Misadventures of a Virgin by Meredith Wild

Author:Meredith Wild [Wild, Meredith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781947222434
Publisher: Waterhouse Press
Published: 2017-12-02T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

“What?” My eyes go wide. The air in my lungs exits from the pure shock of Kase’s confession.

“But… Your mother. If she left—”

He lets go of my hand.

“Lily McCasker wasn’t some woman Edwin knocked up who took off after she gave birth to me. She was his sister, and he took her in.” He swallows and clasps his hands on the table, his focus fixed on the brilliant orange blossoms in front of us. “She was following a band around the country. Fell for the guitarist and ending up getting pregnant. She was hopelessly in love with the guy, but when she had the baby…me. Well, life on the road wasn’t a life for a newborn. So she came home.”

“But you said she left.”

“Edwin said he’d help support us until she could get on her feet. But she was barely here a week before her old life called her back.”

He exhales heavily. His eyes are calm, serious, as if maybe he’s found peace with the tragedy of his parentage.

“She left me with Edwin. Said she’d come back as soon as she convinced my father to settle down with her. Somehow, Edwin knew that wasn’t going to happen, so he decided right then to raise me as his own. In a small town, he figured it was the best thing. He was probably right, but I couldn’t accept any of that when he told me.”

“When did you find out?”

“Your father came to him with the offer when I had one foot out the door for college. He had your dad’s proposal in his hand when he told me. It wasn’t long after that night with you at the falls. He was worried about keeping things up after I left. Said he didn’t feel right selling it without my blessing, because the land could be mine one day. Whether or not I was his true son, I would inherit everything. But he fed me a lie for eighteen years.”

“Edwin cares for you. I know he does.”

His painful grimace breaks through the calm he’d shown before. I reach for his hand and hold it firmly.

“There probably never would have been a good time to tell me the truth. But I had my whole life ahead of me, June, and then it was like nothing made sense. How could any of it matter when both my fucking parents abandoned me? I mean, I’d grown up making up stories about my mom, trying to rationalize why she left. But both of them?”

The well of emotion within me inches to the surface again, and my heart breaks for the truth we both now know. “I’m sorry, Kase.”

He shakes his head, a faraway look in his eyes. “He made me believe I was someone I wasn’t. I was devastated. More lost than I’ve ever felt in my life. Half dead, half trying to live. I told him to sell it. Have a nice life.”

“But he didn’t sell,” I say.

“I left early for school. Found an apartment and a job to help me with expenses.

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