Chase half smiled, half laughed. “Tal, don’t take this the wrong way, but how the hell did you pick derm? I don’t see it.” His wife backhanded his stomach.

“Could you be any more egotistical? Not everyone wants to be a surgeon.” Lili huffed, shaking her head and frowning at Chase.

“No, it’s okay. I probably would’ve chosen surgery, he’s right, but quality of life was more important. It wasn’t just about me.” Her breath hitched and she blinked a second too long. Oh fuck. “A mother’s priorities and all.”

“Oh wow.” Lili didn’t miss a beat. “You never mentioned it, and I can’t believe I never asked. I just assumed … that’s amazing. How many kids do you have? How old?”

“Just one, he’s eighteen.”

“Eighteen? That’s crazy. You don’t look like you could have a child that old. He must be, what, in college now?” Lili continued the conversation, oblivious to Chase’s sudden rigidity and ticking jaw. It was like watching a train derail in slow motion.

I squeezed Tal’s thigh, hoping my strength said it all. I got you. Her fingers found mine. Yeah, she heard me. She was done carrying this load alone. Lil kept talking, about what I had no clue. I was busy watching Chase’s abrupt exit from the room, screeching chair and all. The terrace French door opened and slammed shut. Talia tensed. Lili finally stopped talking, the silence filled in around us. Her wheels were turning as fear crept in, darkening her baby blues.

“He’s not his.” The words erupted from Tal without warning, fast and sharp, slicing through the silence. Lili stared with wide eyes. This. Sucked. “I know what you’re thinking, I lied about having an abortion, why wouldn’t I lie about this? But I swear on my life, he’s not Chase’s son, he’s his brother.” You could’ve heard a pin drop. Lil’s jaw dropped open. It took me a second to get my bearings. Tal’s verbal diarrhea approach took me by surprise as well. Didn’t see that coming.

“What … wait ... you never had an abortion. Chase’s thought all these years … do you know what he put himself through … the guilt.” Lili’s voice was punctuated and deliberate, like she was trying to process what the hell was going down. For a minute I thought she didn’t even hear Tal’s last statement. “What do you mean they’re brothers?” Lili’s wide eyes welled with tears. Talia’s were already dripping down her cheeks. “Oh my god. No, Tal. Oh my god.”

“Lil, I need you to calm down. I’m going to grab Chase. He’s not gonna want to hear this, but he needs to. He needs to know the truth.” I lifted Tal’s chin to meet my gaze and whispered, “Okay?”

“Okay.”

The terrace door closed behind me, but Chase didn’t budge, his sights were fixed on horizon. “How long have you known?”

“You need to calm yourself down and hear her out.”

“How long? It’s a simple question.” He was seething. “The sex that fucking good, worth stabbing me in the back?”

Now I was seething. Leeway passed. “I’m going to try and forget what you just said. This time. Disrespect the woman I love again and we will have a problem. To answer your question, two weeks and NO ONE stabbed you in the back. I get you’re in shock, I’ll give you that. But you need to check it and get your ass inside and hear what she has to say. The only person who got royally fucked in all of this is Tal.”

One look and he saw I was telling the truth. Without a word he stalked back in. Jack Colton better have been rotting in hell.

The women were back in the living room sitting across from each other when we came in. With one knee bent against her chest and the other tucked beneath her, Tal silently massaged her bare foot.

Lil rushed to calm Chase. “Babe, please just listen, please.”

He said nothing. His angry eyes did not waver from Talia. I stood in between and not because of torn loyalties. I had Tal’s back, no matter what. But I also needed to be at arm’s length to shut Chase down if he was too stubborn to rein it in.

Tal’s eyes met mine. She didn’t need encouragement, the woman redefined brave. I nodded anyway, letting her know I wasn’t going anywhere.

“His name is Tack…” She spoke uninterrupted for a good five minutes, reliving her nightmare all over again for Chase. She opened by admitting she was already pregnant when she slept with Chase, that there was no possible way he was Tack’s father. Her genuine remorse was undeniable. Lil quietly sniffled against Chase’s shirt, while he shook his head, confused. There was no mistaking his moment of clarity. The second Tal uttered Jack Colton’s name, the tension exploded. Chase raked his hands through his hair, his eyes cemented to the floor. His telltale sign that he was losing it. Lil’s sniffles turned to sobs, but Tal stayed focused on me and finished. Her recap was almost identical, without disclosing the pictures. That was her decision to make and I gave her that.

