“Dad…” I move to stand in front of Jacob. “I need you to take a breath and let me talk.”

  “Move, Whitney.” His eyes are cold and hard but they’re not directed at me. They’re directed about a foot over my head.

  “Dad… can we please just talk about this?” I ask. “I want to clear up a few things.”

  “Yeah, Dad… let’s just take a second. Take some deep breaths,” Mason interjects and I see the moment in my father’s eyes when he realizes that Mason saying something means there’s some truth to what Parker said.

  My father’s eyes dart to my brother, his eyebrows furrowing and I watch the pain flash across his face. Like my brother had betrayed him by not telling him. You knew? I can almost hear the words just in the brief look he gives Mason and I hate that I’ve irrevocably changed their relationship in the blink of an eye as well.

  “Talk about what?” my mother exclaims and when my eyes meet hers, I can see the tears flooding her eyes. “No fucking way.” I have rarely heard my mother swear and it feels foreign in my ears, hearing her sweet, soft voice speak something so harsh. Her chest is heaving up and down, her nostrils flare and when she opens her mouth a startled cry escapes it.

  “Mom…”

  “Okay, so we’re all on the same page,” Parker continues. “Didn’t realize JP and the godfather were the same person. Well, that’s something.” He snorts.

  “Parker,” Mason growls. “Shut the FUCK up,” he says as he and Chloe both start making their way toward him.

  Chloe points at the door. “Okay, seriously? Get the fuck out, Parker.”

  “I seriously do not want to have to hit you after what you’ve been through, but you are fucking tempting me,” Mason snaps as they both stand in front of him.

  “Well wait… so that everyone gets the full scope of the story, Whitney told me that the guy she was fucking behind my back is an old flame. As in before me.” No no no no. “And if everyone here is well versed at basic math, that would have put her at the ripe old age of jailbait the first time these two got together. What did you wait for the stroke of midnight on her eighteenth birthday? Love that for you. And you, Kev,” he says, pointing to my father.

  “Mason, NO,” Chloe exclaims and holds him back because he is a second from taking a swing at Parker. “So that he can press charges? No. This jerk off isn’t worth it. He was never worth it.” She spits out before she looks at Parker. “RUN. Or whatever the fuck, just GO!” she screams at him, but I can’t even be bothered to care because my father has stormed past me and has Jacob by the throat against the wall.

  “Dad! Oh my gosh, Dad, please stop! Oh my God. Mom!” I yell for her because I’ve never seen him like this. My father, the giant teddy bear that I’ve probably heard yell on less than ten occasions and has never put his hands on anyone, currently has his best friend by the throat.

  “Kev…” Jacob says through sputtered breaths and I’m wondering if he’s letting him do this until he really can’t breathe because Jacob is stronger than my father even on his worst day. “Please, let me…”

  He squeezes harder. “FUCK YOU. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” he roars. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT LITTLE ASSHOLE TALKING ABOUT?” he says, referring to Parker who I see is no longer in the room.

  Not that there was any more damage he could have done. He destroyed my life in three minutes.

  His final words to me come charging into my brain. What goes around comes around. I want to go after him and ask why. And how? How could he do this to me? I hadn’t intended to hurt him. It wasn’t malicious. It just… happened. But I couldn’t leave JP here to fend for himself against the only two people that he ever loved more than me. Two people that are looking at him now like they hate him.

  “Honey, stop.” My mom touches my father’s arm and I watch as he visibly relaxes, turning to look at her and for a moment I’m lost in how they look at each other. How they love each other. The conversation they’re having with just their eyes right now. The moment quickly dissipates when my father lets go of Jacob’s throat allowing him to take a breath. Coughs escape Jacob’s throat as he rubs his neck and no more than a second later, my mother’s hand comes flying through the air and slaps him hard against the cheek.

  I let out a cry and I move in front of Jacob, putting myself between him and my dad in case he decides to go for round two. My back is to my dad as I put my hands on his neck to see the marks from my father’s hands. “Shit! I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” I cry and I can see the hurt, pain and devastation in his eyes. I drag my fingertips over the marks from his fingers, wanting to run my lips over them instead.

  I’m sorry I did this, his eyes say.

