His Fresh Start ✔ (Book Three)

Chapter 29

Dad curled his hands around a mug full of steaming coffee and looked at me, sighing. “Thierry.”

“What?”

“Will you finally tell me what’s wrong?”

Lying appealed to me way more, but my father knew me. He was also next to me when we learned Steve’s girlfriend was none other than Aiden’s mother, who abandoned him, and Aiden was Steve’s son. 

Who would have thought dinner with Aiden and Ellie to celebrate her first exhibition and recovery would end in more heartbreak?

Certainly not me. 

“Everything’s wrong,” I said, toying with my empty mug. It’d been my third coffee, but I was just as exhausted. 

“What’s wrong with Lou?”

My gaze darted to Dad’s face. His eyes narrowed behind his glasses. He gave me the same look I got when I was a rebellious teen who got in trouble and tried to downplay the importance of it.
“Nothing’s wrong.”

Louise was good at pretending, but Dad’s perceptiveness was stronger than her acting skills. I should’ve known.

I pushed the mug aside. “Everything’s—”

“Don’t you dare lie.” Dad’s voice was deceptively calm, but then again, he never yelled. Not even when he punched Steve in the face did he lose his temper. He just shook his wrist as if he was used to hitting people and asked me if Alan could take a look at his hand. 

Steve deserved that punch just like I deserved the stern look Victor Fauber gave me.

“I screwed up, okay? I lied to Louise, and she’s still mad. We just didn’t want to argue in front of you and the kids. They’ve been through so much it’d be shitty to make them worry about us too.”

Dad took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning. “I just knew it. Aiden will give me grandkids before you do.”

“I might not be able to, anyway.” I crossed my arms. “And that’s part of the problem with Louise. Not my fertility issues but my decision to keep them from her for months.”

If Dad was surprised, he hid it well. His expression remained calm as if I hadn’t just crushed his dreams of a house full of kids he’d be dying to spoil.

“There are treatments. It’s not the Stone Age. You have doctor friends, so you should know,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell her the truth right away?”

“As if it were easy.”

“Easier than winning her trust back. Lots of couples deal with infertility.”

I got up and walked to the window. Snow coated a part of the grass in my backyard, and I stared at it. Whatever to avoid looking at my dad.

“I know," I said.

A chair scraped across the kitchen floor. Every muscle in my body tensed.

Dad stood next to me, mirroring my pose — arms folded in front of his chest, his feet slightly apart. 

“So do I.”

I twisted my head so my eyes would meet his. “What do you mean?”

“I know everything. I’ve known for years. And I would’ve carried on pretending I don’t, but after what happened with Aiden and his parents, I realized the truth can hurt, but it can also free you.”

My heart thrashed against my ribs. He couldn’t know everything, could he? I swallowed. “And by everything, you mean…”

“Jean came to me all those years ago,” Dad said. “And I’ll be forever grateful that he did. I’m not mad at you for not knowing how to tell me something so awful. You were a kid. And because you were one, Jean thought I needed to know.