Theo
AFTER CAT WALKED OUT THE door, Uncle Elliot apologized to me some more. He told me once again he wished he would’ve been there for my mom instead of turning his back on her. His apology sounded sincere, and I told him I forgive him, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering about my father. And with my mom gone, I can’t go back and ask her what she was thinking or why she made the choices she did.
Growing up, it was always just my mom and me, and maybe it was because of that fact we were close. I always wondered why we never visited our family in New York, but I didn’t think too much of it. She used to give various reasons such as money was tight, or she needed to work and couldn’t take off. For as far back as I can remember, my mom worked part-time at a small bakery in town a few days a week. She would go in after she saw me off to school and she would make sure she was off before I got out. Now that I’m able to see the entire picture with more of the facts, there’s no way we could’ve afforded to live in our two-bedroom flat and her send me to private school on her small income.
Then when I turned fourteen and all my friends were attending boarding school, she allowed me to go. Looking back, at that point, she wasn’t even working at the bakery any longer. She had said she was taking some time off. It wasn’t until she passed away that I realized she wanted me to go, so I wouldn’t see her sick. All these years it was my uncle who was sending her money to take care of me.
I want to trust that what Uncle Elliot said is the truth. That my mom kept me from my father because she felt it was best for me, that he was sending her money so she could hide from Heath, but at the same time, I feel like it’s something I need to see for myself.
I want to be pissed that he fired Uncle Elliot and evicted him and Cat from their home, but I can also see where Heath is coming from. He just found out he has a son. He has every right to be pissed. And the fact that he’s pissed has me questioning if he’s really as bad as everyone is making him out to be. If he was that bad of a guy, wouldn’t he not care that he has a son?
Needing to get some answers, I wait until Uncle Elliot excuses himself to continue packing, then I slip out the back and head down the trail along the lake. It’s not a long walk, but it does give me time to think. I’m not going to assume the worst in Heath. I’m going to speak to him myself and make my own judgements. Maybe I can convince him to let Uncle Elliot keep his job and home, and I can come to live with him so we can get to know each other.
When I make it to Windy Hills Estate, I spot a couple ranch hands who are too busy working to notice me. I walk around the side of the house to the front to knock on the door, and that’s when I see Cat’s Mustang.
When she said she had to go get her textbook from school and then visit her friend, I didn’t believe her, but I assumed she was upset over having to move and needed some space. I figured she wanted to go vent to her friend or take a drive by herself, but I never thought when she walked out the door, she was going to Heath’s house.
I knock on the door once but nobody answers, and my mind immediately goes to Cat’s safety. What if she came here to confront Heath and something has happened? What if he is a bad guy like Uncle Elliot said? Turning the knob, the door creaks open. I step inside and the place is quiet.
“Hello?” I call out, but nobody answers. That’s when I hear a loud moan coming from the room off to the side. Without thinking twice, I cut across the room and swing the door open. And what I see in front of me has me wanting to kill someone.
Cat, with her legs spread open and her bare pink pussy on display, has her head tilted back as she moans loudly in pleasure as some guy who looks to be the same age as my uncle fingers her while sucking on her perfect tits.
“What the fuck!” I yell, and Cat’s head pops up, her shocked eyes landing on mine. The guy sitting next to her slowly removes his finger from between her thighs and his lips from around her nipple and grins up at me like he doesn’t give a fuck that he was just caught getting her off.
“Theo.” Cat jumps up from the couch, and my gaze goes to her exposed breast. She looks down and immediately pulls her bra up and starts buttoning her shirt. When she’s done, she pats the front of her skirt to make sure nothing else is showing and then she looks up at me. Her cheeks are tinted pink from embarrassment—or maybe from being turned on—and normally I would find it cute, but right now I’m too pissed.
“Who the fuck are you?” I approach the piece of shit who has the nerve to be laying his hands on the woman I want. His grin grows wider as he takes the finger he just had inside of Cat and sucks on it before standing and taking a sip of the drink on the table.
“Heath.” He holds out the offending hand to shake mine with a knowing fucking smirk. And when I glare down at it, refusing to shake his hand, he sneers. “I’m your father.”
Father?
My father?
Quickly assessing this smug asshole’s features, I notice that while he’s clearly older, it’s almost as if I’m looking at a mirror of what I’m going to look like twenty years from now: same height, same build, same goddamned brown eyes. My hair is a few shades lighter than his, a perfect mixture of him and my mom. My gaze continues downward, and I spot a birth mark on the inside of his forearm. My eyes go to my forearm where I have a similar one. Jesus, this man really is my father, which means…
“You have something going on with my fucking dad?” This can’t be happening.
