Chapter 43

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Lola

Kali barges past Miranda as she opens her front door wearing an expensive-looking silk dressing gown.

“He’s not here,” my mother yells at Kali, looking completely shocked at the invasion.

“His truck is here,” Kali screams back. “Wade,” she yells, storming down the hall of my mother’s elaborate mansion.

Feet stuck to the doorstep as if I’m a vampire waiting to be invited in, I can’t bring myself to step inside.

One from fear, and two because I’ve never stood this close to my mother. The woman who gave birth to me and did nothing else for me.

Also, there’s a third reason that’s holding me back. This is the house Wade grew up in. As fascinated as I am to look around his childhood home, it feels like an intrusion.

“Get out of my house.” My mother chases Kali down the hallway. “You can’t be here.”

Kali beckons me to come in.

Miranda looks directly at me, more like through me. She doesn’t recognize me at all, which feels like a dagger through my already pain-filled heart.

Finally, I pluck up the courage and step over the threshold, holding my breath as if I’m Alice Through the Looking Glass and everything is about to turn upside down.

“Wade,” Kali calls, as she opens the last door at the end of the hallway.

I’m right behind her now and let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Wade sitting behind a desk in what looks like an office.

“Thank God you’re here,” Kali cries, running into the room.

Wade bares his teeth when he looks past us and to the woman standing behind.

My mother.

He hates her as much as I do.

She storms past me, wafting her expensive fragrance everywhere, and I follow her into the elaborate room.

Kali grabs my hand as if telling me she’s here for me. Or maybe she needs my support. In all honesty, we need each other.

“What are you doing here, Wade?” our mother spits, while Wade continues to look down at the paperwork he’s rifling through.

As calm as a lake at dawn, he replies, “Currently working out exactly how much Marcus paid you to keep quiet about his bastard child.” He picks up handfuls of papers from the desk that look like bank statements. “Quite a lot it would appear.”

The color drains from her face as Wade runs his finger down the piece of paper and then reads each one aloud. He reels off incomprehensible figures month after month. Ten thousand dollars. Six thousand dollars. Twenty thousand dollars. The list goes on and the amounts get higher.

Wade points to one. “Did that pay for the cruise around the Mediterranean or the month you spent in the Bahamas without me? Although spending it on a personality change or had you bought a soul with it would have been a much better investment. Or a heart.” The venom in his voice is enough to kill an army.

“Don’t do this, please.” Miranda flicks her gaze over to Kali, then me, and back to Wade. “This is a private matter.”

She doesn’t want anyone knowing about her adultery and deceit.

“Marcus is my father,” Wade states deadpan, ignoring her. “M. E. Stands for Marcus Edwards, right?” He points at the paper, almost too calmly.

It’s scary how quiet the rest of the house is. Eerily so.

My mother stands taller. She’s got some gall. “You were never supposed to find out.” Her annoyance gives her nervousness about being exposed away.

“I see where the money came from to pay for all the extra hockey lessons for me now.”

Wade delivers a few truths to her, and silent tears run down my face. I want to run to him and throw my arms around him and tell him everything’s going to be okay, but I can’t. He hasn’t figured out who I am. Yet.

“I look just like him,” Wade says, sounding hurt, and I’m not sure if his pain is because he’s been around his father all this time and never even noticed their similarities.

Alerted to someone entering the house, heavy footsteps grow closer as they race across the wooden flooring of the hall and Marcus appears in the doorway looking like he’s having a nuclear meltdown.

“Hey, Dad ,” Wade says sardonically. “I’m so glad you could join us. Better late than never. Although that was the plan, right? To never tell me I was your secret love child. You swore her to secrecy. Paid for her silence.” He throws the bank statements down. “Zane is my brother?” Frown lines wrinkle his brow as if he’s trying to make sense of it all.

Oh, God, this is the part I was dreading.

“I’m you’re fucking what?” Zane, Marcus’s son, and Wade’s half-brother, thunders into the office, only wearing his boxers, his tone murderous.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Marcus and Wade ask in chorus.

I might be sick. Is Miranda sleeping with Zane? Oh, that’s fucking low.

When I look over at my birth mother, she has her head in her hands, and I get the answer I was looking for. She is.

He’s the same age as her son; two years older than me.

My head is spinning like a washing machine on the highest spin setting.

This is humiliating for Wade. And Zane.

And me.

Wade doesn’t hold his tongue. In fact, he goes in for the kill. “Father and son. Wow. You’re a piece of work.” He turns his attention to Zane. “Did you get a cab ride here so no one would know you’re fucking your father’s mistress?”

Zane turns a peculiar shade of green. “I think I’m going to vomit.” Grabbing his stomach, he bends at the waist and dry heaves.

“Well, isn’t this lovely? All of us here, together, like one big happy family. Minus Lola and Kali, of course.” Wade points at me, then Kali. I can see through his sardonic tone. He’s secretly hurt and dying inside.

At the mention of my name, I look at Miranda, and count to three …1… 2… 3…

I see the moment it happens, the moment of realization. Miranda figures out who I am.

“Lola?” She sounds shocked. “Lola? Is that you?”

