Then she glared at me with those intense blue eyes. “Really? My whole life has been like that, Ryan.”
“I just mean…”
“Look. I wish I could take all this away for you. That’s what last night was about. You know it as well as I do. You once told me you didn’t want to be my escape. I never wanted to be yours either, but last night I was. You needed it. I needed it. It was a momentary reprieve. But we’re back to real life now, and you and I both have to deal with this. The question is—do you want to deal with it with me or without me?”
The million-dollar question. She’d been a part of this whole thing—of keeping the truth from me. I wasn’t just angry with her. I was angry with all of them. Mostly I was angry with my father. I was angry with a dead man.
A fucking dead man.
Who the hell was Bradford Steel?
And now, to find out that I grew in the uterus of a crazy woman…
“You should have told me,” I said.
“Yes, I should have. I was hoping the test would be negative and you’d never have to know. Then I could have saved you this pain.”
“I know. My brothers explained that. Still, they should have told me.”
“I agree. So do Jade and Melanie. But they felt the same way I did. They didn’t want to hurt you if it could be avoided.”
“You gave them my hair.”
She nodded. “I did.”
“You’re just going to admit it?”
“Why not? You want me to try to blame the whole thing on someone else? What good would that do? Yes, I gave them your hair. What I didn’t tell them is that I came upon the hair by accident. I didn’t pull it out of your head or go searching through your brush. The hair was on my neck that morning…after…”
He nodded. “Okay. Still, you didn’t have to give it to them.”
“You’re absolutely right. I didn’t have to. In fact, I thought a lot about whether I would. In the end, I decided to, on the chance that the test might be negative. That way, you wouldn’t be hurt.”
“Fuck, Ruby. You should have come to me.”
“I won’t deny it.”
“So you’re just going to sit there and agree with everything I say? Fight me, goddamnit! I need a fucking fight!”
“Sorry. You won’t get one from me. You want to walk out that door? Say good-bye to me and anything we could have? I won’t stop you, Ryan. I’ve lost a lot in my life. One more thing won’t kill me.”
Her eyes softened a bit then.
“Won’t it? Could you really say good-bye to me?” I asked.
And then her eyes turned blue as the morning sky. “Could you say good-bye to me?”
Chapter Thirty–Five
Ruby
I couldn’t believe those words had left my lips.
Of course he could say good-bye to me. This was Ryan Steel, a man who could have any woman he wanted.
“I’m mad as hell,” he said.
“I know that. I don’t blame you.”