Page 109 of The Bad Boy Rule

“My dad… used to work in maintenance. He was a structural welder, so he repaired any of the metal foundation issues, things like that. He was working on a scaffold a couple stories up, and he was tied off just as he was supposed to be. Safety requirement. But the tie-off failed, and he fell. Fractured his spine, broke a vertebra, herniated disk. He was in the hospital for six months, had another six of intensive physical therapy. That’s when he got addicted to the pain pills. That’s when everything went to shit, when my entire life blew up.”

I lift my hand to my mouth, covering it to stifle the noise.I still don’t understand what that has to do with my dad, but I know that it’s… it’s bad. It’s so bad. I can see how much reliving it just to tell the story to me is affecting him. He starts to pace the room, unable to remain still, hardly taking a breath as he talks.

“It wasn’t that he just fell and got hurt. Or that he became an addict using something that was supposed to help him. The only way that he would get coverage for the injury was to use workman’s comp to file a claim against Rousseau Enterprises. There was no other choice. None. We were drowning in medical debt. So much fucking debt that I’d probably work my entire life and still not be able to pay it off. Probably not even put a dent in it.” He stops pacing to flit his eyes to me, rolling his lips together like the next part is the most painful.

I brace myself.

“It could’ve been simple—so fucking simple that it makes me sick—if your father had done the right thing, but he didn’t. Hefoughtthe claim with all of his expensive, fancy, piece-of-shit lawyers. Lennon…” He trails off, dragging his hand down his face, and holding my gaze. “He fucked up. The safety protocols weren’t followed—that’s why the tie-off failed in the first place. That’s why there wasn’t a failsafe in place. That’s why nobody even fucking checked it before he got up there. My dad said he overheard the conversation with his superintendent, and when he confronted him, your father called him a liar and accused him of being high. Said he was using before he ever fell. Your father lied about it all, and my dad’s claim was denied. The appeal was denied too.”

Oh my God.

“Saint…” I start, but he shakes his head, stopping me.

“He almost died, and your father covered it up to protect his company. To save face. He has all the money in the world, socould’ve paid it all off, and my dad never would’ve tried to file the claim, but instead, he ruined our fucking lives, Lennon.”

As I take in everything he’s saying about my father, the only question I think is:Is my father even capable of something so greedy and despicable?And I immediately know the answer. Yes, yes he is.

I rise from my bed and cross the room to him, reaching out to him, but he captures my hand in midair.

“Wait, please.” His words are strained, tight. “Just… wait till I tell it all to you, please, baby. You need to know.”

There’s more?

Nodding, I take my hand back and wrap my arms around myself.

“It’s been years. This has been our life for years. My father has never been able to hold down a job since, which only makes his addiction worse. A never-ending cycle of fucked-up that I’ve never been able to break free from in the last eight years. I didn’t even know who to blame. My father for letting addiction take him or your father for being the catalyst of it all. So, I choseboth.They are both equally guilty for the things they’ve caused. I’ve been living with so much anger, so much pent-up rage beneath the surface, sometimes it felt like I was going to combust. I wanted your father to suffer the same way that I have. And when you walked into the rink that day… I thought I finally found a way to make him pay for it.”

I don’t even need him to hear it because I know.

I know, deep down in my gut,I know.

“Me,” I whisper.

A stabbing sensation pierces the flesh over my heart as I say it.

Saint reaches forward, and this time, it’s me who stops him by stepping back.

I… I can’t.

“Baby, listen to me, okay? Please just hear me out. That’s all I’m asking for. If you want me to leave and never see me again once I do, I promise I will leave, but I just need you to know the truth.” His eyes are pleading, and he looks like he’s moments away from his own tears.

“Did you know who I was? That first day at the rink, did you know, Saint?”

He tilts his head, hesitating. “No. I mean… once you told me your last name, I suspected. I put two and two together after that.”

My stomach twists, and for a moment, I’m afraid I might be sick. “Tell me.”

“It was so fucking stupid, Lennon. So goddamn stupid.I was out of my mind with this vendetta against your father, I thought I could get close to you, fuck around with you and use it as a way to get back at him. To piss him off that his daughter was with a guy like me.Trash.”

Oh God. My cheeks are wet with tears as they stream down my face, so hard that my vision starts to blur from the wetness.

“Shit, please don’t cry, baby. Please,” he begs, reaching for me again, and I step back out of his reach.

“So this was all fake? All of it?”

The thought makes me physically ill. I clutch my stomach with one hand as I swipe away the tears that just won’t stop.

“Fuck no,” he says, shaking his head. “Did I agree to your whole fake boyfriend thing to try to get closer to you in hopes that it would be the answer to my problems? Yeah. I did. But Lennon, I need you to believe me when I say that it stopped being that for me a long time ago. I didn’t give a shit about the revenge, or your father, oranyof it once I started to care about you. When I started to have real feelings for you, it made me realize how goddamn stupid I’d been, trying to use you to get back at him. You are innocent and had nothing to do with it, butin my head, you were his little princess. I thought you were just like him. But I learned how far from the truth that was as I got to know you.”

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