The Impossible Truth

Adeline POV

“Adeline! My beautiful girl!”

My Mom attacked me with one of her signature crushing hugs the moment I cleared the arrivals gate.

Despite my hangover and emotional turmoil, I smiled. She looked incredible …she was literally younger, happier, and glowing in a way I hadn’t seen since my Dad died.

“I missed you so much,” she said, pulling back to look at me. “How was graduation? You have to tell me everything!”

“It was good,” I lied, because I could barely remember anything before the previous night. “Really good.”

“I was so sorry we missed it, but Raymond had this crucial business meeting in Chicago that couldn’t be postponed.”

Chicago. We would have taken a flight together if I had known he was around.

“I can’t wait to meet him,” I said smiling.

The drive home passed in a blur of Mom’s excited chatter about renovations and how wonderful Raymond was and how perfect everything was.

I nodded and made appropriate sounds while trying to keep my hangover nausea under control.

The house looked completely different ..it had been freshly painted. Mom led me inside, and I barely recognized the place I had grown up in.

“We redid everything,” Mom said proudly. “Raymond insisted. He said he wanted you to feel welcome when you came home.”

There was new furniture, new artwork, everything was coordinated and expensive. It was beautiful, but it didn’t feel like home anymore.

“Where is he?” I asked, setting down my bag.

“Oh he is upstairs getting ready. He had just gotten back from his trip and wanted to shower before meeting you.” Mom checked her watch. “He would be down any minute. I can’t just wait for you two to meet …I just know you are going to love him.”

My head was still pounding, and all I wanted was water and aspirin and maybe to sleep for twelve hours. Meeting my stepfather felt like the last thing I was equipped to handle right then.

“Raymond!” Mom called up the stairs. “Adeline is here!”

I heard footsteps above us, then slowly coming down. My heart pounded for reasons I couldn’t explain …it’s probably just the hangover making everything feel more intense.

“Adeline, ” Mom said, practically vibrating with excitement, “I would like you to meet my husband…”

The footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs, and I looked up.

The world stopped.

Time stopped.

My heart stopped.

It was him. The man from the previous night. The Greek god who had picked me up when I fell, who had carried me to his suite, who had made love to me like I was precious and then disappeared before dawn.

Raymond. My stepfather.

“Raymond,” Mom continued, completely oblivious to the fact that my entire world had just imploded, “this was my daughter, Adeline.”

The silence stretched forever. I watched the color drain from his face as recognition hit him like a blow. His eyes widened, then darted to my mother before returning to me with an expression of pure horror.

This couldn’t be happening. This was some kind of nightmare, some cruel cosmic joke.

“Hello, Adeline ” he managed, his voice steady despite the shock written all over his face. “It is….nice to finally meet you.”

“You too,” I whispered, the words barely audible.

Mom looked between us, her smile faltering slightly. “Is everything alright? You both look…”

“Just tired,” Raymond said quickly, his voice sounding stronger then. “It is a very long flight from Chicago.”

“And I was hungover,” I added, because it was true and it might explain why I looked like I had seen a ghost.

“Oh sweetheart,” Mom said sympathetically. “Graduation celebration got a little out of hand?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, let me get you some aspirin and water. And Raymond, why don’t you show Adeline how we redid her room?”

No. Absolutely not. I couldn’t be alone with that man right then.

“Actually, I was really tired,” I said quickly. “Maybe I could just go rest for a while?”

“Of course,” Mom said. “You had such a big day. We could catch up over dinner.”

I grabbed my suitcase and practically ran upstairs, my legs shaking so badly I could barely climb the steps.

My childhood bedroom was unrecognizable ..it was painted all white and gray, it looked more sophisticated.

I closed the door and leaned against it, my heart hammering so hard I was sure they could hear it downstairs.

I had slept with my stepfather.

The man my mother was desperately in love with, the man she had married, the man who had been living in my childhood home for six months …i had given him my virginity the previous night in a hotel room while completely drunk.

And he had left me with a fucking goodbye note.

My phone buzzed. An unknown number:

We needed to talk,meet me at the garage in minutes.

I stared at the message, my hands were shaking uncontrollably. This was really happening. That nightmare was actually my life then.

But what choice did I have? We had to figure out how to handle this before it destroyed everyone involved.

Ten minutes later, I slipped out the back door and into the garage. He was waiting by a black Porsche, pacing like a caged animal.

“This is fucking insane,” he said the moment he saw me.

“You think?”

“I had no idea. I swear to God, Adeline I had no idea who you were.”

“And then?”

“Then we are both fucked.” He ran both hands through his hair. “Your mother could never know about this.”

“Obviously.”

“We pretend the previous night had never happened.”

“Fine.”

“We stay away from each other and try to act normal.”

“Normal?” I laughed bitterly. “There was nothing normal about that situation, Raymond.”

Hearing his name out loud made this feel more real, more impossible.

“We don’t have a choice,” he said desperately. “This would destroy your mother.”

He was right. Mom was happier than she had been in years. Finding out her new husband had slept with her daughter would shatter her completely.

“So what do we do?”

“We will forget it ever happened and move on.”

I stared at him, that man who had felt like destiny twelve hours before and then felt like a curse. “And what happens if I don’t want to forget?”