Chapter 18 Ivy
IVY
“Moira, with who?”
Moira shifts uncomfortably on the bench. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“But you did! So tell me what the hell you are talking about?”
“Ivy—”
“Moira!” Raising my voice has Ruslan moving out of the doorway in the distance. “Tell me!”
Moira’s mouth moves like a fish gasping for air, then her shoulders droop and she looks away.
“I saw him with a woman a couple of times. A beautiful woman, which wouldn’t be a crime, but I saw them kissing.
A lot. She was hotter and much younger than your mother.
I’m sorry, Ivy. I did confront him about it because I was furious at how he could do something like that, but he told me I made a mistake and I was mixing stuff up.
So the next time I saw them, I took a recording and shoved it in his face.
He then started crying, and I didn’t know what to do!
I mean, he was your dad and he was crying and I felt so fucking awkward, so I comforted him and we talked. ”
She pauses and out of the corner of my eye, I see Ruslan continuing to approach.
“He told me that yes, he was having an affair, but it wasn’t what I thought.
He and your mother were getting a divorce, and they were both already moving on with their lives.
They just hadn’t told you. He was going to tell you before he left with her.
And I believed him because he seemed so sincere, but then I was at your house just after the New Year, do you remember?
And I saw your parents acting very much in love, and that’s when I realized he lied to me.
So I confronted him outside and he told me he was ending the affair because he realized he loved your mother.
But that passport… he was just lying to me. ”
Every word cuts deep like Moira’s tongue holds a razor.
My father was having an affair?
He was cheating on Mom and planning to leave her, to leave both of us?
I stand as suddenly, the stone bench becomes too hard to sit on, and my stomach curdles like off milk. “He was… he was having an affair?”
Moira nods and looks up at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Ivy.”
“He was having an affair and you knew about it? Since last year? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he made it sound like both he and your mom had moved on,” Moira exclaims desperately. “So I didn’t want to be the asshole that told you your parents were splitting up before you were ready to hear it!”
“Then why not when you caught him in those lies?”
“I don’t know, okay? I didn’t want to hurt you! Your dad said he was going to come clean, and I wanted to be there for you when you needed someone.”
“How could you be there for me when you knew for months that he was cheating?” My head’s going to explode.
I can’t keep up with the flood of information coming my way or how casually Moira speaks about it.
She doesn’t know about all the other shit going on, but suddenly, my sweet, kind, somewhat absent father has crumbled before my eyes and become an utter cunt who was in the process of breaking my mother’s heart.
“I don’t believe it,” I gasp, lifting a trembling hand to my lips as if the contact will keep my churning gut calm. “He wasn’t a cheater. He was loyal. He loved Mom!”
“I’m sorry,” Moira pleads and she blinks, sending tears rolling down her cheeks.
“When I found out he died, I wasn’t ever planning on telling you because what would it matter?
But then I wanted to because what if she turned up at the funeral?
I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry, Ivy.
I didn’t want to be the one to hurt you! ”
Thankfully, bile stays where it belongs inside me because anger takes its place and my breathing grows ragged. “You’re sorry? You’re sorry? What about my poor mom? Months and months she spent thinking she was happily married and all the while, he was fucking someone else?”
“He said it was mutual!” Moira rises to her feet. “I swear he made it sound like she had also moved on. I know he lied, but I thought no one was getting hurt at first.”
“You—” I point at her but no words come. I’m so angry that I’m boiling up on the inside and sweat stings at the back of my neck.
He was having an affair and had a passport with a different name. None of that suggests he was planning on telling Mom anything. I dig into my back jeans pocket for my phone but just as it rests in my palm, a shadow falls over me.
I look up and meet Ruslan’s blue eyes, as intense as the sky behind his head.
His hand closes over my palm and snatches my phone away. “No phone calls.”
“Ruslan—”
“No calls.”
“No!” Anger bubbles over and I slam both my hands into Ruslan’s shoulders but he doesn’t move. “Give me my phone! Give it to me now! Give it!”
His eyes don’t leave mine even as I shove at him again. “Tell me.”
“He—” My voice cracks and the soft notes in his voice seem to unlock some of the pain smothered under the anger. Tears spring into my eyes. “My d-dad was having an affair and I need to call the family lawyer because I need to know if he was divorcing my mom. So give me my damn phone!”
Ruslan’s brow twitches for a second, then he silently hands my phone back to me. “Make it quick.”
As I turn away from them both, Moira wails and sinks back down onto the bench. “I thought I was doing the right thing! I didn’t want to be the one to hurt her. I was doing the right thing!”
“The right thing for you or her?” comes Ruslan’s stiff reply.
I ignore them both and walk to the edge of the patio while dialing the lawyer’s number. It rings out for a long time until a woman answers.
“Afternoon, thank you for calling—”
“My name is Ivy Meyer. My father w-was Camden Meyer. I need to speak to Oliver right now.”
“I’m sorry, but Oliver is—”
“Now! It’s an emergency!”
A soft sigh brushes down the line, then her voice comes back. “Please hold.”
She keeps me on hold for two minutes, two long minutes where Moira’s revelation worms around my mind without pause. I wasn’t always around, but my parents always seemed happy and very much in love.
How could I have missed this?
“Ivy?” Oliver’s voice, broken from smoking six packs a day for twenty years, croaks down the line.
“Oliver, were my parents getting a divorce?”
“Ivy, you know I can’t discuss something like that with you.”
“No, you listen to me and you listen good. My father is dead, okay? He’s dead.
He was murdered and my mom is in the hospital in a coma trying to claw her way back to life and I am alone, okay?
I have nothing and I have no one so until I can speak to Mom face to face, you tell me.
You tell me right now. Did dad start divorce proceedings? Did he? Were they splitting up?”
“Ivy—”
“Tell me!” I yell, sending a few birds scattering for safety in the sky. “Tell me the truth! Were they getting divorced?”
“I don’t see how this information will help you,” Oliver replies. “As you just said, your father is dead so any proceedings died with him.”
A cold spot blooms in the middle of my chest and starts to grow, unfurling with each passing second. “Proceedings?” I gasp, tears finally escaping down my cheeks. “So it’s true?”
With each passing second of silence, the coldness within my chest spreads down to my gut and out to my limbs.
“Yes,” Oliver sighs. “I was your father’s attorney on the matter.”
“When?” I ask hoarsely.
“A couple of months ago. He was going to serve your mother papers just before your accident, and then… well, you understand.”
My phone slips away from my ear and Oliver’s voice turns into a waspish buzz as the device falls. It doesn’t hit the ground, though, as Ruslan is right there to catch it.
I stare hard at nothing as Oliver’s confirmation settles like a weight in my mind. The cold inside me consumes my body and a shiver darts down my spine, spending a flush of goosebumps up and down my arms and legs.
My stomach churns.
“Ivy?” Moira’s weepy voice rises up behind me, but I ignore her. Turning, I face Ruslan who watches me with a quiet intensity.
“Can you take me home?” I ask quietly.
Ruslan nods. “Of course.”
His arm comes across my shoulders and he leads me away from Moira’s pleas for forgiveness. I can’t think about that now. I can’t think about her.
Dad was having an affair. He was about to break Mom’s heart but didn’t because of the plane crash. As surreal as all of that is, only one piece of info sticks out in my mind as Ruslan leads me to the car.
Affair or not, why on earth would he need a passport with a different name for a divorce?
What else was he hiding?