Page 138 of Mile High Ex's Dad
He gestures for me to go on.
“When she arrived, she was the replacement planner. Her friend had a family emergency. Sienna took the job at the last minute.”I pause. “Neither of them knew I knew her. I didn’t know she knew Ethan.”
Maksim is quiet now. No teasing. Just listening.
“At the rehearsal dinner, he and Camille humiliated her in front of everyone,” I say. “I stepped in. That was the first time she realized who I was. Or rather, who I was to him.”
“And that was a surprise.”
“Yes.”
“For both of you?”
“Yes.”
He leans back. “Go on.”
“She followed me out later. We spoke. Then everything else started surfacing a little at a time. Ethan’s history with her. She said she just knew him a little. The pregnancy. The fact that she was hiding it. The fact that he was still trying to get under her skin.”
Maksim watches my face and says, “And when did you find out she’d been with Ethan?”
“At the rehearsal dinner, I suspected something.” I let out a breath. “And I just found out the entire truth this morning after Ethan got drunk.”
Maksim whistles under his breath. Then he says, “Father and son. That’s fucked up even for you.”
I almost smile. Almost. “It wasn’t exactly planned.”
“No,” he says dryly. “That would somehow be worse.”
The bathroom door opens. Ethan comes out looking like a man who has not improved in the last five minutes. He’s paler now, face damp, hair pushed back with wet hands, but the anger is still there. Worse, maybe. Less sloppy now. More settled.
I look at him and say, “Go to my room. Sleep it off there. You’re not to be seen downstairs until I say so.”
He stares at me. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
Maksim, from beside the fireplace, says, “It’s good advice. Which means you’ll probably ignore it.”
Ethan doesn’t even look at him. His eyes stay on me.
There’s something ugly in them. Not simple resentment. Something more personal than that. Bitter, almost. It puts a strange feeling in the room, and I don’t like it.
He says, “You always have to control everything.”
“Yes,” I say. “Especially when you’re making it necessary.”
His jaw tightens.
For one second I think he’s going to say something else. Something worse. Instead he just gives me a look I can’t quite place, half hate, half injury, and turns for the door.
As he passes me, I feel a flicker of unease I can’t explain.
Not fear. Just instinct.
Something in him has shifted.
He leaves without another word.