“You know her?” Wade asks like he’s completely baffled. The line between his brow grows hard and thick.

I shake my head, my tears rolling down my face. “She doesn’t know me. She knows nothing about me. She didn’t want me.” I spit out the words one after the other.

“Gladiola,” Miranda whispers.

“How do you…” Wade’s words die in the air.

It’s like I can hear Wade figuring it all out, piece by piece, realizing the truth that has been in plain sight all along.

The resemblance between me and my mother is striking. It’s hard to miss how similar our features are, from our blonde hair to our bone structure and eye color.

“She’s my mom,” I sob, revealing the truth, feeling a cocktail of relief and fear course through my veins.

“You’re my sister?” Wade asks, his voice faint.

I nod rapidly, making the tears fall down my face and off my chin.

Wade hurries to me. Standing toe to toe, he takes his time examining me.

I hope he knows that everything I’ve done is because I care about him.

“I have a sister?” he asks softly, completely dumbstruck.

“Yes, she’s my mom too,” I say, then spill the facts as fast as I can. “She was married to my dad. Not Marcus. His name was Ritchie Ramsay.” I wait while he absorbs that information.

And I shouldn’t have worried because within seconds, he’s wrapping himself around me and I’m sobbing into his chest.

“I have dreams about you,” he admits, then kisses the top of my head.

Kali told me about the dreams that Wade has about him as a little boy chasing a laughing baby. I don’t think it’s a dream though, I think it’s a memory.

“Did your father tell you before he died?” Wade asks.

I nod. “He wanted me to reach out to you. He wanted me to know I wasn’t alone in the world. He had so many regrets, Wade, about how he treated you and separated us. He wanted me to let you know how sorry he was before he died.” There’s so much to say and tell him.

I need to sit down with him without anyone around.

“You’re not alone, Lola. I’m here.” Wade runs his hand gently up and down my back, comforting me.

I have a brother.

Now he knows it finally feels real.

Digging for answers, Wade asks me a stream of questions. He’s not stupid, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out how we are connected. Miranda’s reputation doesn’t help. According to the papers, she’s slept with half of North America. Single men, married men, young, old—she’s not picky, and discretion isn’t exactly her strong suit.

“I can explain everything,” I say, but I need time to sit down with him and talk it through. It’s complicated.

“It’s all over the news, Wade,” Kali interjects.

He leans out of our embrace. “What do you mean?” The mood in the room grows heavy.

I step back and cover my face out of sheer embarrassment. “Graham sold my story to the press,” I sob, watching him scroll through Kali’s phone at the headlines.

“You weren’t meant to find out like this.” Kali’s voice cracks and Wade looks up as if completely startled.

“You knew?” His thunderous voice booms through the house.

Oh no, this is not Kali’s fault. It’s mine.

Kali begins crying. “I’m so sorry, Wade. I wanted to tell you but?—”

“You didn’t. Did he pay you to keep quiet, too? Is that what pulling a support team together for me was all about?” Wade points at Marcus.

“It was never like that.” Kali straightens her spine.

“Was I a publicity stunt for you? Some sort of charity case? Help Wade Collins, the fuck up? You made me believe you loved me,” he shouts, and I want nothing more than to stop him from saying the things he is because it’s the farthest thing from the truth.

Kali’s face falls. “I do love you.”

“You sure about that? Was making me fall in love with you all part of the plan too? To distract me from discovering the truth?” His feelings of betrayal are blinding him.

“I didn’t tell you to protect you.” Kali’s tone brims with boldness.

“Protect me?” Wade snaps back and points at the phone. “ This is protecting me?”

Kali’s eyes look frantic, her voice sounds the same when she says, “Marcus and I agreed to wait until the season was over. We were working out a plan of how to tell you and Nicki. The team.”

He scoffs. “Because the team’s reputation takes priority over people’s feelings. It’s always about the fucking team.”

It’s not. It’s about Nicki. Zane, Me, Wade, Marcus.

We were protecting everyone.

“Wade, it wasn’t like that. I promise you it wasn’t.” Kali reaches for him, but he takes a step back. “I love you. I do. Please believe me,” she sobs.

“Well, if he was giving you a bonus, it looks like you won’t be getting it now, huh?” Wade throws her phone on the desk. “You and I are done.”

What is he doing?

No.

He can’t be serious.

Wade’s not thinking straight.

“No,” Kali says, sounding strong, but the doubt in her voice tells me she’s close to breaking. “We’re not done.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m fucking sick of everyone making decisions they think are best for me. I’m done with all of you.”

My already splintered heart breaksagain, the jagged edges cutting deeper, unable to withstand another disappointment.

He doesn’t want to know me.

“I quit the team,” Wade announces.

What? No. No. No.

Too shocked to reply, the words I want to say get stuck in my throat.

Kali throws herself in Wade’s path as he storms toward the door, telling him she loves him.

He cups her face, and I think he’s about to kiss her. Instead, he says, “You fucking destroyed me.”

And he leaves.

I’m hot on Kali’s heels as she chases him, but we’re too late and he’s in his truck and speeding away, spraying gravel in his wake.

“He’ll come back,” I tell Kali, not sure if I believe my own words.

“He has to, Lola.”