Page 38 of Mistaken Identity
Being an adult is a little out of my price range.
—Audric to a manufacturer
AUDRIC
“But not all?” she asked.
“They know enough, because we had to give them that much to make sure that they respected your boundaries when we were in Hawaii for Webber and Silver’s wedding,” I explained as I merged onto 635. “I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable once I knew.”
She started to circle her hair around one finger, and I longed to reach out and do the action myself.
God, I loved her hair.
“Okay.” She nodded, then told me about her experience at Cakes’s place last week.
“That tracks,” I agreed. “He may not necessarily have been there, been there. But he has the pulse of everything that goes on there.”
She looked at me. “Do you know how you’re going to tell him?”
I gritted my teeth. “I don’t.”
“How about you let me start?” she suggested. “I can tell him what I know. Then we can tell him how you just found out.”
I closed my eyes for a brief second, then said, “I don’t want him to hate me for keeping her away from him.”
“But did you?” she asked. “It’s been what, two weeks since we’ve been home and you’ve known for sure?”
“Not for sure, sure,” I admitted. “I was trying to get a DNA test done, but without going through Apollo to get it, it’s been slow going. It said it could take up to four months.”
“You didn’t want to talk to Apollo?” she asked.
Her confusion was adorable.
“I didn’t want anyone to know,” I admitted. “I literally have no fucking clue. We know what Laney told you. Who I suspect. But we don’t actually know who.”
“And we don’t know that Laney was telling the truth that day,” she agreed. “I mean, she had been drunk off her ass and was on her way to sobering up when you left. How do we know that what she knew was the actual truth?”
“Exactly.” I scrubbed my left eyeball. “I wanted to wait because this is huge. How do I tell someone they might be a father? I have no clue how to do this.”
“Maybe you should wait?” she said. “Maybe your instincts are spot on. Maybe you need to know for sure?”
I grumbled under my breath. “That’s great, but she needs surgery now. I can’t make these kinds of decisions. I’m not actually her father.”
“You’re her father for now,” she pointed out. “You need to talk to Webber. And this Apollo dude. You need to stop shouldering this alone.”
She was right.
I knew she was right.
“Fuck,” I groaned.
“Where is Webber?”
I pulled off the highway, then turned around, crossed the highway, then started back the other way.
“His office is near where we just were,” I admitted grumpily.
“Of course it is.” She snickered. “Let’s go there first.”
