Chapter 31
Keith’s POV
As I slumped into the leather chair in my office, the weight of the day pressing down on me, I couldn’t shake the deep sense of guilt gnawing at my insides. I had let Zane down. Again.
He was angry, and rightly so. He wouldn’t even answer my calls, and each time my phone rang out with no response, the knot in my chest tightened.
a little more.
It had all started because I wanted to make things right with Lily after leaving her so abruptly to check on Emily. I thought a day on the yacht would help smooth things over.
But time had slipped away from me, and my phone had died, leaving me unaware of how late it had gotten. By the time I realized, the parent- teacher meeting was over, and Zane had already been crushed by my
absence.
Emily’s anger was something I hadn’t expected. She’d never been this mad at me before, and the look in her eyes when she confronted me had been a mix of hurt and fury. She wasn’t just disappointed–she was livid, and she had every right to be. I’d let our son down, and it was tearing me apart.
I had barely returned from my disastrous attempt to make things right with Zane when my mother called. She’d been trying to console him, to
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get him to talk to me, but he was having none of it.
When I took the phone from her, hoping to mend things, all I got was silence on the other end. Zane refused to speak to me. The frustration and helplessness bubbled up inside me, and I found myself snapping at my mom, who was only trying to help.
“Keith,” she said, her voice steady but tinged with disappointment, “your need to put your son first. I understand you’re trying to balance everything, but Zane needs to know that he’s your priority.”
“I know, Mom,” I sighed, rubbing my temples. “I messed up. I’m trying to fix it.”
“You should’ve thought about that before you forgot him today,” she replied, not unkindly, but with a firmness that reminded me of when I was a child and had done something wrong. “Zane’s hurting. He needs you to be there for him.”
After some coaxing from my mom, Zane finally agreed to talk to me, but the conversation didn’t go the way I had hoped. His little voice was filled with so much pain and anger that it nearly broke me.
“Why weren’t you there, Dad?” Zane asked, his tone a mix of accusation and sadness.
“I’m so sorry, buddy. I lost track of time,” I tried to explain, but he wasn’t having any of it.
Chapter 31
“It’s because of Lily, isn’t it?” Zane’s words hit me like a punch to the gut. “You were with her instead of coming to my meeting.”
I froze, the guilt twisting deeper. “Zane, it’s not like that. I-”
“Don’t lie to me!” he yelled, and I could hear the tears in his voice. “I don’t want you to be with her. She’s my mom’s sister, and you shouldn’t be with her after you were married to Mom!”
My heart sank. I hadn’t realized how much Zane was affected by my relationship with Lily. I thought I was shielding him from it, but he knew. He saw everything. And it hurt him.
“Zane, listen-”
“No!” he cut me off, his voice filled with a stubborn resolve. “I’ll never accept her, even if you get married! Never!” And then, the line went dead.
I stared at the phone in my hand, feeling a mix of anger, frustration, and despair. I had no one to blame but myself, but that didn’t make it any easier to bear.
Lily found me sitting in the living room later that evening, my mind still replaying the conversation with Zane. She must have sensed my turmoil because she sat down beside me, her expression soft and concerned.
“What’s wrong, Keith?” she asked, gently placing her hand on my arm.
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I hesitated, unsure of how much to tell her. “Zane’s upset with me. He won’t even talk to me.”
Lily’s brows furrowed in concern. “Is it because of me?”
I didn’t answer right away, but my silence spoke volumes. Lily sighed and looked down at her lap, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her dress. “Keith… have you been pulling away from me because of Zane?”
Her question caught me off guard. Had I? I wasn’t sure anymore. I had been so focused on making sure Zane was okay that maybe I had been keeping Lily at arm’s length without realizing it.
“It’s not that simple, Lily,” I replied, trying to find the right words. “I’ve just been… distracted. There’s been a lot going on.”
“But you haven’t kissed me, not really, not since I came back,” she said, her voice tinged with hurt. “Are you sure everything is okay between us?”
My heart ached at the vulnerability in her voice. She had come back into my life expecting things to pick up where we left off, but everything was different now. I was different.
“It’s fine, Lily,” I lied, forcing a reassuring smile. “I’m just dealing with a lot right now.”
She nodded, but the doubt in her eyes was clear. She wasn’t convinced, and honestly, neither was I. Something had shifted, and I couldn’t ignore it. But I wasn’t ready to face it yet.
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As the evening wore on, Lily tried to comfort me, but her presence only reminded me of the growing distance between us. I had spent so long convincing myself that getting back with Lily was the right thing to do, that it was what I wanted.
But now, with Zane’s words echoing in my mind and the weight of my own guilt pressing down on me, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
