Page 84 of All for Love

KODY

All this dishonesty and sneaking around? That’s the reason our father is always checking on Kody.”

Kaden’s words were replaying on a loop in my mind. No matter what I did, I kept hearing them, and even though I thought his assessment was unfair in general, he wasn’t wrong about it when it came to this.

We were being dishonest and we were sneaking around, and although everyone kept talking about the damage it might do if our parents ever found out, perhaps it was time to face the truth. I was serious about Mercedes, and judging from the way she’d stood up for us back in my office during that fucking ambush, she was serious about me too.

I had left my office because I needed to get away from there. If I didn’t, I was going to rush back in and put a fist through my brother’s face. And I was going to say things to Brooke and about her I couldn’t take back.

Instead of causing even more damage, I’d decided to take a step back. I’d gone straight to the elevator and then I’d headed to the garage, climbed in my car, and left. All the while, those damned words swirled around in my head.

At first, they’d pissed me right the hell off. Enough that I’d been tempted to tell him that if he really felt that way, then I was leaving. Going far away and never looking back. I had enough money of my own. I didn’t need Wagner Industries and I didn’t need him or my fucking father.

I could just go—and take Mercedes with me. We could start over somewhere else. Somewhere no one knew how we’d met or that our parents were married.

But as soon as I’d thought it, I’d realized that for me, that would amount to taking the coward’s way out. I hadn’t taken it off the table completely, but for now, there was another way of going about this. My family had underestimated me for the last time.

I wasn’t the reject they seemed to think I was. If, at the end of all this, I felt like it would be the right thing for me to do, I would fuck off. I didn’t need them and I didn’t want them if that was how they felt about me.

But for now, I wouldn’t just go. I was going to prove that I wasn’t as dishonest as they thought I was. Which was why, after driving around aimlessly for the last two hours, I was now pulling up at the estate.

Leaving my car right at the steps leading up to the front door, I climbed out but kept my keys in my hand. I wouldn’t be staying long enough to make it worth even putting them in my pocket. Striding in without announcing myself, I found Margaux and my father sitting together in the cozy kitchen nook where my brother and I used to have our cereal every morning when we’d been little boys.

Just for a minute, I thought about another time. About a house much more understated at Christmas time and not done up by a professional team of decorators. Margaux had more luxurious tastes than my mother ever had, and now she had a pocketbook to afford whatever she wanted.

My mother had been more traditional. She’d like red, green, and gold. We’d had a handmade advent calendar that had little chocolates in it and every morning leading up to Christmas day, we’d each have one.

God, those were good times. Simpler times.

Dad had been having a house done up for the party every year, but this year, I could really see Margaux’s hand in it. The decorations were over the top, and even for my dad, who liked to impress his friends, coworkers, and family with the party, this was leveling up in a whole new way.

Considering how my morning had started, it was hard not to feel bitter about it, but she was also Mercedes’s mother and I was here to be honest. To take responsibility. To be accountable for my actions and not to cause further damage. Just like it’d been with Kaden and Brooke back at the office, I had to focus on the damage I’d already caused and cleaning that up rather than creating any more drama.

My thoughts were pulled back to the present when my father closed his tablet and looked up at me, frowning when he looked into my eyes. “What’s going on, Kody?”

Margaux had been studying something on her own tablet, but at the sound of his voice, she looked up as well, blinked in surprise, and then smiled. “Hello, Kody. This is a nice surprise. Is everything okay?”

Nope. Not okay. Nothing is okay.I was sweating profusely and my chest was tight, but I needed to get through this.

“I’m in love with Mercedes,” I blurted out, realizing that I could’ve been more delicate about it, but the truth was the truth and that was it.

Dad and Margaux stared at me and then suddenly burst out laughing. Dad shook his head as his laughter subsided, bringing his gaze back up to mine. “Very funny, my boy. Now, why did you actually come here?”

I gritted my teeth as I stared back at them. “I’m serious. I love her. I’ve been hiding it for your sake. To keep the peace because I worried about what people would think, but screw that. Everyone always has something negative to think about me no matter what I do. I’m done caring now that I have a girl who makes me feel like I can take on the world. She supports me. She wants me as I am, and she’s not always on me to change. So it’s not funny. That is what I came here for. I love her.”

There was complete and utter silence in the kitchen for a long time. Their expressions began to fall when they realized I was being honest. Margaux got angry. Her cheeks reddened, her eyes narrowed, and her frame began vibrating with tension.

“No. Absolutely not.” Getting flustered as she spoke, tears gathered in her eyes and she shook her fist at me. “I forbid you from being around my daughter. It’s disgusting and you will not convince me that she wants you. She doesn’t. She knows better than this.”

“No, she doesn’t,” I said, fighting to remain calm. “It’s not disgusting. We’re not actually related. You know that, right? We don’t share blood and we don’t share any history either. We’ve both been of legal drinking age for over a decade and we had been that even before we met.”

Margaux shook her head hard and fast. “Do you really think that matters? We’re married, for God’s sake. She’s your stepsister.”

“With the emphasis on the step part.” I looked her right in the eyes. “I love her, Margaux. She’s not my sister. You’re not my mother, and I don’t mean that snidely. It’s just the truth. You didn’t give birth to me, you didn’t raise me, and I was all grown up, a fully functioning adult, long before you met me.”

She stammered out a few noises, but when she couldn’t seem to find the words, she turned to my father, who had been sitting in stunned silence up to now. “Do something about this! You cannot possibly support this relationship and you need to take care of it. Now!”

Dad blinked a few times in rapid succession, his head starting to shake slowly as he tried to process. “I don’t know what to say.”