Page 85 of Gone for You

“Oh, okay. Is, uh, everything okay? I mean, I assume not because you’re calling at this hour but…”

“No, it’s not.”

I stub my toe on the coffee table. “Shit.” I can’t believe I just cursed on the phone with Ethan’s dad. “Sorry. I just… never mind. I’ll go get him.”

“Thank you.”

I press the phone to my stomach and jostle Ethan’s arm. “Hey, Ethan. Wake up.”

“Huh?” He rolls over, sees that I’m half-dressed and his eyes bunch together in confusion. He looks at the bed, back to me again. “What’s going on? Are you leaving?”

I hope he doesn’t see that I was considering it. That I was five seconds away from taking the coward’s way out and leaving in the night so that he never had the chance to leave me but I keep my mouth shut. I lift the phone in his direction. “Your dad, he’s been trying to call you.”

He sits up immediately, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed and takes the phone from me, pressing it to his hear.

“Dad? What’s wrong?” His voice is scratchy from sleep.

I stand in front of him, not knowing what I should be doing while he listens to whatever news his father is dropping on him.

He rubs his eyes. “How?” he asks gruffly.

With the hand not holding the phone, he reaches out for me. I step closer and he wraps his hand around mine, gripping me tightly.

“Fuck me, Dad. How could you not tell me this shit?”

He looks up at me and I see heartbreak in his eyes, which breaks my own heart.

“Yeah. I’ll be over later. I just… I can’t believe this. She was here all this time?”

My eyes widen and I mouth the wordMomand he nods, eyes closing in pain.

Without thinking, I move to sit on his lap, my legs straddling him. His arm wraps around me, holding me close. “Okay. Yeah. I’ll tell her.” He squeezes me once and I know he’s talking about me. “See ya… yeah, Dad, I love you, too.”

He tosses his phone on the floor and he wraps his other arm around me, his face pressed into my chest and for the first time since we met, there’s not a single thing sexual about our position.

“The woman who gave birth to me is dead.”

Oh no.

“She’s been living in the United States for the past twenty-five years, Liv. Twenty-five. I thought she’d been in Mexico this entire time.”

Oh shit.

“I have a little sister.”

Well, fuck.

He laughs humorlessly. “That’s what I thought, too.”

Oops. Apparently, I’d been saying all that out loud. “What do you need from me?”

“You’re doing it. Just be here. With me.”

“Okay.”

“Dad wants you to come over when I go see him later.”

I do my best not to let my unease show. This is big. This isn’t just the two of us agreeing to try something together. This is me being there for him and meeting his dad is big. The last time I didbig, I ended up getting cheated on. But I can’t keep living in the past and in this fear. Time to move on. Move forward. With Ethan. “Okay.”

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