Page 152 of The Troublemaker
We both move to the family room, and I watch her look around the space.All of Tanner’s things are strewn around, but I don’t see any emotion cross her face.
Is she dead inside?She left her kid here, and this is where he’s growing up without her.
“Is he here?”she asks.
Easton comes over and hands us both a water before sitting on the arm of the couch.
“He’s with friends,” he answers, which I’m grateful for.
“Honor.”The word is a demand for her to explain how she could betray me like this, how she could betray her son.
She looks at Easton.“How did you figure it out?”
Is that really her question right now?
“Your tattoo… and I just felt like I knew you, but then I overheard two women saying something about a baby.”
She nods and sucks in her bottom lip.“Where do you want me to start?”
Anger boils in my blood because I feel like she’s dodging the reason this all went down.
“From the beginning.You knew I’d been with Easton…”
“I did,” she admits.“But I thought he was just a fuck boy.”She glances at Easton.“No offense.”
“It’s okay, I was.”He looks at me.“Then.Not now.”
I nod, knowing what he’s saying.He doesn’t need to reassure me.
“I don’t even know how to explain it.Jealousy?Loneliness?Depression over what my life turned out to be like?You’d always breeze into town and tell me all about the amazing things you’d done while you were away.The people you met, the beaches so white, the water so blue.The food so good, the sex so amazing.”
Easton raises his eyebrows at me, and I tilt my head like now is not the time.
“I wanted that life.I wanted to see the world, but I wasn’t going to leave the woman who gave up her life to raise me to fend for herself.I felt so stuck, then I’d feel guilty for thinking that way.You had come over and told me about…” Honor looks at Easton.“You.And would tell me all these things about him.How nice a guy he was, how much fun he was, where he hung out, what he did in bed.”
Again, Easton glances in my direction, eyebrows raised.
“How you always felt like you were in the moment with him.No stress about anything and then… Erik broke up with me, I lost my job for missing too much time, my grandma was in the hospital after a fall, and I was just scrolling on my phone.A picture of Easton came up and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to live Hadley’s life for just one night?’”
My stomach sinks.
“So, I got dressed up, and I went to the club you told me he’d invited you to a bunch of times before.I swindled my way into the VIP lounge with some other guy who paid attention to me in the booth next to yours.And… well…” Her eyes lift and meet mine.At least I see some guilt there.“It happened.”
“Did we use something?”Easton asks.
I huff.“Clearly…”
She nods.“We did.At least you had a condom, and I saw the wrapper on the floor after, so I assume so.But then I was late.”
I want to keep hammering her with questions, but I let her continue to tell the story.
Honor says to Easton, “I thought about telling you, but then I thought you probably wouldn’t believe me.I’d have to prove myself and do a paternity test.My grandma was in and out of the hospital, and I had this new job that was already not happy with my time away.I was embarrassed because you were really drunk and I didn’t think you would remember me.And then if I told you, I’d have to tell Hadley, and I felt so guilty for what I’d done.I thought I could do it.Raise him on my own.”
“So you were never going to tell me?”Easton asks.
She nods.
He blows out a breath and goes to the kitchen.I say nothing, giving him the space he needs to come to terms with the fact that he might never have known Tanner had she not left him.
