toward me, showing me the picture.
It wasn’t like it was a picture of me, it was of Loxley leaving the room we had been in before the show.
But West and I were holding hands in the background, eyeing one another like we were truly in love.
“She saw it and called to ask me about it,” Dad shrugged. “But I didn’t tell her anything.”
“She’s been calling me since last night. I thought it was about you being in the hospital at first, but now I think it's because of West.”
“Why?”
“Did you know that West is Trevor’s dad?” I blurted, using my nephew's name for the first time in my life. I hadn’t even met him, he wasn’t much younger than me, but I knew he was Brittany’s tool for exploiting my dad, which was enough to make me resent him.
Dad actually laughed. “West is not Trevor’s dad. Buddy Murphy is Trevor’s dad.”
“What?” I shot to my feet. “Does Brittany know that?”
“Of course she does. But she’s never wanted anything to do with him. Brittany was just as much trouble as your mom was, always trying to manipulate someone into loving her. The wrong guy knocked her up, though, because Buddy never gave a shit. So she and your mama ran for the hills.”
I was pacing, soaking in the information that Dad was laying on me and trying to line it up with everything I overheard at West’s office.
“Why do you laugh? Why are you not angry?”
“I’ve gotten over it,” he shrugged. “I was never enough for your mom and I knew it. Plus, I didn’t want her sticking around and poisoning the house you grew up in. You deserved one happy parent instead of two miserable ones.”
“Did you know what kind of debt they left us in?” My voice broke, rage spilling over. “Did you know how hard I’ve been working to climb out of the hole they dug?”
“What are you talking about?” he asked, baffled.
“I found out after you got sick,” I choked, tears stinging my eyes.
“They left us thousands of dollars in debt. In your name. In mine. Credit cards. Loans. They took everything. And I’ve been trying to make it right ever since, trying to make sure you didn’t have more stress than you could handle.
That’s why I took West’s deal, Dad. Because I knew what Fiddlers could be worth if it was finally mine. ”
His face went pale. His lips trembled as I stomped to my room and back, shoving the stack of paperwork into his hands. It was the evidence I’d been hiding under my mattress for years.
But the second it left my grip, regret shot through me like fire. I’d ripped his peace away.
“You should’ve told me,” he said sternly, like the father I hadn’t heard in years.
“You were sick,” I cried. “You had enough to worry about.”
“I’m losing the function of my muscles, not my brain,” he snapped. “I could’ve handled it. I could’ve taken better care of you if you hadn’t kept this from me.”
My chest collapsed under the weight of his disappointment. “It doesn’t matter,” I sobbed. “I thought it was finally over. And now it’s only getting worse.”
“How could it be worse?” His voice softened, though his eyes stayed sharp. “There’s nothing so bad it can’t be fixed.”
“I’m not taking the bar,” I blurted, tears streaking down my face. “I don’t want it.”
“Then don’t.” His hands flew up. “From what you’ve told me, the deal’s over anyway. He’s not getting what he wants either, right?”
I thought about it and realized he was right. West hadn’t gotten what he wanted, not really. The thought twisted in my chest, because I wasn’t sure anymore what had been real and what had been part of his game.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, bowing my head, shame burning through me. “I’m sorry I tried to fool you. I’m sorry I was the fool. And I’m sorry that while I was so busy making a mess, I wasn’t here when you needed me.”
“Nothing’s changed.” He rolled his wheelchair closer and grabbed my hand, his thumb brushing against mine.
“These have still been the best weeks I’ve had in a long time.
Whatever happened with you and West, whether you believe it or not, it felt real to me.
And I loved seeing you happy. I loved seeing you free. ”
“I’m not going to be able to afford Lisa without West,” I murmured.
Dad chuckled. “You’re not the only one who’s been on a whirlwind lately.”
I looked up, my jaw dropping, waiting for him to tell me he and Lisa had fallen in love. But he shook his head before I could even ask.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he said, amused. “We’ve just become good friends. She lost her husband a couple years back. We clicked, that’s all. But even as a friend, I know she’ll be in my life. And that’s enough.”
We sat in silence for a while, me staring at my coffee, him at the window.
My mind spun with everything I’d learned in the last twenty-four hours.
Relief that West wasn’t Trevor’s father tangled with shock that Buddy Murphy was.
And West had known my sister. She was his nightmare.
That was why he’d left me standing there confused.
I looked down and realized I was still wearing my wedding ring. With shaking hands, I slid it off and tucked it into my pocket. The final nail in the coffin. Which was ironic, because West and I had never even been married.
“Where’s your car?” Dad asked suddenly, his gaze still on the window. “Is it still at Fiddlers?”
“It broke down on the side of the road on my way to Atlanta last night.”
His head whipped toward me, eyes wide with alarm that I’d been stranded.
“No worries,” I said quickly. “I called Aiden. He picked me up and drove me the rest of the way.”
“So the car’s still on the side of the road?”
“Marshal had it towed to the shop in town. I’ll head over later and see what it’s going to cost.”
Dad nodded and turned back to the glass, quiet again. My eyes drifted to the shelf where he insisted on keeping that family picture of the four of us. The one that made everything fall apart.
I stood, grabbed it, and placed it in his hands. He looked up at me in confusion, but I just shrugged.
“Can you call her for me? Tell her to lose my number. Tell her to lose West’s number. And if she doesn’t stop calling, tell her I’ll give her number to Buddy Murphy myself. He can be her problem.”
Dad smirked faintly and nodded. “Will do.”
I turned and headed for my room, curling back into bed and praying that after finally spilling it all, I could close my eyes and sleep.