Secret Indiscretions (Carson Cove Scandals 2)

“What!?” My eyes nearly bulged out of my head. “Married!?”

“Yes.” She clutched the spoon that she had been using to stir the spaghetti so tight it looked like it might break. “I knew it was wrong, but—I was so young, and I was in love…”

“Mom…” I stood there in stunned silence—I had no idea how to respond.

“It was a bit of a scandal, which is why my family decided that it was best for us to leave Carson Cove—and why we changed our name…” She squeezed her eyes shut, and I could tell she was on the verge of tears.

“Wait—our last name isn’t Monroe?” I took a step back.

“It is now,” she sighed. “But before I was Lydia Monroe, I was Linda Baker—the talk of the town.”

“Did anyone know you were pregnant?” I was struggling with what she was telling me, but I felt like I needed to know more.

“No, we kept that a secret. I did the walk of shame out of Carson Cove before I started showing. Of course—your father knew. He tracked me down and made all kinds of promises, which I was foolish enough to believe, but he didn’t mean a single one of them. By the time you were born, he was apologizing to his wife and trying to save his marriage.”

“Damn…” I shook my head and sighed.

“It didn’t work. She still left him… A few years later, he tracked me down, but he wasn’t the man I remembered—maybe I just had a different perspective then.” She lifted her head and a couple of tears rolled down her cheeks. “I saw who he really was…”

“Mom…I want to know his name.”

“No.” She quickly shook her head, and her entire demeanor changed. “You don’t—trust me, you don’t…”

“You’ve told me this much.” I took a step closer. “I’m not going to try to track him down. I believe everything you’re telling me—but I need to know.”

“Don’t make me tell you…” The tears started to stream. “Please, Melanie. Let this go…”

“Mom, I can’t.” I felt tears welling up in my eyes too. “I deserve to know, even if it’s painful for you…”

“He’s…” She trembled. “Your father—is Aidan Devereaux.”

I couldn’t even respond. My throat went dry. My lips moved, but no words came out. My stomach twisted into a knot, and my head started to spin. I kept waiting for her to tell me that she was joking—that she had grabbed the worst name she could think of so that when she revealed my father’s real name, I would be relieved it wasn’t actually him. That moment never came. The tears in her eyes—the sorrowful expression on her face—that confirmed she wasn’t lying. My emotions flipped from confused to pure shock to a hint of anger—then I just settled on heartbreak and felt myself falling apart.

“My father is Alexis Devereaux’s brother!?” I regained my ability to speak, but I still felt sick to my stomach.

“Obviously I had no idea what kind of man he was back then…” She looked down at the floor. “He was really sweet when he wanted to be, and that’s why I fell for him. I knew

he was married, but he said their relationship was over—they were going to get a divorce—all of the things that a married man says when he wants something other than what’s waiting at home.”

“I watched the news when he got arrested…” I blinked a couple of times and tried to stop the tears. “I celebrated it with Taylor…”

“You shouldn’t feel bad about that.” My mother took a step forward and put her hand on my arm. “He deserved what happened to him—it had been a long time coming.”

“I…” My whole body trembled. “I need some time to process this.”

I pulled away from my mother, ignored Charley when she asked where I was going and left my apartment. I didn’t stop walking until I got to my car, but I didn’t drive away. I just sat there and tried to wrap my head around what my mother told me. Alexis Devereaux tried to break up Taylor’s relationship with Bryant. Taylor was the one who found the evidence that put Alexis in prison. That evidence also implicated Alexis’ brother—my father. I wasn’t a—Devereaux!? That name was associated with so many awful things in Carson Cove, and it went way beyond what Alexis tried to do to Taylor and Bryant. Alexis and Aidan were pariahs that literally ruined people’s lives in order to get what they wanted.

I’m one of them…that blood is in my veins too…

I couldn’t help but wonder if that was the part of myself, I channeled when I set Jackson up. It was the kind of thing someone like Alexis Devereaux would do. I manipulated my environment, preyed on whatever emotions Jackson still had for me—the fact that he still wanted me to be his sunshine—and used it to bring him to his knees. Was I any better than my aunt? Then my father? I justified my actions because what I did was for the greater good, but I relished in Jackson’s misery. I enjoyed the look of terror on his mother’s face when she realized that her son had been arrested. I thought Jackson was the monster, but maybe the real monster had been staring at me in the mirror the whole time—the product of a tainted bloodline—the child of an evil man from a malicious family.

I can’t believe he’s really my father…

* * *

Several days later

I became an expert in going through the motions of life. Finding out that Aidan Devereaux was my father blew apart the foundation I had always managed to stand on with my head held high. I decided that it was a secret I wanted to keep to myself—I had no interest in telling Jon or Taylor or anyone else that I was actually a Devereaux that was just missing the tarnished last name to be a member of the family that brought them so much heartache. Jon wasn’t directly impacted by the Devereaux family like Taylor and Bryant were, but he was dealing with something tied to Alexis—the letters from the Carnation Club—and she created it when she was in high school. I hoped that the temporary reprieve I got when the emergency hearing was canceled would give us time to try and figure out who was hiding behind the pink envelopes and carnations, but I couldn’t focus on anything else.