Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5)(128)

“She won’t say anything.”

My mom sounds so sure of herself as she closes the door, leaving only her and me in the hallway together. If I could get out of this house without having to pass by her, then I would. I’d run.

My mom turns her attention back on me. “Hal—”

“How could you?!” I practically scream.

She closes her eyes. “Hallie, let me explain.”

“Let you explain?” I laugh sardonically. “Let you explain what? What kind of explanation could you possibly have for sleeping with my boyfriend’s dad? What the hell are you thinking?”

“I know,” she says calmly. “I know.”

“How long?”

“Hallie.”

“How long have you been fucking your best friend’s husband, Mom?”

Her jaw tenses as she rolls the answer over in her mind. “It started last fall, after you left for college.”

I shake my head. “Unbelievable.”

“Things changed between me and your dad once you and your brother left the house. It was different without—”

“Do not blame us!” I point a finger at her. “Don’t you dare blame us for what you’re doing to our dad.”

Oh my God. My dad.

Those tears I was trying to delay begin stinging the back of my eyes again. “Why would you do this to him?” I can’t even recognize the woman standing in front of me. “Dad has cancer and you’re off having an affair with his closest friend?”

She takes a frantic step in my direction, but I hold my hands out to stop her.

“I was ending it,” she attempts to claim. “That’s all this was. I was ending it for your father.”

“For my father?” The laugh that rips out of me sounds manic. “How about not cheating on him in the first place? This is going to destroy him. And Mia.”

And Rio.

Oh my God.

This is going to devastate him. His parents’ marriage is everything to him. It’s the foundation on which he’s built his own ideas of what love looks like.

It’ll be entirely dismantled because of this.

I choke back a sob. “Rio’s heart is going to be broken, Mom.”

“No,” she says firmly. “Hallie, you cannot tell him.”

My eyes shoot to hers because what the hell does she mean I can’t tell him? Of course I’m going to tell him. I have to. And screw her for making me be the person to break his heart.

“You can’t tell Mia either.”

“I have to! I’m not going to lie to Rio about this. We’re about to start our lives together and you expect me to keep this from him? No way. I’m not protecting you.”

“I’m not talking about protecting me.”

My eyes narrow in confusion.

“I’m talking about protecting your dad. You cannot tell anyone, Hallie. If your father finds out, this will kill him.”

All the air leaves me.

Did she really just say that?

And is she right?

Fear takes over again, pushing my rage to the side. I’m not sure what a broken heart would do to my dad when he’s fragile already, but no part of me wants to test her theory.

“Think about what this information could do to your dad’s health, Hallie. Do you really want to be the one to tell him?”





Chapter 42


Hallie


“Then two weeks later, you found out anyway,” I say to finish.

For the two weeks following that day, I kept my mouth shut. I kept my mouth shut about everything. I was terrified that my mom would be right, and that if I said something, it would be detrimental to my dad’s health.

Of course, now looking back, I know that’s not true, but for those two weeks, I was living in paralyzed fear that it could be.

If I would’ve known better, I would’ve told Rio and his mom as soon as possible. Maybe then I wouldn’t have lost him for so many years. Or her.

Mrs. DeLuca is sitting across from me, tears silently streaming down her face. It’s an entirely different reaction from the day she found out that her husband and best friend were having an affair.

In her house. In her own bedroom.

Rio and I were headed to pack up his room when we walked in to find his typically strong mother broken in a way I’d never seen her. Broken in a way I’ve never seen anyone. I watched the panic consume him as soon as we heard her blood-curdling cry. I noticed when the protectiveness took over as he picked his inconsolable mother off the ground.

I witnessed his heart crack when she told him about his dad, and I watched it shatter completely when she told him that I knew.

I’m not sure what hurt worse that day. The way she looked at me with complete and utter disgust, or how it felt to have the only man I’ve ever loved tell me to get out of their house.

Across the table, Mrs. DeLuca brings her coffee to her lips as she watches me from over her rim, tears still falling of their own volition. “You look just like her.”

My heart sinks at the reminder. It’s a suspicion I’ve had for a long time, that maybe she looked at me the way she did that day because physically, I’m practically a carbon copy of her former best friend. And now, how could I expect her to look at me when I’m the spitting image of the woman who tore her family apart?