Chapter 26
Sometimes heroes fall from grace.
The first hero Cassidy ever had in her life wasn’t Austin. It was her father. Watching his public disgrace—his arrest, the mugshots on the nightly news, the complete implosion of his marriage—was very nearly more than she could bear.
She knew he was guilty. There was no question. But that didn’t make it any easier to handle.
The fact that all of it came mere hours after she and Austin had professed their love made it that much more difficult. It was hard to love the one man her father hated at a time when her father was going through so much.
Yes, he brought it on himself. But she’d made a decision after all the cards had been played not to abandon him completely, and that was what she was trying very hard to do.
But no matter which way she leaned on any given day—more toward Austin or more toward her father—she was being disloyal to someone involved.
Someone she loved.
And it was tearing her apart.
She told herself she should let her father go. He was clearly the one who deserved it, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She was literally all he had left in the world.
Her father thought her relationship with Austin showed how much she hated him, while Austin thought her relationship with her father showed she was certifiably insane.
She’d told herself it was the stress of the moment that had made everything seem so intense with Austin, that it wasn’t real, just a dream.
It gave her an out so she could stop hurting.
And if she missed him when she went to sleep and when she woke up and every moment in between, it was because it had been a tough year and not because he was meant to be in her life.
The day she finally broke it off with Austin, she’d packed up the meager belongings she’d purchased since coming to Atlanta straight from Idaho (what had she been thinking?) and waited until he came home from work.
He stopped two steps inside the door, looking from her to the suitcase before throwing his keys down on the table. “You’re leaving?”
She nodded.
He could have been a statue, he was so still. The moment stretched out into an awkward silence. She moved to him, went on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I can’t do this anymore.”
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even turn his head as she pulled her suitcase behind her and walked out the door.
She still couldn’t believe how easily he’d let her go.
Really? You can’t believe it?
He knew how much it was hurting you. What was he supposed to do, beg you to stay?
She’d moved back to D.C. like she’d hardly even been away. A little vacation, that’s all. A month that nearly cost her her life, then took all the joy out of living.
It was better this way.
There was nothing else she could do.