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I close my eyes and shake my head as I shrug. “How would I have the first clue about what Chuck told you?”
He carries on, clearly excited for this delivery and not really giving a shit about what I have to say. “He told me he can confirm that Eddie Nash purposely injured your father that day at practice.”
I squint at Rivera as my chest tightens a little. His words feel like they hit me sideways. I guess dredging up the past wasn’t how I was planning to spend my evening. “How would Chuck possibly know that? And if he did, why didn’t he step forward sooner?”
“He witnessed the entire thing. He told me there was no way that hit wasn’t intentional, but since he had to play on the same team as Eddie, he kept his trap shut.”
“Until now?” I ask. “Why now? And why would Eddie do that?”
Rivera chuckles. “Oh sweet, innocent, dumb Jolene,” he murmurs. “You know, I had more questions about it myself, so I went to the source. Oh, uh, would you like to read it in the article printing tomorrow? Or do you want the spoilers now?”
I clench my jaw.
“Okay, fine. This is just too much fun. He did it for his son, which he confirmed when I interviewed him.”
“You interviewed Eddie Nash?” I ask.
He nods and grins as he holds up a finger. “Just wait. The good part is coming. Apparently, Eddie had found a used…shall we say prophylactic…that told him just exactly what his son had been doing with the next door neighbor two years his junior, and the senior Nash was rightfully concerned that anything could set off the little girl and she’d ruin the almost eighteen-year-old man’s bright NFL future. So he took matters into his own hands.”
Oh my God. Eddie Nash intentionally hurt my father…because of me?
I feel like I’m going to be sick. My stomach twists and my chest feels heavy.
“But that’s not even the good part!” he says when he sees the look on my face. “Eddie ran home and told Lincoln what he’d done. He demanded the boy break up with the girl, which I think you can surmise by now is actually you, but either way, he knew Joseph’s career would be over and he was hoping he’d have to move away and take the fam with him, which he did. He eliminated the threat, and both Nash men have held onto that secret for the last two decades. Whew!” He wipes his brow. “That feels better to get that off my chest.”
“Lincoln…he knew?” I repeat.
“Oh yeah. He knew, and he dumped your young ass to protect Daddy.”
“And you’re printing this story tomorrow,” I say, my voice flat and not really asking a question.
“Correct.” He nods once.
“Why?” I whisper as the tears threaten behind my eyes. “Haven’t you done enough?” I realize I already asked that question, but I suppose it bears repeating.
“No,” he snarls. “I haven’t. You took the job I deserved right out from under me, and you tried to ruin my reputation. I will not stop until I’ve ruined you, too.”
The tears are about to spill over, and this man does not deserve a single goddamn one of them. I grab my box and stalk out of the office. It’s a damn shame this is how I’m leaving this place after so many good years here, but I have to get out.
I rush to my car, shove the box in the backseat, and I get behind the wheel.
What now? What the fuck now? What am I supposed to do with this information?
Lincoln knew his dad intentionally hurt my dad to get me out of Lincoln’s life, and he’s held onto that secret for twenty years.
Devastation may plow through me later, but right now, the only emotion I can feel is full-on fury.
I am livid.
We’ve told each other there are no secrets between us while he’s been holding onto this crushing one. I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know where to turn.
But I do know one thing.
I can’t be with a man who would lie directly to my face for not just the last few months, but for the last twenty years. If he could so easily keep this from me, what the fuck else is he keeping from me?
It’s time to find out.
I throw my car into reverse and speed over from the studio parking lot to Lincoln’s house.
