Page 48 of The Best of Us

“Okay,” I whispered, placing my shock in the backseat alongside Colin. I needed to shed that emotion and focus on whatever road ahead that I was trusting this man to take us down. Because I knew in my heart, if he felt we needed protection, whatever was happening was serious. And who was I to risk our son’s life?

“Thank you.” Constantine reached for my leg, but he stopped himself and grabbed the wheel instead, quietly pulling onto the road.

“You’re going with the flow on this? Trusting this man?” Colin piped up a few minutes later. “You’re the polar opposite of go-with-the-flow, Mom.”

“Apparently, it doesn’t matter how strict I am when it comes to you, you’ll endanger yourself anyway.” I was hurting that he could keep so much from me, but now wasn’t the time to think about it. Colin would soon find out the man behind the wheel was his father. So, I willed away the tears and faced forward.

No one spoke another word after that, not until we were inside our home and Constantine ordered, “Go pack. Necessities only.”

Shockingly, Colin didn’t object, nor challenge my lack of pushback. That meant he truly had stepped into something dangerous and knew Constantine’s plan was best for us. I wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around that, and I was starting to wonder if the only way I could go with the flow was to not know anything for the time being.

Feeling like my purse weighed twice my bodyweight, I let it fall to the floor and wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water. Constantine followed me and, of course, sat inhisseat. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs, cradling the back of his neck. Defeat cut through the hard lines of his body, and I hated seeing him like that.

Forcing myself to look away because I was battling too many conflicting emotions, I filled two glasses with water. He looked like he could use a drink of another kind, but knowing what lay ahead, water was all I was prepared to offer.

The second Colin appeared in the doorway, his jaw strained and his eyes on Constantine sitting inthatseat, I quickly set the waters aside.

Aw shit.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Colin stepped forward, holding out the Ziploc bag with the napkin in it. “You wrote this note, didn’t you? You’re him. You’re my father.”

Chapter14

Juliette

“It has to be you,”Colin whispered before I had a chance to say anything, throwing all my rehearsing for this moment out the proverbial window. “The way you protected me. Risked your life for me. How worried you were about me.”

Bloodshot eyes met bloodshot eyes. A father and son facing off, the truth stretching quietly between them.

Feeling Constantine’s gaze riveted on me now, I looked his way. His brows were tight, his lips a hard line, as if waiting for my permission to speak.

Colin didn’t miss my nonverbal signal, reading my quiet nod as confirmation.

“I knew it,” he said, punctuating each of his words.

“We planned to tell you today.” I placed my hand over my stomach, as if it might quell the mountain of emotions moving into my chest and constricting my throat.

Constantine quietly stood. He had to be feeling a world of hurt and pain, so many things I’d never understand since I hadn’t been robbed of sixteen years with Colin. I was desperate to hug both of them.

They gazed at one another, jaws strained, and eyes narrowed. This was supposed to be a happy reunion, but instead, it felt like we were in for an uphill battle between a stubborn boy and an equally stubborn man.

“How long have you two known?” Anger curled up into Colin’s words, emotion withering away at the last syllable.

“Since yesterday, before you went for breakfast.” I stretched my arm toward him, but he shook me off. It took all my restraint to hang back, not to swaddle him in my arms, blanketing him with the comfort I knew he needed but wouldn’t accept.

“So, that’s why you came here yesterday all upset, asking to see Mom. You thought she kept me from you.” He lowered the Ziploc bag to his side as if it held the weight of a lifetime of what-could’ve-beens if only the ink hadn’t been ruined. “Why didn’t you two tell me yesterday?”

This moment had been sixteen years in the making, and I’d wanted it to be special. “I couldn’t drop that on you and then take off for work.”

“Why—why won’t you say something?”

Colin’s broken voice shattered my already broken heart, and my maternal need to comfort him took over. I lunged for him, wrapping him in my arms, but his focus remained on Constantine.

“Say something,” he implored, his body trembling against me as he refused to return my hug. “Say the words. Pl-lease.” His voice stuttered with the same emotion I felt coursing through him. “Just say the words.”

I suppressed my sob, rolling my lips inward and tightening my mouth, refusing to steal focus away from the two of them by ugly crying. But, oh God, my heart. It hurt so bad for him, and if Constantine didn’t speak soon, I’d have no choice but to do it for him.

My body shuddered when I felt Constantine’s presence close in behind us. “Sono tuo padre.”

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