Chapter 4 #2
“With me!” he cried. “He’s been cheating with me, and I won’t tolerate you calling him a whore for it either unless you’re calling me one too.”
The words knocked the breath clean out of me.
I blinked. Once. Twice. Waiting for the smirk, the punchline.
Something to tell me he was joking. That I’d heard him wrong.
That I’d stepped into some messed-up alternate timeline where my own father wasn’t standing there claiming—owning—an affair with my brother’s fiancé.
But it never came.
His face was stone. His voice was calm. Too calm. Like he’d already made peace with it and was waiting for the rest of us to catch up.
My throat closed. My brain short-circuited.
“Dad?” I rasped, voice barely holding together. “You?”
It felt like the floor had vanished under me. Like I’d stumbled straight into a nightmare and couldn’t find the exit.
He leaned against the wall, folding his arms, looking at me like I was the one being irrational. “Yeah.”
My stomach turned.
“But… why would you do something like this? Carter’s your son.”
“I could stand here and justify it. Tell you how Carter’s a shitty fiancé who’s left Ozzie to plan everything alone. That he probably cheated on him too. But the truth is, I wanted him. It’s that simple.”
I reeled back like he’d slapped me. My whole body felt cold and then burning hot in waves.
There was nothing simple about cheating.
His reaction reminded me of Hudson’s. Of how I’d gone to him, expecting some huge disclosure as to why he was suddenly married and expecting a baby.
A reason enough for me to forgive him, but all he’d said was “we hooked up one night, and she got pregnant. We’re expecting a baby, Matt. ”
Like we were nothing. Like the fire between us, the stolen Friday nights when we lost ourselves in each other, the whispered promises—none of it had mattered enough for him to fight for.
Just like now. Just like my dad, standing there, arms crossed, calm as anything, expecting me to swallow this betrayal like it was a bitter pill I should’ve seen coming.
Maybe that was what hurt the most. Not just the cheating.
But the way they made it sound so easy.
“How could you?” My voice cracked. “What about Carter?”
“I’m hoping he’ll want what’s best for Ozzie and give us his blessing.”
“Carter is one of the most selfish people on the planet,” I snapped. “But you’re his father. He doesn’t have to be decent for you to be.”
He opened his mouth like he was going to defend it again, like he had anything left to say that wouldn’t make this worse.
“Seriously?” I braced a hand against the wall, feeling light-headed with disgust. “Ozzie? This isn’t happening.”
“Matty, I can’t help it if I’m attracted to him.
I wouldn’t have acted on it, but he’s miserable in that relationship.
Carter should’ve been here doing the work, but he left it all to me.
All this time I spent with Ozzie…” He sounded so pitiful, so convincing, but I couldn’t accept it.
If I did, then it meant maybe he too had a good enough reason for sleeping with someone else. “I fell for him.”
“So now what?” I sneered. “You saying you’re in love with him?”
“We’re a good match.”
“Are you even listening to yourself?” I said, my voice pitching higher, more raw. “You’re screwing your son’s fiancé. Behind his back.”
“Don’t trivialize what we mean to each other.”
“But you’re fine with trivializing your relationship with Carter?
With me?” I bit out. This was my dad. The man who taught me to love the land.
The man who gave me a legacy. Showed me how to be a man.
And this was what he resorted to? “This family’s already been ripped apart.
And you’re adding more wreckage. Is this what marriage means now?
Separate houses, separate lives, separate beds, and sleeping with whoever makes you feel young again? ”
Something flickered in his eyes. Hurt, maybe. But I didn’t care. Not when it felt like my chest was caving in.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, tone sharper now.
“Forget it,” I muttered, shaking my head. “I can see no one gives a fuck anymore about vows and keeping your word. So by all means, enjoy your son’s lover.”
“Maybe what we’re doing isn’t ideal, but do you know what it’s like to glimpse your happiness in a rearview mirror?” he asked, quieter now. “I can’t miss it this time, Matty. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this happy, and I hope Carter can forgive us. I hope you can too. Eventually.”
I shook my head hard. “I can’t. I’m sorry. And this? This is wrong on so many levels.”
He sighed like it wounded him but not enough to change anything. “I can’t force you to accept us, Matty. But I’m still your dad. You don’t have to like what we’re doing, but I won’t tolerate you disrespecting Ozzie. He doesn’t deserve it. Have I made myself clear?”
“He deserves—”
“I said, have I made myself clear, Matty?”
I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached.
I wanted to argue back. I wanted to call him every name in the goddamn book.
Hypocrite, coward, selfish bastard. I wanted to scream that he was no better than the people he always warned me about.
That he’d become the kind of man who chose desire over decency.
But I couldn’t get the words past my throat. Not because I didn’t feel them. God, I felt every last one. But the years of respect I’d built for Dad—every morning chore, every quiet conversation, every lesson learned under his steady hand—had rooted themselves deep. Deeper than anger.
So I swallowed it all.
“Yes, sir,” I bit out, the words tasting like ash on my tongue.
Inside, I was roiling. Not just from what he’d done but from how familiar it felt. The betrayal. The way someone I loved could look me in the face and act like I was the one being unreasonable.
It felt like Hudson all over again. Like he’d been layered behind Ozzie the whole time, glitching in and out of view. Same guilt in the eyes. Same excuses. Same selfish bullshit dressed up like love.