“Huh? I need to ask you a question?”
“Oh,” she said, drawing out the word, leaning forward, her elbows resting on the edge of the rectangular table. “You’re going to play dumb.”
His lips twitched. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
“Music room. The Foundation. One question. Does that ring any bells?”
“Yeah, you against the wall, your mouth parted, your legs wrapped around me—”
“Oh my God.” Her arm shot out across the table and she slapped her hand over his mouth. “I was talking about the part where you promised an answer to one of my questions and you tried to divert me from asking anything by…” she lowered her voice as her eyes darted around the restaurant. “Seducing me.”
“Oh that,” he said, chuckling when she pulled her hand away. “What do you want to know?”
“What you’re going to do about your mom and dad.”
He exhaled. “I’m talking to my dad tomorrow. We’re going to meet for breakfast, and my mom…” He shook his head. “I’m done with her. I don’t want to see her. She always manages to pile more shit on me and I’m done with it. I can’t let her in my life again.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. Are you nervous about seeing your dad?”
“Not nervous, but I’m not looking forward to it.”
“Do you want me to come? I could be a buffer.”
“You have to work.”
“It’s breakfast. I can take the morning off.”
“No. As much as I don’t want to, I need to do this alone.”
Violet leaned back and pushed her spaghetti around on her plate with her fork. “Okay. You’re probably right, but I could wait at a nearby coffee shop if things get crazy.”
“You’d do that?”
“Of course. I don’t want you to feel alone. If you need me, you can text me and I’ll be there in a minute.” He hadn’t talked to his dad in a long time, and from Alec’s behavior, she could tell that the meeting might not be amicable.
Alec rubbed his fingers together, his rings clanking against each other. “You know what, why don’t you come in with me and I’ll introduce you and you can tell me you’ll pick me up in an hour.”
“Sure, but why?”
“It’ll give me an out. I’ll have a definitive ending to the meet and greet with him.”
“Okay, but don’t you think you’ll need longer than an hour? You said you hadn’t seen him for a really long time.”
“Is this still part of the one question?”
“Sure, if that means you’ll answer it.”
He rubbed his face with the palm of his hand and she didn’t think he’d answer.
“The first ten years of my life were pretty normal. I had a mom, a dad, and a younger sister that I loved from the moment my parents brought her home.”
“What happened?” she asked, keeping her voice soft.
Alec chugged the rest of his beer. “I came home after school and my mom was fighting with some man about me. He said he knew I was his.”
“His biological child.”
Alec nodded. “I hid so my mom wouldn’t realize I was home, and when he left I didn’t question her about it. I wanted to ask my dad—or the man I thought was my dad. When I did, he confronted my mom, and while their relationship wasn’t all rosy and easy going, their fight that night was volcanic. My dad finally stormed out of the house. He died less than an hour later in a car accident.” Alec shook his head. “After that, everything fell apart. My mom drank so much she couldn’t hold down a job. I don’t even know how my mom managed to keep a roof over our head. Sometimes she didn’t come home for days at a time and I was left with a little sister to take care of.”
“Alec…” She reached across the table, grabbing his hand and refusing to let go. “I’m so sorry. Did your real dad help you?”
His shook his head, his eyes empty, dark, and swirling with a sinister sadness. “I asked for his help once and his wife told me to never come back.”
“Are you sure you want to see him now?”
“No.” He laughed bitterly. “But my mom claims that she had a restraining order against him so he couldn’t contact me, but that’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
“What do you know about him?”
“Other than the fact that they were brothers…not a lot.”
“Who?”
“My biological dad and the man I thought was my dad.”
For a second she couldn’t say anything—she just chewed her lip as she watched his stoic face. He had carefully wiped his face clean of any emotion as he stared at her. It was shocking, but she’d heard a lot of shocking stories since she’d started working for the Foundation. “Wow. That’s fucked up. Your mom’s a real piece of work.”