He held his hand out to me, and I shook it automatically. Then, he moved to stand beside Mom, wrapping an arm around her. I just watched them, feeling slightly dazed. I saw how Mom smiled at him, and she looked so happy I wasn’t sure if I should say anything, though I was itching to ask a bunch of questions.
Like, when did they meet? Why was this the first time I was hearing about it, and they were already married? There hadn't been a formal wedding, but it was legally binding already?
This man… was my stepdad.
“I would have invited you to lunch,” Mom continued. “But I knew you’d be busy so I was hoping to call you out for dinner. We were both a little too impatient, though,” she said, turning to the man beside her with a secretive smile. “But I’m going to be around for a week or so, so we’ve got plenty of time to meet up!”
“That’s… good, Mom,” I murmured.
She pulled me over to a set of chairs and sat me on the single seat beside the couch, where she and Greg sat down. She started talking about the plans they had for the wedding, and Greg would chime in every now and then, but he mostly just sat there smiling. They were seated close together, holding hands, and my eyes kept moving between Mom and their hands, clasped tightly together.
My chest felt a little tight. I wouldn’t hate this guy just because he wasn’t my dad, and because in the last ten years when Mom didn’t remarry, I knew it was as hard for her to move on as it was for me. Even when she dated, she didn’t look as happy as she used to. I wasn’t sure if she ever would marry again, but I wanted her happy, so of course I wanted it for her.
I just didn’t think much about it. Seeing her glowing seated next to the man, I wanted to be happy for her, I really did. But, I didn’t even know she was dating this man, I didn’t know she’d met someone she was considering marrying.
The mother I’d grown up with in the last ten years would have told me. I felt a little uneasy in my stomach.
Why didn’t she tell me?
It was all I could think.
“I know it’s going to be an adjustment for all four of us,” Mom said. “But I just know we can make this work, honey.”
I blinked. Four of us? Did I miss something important? Mom would have told me if she was pregnant, and she wasn’t rubbing her stomach when she said ‘four of us’ so I didn’t think it was that. So, Greg had a kid of his own? I had a stepsibling
“Do you think you can join us for breakfast tomorrow?” Mom asked, looking at me hopefully. “I think it would be a good idea to have all of us together. I know how swamped you are with classes, so I was thinking we could have the wedding somewhere close by for you to be able to attend when you’ve got a short break? We can discuss it some more tomorrow.”
I opened my mouth to say that I would be busy. I had class mid-morning tomorrow. It would be okay if I came early and went back just before class, but I wasn’t comfortable with this. In the end, I couldn’t say no to her.
“Okay,” I agreed.
I wasn’t happy about it, though.Chapter Twelve
NoahThe next morning, I got a text from Dad. I wanted to ignore it, but I didn’t dare.
I didn’t want to be a part of what was going on, but I knew I couldn’t separate myself from it, either. I’d feel guilty if I did nothing and that poor rich woman thought she’d met a couple of crooks.
Come over to breakfast, meet the family.
I frowned because his message didn’t make much sense to me. What family? He didn’t mean him and the woman he was planning to con, right?
Whatever.
He made me stop yesterday, but the guilt had been killing me since I’d turned my back on them. There was no way I was going to be a part of this; I had to say something.
It was damn early, and I couldn’t sleep well last night, but I jumped out of bed to go and find Dad. I went to take a quick shower and found some clean clothes to get dressed before I left my dorm. There was still some time before I had to meet them for breakfast, but I figured it would be fine if I made my way over there slowly.
I was walking through the school, looking down at my phone when I heard someone call my name. I stopped automatically, looking around for whoever called me and wanted to curse when I found them.