  “YOU’RE SORRY!? Whitney, move,” my father growls and Jacob tries to move me gently out of the way.

  “No!” I spin around, planting myself firmly in front of Jacob. “Can you stop acting like a psychopath right now? This is your best friend!”

  “Was my best friend, not anymore. Not after this,” he snaps as he takes a step back, probably realizing that I’m not going to move. “My best friend wouldn’t have touched my daughter behind my back.” I look at my mother, who’s shaking her head at me, the tears still pouring from his face.

  “And you all just fucking knew!?” He points at Chloe and Mason. “You, I give a pass.” He says to Chloe. “Because you do whatever the fuck Whitney tells you even if it is idiotic.”

  “Kevin,” Jacob speaks up. “Don’t do this. Don’t take your anger with me out on anyone else.” His voice is calm and even despite having just been choked by the very man he’s attempting to reason with.

  I chance a glance at Chloe and I see the hurt on her face at my father’s harsh words.

  “Are you kidding me? Fuck you, Jacob.” He looks away from us and then back to me. “How fucking long and don’t you dare fucking lie to me, Whitney?”

  Jacob presses off the wall and gets in front of me. Jacob and my father are about the same height so they’re now staring at each other eye to eye. “Do not use that tone with her. I let you do that bullshit choking move but you and I both know I let that happen. Do not push me.”

  “Then you tell me, tough guy. When did you touch my daughter for the first time? Was it even consensual or—”

  “How could you even ask that?!” I interrupt. “Dad… what makes you think JP would ever do anything to hurt me?”

  “You hear that, JP?” he snarls, looking at Jacob. “That name she called you because it was easier than saying Jacob when she was learning to talk?” His eyes well up with tears as he shakes his head in disappointment. “Almost thirty years we’ve been best friends. You were there when she was born.” I feel like the boiling anger is slowly starting to fall away and we are crossing into pure hurt. “That’s my little girl, man. And… you! YOU! Of all people!”

  “I know.” Jacob’s voice breaks and I wonder if seeing my dad cry is triggering something in him. “I know… but I love her. She’s everything to me.”

  “YOU CAN’T LOVE HER!” my mother screams with a look of horror. “SHE’S NOT FOR YOU TO LOVE!” She lets out a sob and takes a breath. “Answer him,” she grits out before gesturing toward my father. “How long?”

  “I was eighteen. I was eighteen.” I look back and forth between both of them. “I swear. I… swear.”

  “And this… whole time?” My mother asks. Her eyes are narrowed as if to say how did you hide this from us for so long?

  “No. No. He left. He went to Mexico, and we broke up. He said we couldn’t be together because of you two.” The tears have started flying down my face rapidly. “It crushed me.” I let out a shaky breath. “He chose you two over me and it crushed me!” I scream.

  My mother’s eyes widen and I think she’s connecting the dots of when this all happened. “Oh my God… you.” She points at Jacob. “That’s why you were so depressed! You weren’t eating or sleeping.” She puts both hands over her eyes. “YOU BROKE HER! You sick, twisted ASSHOLE!” She screams at Jacob. “Get out.” She points toward the door. “I never want to see you again, Jacob Price, so help me GOD!” she yells and then she storms out of the room and up the stairs before slamming a door to what I assume to be her and my father’s bedroom.

  “You know how this looks to us, right? Like you preyed on her,” my father asks, his voice quiet but full of venom.

  “You know it’s not like that, Kevin. I swear. I… I know how this looks but I never saw her like that before she was eighteen.”

  “Oh? Then what the fuck is it like Jacob because I don’t know how you go from being her godfather to her whatever this is overnight,” he spits out angrily. “From evidently seventeen and three hundred and sixty-four days to all of a sudden when she’s eighteen just… what a whole new person? Fuck you for trying to rationalize this bullshit.”

  “Dad, I came onto him. I… I told him I had feelings for him. I always did, Dad. And… if you thought about it, you’d know. Think about how I was, how I always wanted to be around him. There were signs!”

  “Of course, I knew. Your mother and I both did. Of course, I saw how you looked at him, how you idolized him. I thought it was an innocent crush! And I surely didn’t expect him to reciprocate these wildly inappropriate feelings you were having!”

