Liz watched Dorian depart for a second time in the span of just ten minutes. Why did he go through all the effort of tracking her down today if he still didn’t want to tell her the full truth? She wished she could go back to trusting the people in her life, but it felt as if everyone was suspect now. Was there anyone left she could trust?
“Are you going to be okay?” Scarlett hung an arm over Liz’s shoulder, reminding her that at least her friends would never hurt her. She’d always thought that about her father, too. And now…
“I don’t know. I can’t stop thinking about what he said. That my father knows this secret, whatever it is.”
“Henry? Give us a minute?” Scarlett said to her fiancé before leading Liz back toward the car. She climbed into the passenger seat and handed Liz the keys. “Go talk to him. Do it now. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.”
“But Henry—?”
“Won’t mind if I blow him off, if that’s what you want.” Scarlett’s breaths came out labored. She was frightened for Liz, just as much as Liz was for herself. “Do you want me to come with you to talk to your dad?”
Maybe that was the biggest difference between the two friends. Scarlett put her fears aside, while Liz often felt consumed by them. What if talking to her dad changed everything? What if there was no going back? She shook her head and stuck the key into the ignition before she could change her mind. “No. This is something I need to do on my own.”
Scarlett smiled and took a long, slow breath out. “Atta girl. Now take my car. I’ll have Henry drop me back at the apartment later. If you need anything—anything—call me. I’ll be there in a flash.”
“Thank you.” Liz sniffled, and her friend was quick to grab a tissue from the glove compartment.
“Do one thing for me?”
Liz nodded before blowing her nose.
“Remember that you are you, no matter what. Nothing can change that.” These words shook Liz to the core. It seemed she and Scarlett were of one mind, that they both knew this revelation would change everything. But was it possible Scarlett knew more than she’d let on? Liz had to know what she was walking into.
“Do you know what it is?”
“I have my suspicions, but I’d hate to guess and be wrong.”
“Could you—?”
Scarlett shook her head. “No, Dorian’s right. You need to talk to your dad. Now, are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”
Liz placed a hand on each side of the steering wheel. “I can do this.”
“I know you can.” Scarlett gave her a quick squeeze before getting out of the car. She waved as Liz drove slowly away, back to the house she’d escaped less than two hours ago.
Liz made it as far as the turn in for her father’s street when she chose to head to the apartment and pick up Samson for moral support. Even though she’d told Scarlett not to come, she needed someone to be there for her, to be on her side. The worst part of it all was she didn’t know how she would feel about her father once he’d told her everything he’d been hiding presumably for years since she had no memory of Warwick.
Samson hung his head out the rear window and broofed happily when the two of them arrived at the house.
Her father came out onto the driveway to greet them. “Back so soon?” he asked brightly, the confrontation from that morning already behind him.
“I met with Dorian,” she said, slowly unbuckling her seatbelt and exiting the car. She let Samson out from the back, and he immediately raced over to shower her dad in kisses.
The smile disappeared from his face almost as if it had been flipped off by a switch. “The one who called me at the resort?”
“Yes.” Well, that confirmed her suspicions on that point. What else would she learn before the day was through?
Her father didn’t say anything, and Liz took a moment to examine his face. He wore a steady blankness. The switch had turned off all his emotions, not just his smile.
“How do you know Charles Warwick?” Liz asked, crossing her arms to defend herself from whatever words were spoken next.
He cast his eyes to the ground, and that was when she knew her father planned on lying to her. “I don’t.”
“Well, he definitely seemed to know you.”
He faltered, took a step back. “It was all a misunderstanding.”
“Then why didn’t you call the police?” She couldn’t let him do this to her, not anymore. She deserved the truth, and she would get it, no matter what.
“Please, Lizzy. Please stop asking all these questions. Don’t ruin what we have.”
“I’m not the one keeping secrets,” she answered with a tone she’d never expected to use on her beloved father.
“You don’t understand. You shouldn’t be burdened with it. I…” His voice cracked, and he let out a strangled cry. He tried to choke it back down, but it was too late, the weight of his emotions too heavy.
And now she was crying, too. She had to remind herself that she hadn’t done anything wrong, that she’d been dragged into this situation, that more than likely it was her father who had brought her here. “Daddy, please,” she begged. “What happened? Tell me.”
Hearing her voice break, Samson rushed to Liz’s side and placed his giant head between her hip and dangling hand.
“I just can’t. We’re already too far gone.” He glanced toward the house as if contemplating an escape from the one person he’d always loved the most. Or so she’d thought. Liz didn’t know what to believe anymore, and she was sick of all these non-explanations.
She raised her voice in desperation. “I don’t understand. What does that mean?”
But her father stood firm. “It means it’s too late now. I did what I did, and I would do it all over again, too. It’s only because I love you so much. You are my favorite person in the world.”
The front door opened and Vanessa stepped out onto the porch. “What is going on here? Why are you making a scene? Ben, why are you crying?”
Liz’s father refused to take his eyes off her. She wondered if he could even see her that well through all the tears. “You’re supposed to say ‘in the whole wide world’ and then I’m supposed to say ‘a million times around,’” he said, reciting the lines from their favorite goodnight game.
Liz stiffened. She loved her father, but what if that was all based on a lie so big she could never forgive him for it? “No,” she said. “I won’t. Not unless you tell me the truth. All of it.”
He sobbed again, and Vanessa charged toward Liz. “Get out of here,” she said through gritted teeth. “I don’t care who you are. Anyone who would upset my husband like this isn’t welcome in our home.”
Liz wanted to argue, to say that this was her home first, that he was her dad first. But…
An unsettling thought flashed in her mind, the one she’d tried so hard to keep in the darkness. What if he wasn’t her father? What if that was the lie? The DNA? Warwick’s search? What if…?
Dorian and her father had both told her Warwick was dangerous, but what if he was the only one willing to give her answers?
“Fine by me,” Liz told Vanessa at last. “You won’t see me again until I have some answers. If he won’t give them to me, I’ll find someone else who will.”