Chapter 55
Chapter Fifty-Five
Leighton
My finger shakes as I ring the doorbell.
Their house is decorated for summer with a popsicle doormat, and the potted flowers on each side of the door have pinwheels in them. The banner across the floral wreath on the door says, Welcome Summer.
It all makes me want to throw up.
It took all of Hayes’s willpower not to come with me, but I feel as if I’ll get more answers if I’m alone.
The lock slides, and I hold my breath, every muscle in my body screaming for me to run and forget this whole thing.
Who cares what happened? But I want the truth.
And maybe someday the kids will too. Who knows?
That’s something I’ll have to figure out as the years go by, though right now I think that it’s probably best that I keep the truth to myself.
The door creeps open, and he rears back when he sees me.
“Leighton?” he asks, because I’m probably the last person he expected to see.
“Can I come in?”
He steps aside. I was worried I wouldn’t even get this far.
I walk into the house that smells as though they have a scent pod on the stove. It’s nice and not as homey as I prefer, but not as cold as I had imagined either.
“We can sit in the study.” He shuts the front door, flicks the lock, and walks to his right toward the kind of room I’ve only ever seen in magazines.
There are two brown couches across from one another with a long table in between, holding perfect magazines and some sculpture that is definitely for show.
I want to laugh at the thing, knowing that in our house, it would probably last a week before Lincoln knocked it over with a ball that ricocheted off the wall.
He settles on the couch across from me, one arm draped across the back of the couch and his ankle resting on his opposite knee. He’s the picture of aloofness and relaxation. Or at least he’s pretending to be.
I shift to the edge of the couch, reminding myself that I hold the cards here. “I was going through some of Skylar and Patrick’s things, and I found this.” I place the phone on the table between us.
He glances at it and back at me, shrugging. “I’ve never seen that phone before.”
“I figured. It was Patrick’s second phone.”
An irritated expression crosses his face as if I’m wasting his time.
“He hired a private investigator,” I add.
He flinches, just for a heartbeat, then shifts in his seat, jaw clenching. He relaxes again as he forces himself to embody the aloofness he wants to portray.
“I paid his fee, and he sent me the pictures that Patrick had requested.”
“I don’t understand why you’re here or what this has to do with me. I wasn’t in business with Patrick, and he never told me anything, if that’s why you’re here.”
I unlock the phone and slide it in front of him, opening the picture I saved to the Photos App. “But you were in the business of fucking his wife.”
Art glances at the screen, then right back at me.
“Would you like to see another one?” With the flick of my finger, it moves to one of him and Sky outside this house, on the porch.
Arthur was wearing shorts and no shirt, kissing her goodbye.
“Or this one?” They’re at a park, she’s pressed against a tree, and again, they’re kissing. “Should I go on?”
His chest rises and falls as he draws in big gasps of air. “So what? They’re dead now. It doesn’t matter.”
How did Sky ever feel something for this cold man? Patrick was his complete opposite. So loving and friendly. Never treated anyone badly. I can’t figure it out. I’m not sure I ever will.
“It doesn’t matter to them, but I’m pretty sure your wife doesn’t know you were sleeping with your brother’s wife.
And I’m guessing you don’t want her to know either.
So in order for these pictures to stay private, you’re no longer going to contest my guardianship of the children.
” He opens his mouth, but I continue. “I’m not sure why you contested in the first place if you’re in an unhappy marriage, and I don’t care.
I just want it to end. Sky and Patrick chose me to raise the kids.
The kids want me. I am the one who is going to be their caregiver from this day forward. ”
He says nothing but picks up the phone and goes through the pictures. It’s then that I see the weight of what he’s carrying. The dark circles under his eyes. The pain that flashes across his features with every new picture he reveals.
When he’s done, he sets the phone back on the table. I desperately want to ask him how it started, how and why they found themselves in this position. But they aren’t questions I want to ask Art. They’re questions for Sky. Questions I’ll never have answers to.
“Okay.” He nods.
I stand and pick up the phone. “It’s up to you if you want to tell your wife. That’s not my business. But I do ask that this stays between a select few until those kids get older. The last thing they need is to find out is that their mom and uncle were having an affair.”
My anger toward Sky is something I’m going to have to work through, but those kids do not need this in their lives. God, maybe I do need my own sessions with Therapist Allison.
“It will.”
I give him a nod. “Thank you.”
As I leave the study, I hear the couch crinkle when he stands. “I loved her.”
I turn at the door, just wanting to leave.
“I think you should know that. We were going to… come out, but Patrick surprised her with that trip, and she said she owed it to him to go and see what came of it. It was complicated.” He shoves his hand through his hair. “But I did love her, and she loved me.”
Wetness pools in my eyes. How did someone I felt so close to keep all this inside? Part of me thinks it’s because Sky knew how I felt about cheating, but still, I would’ve listened to her and tried to understand.
“Thank you for no longer contesting the guardianship. Obviously, I won’t keep you from the kids. You’re their family. If you want a relationship with them, you can have it.”
“I appreciate that. I love them, but I don’t really want to be a parent. That was more Julianna.”
“I figured.” I walk to the front door, and when I go to open it, Art reaches past me to pull it open for me.
My stomach swoops and a warm feeling invades my chest when I see who’s waiting for me.
Hayes sits on the front steps and stands to face us when the door opens.
“Was he worried I’d fight you?” Art asks.
I smile at Hayes. “No, he’s just here for me.”
I walk down the steps and right into Hayes, who swarms me in a hug as I finally let go of the emotions I put in a stranglehold inside the house and cry into his chest.
“Don’t worry, baby, I’m flipping him off behind your back.”
And then I’m laughing through tears.
“Come on, let’s go home,” he says, putting his arm around me and guiding me down the sidewalk.
Now all the puzzle pieces are finally in place.