Page 156 of Faking Cinderella

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None of them want to find out someone hurt her either.

And it’s hard to imagine another scenario.

Decker might still be telling himself they were sperm donor babies, but the odds of that are slim to none.

People in Margot’s zip code don’t donate their swimmers to sperm banks.

“I would’ve wanted to know Felice was cheating on me much sooner than I found out,” I tell Decker. “Not your fault your parents made the decisions they made. Individually or together. But you know they each made decisions, and you know it’s stressing you and your brothers the fuck out not knowing who knows what. Tell them. Get rid of the secrets. Might be shitty for a while, but you’re all tight. You’ll come out stronger on the other side.”

He keeps staring at his coffee cup.

And then he sighs long and deep. “I’m glad she’s been good for you.”

I don’t blink at the shift in the conversation, and I follow where he’s coming from.

Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have given him this advice.

But now—yeah.

Now, I’m on the other side of some shit myself.

I smirk at my own coffee. “Figure it’s easier to tell you than it is to hit you with a frying pan.”

“If I knew that’s what you were looking for in a woman, I could’ve asked my assistant to find someone for you.”

I snort.

He chuckles too.

“Don’t do your own dirty work?” I ask

“Fuck, no. Not when I have a Nell. She’s damn good at it too. Not kidding when I say my world would fall apart without her.”

“Make sure you pay her enough.”

He winces. “Yeah. As soon as she got the photoshoot proofs, she knew it was Lucky and not me. She’s fucking good.”

“She blackmailed you?”

“No, she gave me a lecture on being authentic.”

“She really knew it was Lucky?”

“Yeah. And he swears he didn’t tell. She just—she just knows things.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“If she’s that good at everything…maybe have her tell your parents you know.”

We stare at each other a second, and then we both crack up again.

And it feels good.

I’m still hiding something from my buddy, but fuck, he’s hiding shit too.

We’re all hiding shit.

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