Half truth

Chapter Twenty-Five

Logan

“You like her.”

I glared at my father. “You don’t get to talk about her.”

“Stop being so dramatic. I understand you not wanting your brother near her after all of the rumors, but—”

“You call him going to court and getting sued for rape by four different women rumors?”

“They all dropped the charges.”

“He paid them off.”

“Only to take the limelight away from him. He says he didn’t do those things.”

“Well, excuse me if I find it hard to believe either one of you.” I shot him a look.

It wasn’t like my father was the most i

“Those were consensual.”

“It doesn’t matter. Forget I brought that up.” I threw my hands up.

I was tired of discussing all the ways he was a worthless man only to have him argue why he wasn’t. A foolish man made mistakes, but only a fool tried to justify them. My father was both, and the mistakes he made went way past cheating on my mother. His mistakes left marks and bruises, and often broken bones, at least when it came to my brother and I. So, was I happy to see him? Hell, the fuck no. Did I need to sign the papers that got me out of the contract in which I was currently listed as one of the owners? Yes.

It was something I should have never signed. Even as I did it, I knew it was a stupid mistake, but my father’s lawyer had driven a hard bargain—my signature for a quarter of the profit that would come in the first two years. They needed someone to oversee things and it had to be someone with their name on the contract. Because I was the one closest to the restaurant, that person was me. My brother couldn’t even have his name on it because of all of the disgusting things he’d done. I felt my blood boil again. It wasn’t enough that he was just as worthless as our father. It wasn’t enough that he’d gotten in trouble and almost arrested. He had to come in here and also try to hit on Amelia. This was after he started an argument with me about signing an NHL contract. He thought that because he’d played in the league, he should tell me what to do, where to go and who my agent should be once I graduated.

“This is ready.” Dad put the papers in a folder and set them in his briefcase. He closed it and snapped the handles as he stood again. “I hope I see you before next year. Maybe you can bring your friend to the island for a weekend.”

“No, thanks.”

“You know, your mother forgave me for all of that shit. I fucked up, yes, but she forgave me, why can’t you?”

I stared at him for a moment. “If you can’t answer that question yourself, you’re worse than I thought. I’ll see you when I see you.”

I turned around and headed back up to my apartment. He’d one-hundred-percent ruined my mood. As the elevator door was closing, I caught sight of Marcus jogging my way. I held it for him.

“Shit. I’m ru

“You’re ru

“Obviously. You know anyone else who’s pre-med with access to the labs?”

I glared at him. Why were all of my friends such smart asses? Couldn’t any of them be mild ma

Whatever the reason was, I found myself fighting the urge to run over there, punch Marcus and take Mae inside where nobody else could look, touch, or talk to her. Yeah, I was being absolutely ridiculous. Maybe I needed to get laid. By someone who wasn’t Mae, so that I’d quit thinking about her exclusively. I opened the door to my place and walked inside, making it a point not to look back at them. The last thing I needed was for him to know just how interested in her I was. As it was, I’d made an exception for tonight’s initiation and I knew I’d never hear the end of it from them.