Page 172 of Contentious

“You’re not fine. Do you think we don’t know about the vow you took with your sisters? It breaks our hearts to think that we did that to you.”

“It’s not just you,” Ethan said. “It’s the shit we see in our practices, too. It’s just… easier… to stay single than to potentially deal with the fallout if it doesn’t work.”

“It may be easier,” Corbin said, “but you can’t miss out on the best things in life simply because it might get messy at some point. Even at our worst, your mother and I wouldn’t have changed a thing because we got all of you from our marriage. You’ve always been the best part of our lives, and we’re painfully aware that we made a fucking mess of things with you. But we’d like the chance to fix that. If you’ll let us.”

The statement was met with dead silence.

Carson was certain his brothers were as stunned as he was to hear their father take ownership of past mistakes when he was usually all business.

“Griffin, we’d like to meet your daughter.”

“How do you… Uh… When did you find out about her?”

“Mom picked up on it when we were at the hospital. You’ve made us grandparents. We’d like to know her. We’d like to know you all—who you are away from work, that is.”

More silence.

“What’s her name, son?”

“Hadley Jane.”

“That’s a lovely name. I’d love to see a picture of her.”

“I’ll show you one after this.”

“We know we have no right to ask this of you, but we’d like a chance to forge a new path forward with you, to be part of your lives away from work. Mom would like to have you all up to Santa Barbara for the day next Sunday for swimming and dinner and… Well, some time together that has nothing to do with work. We hope you’ll be able to come and bring anyone you want.”

“If you want to forge a new path,” Julian said, “no interviews about the reconciliation. No drumming up business by drawing any more attention to it than it’s already gotten.”

“That’s fair, and I hear you. We’ve declined hundreds of requests.”

“While I appreciate the overture,” Jackson said, “I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say I’d like to know why it happened in the first place. We went from one big, happy family to warring factions overnight, and we’ve never been told why.”

“I’d like to know that, too,” Ethan said.

“I understand the desire to know,” Corbin said tentatively, “but that’s something your mother and I will never speak of to anyone. You have to trust us when we tell you that it’d do much more harm than good for us to share that with you. It’s deep in the past now, and we’d like to keep it there.”

Silence had never been so loud.

“Is that a deal-breaker for you, Jackson?” Corbin asked.

“No, but I think you should reconsider sharing the truth with us after the ordeal we endured because of whatever broke you up in the first place.”

“It was a deeply personal misunderstanding, and if it makes any difference, it was a hundred percent my fault, not hers.”

That was more information than they’d ever gotten about what’d driven them apart, Carson thought, and it only made him more curious for the rest of the story than he’d already been.

“That’s all I’m willing to say about it, and I hope it’s enough.”

“It’s really not when you consider the nightmare it caused for us,” Griffin said. “That it continues to cause when the whole world is talking about our famously divorced parents miraculously being back together.”

“I’m sorry if that was embarrassing or upsetting for you. We’d intended to tell you⁠—”

“We already knew,” Ethan said. “Jules saw you.”

“What?” Corbin asked. “When?”

“In Santa Barbara at Hendry’s.”