Page 189 of His Virgin Romance Series

“But even if you don’t really use it… it has to hold some sentimental value for you.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not a sentimental person.”

“Bullshit,” Abby said emphatically. “I don’t buy that for a second. Every single person out there has a sentimental side. It’s just that some of us manage to hide it better than others. You put on this tough guy façade, and I understand that you need to, but I think I see through that now. Underneath it all… you’re a really decent man.”

I should have felt defensive about that assessment, but somehow, I didn’t. Instead, I felt…like I could be more of myself with Abby. And that was strange because I’d never felt that way with anyone else before… not my father or my mother.

“Abby… I have something to tell you,” I said.

“Ok?”

“I lied to you about the reason my father and I fell out when I was a teenager.”

Abby smiled slightly. “I knew that.”

“I just…”

“You weren’t ready to share with me just yet,” Abby replied.

“Exactly.”

“I get it,” she nodded.

“I found out something about my parents,” I admitted. “When I was fifteen.” Abby stayed silent and waited patiently for me to continue my story. “I heard my parents fighting one night, and I started asking questions, and slowly the truth came out… about how my parents had met. It turned out that my mother was seeing another man when she met my father. His name was Godwin.”

“Godwin?” Abby repeated frowning. Then suddenly realization dawned on her face and her mouth shaped into a little ‘o.’ “You mean the Godwin?”

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Oh my god.”

“They were all really young and things got messy,” I continued. “Long story short… Mom chose my father over Godwin.”

“And that’s the real reason this feud started between the Angels and the Knights?” Abby asked.

“That’s at the root of it, yes,” I nodded. “But there was… an overlap.”

Abby frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I suppose my father always questioned whether… I was his son or not.”

Abby raised her eyebrows. “Oh…”

“At the time… I felt as though he thought I wasn’t,” I admitted. “It felt like he was so hard on me sometimes because he knew I wasn’t his son.”

“Wow…”

“Anyway, I was young and angry and rebellious, and I turned on him. We had a huge fight one day, and I left home in anger. I was too proud to go back immediately, so I tried to figure my shit out first. When I went back home, two years had passed, and I had stopped being a child. But I had to show my father that. I had to prove that to him. I had to earn back my place in the club.”

“Did… did you ever find out…”

“Who my father really is?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“In the end, it didn’t matter,” I admitted. “My dad was the man who had raised me. My dad was the one who had taught me and protected me and advised me through my formative years. It didn’t matter who my real father was because I knew who my dad was. In the end, we both knew that, and it was enough.”

Abby smiled softly at me. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”

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