I crawl toward him, wrapping my arms around him in a temporary cease-fire. “I can’t believe he just gave up two of his kids. What kind of asshole does that?”
“The elite kind.” Kai hauls me into his lap, circling his arms around me and resting his chin atop my head. “I know you’ve had a shitty childhood too. Our fathers are made of the same stuff. They’re both narcissistic, arrogant, assholes who use their kids to further their aims.” His breath oozes out in spurts. “But my eyes were closed to it for too long. I allowed him to manipulate me. To buy into the notion you were partly to blame.” He tips my chin up. “It sounds ludicrous now, but years of living with someone spouting the same shit all the time starts to sound sane after a while.”
“And it wasn’t just that,” Rick says, sauntering into the room, and I wonder how long he’s been listening. “He was drunk all the fucking time, and he was obsessed. He talked about your mom incessantly. And he poured all his rage and frustration into hating on a little girl. He blamed you for her death, but we didn’t realize they had made plans to run away together until he admitted that in the ballroom.” His eyes are remorseful as he stares at me. “I hate that we bought into it for so long, but it’s hard to describe what we lived through, to explain how it became something we latched on to, to stay close to our father. A man who didn’t deserve our support or our loyalty.”
“Your father left us penniless,” Kai continues explaining. “We literally had nothing.”
“Uncle Wes gave us his apartment in New York, but that is all the help we got,” Rick says. “Because, until recent years, Wes blamed our father for his sister’s death. He knew about his affair with Olivia, and he always believed our mother was second best. He thought she committed suicide because she knew he was still in love with her best friend and she was unhappy. Dad was adamant that Hearst had murdered her, but Wes refused to believe it.”
“Until your aunt came forward and told them what she knew, and then things changed,” Kai adds.
“Dad got sober, and they patched up their differences and started plotting revenge,” Rick supplies.
“And the rest you know,” Kai murmurs.
I store it all away to process later. “Where are Rogan and Spencer now?”
Rick’s eyes well up. “We don’t know. We didn’t have money to find them, and we were only kids.”
“Uncle Wes was furious with Dad when he discovered he’d given them up. I know if Dad had asked him, he would’ve taken them in, but Dad’s a stubborn, proud old fucker, and once Wes cut him off, he refused to reach out to him,” Kai says.
“Wes is on the case now, and Hunt’s father is helping, but the adoption is sealed, and records aren’t public, and because parental neglect was a factor in the adoption decision, they won’t release any information to Dad,” Rick confirms. “So, we basically have no idea where they are.”
“We don’t even know if they are still going by the same first names,” Kai says, and I hug him closer.
“I didn’t think it was possible to detest your father anymore, but I do. How could he give up two of his kids?” I cry out.
“Because he’s a heartless bastard,” Kai says through gritted teeth.
“Why didn’t you hate him for this?” I ask, genuinely puzzled how they could support this man with anything.
“Because it felt like our fault,” Kai says, strain evident in his voice. “We’ve always believed we failed, because we didn’t look after them properly and they took them away.”
I cup his beautiful face. “Did you draw that conclusion, or was it put in your head?”
“He’d blame us when he was shitfaced,” Kai admits.
“And yet you both still supported him with his plan to take my father down. To take me down.” I’m trying to understand it, but I genuinely don’t get it.
“Because we’re royally fucked up, Abby,” Kai says, abruptly lifting me off his lap and placing me down on the couch. He looms over me, and the pained look etched upon his face points to years of inner turmoil. “And you’re right to keep your distance from me, because I’m no good for you.”
With those parting words ringing in my ears, he strides out of the room, looking like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kai disappears for the rest of the night, and although I want to comfort him, I don’t seek him out. My head and my heart hurt, and for the first time since coming here, I’m second-guessing what I’m doing.
The sound of female laughter tickles my eardrums as I make my way downstairs the following morning. I turn the corner into the beautiful living room and stop dead in my tracks.
Kai is cozied up to a gorgeous brunette on the couch, and she’s laughing at something he’s said. He’s smiling at her, in a way he usually reserves for me, and that raises my hackles. He says something else to her, too quiet for me to hear, and she cracks up laughing, placing her hand on his elbow, and I see red, especially when I notice he’s still wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday.
Did he go out and pick up some floozy for the night? And he has the nerve to bring her back here and flaunt her in front of me?
I charge across the room, my sneakers squelching off the polished hardwood floor as anger races through my limbs. The woman jerks her head in my direction as I round the couch, drawing to a halt in front of them.
I was wrong before.
She’s not just gorgeous.
She’s breathtakingly stunning, and I don’t say that lightly. With her full mouth, big eyes, thick, lustrous hair, and knockout figure, she is “stop the lights” beautiful. She also looks somewhat familiar, but I don’t know why. I’m not into chicks. But I’d consider turning gay or bi for her. The thought lands like sour milk in my stomach as hurt batters me on all sides. Dismissing my errant thoughts, I fixate my gaze on Kai, sending him a poisonous look. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
He leans back, stretching his arm around the back of the couch behind her, and my hands ball up at my side. “Talking. What’s it to you?” He smirks, and I want to ram my fist into his smug face.
“I knew you were full of shit.” I glance at her briefly, and her brows pull together in confusion. “And I’m done playing your games. I’m leaving, and I don’t give a rat’s ass if my father discovers your location. He can nuke your cheating ass for all I care!” I shoot her a venomous look before I stomp off.
I almost make it to the door before I’m scooped up and flung over his shoulder.
“Let me down, you motherfucking good-for-nothing slimeball!” I pound my fists against his back, wriggling and struggling as he walks toward the couch. “Ow!” I cry out as he swats my ass hard.
“Stop fucking wriggling, or I’ll smack you again.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
He swats my ass a second time, and I lose it, kicking and screaming and slapping his back.
“Wow. That’s an interesting dynamic,” a deep voice I don’t recognize says as Kai flops down on the couch, wrangling me onto his lap.