Page 101 of She Was Made for Me

Just seeing him makes my eyes well with tears again. I try to hold them back but it’s no good. The floodgates have opened and I can’t stop them now. Tears spill over my cheeks and drop onto my keyboard, and I reach for a tissue before I’m forced to call IT.

“Violet, what’s wrong?” Dad asks. “Is it something with work? Is the job not going well?” He looks at Mom who is off-screen and obviously nearby, but I can sense she wants me to say this to him myself.

“It’s not that.” I wipe my face, trying to pull myself together. “It’s… Mom told me…” My heart is a jackhammer as I try to find the words. “Mom told me you know about me and Kyle.”

Dad nods, his gaze dropping to something on his desk. “Yes.”

I take a fortifying breath. “How did you find out? Did he tell you?”

Dad grimaces, still not meeting my eyes. “He didn’t have to. After the project wrapped up, you both seemed off and I knew something wasn’t right. I put two and two together, and when I confronted him, he admitted it.”

I rub my forehead, feeling awful. “I’m so sorry,” I mumble. “Can you forgive me?”

Dad’s head snaps up. “I’m not angry withyou. It’s him I’m mad at. He’s the adult in this situation.”

A weary sigh gusts out of me. Why am I not surprised he views it in that way?

“No, Dad,” I say firmly. “We’rebothadults.”

His brows crash together. “He shouldn’t have pursued you, Violet, especially not after what you’d been through with losing your job. I asked him to look out for you—”

“I don’t need looking out for. I’m not a child.” I sigh impatiently, and somewhere in the background I hear Mom chime in.

“No, you’re not, and your father needs to get used to it.”

Having Mom’s support makes me feel bolder, so I add, “He didn’t pursue me. I pursued him.”

“It’s okay,” Dad says, ignoring Mom. “You don’t have to defend him. He told me it was his idea, that he instigated it.”

I shake my head in disbelief. Why would he do that? Why would he tell Dad that he pushed me, rather than the truth?

My eyes prick with tears as I realize why. He tried to protect me, to make sure Dad blamed him and not me.

“He lied,” I whisper. “He would have said that to make sure you didn’t think badly of me, but the truth is…” I sniff, dashing a hand across my cheek. “I pursued him. He was a complete gentleman, and fought it every step of the way. But we…” My words die off as another sob slips from me.

Dad’s frown deepens. “Stop trying to protect him.”

“Richard,” Mom scolds in the background, but Dad waves her away.

“I’m not trying to protect him,” I insist. “He was worried about betraying you. He agonized over it constantly.”

“Then why did he do it?” Dad snaps angrily.

“It wasn’t only him. It was both of us. It was me, pushing him, because there was something…” I swallow. “We fell in love. I loved him. Istilllove him.”

Dad’s eyes widen with shock. “You can’t be serious.”

“Richard,” Mom says, more forcefully this time, and Dad glances away from the screen. “You’re not in the courtroom now. This is your daughter, for Christ’s sake. Listen to her.”

Dad turns back to me with a wary look.

“Iamin love with him,” I murmur. “He’s your closest friend. Surely you can see how lovable he is.”

Dad shifts his weight uncomfortably. “But he’s nearly twenty years older than you!”

“So? Mom is four years younger than you.”

“That’s not the same thing, Violet.”

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