I texted Jack hours ago before I turned my phone off so he wouldn’t worry, but I should have known he would.
I walk over to the intercom and buzz him up, unlock the door and leave it open a crack and then sit down to wait for him.
But when the door opens it’s not him who walks in, it’s Beth.
I surge to my feet, regret is a sharp knife in my gut. After the way I left things at my mother’s I’m shocked to see her.
Her nose is red from the cold, and her lips are slightly chapped. Her dark hair, flows freely to her shoulders and is flecked with snowflakes. She looks beautiful.
She yanks the cap of her head and pulls her gloves off and shivers. “It’s so cold here. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this weather. No matter how many layer I wear, I can’t seem to get warm enough,” she says through chattering teeth.
She turns around to hang her coat on the small hook behind my door and I notice that she’s trembling.
I walk to her, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“What happened?”
She stiffens and slides out from under my touch, and turns to face me. Her expression is unreadable.
“You smell like brewery,” she remarks in an even voice, as inscrutable as her expression.
“We went to a bar after practice, someone spilled beer on me. I was just about to shower when the bell rang.”
“I’m sorry I showed up like this, so late. But you weren’t answering your phone. And this can’t wait.”
She pulls her phone out the small purse she’s carrying and hands it to me open to an email.
“Read this.”
I take it, and sit.
I read the email, look at the pictures and with every word and every image, I fluctuate between horror and rage as I realize the implications of what she’s laid out.
“Is this true? Dina? She set us up?”
“If I hadn’t seen the evidence of it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it.”
My heart is racing at a thundering sprint and I drop my head in my hands. “She…we… we lost so much time,” I stammer in wild disbelief.
“Carter, we don’t know for sure. That’s why I came. We need to take DNA tests, brand new ones. Between you and Phil.” She looks away from me and swallows hard. “And between you and me.”
I sit, stunned by the sudden turn in the tide with my ears ringing so loudly that it drowns out the silence that stretches between us for a few minutes.
“Is your heart racing, too?” I ask, finally.
She bites her lip and her eyes don’t meet mine. But she nods. “It has been since I found out.”
Her quiet, hesitant tone doesn’t dampen my reaction to her admission.
I feel triumphant, vindicated. “I’ve always known… there’s no way we could be related.” I stand, wrap an arm around her waist and lift her off her feet into a hug.
“Put me down, now,” she says and the anger in her voice is like a slap.
I put her down, and take a step back.
Her expression is glacial.
“Just a few hours ago, you told me you didn’t want to see me again,” she says and wince at the memory.
“I didn’t mean that, come on,” I cajole.
She looks even more upset. “But you said it. And then, you walked out on me. You invited me to join your family and then you left. Do you know how humiliating that was?” she demands.
“I’m sorry. I know it was shitty. But this changes everything, we can be together,” I plead.
“That, Carter is the problem. It’s not that easy. What’ll you do if the test doesn’t say what we want?”
I let out a long sigh, desperate to fix what I’ve broken.
“I have money saved up to buy a house in Corsica. I love my career. But I love you more. No matter what those results say, let’s just fuck off and go live there. Let’s agree to be happy together, no matter what.”
She blanches, her eyes wide and impossibly blue against the backdrop of her suddenly very pale face.
“No… we couldn’t. We have families. Careers.”
“You wouldn’t give all of that up to be with me?”
“You shouldn’t want me to. You shouldn’t ask me to. I love you, Carter. I’ll never stop. But I won’t ever give up my entire life for anyone again. I just got it back. I’m finally free. I’m finally doing what I want.”
“It’s good to know what your priorities are. But I guess I’ve always known. You chose money over me before, ” I say, stung by her rejection.
She jerks back, as if I spit in her face. Her eyes narrow and she draws her shoulders up.
“I know you had a great childhood, but, I grew up in a house of horrors. I would have done anything to save Cameron from that. She’s my sister. A completely helpless baby. My father is violent and sadistic. And he doesn’t have that thing called fear of prosecution and jail that stops most of us from strangling each other to death,” she rages, her finger stabbing the air as if she’s conducting a symphony.
“I know.” I try to grab her finger. She slaps my hand away.
“I found out months ago that the money’s mine already. If I wanted to, I could go to Texas and demand the will be enforced and be rich beyond my wildest dreams. I wouldn’t be working sixty hours a week,” she says in a voice made harsh by disappointment and hurt.
“The money is yours?” I gape.
“But I’d rather find a way to blow all that money up than keep my father’s secrets. I admit that it was a misguided decision. But, I won’t apologize for not being willing to sacrifice my sister’s chance at a better life to run away with you, no matter how much I liked kissing you. That money was a way out. One you couldn’t give me.”
I flinch.
“That was below the belt,” I say.
“It’s true. I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just being honest,” she says in a frank voice.
“And Carter, even if I was willing to walk away now, there’s not a place in this world we could live in peace if what we hope isn’t true. But, we could live right here and figure out how to be friends.”
The way she says that, as if it’s a suitable substitute for everything else we could be, pisses me off.
“Fuck your friendship. I want to be your lover. I want to be your husband. I want to plant my fucking seed in you and get the chance to watch it grow.”
My bedroom door opens. I freeze and my stomach plummets. Beth straightens and scoots away from me, her eyes widening in pained surprise before she closes them. When she opens them half a second later, the disappointment in them cuts me in half.
Lisa, the sound tech I left the bar with, steps into the living room wrapped in a towel.
I’d forgotten she was here.
I only let her come up because I’d spilled beer all over both of us.
“I’ve been done with the shower forever, what are you doing out here?” She asks in a coy, but accusatory voice.
“Uh Lisa…shit.” I gawk at her, trying to figure out how I’m going to make this nightmare scenario work.
She looks at Beth, her eyes narrowing. “Who is this?”
“Lisa, you should go,” I say between clenched teeth.