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“See, that’s right. After a year of my wife being so afraid of anyone and everything, I tried to kill him, honey. Gina thought that he had raped her. She said that the scent of her rapist was familiar. The same cologne,” Jonah adds, looking off in the distance. “Charles is a deranged man.”
He slaps a hand over his chest. “Yes! I made an attempt onhis life.See, I’m man enough to admit my mistakes. That sonofabitch tried to take my wife. My child. You don’t know Charles as I do. He grew up rich, getting everything he wants.”
This man is a stranger to me. Lies piling on top of lies.Why cheat if he was so in love? Disappointed inhim andin myself for having him as a father, I let my shoulders drop. With despair constricting my throat, my voice hardly rises to a whisper as I ask, “Make the connection, please.”
“I mean, he had everything handed to him.” Dad’s malicious gander falls on Victor.
“Dad, don’t go there.”
My man fortifies the fact that he doesn’t give a fuck about my father’s rebuff by lacing his fingers through mine.
“When your mom didn’t accept his advances, she was a God-fearing woman—”
“She was,”until you broke her.
“He spiraled out of control. As I said, I tried to kill him. Every day I regret not succeeding. He took her from us, Lux.”
Silence bleeds between us. I gesture to my father with a stiff, flat hand, “Youlost your wife the day you stopped treasuring her,Jonah. You lost me, too.”
“Lux, this diary is a lie.” He points a rigid finger to the memoir at my feet.
“I can’t even deal with you anymore. So, you’re saying my mom was leery of Charles. That’s a fucking lie. She cheated. We visited him at his beach house!” I shout. Yes, after almost finishing the diary, I remember seeing them kiss. He had this huge house in the Hamptons. They were shocked. Mom had tried to explain, but I didn’t care. We—Momma, Charles, and I—were a family while Dad was away.
“I- I never cheated,” Jonah sputters. “Honey, my worst crime is shielding you from a manipulativewoman.”
“You were saving me from a manipulative whore, right?” My laser glare penetrates straight through him.
A substantial sigh redirects my father’s mindset. The Machiavellian bastard nods in agreement. “Love, your mother was sleeping with Charles all along. She tried to take you from me. They were going to run away and—”
“Go ahead, Jonah. Continue to speak ill of the dead. All you have is your word against Mom’s. I was so delusional, compilingportions of the storythat make you the good guy. When my grandparents got sick, you agreed to move from yourswankyManhattan apartment. Yeah, that made you the good guy, huh?”
“Why are you questioning me, Luxury? I settled, sure. If that’s your question. But you suffered, honey. You attended the worst schools in New York because of it.”
“You are a master at making the scenario work in your favor? News flash, you were home infrequently while I was a child, favoring the extra room that you had at the lab.” The scorching sting of shame clasps my throat tighter. I shove down the lump and charge through. “That additional money in your pocket—you spent on other women, right?”
“No, girl!”
“Yeah, you downgraded your lifestyle for your wife, but only a couple of days out of the week. I’m sure you made it clear to her to appreciate that fact. Then she’s so friggen unfortunate to be raped by a stranger one night, and after months of suffering, she falls into the arms of the man who wasalwaysthere. Mom caught up to your schemes. Had a torrid affair for a while.”
Ashamed, his indignant gaze won’t find mine.
“They were together for years.” I grab at my coiled tresses. “Was it the whole time, Jonah? Until she . . . Did you . . .”
“Luxxie, look at me.” A gut-wrenching tone reaches for me, attempting to embrace me.
“I’m looking at you,Dad. Luxxie’s Uncle Red’s nick—”
“Stop calling him that. I swear on everything I loved, all my fucking accolades—you,Lux. I did not harm her.”
I believed Uncle Red the second the words passed his lips and floated between us. But my own father? Imaginary hands claw my throat; it’s a feat to breathe.
Think.
Talk.
“It’s time for you to go.” I turn toward my man. “Victor, you will have nothing to do withhim. Jonah will find his way home on his own dime.”
“Lux . . .”
