“I was also battling whether or not to tell you the truth about being your son.” Nash turned back around. Damon hadn’t moved, except to cross his arms over his chest. “But the more I got to know you all, the more I learned as the film was being shot, I realized you weren’t the enemy I knew over the years. You were a ruthless businessman to me, but with your family...you were a different person.”
Nash refused to succumb to those damn emotions that he was nearly choking on. He wouldn’t show weakness, not now. Remaining strong was the only way he would get through this.
“Between sneaking around with Lily and battling how to tell you who I was, I was torn. I decided to tell you everything after the film crew left, after Lily and I were finished and after you’d hopefully sold the horse to my assistant.”
Damon’s eyes narrowed. “That all changed when Lily became pregnant. Right?”
Nash nodded, disgusted by the look of hatred he’d put in Damon’s eyes.
Being cut off from the Barringtons would kill Nash, but he would take it like a man. He’d done all of this to himself and had nowhere else to place the blame. Every downfall that was about to happen was nothing less than what he deserved. Nash just prayed the people he’d come to care about had mercy on him.
“Have you been lying all this time to Lily?” Damon asked.
The man may as well have punched him in the gut. Nash rested his hands on his hips, glanced away and nodded.
“So she knows you’re my son, but she has no clue you’re a millionaire with your own estate, your own spread of horses,” Damon repeated as if to drive that knife deeper. “She thinks she’s fallen in love with a simple, hardworking, honest groom. You waited until she left town to confront me and, what, you expect this to all be tidied up for when she returns?”
Damn it, why did that explanation make Nash sound more like a bastard than a man who’d started off with good intentions?
“I’m telling her everything when she comes back,” Nash replied, forcing himself to hold Damon’s angry gaze. “I love her. I didn’t come into this expecting to get wrapped up personally with anybody at all, least of all Lily. Then our affair started and spiraled out of control. Then I got to know you all even more and I started wanting more than what I came here for. I started out with a goal to get Don Pedro at any cost. Now, though, I don’t want him. I just want Lily, I want my father. You have all the power. You can cut me out of your life or we can try to make this relationship work.”
Damon continued to stare through that narrow gaze.
“I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me.” Nash had laid it all out there, had even offered a meager defense. Now he had to finish up and get the hell out before he started sobbing like some damn fool. “I wouldn’t blame you for cutting me out of your life. I mean, I haven’t been part of your life for very long, so you could just go back to the way things were before I ever came around. Nothing would change for you, really.”
Linda stepped into the doorway. “Damon—”
“Not now, Linda.”
She moved farther into the room until she was standing beside Damon. “Don’t make a decision you’ll regret later.”
Nash jerked his attention to the elderly woman who was gripping a kitchen towel in her hands, her knuckles white. He’d never guessed he’d have an ally in any of this, but having anybody at all on his side was a blessing he didn’t deserve.