"Why?" I asked, waiting for the words that only he could utter that would make me at least try.
"Because I—"
Whatever he had been about to say was cut off as we both took in the black sedan that pulled into my driveway and came to a stop. My heart jumped to my throat as I saw the slightly rumpled, disheveled-looking gentleman step from the vehicle.
Nathan muttered something beside me, but I was focused on the familiar person in front of me.
"Hello, baby," the man greeted me.
"Hi, Daddy," I said as he turned to Nathan. "Perhaps you'd like to tell me what you're doing by seducing the person I hired you to find," he said with contempt in his voice.
Chapter 24: The Truth is Out
Nathan
"You were hired to find me?" Ashton asked.
"Yes. I'm a private investigator," I answered, ignoring her father. "I was hired a month ago to locate you and report your whereabouts."
"He took his sweet time to contact me though, since according to the motel attendant, he's been in town more than a week," her dad blustered.
She held up her hand to silence her father. Her father, the client. That was a fact I didn't know until tonight. When I took a job, I didn't ask and didn't care who the client was or why he or she wanted someone found. I completed the task because that's all it ever was. The details didn't matter. I'd figured it out earlier while we sat across from the mouthy pissant at the bar, but I wasn't completely sure until Ashton finally told me her whole secret. Everything suddenly made sense. Of course it had to be her father who hired me. It was never a jilted ex-lover like I had assumed.
"You were hired to find me?" she repeated. "And yet, you waited to tell my father. Why?"
I knew the moment she figured it out when her eyes clouded over with hurt and her shoulders slumped in defeat.
"You wanted a piece of ass first," she said, cheapening what we had shared. "I'm such an idiot," she continued with disgust.
"No," I said loudly. "You're forgetting who started this affair."
"That's not fair. You're forgetting who stalked who. At the bar. At the bridge. You charmed me into thinking you were actually interested in me!" she shouted, oblivious to the fact that she was airing our dirty laundry in front of her father.
"I was interested in you," I ground out through gritted teeth. "I'm still interested in you," I said, reaching for her.
She looked at my outstretched hand hesitantly before jerking away.
"You lied to me too," I reminded her. "You neglected to tell me you were sick and had run away from home," I goaded her, letting my own frustration get the best of me.
"You're right. I have no right to judge you," she said, brushing a tear away. "No attachments, right? That was the deal," she said, heading for her cottage.
I stood on the porch as her words hit me like a fist to the gut.
"I would trounce you for seducing my daughter if I wasn't convinced she just did it for me," her father said, making his way across the porch.
His hand was on the doorknob when my words stopped him. "She's sick," I said as despair crawled its way up my throat.
"I know," he said, his own shoulders drooping. "I knew it the moment she left. She's always been so goddamn worried about what her sickness will do to me. It's partially my fault. I was a mess when we lost her mother. Ashton was left to pick up the pieces and make us a family again even though we were missing such an important piece. We were finally learning to live without her when Ashton got sick," he added, turning to face me.
"She's convinced the cancer won't rest until it takes her," I said, repeating her words from earlier. "She doesn't want to fight it."
"I could see her thinking that. It nearly took her the last time. Sometimes, when I saw the intense pain she was in, I almost wished the cancer would win so she wouldn't feel the pain anymore."
"What are you going to do now?" I asked, frightened by the defeat in his voice. The thought that he was taking her home so she could die scared me beyond belief.
"I'm going to leave the decision to her, but I'm going to stay by her side whatever she decides."
"You have to make her fight," I said with a ragged edge in my voice.