“What’s yours?” he asked.
“Please stop dragging this out,” I said as I turned toward him. My eyes locked with his, and I watched his gaze grow stern. “I know something’s wrong. I know this conversation isn’t going to be a good one. So just spit it out. Are you having second thoughts? Am I going to be raising this child on my own?”
I watched his eyebrows furrow as he turned his torso toward me.
“Is that what you think? That I’m suddenly bailing on you?”
“That’s the only thing I can think. You haven’t touched me or looked at me or even smiled genuinely once since you picked me up. I figured it was because Rebecca was with us—”
“Audrey,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“Audrey. My daughter’s name is Audrey.”
“It’s—what?”
He sighed as he took my hands, but I quickly pulled them away.
“What do you mean your daughter’s name is Audrey?” I asked.
“I need you to listen, okay?”
“Who are you?”
“Heather.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Cameron Silver, but I’m living under the identity of Andrew Thompson.”
My jaw fell open. My blood ran cold. I scooted away from him on the couch when he reached out to me. Had I heard him right? Was I dreaming?
“Your name isn’t Andrew?”
“No. It’s not. I’m Cameron Silver, and my daughter’s name is Audrey Silver.”
My entire world tilted as my heart stopped in my chest.
“I don’t understand,” I said, creating more distance between us. Suddenly the man I thought I knew was a complete stranger all over again.
“Two and a half years ago, my brother was killed,” he began. “He owed a lot of money to a very bad person because of his gambling addiction. He couldn't meet his monthly payments to his loan shark, and in a fit of fear, he came to me asking for help.”
“Your brother,” I said.
“Yes. He’s the only family I’ve got—had. He was the only family I had. The two of us, we were estranged from my parents, pushed away by an alcoholic father and a drug-addled mother. I threw my anger and my time into building a company, and he threw his anger and time into gambling to make ends meet. Sometimes, he won big, but he lost big more often. And when he started losing big with the wrong people’s money, he came to me looking for help. Begged me to help him out of debt. So, I liquidated some of my assets and paid off his loan.”
My head spun as he reached out to me again. Was this some twisted way to get rid of me? Couldn’t he just be direct and end whatever our relationship was like a normal person would? None of this made sense, given what I’d seen of Andrew—or Cameron if that was really his name.
“I paid off his debt, but it wasn’t on time.” He seemed to struggle with his words before he continued. “They killed him.”
“Who’s they?” I asked. His hands came down on mine again, but I pulled away. “Who’s they, and—” I shook my head as I tried to wrap my mind around everything.
“The Mafia.”
I let out an exasperated chuckle. “The Mafia. Your brother gambled with the Mafia’s money?”
“And they killed him for it, yes. I watched it happen, Heather. I saw it from an alleyway. He called me from his cell phone, talking about how they were going to kill him anyway, and he needed help. So I went after him. I went