Page 129 of The Lost and the Found

He turned to me then, his eyes inquisitive. “You’re serious about her?”

“I am.” Shaking my head, I looked down at my hands. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her when I got that confirmation. She got to me, and I wanted to protect her.”

“Even from me?”

Now he sounded angry. And I understood why that was. “Not for the reason you’re thinking. I just didn’t want to turn her whole life upside down, and if I told you, you would have insisted on seeing her right away.”

“You’re damn right I would have. She’s been gone from my life for eighteen years. There hasn’t been a day that went by that I didn’t think about her.”

“Yes, but she hasn’t been thinking about you.” His eyes fell, and I felt like the world’s biggest jackass. I grabbed his shoulder. “She doesn’t know about you. Michelle never told her—not about you, and certainly not about Richard.”

Mathew eyes burned at the mentioned of Richard Avery’s name. “I hope that fucking man rots in prison.”

“Last time I checked, he’s still there. There had been talks about parole, but nothing came of it. You don’t have to worry.”

Richard Avery was Michelle’s husband. He was also the man who tried to kill Mathew when he found out Hayden was Mathew’s daughter. He didn’t succeed, and after he was caught, Michelle took Hayden and ran from us.

And it was all my fault.

Ignoring the heaviness that always consumed my heart at the thought, I looked back to Mathew. “My point is, she believed her dad left when she was little, and she doesn’t think about him. You’re nothing more than a stranger to her, and I don’t want to put that on her before she’s ready. I don’t want to tell her about Michelle and have it change the way she remembers her mom.”

“Why would it change? Michelle might have been a lot of things, but she was a great mom.”

“Yes, but she still hid all this information from Hayden. I’m sorry, Mathew. I just thought it would be a good idea for you to get to know her before we come clean.”

“Yeah? But there’s something flawed in your plan, boy.”

I nodded. I knew there was. I always knew it.

“She might not be so forgiving when she finds out you’ve been keeping these things from her.”

“I know.”

---