The butterflies started in my stomach. They weren’t the nervous kind. They were the kind where I wanted to puke and run for the next four days straight. The showdown with Sebastian wasn’t going to be pretty. I flattened my hand against my stomach, trying to calm those butterflies. I couldn’t lose anyone. That was all I was worried about.
“Okay.” Mason sat forward.
Everyone tuned into him.
He swept his gaze over the group, lingering on me for a moment. A dark emotion passed in his depths, but I couldn’t name it. My mouth became dry.
“We have to move against Sebastian.” Mason seemed unwilling to say more. He looked at Nate, Logan, and me again before he stood up.
I asked, “Where are you going?”
Mason stopped in the hallway to his room. He said to me, “I’m getting everything I have on Sebastian. It’s time to share it with you guys.”
“You have stuff on him?” Heat flared from Logan.
But Mason didn’t respond. He returned a moment later with a box in his hand. Putting it down on the coffee table, he stood back and said, “I didn’t just hire security for Sam. I hired a private investigator to look into Sebastian. He’s connected, and I wanted to know how connected.”
Nate pulled some photos from the box, musing, “You mean, to whom he’s connected, right?”
“Holy shit,” Logan muttered under his breath. He pulled out a pile of papers. His forehead wrinkled. The sides of his mouth turned down. “There are some big names here, big brother. Who did you hire for this job?”
Mason sat down again. “The same guy Dad uses.”
“Right on.” Logan bobbed his head. “Are you the future Mrs. James Kade? Does Analise have her throne threatened by his own son?” Logan winked at me. “Not to be a dick, but Mama Psychopath scares the shit out of me. I don’t think I’d be up for another round against her. I think we were safe to escape with our clothes on our backs from the first round against her.”
I reached inside the box when I saw a picture of Garrett. He was with my professor, the same one who said she already knew him. That wasn’t the surprising part of it. What caught my eye was the other person in the photo.
I showed it to Mason. “This was taken when they were in college?”
Mason was waiting for me. He nodded, his voice quiet, as he said, “Yes.”
I pointed at the other female. “Is that who I think it is?”
“She went to college with Garrett.”
“That wasn’t an answer.” I didn’t need him to tell me though. I knew who it was.
Logan asked, “Who is it?”
“My mother.”
“Oh.”
Another hush of silence fell over the room.
Logan said quietly, “Are you sure?”
Nate darted him a look. “Dude.”
I shook my head. “It’s okay.” And it was.
I already knew that Analise and Garrett went to college together. It wasn’t just the three of them in the photograph. She was the one I’d singled out, but as I looked over it, I picked out Sharon, Garrett’s now wife, Sebastian’s father, and others. They were posing for a group photograph somewhere. It was sunny. Most of them wore sunglasses. They were all dressed for warm weather in tank tops, T-shirts, shorts, and loose skirts for the girls.
I couldn’t stop looking at my mother.
Her black hair was pulled up into a braid. She was smiling, but unlike the others, there were no sunglasses to block her eyes. She was looking sideways, up at Garrett, with her hand resting over her stomach. He was standing next to her but not looking at her. His shoulder was forward, so his back was turned slightly toward her, and he had his arm around Sharon’s shoulders. His head was angled down, like he’d just shared a secret with her.
Analise wasn’t showing, but a sixth sense told me that she was pregnant.
That was me.
I glanced to Mason.
He’d been watching me the whole time, and he nodded. “The PI thought so, too. The timing’s right.”
I was speechless.
“What?” Nate asked us.
Logan skirted between the two of us. “What’s going on?”
I handed him the picture. “I think my mom was pregnant there.”
He looked at it and hooted in laughter. “Your mom was sneaky. Holy shitola. And he’s still with the other chick. That’s his wife now, right?”
I nodded as he passed it to Nate.
“Oh, man.” Nate shook his head. “Wow. That’s…” He said to me, “Sorry, Sam. That’s gotta be weird to see.”
It was. A lump was clogging my throat, but I shrugged. “I’m fine.”
I wasn’t.
I knew it. I heard about it, but the proof was right there. Garrett was still with Sharon. He cheated on her, like how she’d cheated on him later. And Analise…it was just further proof about what type of person she was.
I’d come from two cheaters. I was a product of them.
I felt like I’d been gut-punched, and I couldn’t breathe for a moment.
“Sam,” Mason softly said my name.
He was going to reassure me, but I didn’t want that right now. I knew what Analise was capable of. Tears stung my eyelids, wanting to be shed, but I refused to let them free. I refused to cry over her. This wasn’t just about what she did, but what she’d continued to do, what she had done to me all my life.