  “So, I went to him…” I bite down on my lower lip, knowing that I need to come clean about all of it. “I was older, and I looked different and he hadn’t seen me in over a year and… I preyed on him, Dad. He was kind of drunk and… I did it. I kissed him that first time and then things changed and I’m sorry. I am so sorry,” I choke out. “But please, do not blame him for this. You can’t hate him! You’ve been best friends forever.” I wrap my arms around myself suddenly freezing and I wonder if my body is going into shock.

  “He betrayed my trust, Whitney.” His eyes look at Jacob. “Michelle and I trusted you. We let you around our kids. You helped raise them! Just to… do this?” He shakes his head, the tears in his eyes have started to fall. “Last night, when I was at your house and Whitney was there… I felt like something was off. Something I couldn’t put my finger on and then it hit me out of fucking nowhere. I couldn’t even believe my mind went there.” His hands ball into fists so hard that I hear his knuckles crack as he draws in a breath of air through gritted teeth. “You knew I could see it. I saw the way you looked at me. Like you were apologizing. When we were in your office, I could sense it but I couldn’t believe it. There was no way that Jacob Price, my best friend and the most trustworthy, honorable man I knew would ever touch my daughter. My baby… my pride and joy.” His nostrils flare. “I thought I knew you. But this just proves that you’ve been fooling us both for thirty fucking years!? You lied to us about who you were for this long!?”

  “Kevin, I am still that person. I would do anything for you and Miche and…”

  “NO! You don’t get to say that after this,” he yells. “You gave up our friendship the second you touched my CHILD.”

  “I am not a child! I was never a child when we did this,” I scream, wishing I could drive home that point so they stop looking at Jacob like he’s a predator or that he groomed me for this.

  “Semantics and you fucking know it, Whitney. And maybe if this was something you were exploring now for the first time, I may be handling this differently. Trust me, I’d still be pissed but all the lying and sneaking around three years ago!?” He shakes his head. “I will never forgive you for this, Jacob.”

  “Dad—” I go to touch him when he moves back quickly out of my reach as if he doesn’t want me to touch him. I place a hand over my heart as if I’m trying to shield it from the pain he’s causing at this moment. He used to tell me that my hugs were his favorite thing in the world. The Whitney Bug Hugs he’d call them and now he can’t even bear me touching him.

  “And you, Whitney. I can’t imagine you’re going to leave him now so I don’t know what kind of relationship this allows you and I to have.” My heart thumps painfully as a flash of a life without my father appears in front of me. “You’re my daughter and I will always love you, and I’ll always be there if you need me but I don’t support this and I won’t be around… this.” He says pointing at us.

  “I’m in love with him, Dad. I know it’s hard to wrap your brain around but he’s the love of my life. I can give you time to…”

  “Time to what? Get on board with this?” He scoffs. “Grow up, Whitney. You both just destroyed this family.” He shakes his head. “I hope this was all fucking worth it.” He storms out of the room and up the stairs and I can hear the door open and close with the same force of my mother’s slam.

  I turn to Jacob and I’m in his arms instantly, sobbing into his chest. “Shh, I’ve got you. Baby, I’m sorry. I am so so sorry,” he whispers in my ear before he presses his lips to my temple and I cry even harder that he’s the one comforting me when he got the brunt of their anger.

  “Don’t apologize. I’m sorry. Do you hate me?” I hiccup as I look up at him. I can barely see him through my tears that I can tell he’s trying to brush away.

  “Never,” he whispers against my forehead. “Do you hear me? This is not your fault.”

  I frown and look up at him. “It’s not yours either,” I whisper and I realize that Chloe and Mason are probably still in the room but when I turn toward them, I only see Chloe who’s got tears in her eyes. “Where’s Mason?”

  “He followed Uncle Kevin.” She wipes under her eyes. “I think I’m going to head out. I… would advise you guys to do the same for now?”

  I nod in agreement knowing I do not want to be here whenever my parents emerge from their bedroom. “Thank you for coming and… I’m sorry about what my dad said.” I wince.

  “He was angry and… we have talked each other into doing a lot of crazy shit over the years. He doesn’t know all the trouble I’ve gotten you into too.” She smiles but I know what he said stings because Chloe has proven time and time again that she’d follow me over a cliff every time.