“No.” Cat shakes her head emphatically as she steps away from Heath and toward me. “I came over here to make a deal with him.”
“You did what?” I yell, and Cat cowers. I turn my gaze back to Heath, who still has that fucking smirk on his face. “What the fuck is going on? I find out you’re my father and when I come over here to meet you, I see you’re halfway to fucking my girl.”
“Your girl?” Heath questions with a grin at the same time Cat yells, “I’m not your girl.”
“Well, you’re not his either, but I don’t see that stopping you from spreading your legs for him!” I shout, and Cat glares.
“Fuck you!” she hisses.
Heath laughs once then walks over to his desk, sets his tumbler down, and pulls open the drawer. “It seems to me you’re upset that little Cat here was willing to go further with me than you.” He shrugs, squirting some hand sanitizer into his palms and rubbing them together. “Don’t be jealous, son. She was only doing it so her pussy father would keep his job and their home.”
“You thought seducing my father would get your dad his house back?” I ask Cat, who doesn’t look the least bit apologetic or ashamed.
“Like mother, like daughter.” Heath snickers.
“Fuck you both!” Cat yells. Then she walks over to me and jabs her finger into my chest. “I didn’t come over here to seduce anyone. Your father came on to me at my dad’s office and told me he would be willing to make a deal with me. So, I came by here to see what he wanted.”
“And what?” I sneer. “Your legs fell open and his finger slipped in?”
Heath lets out a derisive snort, and Cat’s eyes water.
“I just—I just wanted to help. He said he would give my dad back his job and let us keep the house. He said he would leave you alone. My dad told you he’s a bad guy.” Tears slide down her face, and I feel like a piece of shit for being so cruel to her.
“Ahh, so Elliot’s been talking shit about me, has he?” Heath swallows back what’s left of his drink and slams the glass down onto the desk. “Did he also tell you that your bitch of a mother kept you from me?”
Moving Cat to the side, I cut across the room and get right into Heath’s face. “Don’t you ever call my mother a bitch!”
“Just calling it like I see it.” He shrugs nonchalantly. “She kept my own flesh and blood from me for seventeen goddamned years. That’s something a bitch would do.”
“I’ve known you for thirty seconds and in that time you’ve called my mother a bitch and blackmailed Cat into letting you finger her to save her family. I came over here to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I can see my mother and uncle weren’t wrong.” I turn my back on Heath and walk over to Cat, taking her by the arm. “Let’s go.”
Her glassy eyes widen, but she nods. We don’t make it out of the door before Heath speaks. “The two of you move in here with me, and I’ll allow Elliot to keep his job.” We both freeze in place, then turn around to face Heath, who’s not showing any emotion.
“What about our house?” Cat asks before I can. “Can he stay living there?”
“House is mine.”
“He sold it to you?” Cat questions, taking a step back into the room.
“I took it from him years ago.” Heath grins wickedly. “It’s my house. I allowed you to live there.”
Cat gasps in shock while Heath pushes his chair out and drops into it, tossing his feet up onto his desk like he doesn’t have a fucking care in the world. Like he hasn’t just turned her world upside down.
“None of this makes any sense,” Cat whispers so low I’m not sure if she’s speaking to one of us or to herself. I place my hand against the small of her back in an attempt to comfort her, but she moves forward, stepping away from my touch and closer to Heath.
“Can he stay living there?” she pleads with a tone that screams desperation.
“No,” he answers without any hesitation, his face still devoid of all emotion. “He kept my son from me. He deserves to lose his life.”
“But—” Cat begins to argue, but Heath holds his hand up.
“Your father’s job in exchange for you both moving in here. That’s the deal.” He raises his brows at me. “What will it be?”
“Cat?” I ask her, because she’s the one whose life will be changing the most. When she doesn’t answer me, I bridge the gap between us, so I can see where her head is at. Her eyes are cast down, and I can see she’s worrying her bottom lip.
“Cat,” I say again, this time lifting her chin slightly, so she’s forced to make eye contact with me. “What do you want to do?” I drop my fingers from her face to give her the space I know she needs.
She stays silent for another moment, then turns to Heath.
“What about my horses?” she whispers softly.
“Not my problem,” Heath scoffs.
“Yes, they are,” I say.
