Page 63 of The Dom

“Chris,” I called to the massive man standing only a couple feet away. “Please escort Ms. Evenstar from the premises and put her on the no admittance list. I don’t want her to step foot in my lobby ever again.”

“Your lobby?” She practically screeched. “What kind of fucking power trip are you on?!”

“It’s his building,” Chris said as he cut between her and me. Not many men could tower over Calah, but he was even taller than me. “Do I need to call the cops and charge you with trespassing?”

She sputtered out a few more curses but walked away, Chris trailing behind just in case she decided to double back.

“Sorry about that,” I said to Catherine, who’d been watching the whole thing, wide-eyed. “Maybe you don’t tell your mom and dad this part, okay? They don’t like that woman very much.”

I didn’t add that it was because of that woman I’d lost my family for a decade. No, she’d been only a part of it. It had been my decision not to come completely clean. I had to own that as much as I had to own what really happened.

It was time. Past time, if I was being completely honest.

“Did you mean what you said?” Ashlee asked. “About being through lying about what happened with her and your brother?”

I met her eyes, wanting her to read the truth in mine. “I do.”

She reached out and caught my hand, squeezing it in a way that told me if we’d been somewhere less public and without a twelve-year-old watching, she would’ve kissed me in an indecent way.

“Good. I think you should start with Joshua.”

That wasn’t what I’d expected her to say. I assumed she’d want me to tell her what happened now. My reaction to her question about it had been the thing that’d set things off the other night.

“What now?”

“Take Catherine home and find out where Joshua is living,” she said, her voice gentle. “Tell him the truth and apologize for keeping it from him. At least if he’s angry at you after that, it’s for the right reasons.”

She was right. I owed Joshua the truth. How much we shared with our family after that, I would leave up to him. The only other person I’d tell was the beautiful woman in front of me. I would follow Finley’s advice and take the risk that came with letting her see the bad and good. I still had secrets, but this would make it one less.

“Will you come with me?”

She frowned. “You want me to come with you?”

I nodded. “You deserve to know the truth too. And,” I squeezed her hand, “I don’t know if I can do it on my own.”

Her face shone as she smiled. “Of course.”

Forty

Ashlee

My surprise at seeing Catherine was minor compared to what I felt when Nate confronted Calah. Neither one, however, came close to the shock of him asking me to go with him to tell his brother what’d really happened all those years ago. Of course I agreed, but only a small part of the reason was getting an answer to my questions. Mostly, I just wanted to be with him.

“Angus is here,” Nate said with a jerk of his chin toward the doors. “We should probably get going before Julia and David decide that I’m kidnapping their daughter.” He winked at Catherine, who giggled. “Tempting as that sounds.”

My heart warmed to see him with his niece. He’d talked to her during the family dinner, but being one-on-one with a kid when your normal, everyday life never included children was different. Would it be like that with me, I wondered, when I met my cousins?

Not exactly the same, of course, because they were all adults except for Trenton, but talking with him would be a little like talking to Catherine. And Aunt Janette said that two of my cousins had kids already, so there’d be little kids during the holidays. Since I didn’t have siblings, cousins and second cousins would have to do.

“Did you come to see Uncle Nate too?” Catherine asked me as we headed for the car.

“No, I work here,” I said. It wasn’t until that moment that something hit me. “How did you get here?”

Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked away. “I snuck out.”

My eyebrows went up, and I looked at Nate, who gave me a half-grin that told me he was trying not to tell his niece that he appreciated her rule breaking.

“Ah. I hope you didn’t cut school today too.”

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