Less than an hour later, I knockedaggressively on Logan’s door. I hadn’t meant to, but my heart was pounding and it was an impulse I couldn’t control.
The door was yanked open, but it wasn’t Logan who answered.
“Tisch. Hi.”
Her icy glare told me she’d been caught up on the past hour and was not happy. Or was, hard to tell with her features.
I sighed, not in the mood to get into it with her, too. “Look, canI please talk to him? What he saw earlier... it’snot... I need to explain.”
She crossed her arms. “My brother asked me to take care of all unwanted visitors.”
I glared back at her. Letting her know I wasn’t leaving until I spoke to him.
“Do you want to do this the hard way?” she cocked her head at me. Her eyes warned that she wouldn’t hesitate. And I believed her.
“Please, Tisch. I need to...”
Her jaw flexed and she pushed towards me. “Hardway it is.”
I held my arms in defense. “Wait, wait. Okay. I... I see how it is. I’ll go through you then.” I gulped. Tisch never scared me until I had everything riding on her and how she would relay my explanation to her brother.
I took a deep breath. “A few years ago...”
“Not that I offered to listen or anything, but how about you skipto about two months ago.”
“Just hear me out. A few years ago, I got pregnant by my college boyfriend, luckily it was after graduation. He promised me the world and I believed him. We didn’t have a good life. After he made the pros he basically decided he didn’t want a family but instead of leaving us himself he mademylife hell until I left him. He was abrasive, demeaning and accused me of horrible things all while I was holding our baby. Not to mention I began to see the horrendous human being he was.” I took a breath. “Finally, when Jax was two and I had a stable job and decent childcare, I took Jax and left him. He was so spiteful, he threatened that if I went after him for anything, his lawyers would do a hell of a lot better than mine ever could. I believed him then too. At least I was afraid to challenge him, so we had a civil divorce and I allowed him to leave us with nothing.”
God how are her eyes still so hard?
“Almost everyone in this town blamed me, I had nothing and no one… except Sam.”
She shifted. “When do we get to the part where you betrayed my brother?”
“I let Max control me for too long. Keep me… inhibit me even when I no longer belonged to him.” Tears filled my eyes but I fought them off. “Including leaving a job I loved because I couldn’t be around him anymore. After I watched him—” my voice broke, “bulldoze a guy because of a jealous rage—” I paused for a breath, letting a tear fall. “It shattered me. For months I fought to accept that this is who my child’s father was. The man I was tied to for as long as we lived. But the more I thought about Logan’s accident, the more I realized I was probably responsible for it.
Her brows creased but I pressed on.
“I swore after I’d left Max, he became so much more hostile. Like I’d given him the freedom to do whatever the hell he wanted to whoever he wanted because he had no responsibilities, no one to tame him. No one to bring him back to the person I thought he was in college.”
“I gave up on him and he nearly broke a man, Tisch.”
Her mouth opened but she said nothing.
“When I found out who your brother was, after Jax’s first session, I wanted to end it, but because I never gave him the real reason,” I laughed bitterly, “he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Her eyes turned cold again and I knew what she was waiting for. “It was so hard, Tisch. You have to understand that.”
She blinked. Then looked down and crossed her ankles.
I threw my arms up. This was getting nowhere. “What do you want me to say, Tisch? Heknew. Logan knew I was lying about something.”
“Yes. And he doesn’t need it. My brothers’ beenthroughenough. He doesn’t need to add being played for a fool to the list of shit he’d dealt with.”
I nodded. “If there’s one thing you believe, believe that this wasn’t some sick joke. I would never try to trick him to make a fool of him. I love him.”
Her eyes rose to mine and something flashed in them before she narrowed her glare. “You love someone you can’t trust to be honest with?” she waited for me to answer and when I didn’t, she added, “I’d try that BS with someone else. That’s not going to fly here.” And shut the door in my face.
29