  “You drive here?” Jacob asks and I can sense his worry that maybe she shouldn’t be driving.

  “Your brother is outside. He didn’t want to be too far away in case things went south.” Her lips form a straight line. Like they did.

  I pull out of Jacob’s arms despite the grip he has on me and wrap my arms around her, crying into her neck and I feel her hands at my back. “I love you, Chlo.”

  “I love you more, Whit. Just give them some time to let it sink in. It’s a bomb. You have to let the dust settle now.” She pulls away and gives me a small smile through her watery eyes. “Kevin and Michelle Monroe aren’t capable of grudges or hatred… let alone for two of their favorite people in the world. Let them sit with their anger for a minute, alright?”

  I nod, knowing she’s right but unsure how I can live in a world where the two people that brought me into it potentially aren’t talking to me for even the shortest amount of time.

  “Chloe, thank you for… everything.” Jacob says from behind me and she nods at him.

  “Take care of her,” she says and then she’s gone.

  I shoot a text to Mason as we head toward the door that we are about to leave when I hear the faint sounds of a door closing and then he’s moving down the stairs.

  “How bad is it?” I ask as he meets us at the door. Mason, who was the only person who hadn’t shed any tears initially now has red eyes and I wonder if he cried while he was upstairs.

  “Bad. Mom won’t stop crying and Dad is pacing the room talking about what charge he’d get for murdering you.” He rubs his eyes and clears the emotion from his throat. “I told him probably second degree because you know crimes of passion? But the longer he thinks on it, the more it’s looking like first-degree murder.”

  “Mase…” I chastise him for his joke.

  “Too soon? Well look, Dad hates me as much as he hates you right now,” he says, pointing at me. “Definitely not as much as he hates you,” he says, gesturing to Jacob. “But yeah, the whole me not telling him what was going on? Pissed. Apparently, he’s subscribing to the bros before hoes thing.”

  “Okay, Dad is not your bro and I am not a ho,” I say, giving him my middle finger.

  “You know what the fuck I’m saying, Whitney. He’s pissed I didn’t tell him what was going on. That I knew and kept it to myself. That I didn’t kick your ass myself,” he says, pointing at Jacob. “Dad is really angry, Whitney and you know Dad rarely gets angry. I’ve never seen him like that. This isn’t just anger. This is pain and hurt and betrayal and that’s why it’s so intense. Who Mom and Dad are has become so heavily intertwined with Jacob over the years. Their friendship is one of the foundations of this family. So yeah, he’s right in that regard, that this changes our entire family. You changed Mom and Dad… forever.”

  The ride back to my house is quiet, save for the sounds of Whitney’s sniffles and the windshield wipers. Part of me wants to take a detour and pay a little visit to her ex-fiancé and beat the shit out of that motherfucker. How could anyone be so cruel? Maybe he hated Whitney or me or probably us both but to destroy her parents like that so callously and with no regard to their feelings or how this would affect them. What the hell did she ever see in him? “Are you hungry?” I finally break the silence and Whitney pulls her gaze from the window toward me.

  “No,” she responds quietly, her voice barely above a whisper and I grab her hand pulling it to my lips.

  “You’re going to need to eat something.”

  “Can we just order something when we get back to the house? I’m fucking exhausted and I have a headache and I think I need a drink. Several of them.”

  “I can make that happen.” She takes a deep breath through her nose and lets it out through her mouth slowly and I can feel the tension flowing off of her in waves. I don’t know what’s going on in her head and it’s driving me crazy. “Can you tell me what you’re thinking about?”

  “I can’t believe that’s how it happened.” Her eyes flutter closed, and she continues to speak with them shut. “We waited years to tell them only for it to blow up in our faces like that.” Her eyebrows pull together and she bites her bottom lip and not in that sexy way I love although I still can’t help but feel the need to pull that lip between my teeth. “I feel like they’ll never forgive you. That I’m their daughter, so they’ll forgive me at some point. But they won’t forgive you.” Her eyes finally open and sweep to find my gaze which I catch. A tear slides down her face and I’m glad that we are back at my house so that I can comfort her properly. “And I worry you’ll grow to resent me for losing them. That they may not even want to come to our wedding…” She lets out a shaky breath. “If there’s even a potential for you and me anymore.”