Chapter twenty-eight
Tara
I was pissed the fuck off! Not irritated or annoyed but pissed. The man had been gone for over a week. He was supposed to go for a few days to check on Devyn, but he stayed in Switzerland for a whole fucking week.
Thanksgiving came and went and he wasn’t here. I spent the holiday eating dinner with Angie and her family while my boyfriend was in Zurich. And the worst part of it all was that he barely called and hardly texted.
He barely did anything except send random messages saying he was staying a little longer. That was it… no explanation, no details, nothing.
By Monday afternoon, my attitude was on ten. So, when I heard the front door open, I didn’t rush to greet him. I didn’t smile. I didn’t do any of the things I normally would have done.
Instead, I stayed exactly where I was seated on the sofa waiting on him. A few seconds later, Caine walked into the living room. The first thing I noticed was how tired he looked.
The second thing I noticed was that I didn’t care. At least not yet.
“There you are,” Caine said.
His voice was cautious as if he didn’t know how to proceed.
That was good because he should’ve been feeling that way.
I folded my arms over my chest. “Yeah. Here I am.”
He set his duffel bag down and looked at me like he was studying me.
“Tara…”
I immediately held up my hand to stop him from speaking. “Hold up,” I said.
His eyes closed briefly then he opened them and said my name like it hurt.
“Tara.”
I stood up. “No Caine, you don’t get to come in here and Tara me after you’ve been gone for a whole week. Over a week,” she said.
His jaw tightened like he was trying to keep himself from saying something he’d regret.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
“Oh, so now you want to talk?” I countered. I laughed a short humorless laugh. “Interesting.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. I could already tell he had a headache, but I still didn’t care.
“Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was explaining to people why my man wasn’t home for Thanksgiving?” I asked.
“Tara...”
“Don’t do that.” I pointed at him. “You stayed gone almost two weeks Caine.”
“I know.”
“And every time I asked when you were coming home, you gave me some vague answer.”
“I know that too.”
I stared at him as anger rose in my chest. “That’s all you got?” I asked.
“What do you want me to say?” he asked. “I asked if we could talk and you said no.”
The question made me even angrier.
“I want you to tell me what was so damn important that you had to miss Thanksgiving.”
The room immediately went quiet and suddenly, something felt way off. Instead of arguing back, Caine looked exhausted… almost like he had lost his fight.
My anger cooled slightly because I knew my man and something was wrong.
“What happened Caine?” I asked.
His eyes lifted as he looked at me. That was the first time I noticed how tired he looked. It looked like he hadn’t slept at all while he was gone.
“What?”
“What happened over there?”
For several seconds he just looked at me then he sat down. And for the first time since he had walked in, I felt nervous because whatever happened, I knew it was bad… really bad.
Finally, he sighed and blurted, “We ran into Monique.”
My mouth fell open because surely he couldn’t be talking about that Monique. Because how the hell did he run into her all the way in Zurich?
“Say what?” I asked, waiting for him to tell me I misunderstood.
“Me and Devyn were out shopping and ran into her.”
I blinked hard several times. Yeah, I had to have heard him wrong.
“You mean the mother?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“What are the chances of that?” I dropped onto the sofa opposite him. “Wait.” I held up a hand. “Start over. Tell me everything.”
So, he did, starting from the shopping trip to seeing the familiar woman on the sidewalk, to meeting her husband.
Then he told me about their awkward conversation and Devyn’s reaction.
He told me everything that happened, and by the time he finished, all I could do was stare at him because I was totally speechless.
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“Wow,” I repeated. “That’s a lot.”
He nodded. “That’s pretty much what I said.”
I leaned back against the cushions trying to process everything. Then another thought hit me.
“Wait a minute.”
His expression immediately changed and for some reason, I knew there was more.
“What?” he asked.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” I asked.
He looked away and sighed heavily. After a couple of awkward minutes, he blurted, “She has another child.”
I was stunned as I stared at him. “A child?”
“Yeah.”
“Like a baby or a toddler?” I asked.
“Nah,” he replied.
The way he said it made my stomach drop.
“How old is her kid?”
“He’s ten.”
“Whew, Lord!”
The words escaped before I could stop them because even I understood what that meant.
“How did Devyn take that news?” I asked. “Does she know? Is she okay?”
His eyes closed and that told me everything I needed to know.
“Oh no,” I said as my heart sunk for her.
“Yeah,” he said. “You can imagine how that went once she found out.”
The sadness in his voice made my chest tighten. For all my complaints, frustration, and anger, one thing had never changed. That man loved his daughter more than anything.
“What did she say?” I asked.
He laughed a broken laugh probably his nerves. Then he looked down at his hands.
“She asked what was wrong with her and why her mom didn’t love her enough to stay and raise her,” he said. “She asked why would she raise her son and not stick around for her.”
My heart shattered immediately for Devyn. I placed my hand on the left side of my chest as my expression saddened.
“No,” I cried.
Even though she and I have had our differences, I’d never wish this for her.
“Yeah.”
“Caine.”
He shook his head. “She wanted to know why she wasn’t enough.”
The tone of his voice made me feel some kind of way, and suddenly, all my anger about Thanksgiving felt stupid, small and meaningless. Because while I was sitting here upset about a missed holiday, this man had spent the last week helping his daughter survive one of the hardest moments of her life.
I slowly moved closer to him and wrapped my arms around him. For a second he didn’t move then he hugged me back.
“I’m so sorry you had to help her deal with that by yourself,” I said. “I wish I would have been there to help.”
His voice was quiet and tired. “I know.”
And for the first time since he had walked through the door, I wasn’t angry anymore. I was heartbroken for him and Devyn.
And even a little bit for the woman who had spent fourteen years running from the consequences of a decision she could never take back.