When Chase finally spoke, I didn’t recognize his voice through his gritted teeth. “My father raped you?”

Tal broke and started to cry. I moved to where I belonged, next to my woman, pulling her in close. I had two weeks to process all this shit, but my insides still burned and the bile still stung the back of my throat.

“I never said no, it was my choice. I have to live with that.”

“No, Talia. That sick, sick bastard!” The disgust and anger on Lil’s face as she spoke mirrored my own. “You were a child, he was the adult. He knew exactly what he was doing, HE was wrong. You can argue the semantics all you want, but he violated you.”

We shared the same sentiment. How could that pathetic waste of a life do that to a young and innocent girl? Lili’s horrendous rape had to be flooding her memory and Chase looked to be doing everything in his power to control his emotion. You could have bounced a ball off of his intensity. I knew the rage he bottled inside was combustible. And aimed at his dead father. I could guarantee he was as close to exhuming his body as I was, if not closer.

Tal wiped her eyes and sat straight up. “Thank you for your support, Lil. I might have been vulnerable and impaired, but I wasn’t innocent. And in the end it doesn’t really matter how it happened, just that it did. As much as the vague memories from that night haunt my dreams, there has never been a single day, in nineteen years, that I haven’t woken up and thanked God for my greatest blessing. I regret plenty, oh god, you have no idea, but my decision to keep my child, never, ever.” She took a deep, shaky breath and continued. “My deepest regret … is what I did to you, Chase. I am so, so sorry. I wish there was a more powerful word than sorry, because it doesn’t even begin to cut it. If I could take it all back, what I put you through, I would in a heartbeat. I lied and broke your trust, but worse, I abandoned you when you needed us the most. I have to own that and live with it, and one day in another life, face your sister for it. The day I came to you and told you I was pregnant … please just know, that in the sea of my lies, my only truth was saying that I loved you. You were the brother I never had.” Her voice crackled with sincerity. She laid herself bare.

Lili’s gaze shifted from Chase to me, unsure of what to do next. As if there was some unwritten etiquette on handling fucked up situations. Tal’s grip on my hands tightened. We waited. Chase remained silent, then moved to the window. I mentally started counting down, my stomach churning. The only other time I had seen this look in his eyes was when he found out there was nothing he could do to save his sister. He was helpless and empty, much like he was today. There was no quick fix, no altering the past. What was done was done. Nothing could be changed; nothing could be reversed.

Lili joined her husband, securing her arms around his waist and laying her head against his back. I tucked Tal against my side and kissed her forehead.

“You know he’ll come around, right?” I whispered. “He’s the same guy, he’s us.”

Tal knew this, but it didn’t stop her lip from quivering. God, I just wanted to make it better—make it all go away. I felt her pain deep in my chest.

“Tack’s here in Boston, Chase. He’s a sophomore, pre-med. Ironic, huh? He knows about you.” Her voice wavered and a single tear slid down her cheek. She was trying so hard to keep it together. “I told him a few weeks ago, everything. At first he was mad—furious, actually. I’ll never forget the look on his face, he looked ... he looked just like you. But he’s coming around, slowly. He’s working that heart of gold of his, reiterating how upset he is for me. I know he’s struggling with finding out his biological father was anything but the amazing person I disillusioned him with throughout his childhood, my own wishful thinking. I told him his paternity means nothing, doesn’t define him, and has no bearing on the man he is. When he asked me how I could be so sure, the answer was simple ... you.”

The single tear turned into a full stream. I thumbed her cheeks and kissed her wet lips, mumbling, “I love you.”

Lili hadn’t moved, her head was still buried against Chase’s back. I could see her body trembling with her silent sobs. I watched him release Lil’s hands from around his waist as he pulled her to his chest and turned around.

“I want to meet him.” His words were simple. Yet poignant. The only ones that mattered. Tal let out an audible sigh as her entire body went limp against my chest. She uttered an incoherent thank you or thank God as her tears continued to roll down. I just held her. We still had a long way to go, but this was a giant step in moving forward. I figured Chase deserved a pass this once. But it was close. I was teetering on that edge where beating the shit out of him was in the realm of possibility for prolonging Tal’s pain. But I’d come back from that edge only because my woman felt a whole lot lighter.