who loves you.”
“I fail to see how lies translate into love,” he retorted.
“I hope you’ll come to understand why we made the decision. In time, when you’re less bitter and angry, maybe you’ll see that we had your best interests at heart.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand. Brad promised. He agreed it was best not to say anything—”
“But he did.” Pain and anger knotted together in his gut. “And in a whacked-out sort of way, that’s some comfort. At least he had a conscience. Maybe I got his gene for telling the truth instead of yours to perpetuate a lie.”
“Luke, listen—”
He turned away and walked toward the door. He heard her footsteps behind him. She put a hand on his arm and he couldn’t break her hold without more force than he was willing to use. Meeting her gaze, he put his hand on the knob.
“Luke, you can be as angry as you want at me. But don’t you dare take this out on your father. And don’t pretend you don’t know who I mean. Tom Marchetti loves you—you are his son.”
“When you bury your head in the sand, you leave your rear end exposed,” he shot back.
She went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “I will not tolerate any disrespect toward your father.”
As much as he hated to admit she was right about anything, the truth was Tom Marchetti was a victim, too. He wasn’t the one who had slept with someone else.
“Don’t—” Whatever she saw on his face made her release his arm.
Without a word from her to stop him, he left the house. He walked across the back grass, skirted the pool area ringed with Malibu lights, and stopped beside his sports car parked in the alley.
The anger, pain, bewilderment and betrayal that had dogged him since Maddie broke the news cascaded over him in a tidal wave that threatened to drown him. How could he have not known his whole life was a fabrication? The woman who had taught him right from wrong, who had given him a moral foundation to live by, had lied to him in the most elemental way. How could he not be bitter and furious?
Happy childhood memories washed over him. Times spent with his siblings, his mother—the man he’d never had a reason to question as his father. How could they let him grow up believing he was a part of that? As a teen, he’d been grounded from his car for trying to pull a fast one. Yet she expected him to act as if nothing had changed for him. How hypocritical was that? Everything had changed.
Leaning against the driver’s door, he ran both hands through his hair. His mother had given him the answers, just as Maddie had said. And she was right. He definitely planned to call a lawyer. But a stranger couldn’t respond to the questions he had. In fact, there was one big one at the top of his list, one that overshadowed everything else.
“Who the hell am I?” he whispered into the dark night.
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