DARE-TO-LOVE-TRUTH-AND-DARE-DUET-COLLECTION-by-Lylah-James-pdfarchive

neck pulsed. My heartbeat echoed in my ears, almost too
loud.
I shook my head once. “Too late,” I said, smiling acidly.
Brad nodded, as if he knew that would be my response.
He knew he fucked up. “Your high school graduation… your
mother and I were there.”
“No,” I hissed. “You weren’t.”
His smile was forlorn. “We were. We saw you with Lila
and her family and your friends.”
Fuck that. He was messing with my head now.
“Why didn’t approach me?”
“And ruin your special day?”
He had a point. I just didn’t understand him… why?
“You were so stubborn, Maddox. Still are. We lost so
many years. You were eighteen, and I didn’t know to
approach my son. How to talk to you, how to be a father
again. I didn’t know… how. My relationship with you was
beyond repair, and I didn’t know where to start.”
I seethed, even when my lungs clenched and refused to
let me breathe. “And so you took the easy way out, instead
of trying?”
“My way of trying was to make sure you never give up…
I know I was hard on you. Too hard. But I was pushing you,
because I worried, you’d either drop out of school or you’d
ruin your life. One way or another.”
He sighed, and his chest rattled. Breathing – a simple
act, something that is second nature to humans – he
struggled with it. “Remember the last time you walked out
of my office. I had warned you not to hurt Lila… because
you’d hurt yourself. I said you were on the path of selfdestruction
because I knew. I knew about the Carmichaels.
I knew you were keeping it secret, and I… warned… you.”
My back shot up straight, and I glared down at my
father. “How did you know?”
His lips crooked on the side, a grin that reminded me of
my own. A signature Coulter’s smirk. “You were digging