Chapter 0033
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Some loser sent them to me. I’ll throw them away tomorrow. Just like I did with all the others.”
Alex’s face hardened, the muscle above his jaw flexing as he pressed his teeth together.
“Others? Is some guy harassing you?” Ben asked, looking angry, but he relaxed when I laughed it off and shook my head.
“No,” I said, wondering if Alex would tell my brother they were from him. I held his stare as I openly challenged him to do just
that.
He didn’t.
We were adults now, but he still couldn’t tell my brother that he had anything to do with me.
When we were young, it had been exciting to sneak around. Now, when absolutely nothing was happening between us, he still wouldn’t tell my brother that he had bought me flowers.
It was humiliating.
He could have said that he saw I was going through a hard time and wanted to cheer me up. He didn’t have to tell Ben the real reason. Instead, he kept his mouth shut.
“If he doesn’t stop, just tell me, and I’ll take care of it,” Ben said, and when I nodded, he turned and jogged back toward the
stairs.
“Where are you going?” I called softly from behind him.
“I just want to pop my head in and see her. I can’t wait for tomorrow! She can stay here, right? She doesn’t have to go to daycare on my days off.” He didn’t wait for a response.
“Please don’t wake her,” I said, my hand reaching out toward him instinctively to stop him even though he was already on the
other side of the room.
“I won’t!” He whispered as he raced up the stairs two at a time.
“He’s been dreaming about this day since before she was born,” Alex said, opening one of the take-out boxes before grabbing one of the serving spoons and scooping the pasta into a bowl.
“About me getting divorced and having to invade his space?” I asked, biting back my attitude when he slid the bowl to me instead of eating it himself. “Thank you.”
“No. Not that. Ben loves you guys being here.” Alex grabbed his bowl before moving around the island to take the barstool beside me. “Did you know he never told me about her? Everything I know about her and how happy he is to have you two back in his life, he told me on the drive back from the airport today. He never mentioned her before.”
The knowledge that my brother had been keeping my daughter a secret would have been infuriating if he hadn’t already made it clear how much he loved her. (1
“No. I didn’t know that.” I whispered, holding the fork in my hand but not bothering to take a bite. Alex had my full attention. “ Why would he keep her a secret from you? You guys have been attached at the hip since you moved in next to us when we were little.”
“I asked him not to. It was maybe two years after we broke up. I was overseas at the time, and he had called me, telling me you were dating someone. I snapped and told him to keep it to himself. I lied and said I didn’t care and not to talk to me about you ever again.” Alex stabbed his fork down into his pasta.
I looked away quickly, unable to hide the pain I was feeling.
“It hurt too much to hear him gush about you all the time. He’s always been proud of you, and he would tell me about how smart
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you are and about you leaving school early to get your GED. He bragged about you getting into college and the classes you were taking. Then he started talking about you dating this hot shot, some senator’s son, and I just… I snapped.”
“Funny, you didn’t seem to care back then,” I said bitterly, dropping the fork and standing.
“I never stopped caring!” He said in a hushed yell, looking over his shoulder to the stairs to make sure Ben wasn’t on his way
back.
“No, maybe you felt guilty for what you did, but you never cared about me.”
“Are you kidding me? I loved you!”
Why did those words hurt worse than sitting in that hotel room, listening in while Caleb fucked his assistant?
“You used me, Alex,” I said, turning away from him, unable to meet his gaze any longer. “I need to get the baby monitor. Ben can eat this. I already had dinner anyway.”