“Fine,” he relents. “You can keep your horses here. You have until this weekend to move your shit in here, or the deal is off.”
After we’re shown out, Cat offers to drive me back home. The short drive is done in silence, both of us with a helluva lot on our minds. For me, I’m still in shock that the first time I met my father was with him fingering the one girl I care about. How could she let him do that to her, yet she won’t even give me a chance? I thought it was because she was shy. She mentioned she’s never had sex before, so I thought she was just nervous. But then she opened herself up to him with no problem. She did say he was the one who came on to her…fuck! My father better not become my fucking competition once we’re living under the same roof. He and I are going to need to have a serious chat.
When we pull up, Cat doesn’t make any attempt to get out of the car. “You okay?” I ask.
“I have to tell my dad that I’m going to live with the one man he despises the most in the world. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a shitty situation, but at least he will have his job back.”
She groans. “Somehow, I don’t think he will see it that way. Plus, after all that, he still has to move and now, not only are you being forced to live with Heath, but so am I.”
Taking her hand in mine, I bring it up to my lips for a kiss. “I don’t agree with what you did, but I know your heart was in the right place. Thank you for trying.”
“Theo.” She gives me her usual warning glare, but this time I refuse to let her go. If Cat had it her way, I would give up on us without a fight. But after what she did for me today—going to my dad with the intention of doing whatever it was he wanted just so I wouldn’t have to move in with him—proves that she has feelings for me as well.
“I can’t help how I feel about you,” I tell her honestly, taking both of her hands into mine.
“We can’t go there,” she chides, pulling out of my grasp and getting out of the car. I get out as well and come around the front, blocking her from going inside. When she tries to walk around me, my hands grip her hips to stop her.
“We could,” I insist, pulling her closer to me and willing her to feel what I feel.
“Theo, you’re hurting me.” Her brows furrow, and when I look down, I see my fingers are gripping her tightly.
Reluctantly, I release her. “I’m sorry. I just wish you would give us a chance.”
“You have to stop this,” she snaps. “Whatever you think you feel for me isn’t real, and even if it is, it’s not okay.”
I let out a frustrated sigh, wishing I could find a way for her to understand that the love I feel for her trumps whatever society deems acceptable. That when I look at her, I don’t see my cousin. I see a beautiful, smart, caring young woman. Maybe if we had grown up together I wouldn’t feel this way, but we didn’t, and I want her. And if she would stop giving a shit about what other people think, she would realize the chemistry we have is worth exploring.
“Just please promise me, you won’t go there with my dad again,” I plead. I couldn’t take it if she gave my father any more of what she won’t give me.
Father. Dad. My own flesh.
As much as I want to be excited that I know my father now, I can’t. Not after what I just witnessed.
“I promise.”
The moment we step into the house and close the door behind us, Uncle Elliot comes running out. “Tell me you didn’t go over there!” he yells. “Tell me the two of you didn’t go see Heath after I told you not to! Please! Tell me!” he begs, but it’s clear from the fear in his tone he already knows we did.
We both stare at him, our silence enough to answer him. His face crumples and he scrubs his face with his palms in frustration. “No,” he says bitterly.
“We did,” Cat says softly. “But he’s giving you back your job.”
Uncle Elliot snaps his head up, dropping his hands, and stares wildly at us, his eyes darting back and forth. “In exchange for what?”
Her shoulders hunch as she murmurs, “Theo and me going to live with him.”
I watch as Cat’s head lowers and her eyes stay trained on the floor. When I look back up, Uncle Elliot’s face is twisted up like he’s in pain.
“No. No. No. Please, no. Please, Cat. Please tell me you didn’t make a deal with him.” Uncle Elliot’s knees drop to the floor in front of Cat, and she raises her head so she can look at him.
“I’m so sorry, Daddy.” She drops to the floor so she’s eye level with her father. “I’ll still come to visit you on the weekends.”
“He’s letting me stay living here?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “But now that you have your job we won’t have to sell our cars, so I can drive into town and see you.”
“Oh, Cat, you have no idea what you’ve done.” Uncle Elliot takes Cat into his arms and hugs her like she’s his lifeline. “I should’ve run just like my sister. Taken you far away from here. Now it’s too late.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Cat whispers. “I’m going to be okay.”
While still holding his daughter in his arms, Uncle Elliot looks up at me and a single teardrop falls from his eye. “He’s done it,” he whispers. “He’s gotten his revenge.”