Page 11 of Vicious Titan

This isn’t good. The tight, frustrated tone in my grandpa’s voice is enough to warn me that good news isn’t about to follow, but seeing the expression on my dad’s face—one of uncertainty and maybe that he’s about to hurl—tells me it’s really bad. Richard Bass doesn’t let a whole lot get to him, much less involve his father when he has a choice.

“Richard, tell him.”

He flinches, looking away from me, and shifts uncomfortably.

Oh no. It’s even worse than I first thought. My worst fear slips from my mouth in a squeak. “Is it Mom? Did something happen to her?”

There’s anger on his face as he looks to me. “No. She’s fine.” He looks to Grandpa before turning his glare back to me. “Over the last few years, I haven’t been traveling as much as I’ve led everyone to believe.”

Glancing to my grandpa, I see his face is red—furious, really—as he keeps a heated stare locked on his son. “Spit it out, Richard.”

“What’s going on?” I whisper, my fingers digging into the stiff leather arms of the chair as I brace myself for whatever news is about to come my way.

“I was still here … in Knoxville.”

“What? Where? Because you sure as fuck haven’t been around here.”

“I met a woman a few years back, one thing led to another. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“What?” My head spins, so many thoughts racing through my mind. “Didn’t mean for it to happen? What, did your dick just happen to fuck her without your knowledge?”

“I never planned for it to happen. Your mother and I—”

“Does Mom know? Did she realize you were playing house with your fucking mistress every time you left us?” Jumping to my feet, I surge forward, hovering over my dad as he remains seated, an impassable expression on his face. “Is that why she tried to kill herself?”

Moving around the desk, Grandpa wedges himself between me and my dad, placing his hand on my shoulder. I stand, unable to take in enough air to catch my breath. My mom. Was that why she’d done it? The final straw that led her to make the decision.

Grandpa’s voice breaks through my thoughts, his hand comforting on my shoulder. “Elliot. There’s more, but I need you to sit down.”

Reluctantly, I drop back into the chair. The strained calmness in my grandfather’s voice is unnerving as I wait on my father to deliver whatever blow is next.

He looks to his hands, rubbing his thumb against his palm. “She’s pregnant.”

Pregnant? It’s a punch in the gut, not to my metaphoric gut, but to my mom’s. “So, you truly were playing house, starting up a whole new family since you’d fucked ours up so badly.”

“No. That’s not the case. It just happened, but what’s done is done. Heidi is due in January with your little brother.”

She’s having a boy. My brother. “I already pity the kid. He has you as a father.”

“Elliot.” My pitiful excuse for a father calls out as I stand from the chair, staggering across the office toward the door.

“Leave him be, Richard. You’ve done more than enough.”

Isn’t that the fucking truth. My back to them, I stand rigid at the door, my hand on the knob. I want to leave but there’re so many questions going through my mind. Turning, I ask the only one that matters to me. “Does Mom know?”

“Yes.” My grandpa answers as my dad remains silent like the coward that he is. “From what I’m told, Heidi told your mother about the affair and pregnancy a few days before the accident.”

Accident.It wasn’t an accident. None of this shit was accidental, even if Richard Bass wants to justify his inexcusable actions that way. “There’s no need for you to bother returning home. Go to your new family because the old one is much better off without you.”

Throwing the door open, I stomp out of the room. Everything becomes a blur as I step through the doorway, heading down the hallway straight to the elevator. My vision tunnels as I silently make my way to the exit, stepping out with only my car in my sights.

Affair. Pregnancy. Brother. He hadn’t been traveling. He was always down the street, starting over, or more like starting a new family to torment since there was nothing remaining to shatter in his old life. My mom. It doesn’t make her inconceivable decision any easier to accept, but it shines a light on why she’d made such an unthinkable choice. The one I told her I wished she’d succeeded at.

My stomach lurches as I bend over, the contents of my stomach spewing out onto the parking lot’s asphalt. I’m unable to pull an adequate amount of air into my lungs for several minutes. How had I been so blind? Not only to my father’s secret life, but to my mother’s immensely profound agony.

Pulling my car door open, I drop into the driver’s seat, my head falling back as I struggle to catch my breath. I just want the pain to stop. Victoria. She’s the only person who makes things better, provides me a few moments to forget life isn’t one big clusterfuck. At least she did until I screwed that up too. How can I ask her to forgive me when I can’t forgive myself? I’m truly my father’s son, going out of my way to make a dire situation even worse.