The Hardest Fall

So, it was time I told him everything I’d kept inside for so long. We were going to have a talk, and this time I was going to be the one doing all the talking. It was probably going to be the last time I ever saw him, too, and I was more than okay with that. I gave him Jared’s address, and he told me he’d be there in fifteen.

After sitting with Jared and Kayla for another ten minutes, I promised them I’d come back the next day to meet her parents then headed out to wait for Mark to come pick me up. When I told my friends I was going to talk with him, Jared gave me an alarmed look, but I didn’t think anything of it.

I should’ve. I should’ve been just as alarmed as he was because I didn’t know it then, but right that second, Dylan was waiting for me across the street from the apartment building I’d just walked out of.

My phone beeped with a new text and I looked down to read it as I walked toward the sidewalk.

Dylan: I missed you.

When I heard a car, I looked up from the screen and saw Mark’s black SUV coming toward me. Without sending a reply, I stuffed the phone in my back pocket and nervously waited for him to come to a stop right in front of me.

As I climbed up into the passenger seat, unbeknownst to me, Dylan took a few steps forward and stared at the car in shock. I didn’t know he was waiting across the street so he could walk back to the apartment with me. I didn’t know he’d wanted to surprise me.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Zoe

Mark unlocked the apartment door and gestured for me to go in first. I hesitated.

“Go, Zoe,” he said through gritted teeth.

Since Dylan had moved in, Mark had never once come to the apartment. There had been a handful of times he’d invited me to meet somewhere far away from campus—far away from watchful eyes—but more often than not, he had stood me up. In months, I’d seen him a total of three times, or maybe four. On the most recent occasions, he had barely even looked me in the face. The guy who acted like he was interested in getting to know me had disappeared somewhere between my sophomore and junior years, and I was an idiot.

I stepped inside and panicked for a moment as I wondered where Dylan was.

Mark didn’t waste any time walking past me into the living room. His posture was rigid, his knuckles already white.

“Tell me what this is all about,” he ordered when I was standing close enough.

“What?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Zoe. Where did this thing about telling Dylan everything come from?”

He couldn’t be that blind, could he?

“I like him,” I said slowly. “We’re more than just friends.” Just saying it out loud made my stomach tighten in the best way possible. If I hadn’t been staring at Mark’s angry face, I’m sure I would’ve grinned.

“You can’t be this stupid.”

I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth and chose not to reply.

“He is Chris’s friend, Zoe. He’ll tell him everything.”

“He won’t, but why does it matter? We’re going to tell him after the last game anyway.” He gave me a look filled with hatred, and I tried to keep my expression neutral. “We are going to tell him, right?”

In jerky movements, he ran his hand through his hair and muttered something under his breath as he looked out the window.

I took a step back and the backs of my calves hit the couch, so I sat my ass down.

“Even after the last game, you weren’t going to let me tell him, were you? You’ll never tell him he has a sister.”

Deep down, I’d always known. If not, I was pretty stupid, and I really didn’t want to believe I was that stupid. At any time I could’ve walked up to Chris and struck up a conversation, but I didn’t because I was partly afraid of how he’d react. I didn’t know him, didn’t want to deal with rejection, so I let Mark put it off. Also, I think secretly I wanted to give Mark the benefit of the doubt, wanted him to want to be a part of my life. He was my biological father after all, and loving what came from you was instinctive, wasn’t it? Considering the look on Mark’s face, I doubted that was the case with us.

“Why did you even let me come here? To Los Angeles? You don’t want me near Chris. You don’t want to know me. My freshman year, the way you were with me—was that all a lie? Were you just acting and lying to keep me quiet?”

He turned to face me and smoothed down the edges of his mouth with his fingers. “It’s not that simple. There are things you don’t know.”