CHAPTER 29 LINCOLN

I try calling her again, and she's not picking up. I tried Sam, too, but she didn't answer, either.

I decide to just go home. I figure it's the best place to be if she's trying to reach me, but I'm worried since she won't answer her phone. Since Sam won't, either, I assume they're doing something together. Focusing on their boys or something like that.

Still, the edges of anxiety are creeping in as I wonder whether they're okay. I've called her at least five times in the last ten minutes, and she hasn't answered.

I need to talk to her before that story prints tomorrow. I need to confess everything.

My mother is upstairs when I return home, and I kick my shoes off then pace around my family room as I try to reconcile everything that's gone down tonight. My father betrayed me, and somehow it's my fault? I can't seem to wrap my brain around any of that.

My mom's voice interrupts my pacing. "What happened with your father?"

"Did he ever tell you what really happened with Joseph Bailey?"

Her brows pinch together. "About the accident?"

I shake my head. "About the intentional injury."

"What?" she breathes.

"The night it happened, he came home and told me what he'd done. He knew Joseph would need rehab, and he rolled the dice and won that he'd have to leave town and take his family with him. He said he did it for me. He was worried about my future because I was tangled up with Jolene, and he wanted me to focus on football. He never told you that?" I can tell from the way her jaw is hanging open that this is news to her.

She slowly shakes her head. "Oh my word. That man…" She clenches her fists. "I don't know if I ever really knew him at all. He tore apart my friendships, he ripped you from me, and now he's demolishing our family." She sinks onto the couch and starts to cry.

I sit for a beat and put my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into me. "I'm so sorry, Mom. You deserve better."

"So do you."

"We all do," I concede.

"Why are you telling me this now?" she asks.

"He's working with a reporter, and they're planning to print the story tomorrow," I say. "When I found that out, I punched him."

"In the face?" she asks hopefully, and I chuckle a little even though none of this is very funny.

"Yeah."

"Good. He had it coming. But why are they printing it if it's a secret they've been holding onto for so long?" she asks.

"He wants Jolene and me apart, and he will stop at nothing to get exactly that. I knew what he did and I never told a soul, and he's banking on that now."

"You never told her?" She looks surprised.

I shake my head. "How could I when all he talked about was how family is the most important thing? I believed him."

She sighs. "You know, he really took a turn when he had the idea for the bar. He wanted Joseph's money to start it up, and then he wanted Joseph out. So he may have told you it was all about you, and you may have believed him because he's your father, but looking at it now…I can assure you it had more to do with his own selfishness than with you dating Jolene. For what it's worth, I always thought she was a lovely young lady that has grown into a beautiful woman."

"It was about the bar?" I echo. I feel totally blindsided by this new information.

I always thought it was about Jolene and me because that's what he told me.

That motherfucker. He may be my father, but I can't fathom how he could do that to his own son.

I need to find Jolene before the story runs. I need to get a hold of her, but she's still not answering.

My chest aches as I feel the physical loss of the man who was once my hero. I suppose I should've mourned that loss a long time ago since he hasn't been that man for a long time, but these truths I'm learning tonight are hitting me with a heavy grief I wasn't expecting.

When the doorbell rings followed by a knock, for just a beat I fear it's him.

I don't want to face him.

But I'm man enough to do it anyway.

I walk over to the door and draw in a deep breath, and when I open it, I find not my father but Jolene.

Her face is streaked with tears, and she's sobbing as she tries to catch her breath.

"Is it true?" she demands through the tears.

"Is what true?" I ask carefully.

"That your father intentionally hurt mine to get you to break up with me and then he forced you to keep that secret." The words are broken up by her sobs, which are turning hysterical.

I reach out to grab her arm and pull her inside so we can talk, but she rips her arm away. She takes a few steps back.

"Oh my God," she whispers. "It is true." She spins on her heel to run back to her car, and I chase after her. I'm not even wearing any shoes.

"No! Jolene! There's more to it! Just let me talk!" I'm yelling as I try to catch up with her.

She jumps into the driver's seat of her car and fires it up, and I don't see any other choice but to open the door of the passenger side before she locks me out.

I slide into the seat. "Can we talk?" I beg.

She desperately tries to heave in a shaky breath as she shakes her head. "You had twenty years to talk and you chose not to. This is over, Lincoln. I can't be with someone who would lie right to my face. Get out of my car."

"No," I say firmly.

"Fine. Have it your way." She kicks the car into reverse and bolts out of the driveway, and she's clearly emotional right now and probably should not be behind the wheel. She tosses the car into drive and peels away from my driveway.

"Stop the car," I demand.

"Fuck you. You don't get to tell me what to do."

I draw in a breath as she speeds toward the stop sign at the end of my street, and she slams on the brakes. We both jerk forward, and she checks both directions before she takes off again.

"Jolene, stop the car. You're emotional right now and you shouldn't be driving like this."

"I'm emotional right now? Yeah, you think? Maybe because all your secrets were just revealed," she hisses, and she's somewhere between furious and devastated.

She turns onto the main road, and she's going too fast. Way too fast. So fast that she doesn't see the motorcycle stopped in the middle of the road waiting to make a left until the last second.

She jerks the wheel to avoid missing him, and the tires screech as the car starts to spin out of control. I brace myself for the impact, and it comes a moment later when the car slides off the road toward a ditch. Jolene tries to get control of the car, but it's useless. The only sounds that register are her screams as the metal of the car scrapes against the gravel, and the car comes to a stop with the loud crunch as we slam into a tree.

The airbags deploy, and pain rockets through me as it hits me with enough force to knock the wind out of me for a beat.

And then…eerie silence.