Alpha Aidan's Rejection Chapter 91

TARA

　　My heart thrashed wildly against my chest as I thought about what Aidan was about to say. I waited with bated breath for him to confess that just like a great percentage of the people I'd come across in my lifetime, Aidan did not care about me or my daughter, and that he was just like everyone else.

　　That was the only thing that made sense.

　　Before we sat down on the side benches, Aidan had gone to what I was sure was his car to bring the papers he was referring to a few minutes ago, and I wondered what it contained. It could be more lies, but I told myself that I was going to give Aidan one last strand of my trust, even if it seemed stupid of me.

　　I willed myself to remain calm, fingernails digging into my ribs from where they were tucked away at my sides, and my eyes trained on Aidan.

　　"So how long have you been lying to me? Weeks? Months? As far back as a decade ago? Is this just some elaborate game you decided to dedicate your life to playing?"

　　"What? No!" Aidan's eyebrows furrowed in what I would have thought to be confusion, but I wasn't interested in that.

　　"You promised to tell the truth, so I need the truth. You got…married…to Kayla?" I asked with a small voice, regardless that I already knew the truth.

　　It shouldn't have hurt so much when Aidan nodded, but it did. "Yes. I did." Aidan's jaw was stiff, teeth clenched as he spoke.

　　A strained smile played on my lips as I tore my eyes from his.

　　I didn't expect it to be this hard.

　　"Give me something, Aidan, because I'm going crazy here." Aidan looked away, and honestly, that was much better. My throat physically burned, and I knew I was on the verge of tears, but I went on anyway. "How would you treat us so special, pretend to accept me with my scars, only for me to find out on my own that you've been with the woman who inflicted such pain on me all along? And you have a child with her…"

　　"Wait. What?" Aidan's head snapped back to mine in question, and I blinked past the tears.

　　"A teenage daughter called you Dad, Aidan, and Kayla Mom."

　　My heart rate was beginning to rise as I watched Aidan's reaction. He shut his eyes, and let the back of his head fall to the backrest of the bench for a second. When he opened his eyes again, Aidan inched only a little bit closer, and I could see that he was restraining himself from reaching out to touch me.

　　Me too.

　　"I hear you, Tara. Always have," Aidan said quietly, and I knew in my heart that this was true. Aidan was the only person who truly heard me…saw me, and that knowledge made the situation even more confusing. I knew that with what he said, Aidan wanted me to express what was on my mind, so that was what I did.

　　"I wish I could despise you. I want to say I do, but I would be lying to myself. I trusted you, Aidan, but you let me down and you just had to make sure it was after me and Nadia fell in love with you." It was on the tip of my tongue to reference back to our dark history from before, but we had let go of that. Only for another to rise. I let out a tired sigh instead. "I don't know if we can move on from this with Kayla in your life as your wife. I don't know how," I admitted, watching the lines of worry etched across Aidan's forehead.

　　He spoke. "You asked if I got married to her, and I said I did because that's the truth. But we are no longer married, Tara. Me and Kayla split."

　　I tensed up. My eyes shot up, and I felt my heart do a little flip in my chest as hope budded. As quickly as it formed, the feeling quenched. That didn't really change much.

　　"It doesn't change the fact that you kept it from me and I had to find out in a humiliating manner from your child." The word tasted like bile in my throat, but I held no hate for Aidan's daughter. She didn't choose how she was born.

　　Aidan's head dropped, eyes looking up at me in remorse, his bright orbs being a contrast to the darkness around his eyes. "I own up to my mess up," he said lowly. "And I am so sorry you had to experience something like that, Tara, but by the moon goddess, I promise that this would be the last time I'd make you feel any hurt, or keep things involving us from you."

　　I didn't respond.

　　Aidan inhaled a sharp breath, sat upright, and held my eyes. "First, I swear that I had no idea Kayla tried to hurt you and our baby, and don't for one second, think that your scars make me see you any less." I swallowed, listening to him speak. "I knew that Kayla was capable of wreaking havoc, but I am only just realizing that her ambition could take her to reach unthinkable lengths. Kayla's daughter is not mine," Aidan said, shaking his head with furrowed brows, his face mirroring the turmoil going on within him. "It was more of a stepdad situation, and that too ended."

　　He was still a distance away from me, our bodies were nowhere near touching, but I could feel Aidan's heat on me. His hands came to his sides, and he gripped his thighs for support. I let him speak.

　　"I'm not saying this to play some emotional game with you, but my father and mother did not have the best relationship. I don't talk about it much. I barely think about it anymore, but he was the worst shifter on the planet to her. He was also controlling as hell. I think he hated the fact that he was mated to someone like her, so he made her life difficult."

　　Aidan had never talked about his Mom. I knew that the details surrounding her death were horrific, but I didn't know just how much. Hearing him speak about her now to mend our relationship switched something within me, even if it wasn't enough to forgive him for his lies.

　　He went on. "My father brought another woman into our home after they had me, and he built a life with her in my mother's face. He had another son with her and gave this woman the life that my mother deserved. Mom was depressed. She turned into a shadow of herself, keeping to herself, and it even messed with her sanity. When Mom couldn't take it anymore, she…"

　　Aidan stopped, squeezing his eyes tight, and my heart clenched. When he weakly pried them open again, I gave him an encouraging nod. My words weren't needed now.

　　"She drove herself off a cliff," Aidan said, and a gasp slipped past my lips.

　　"Aidan," I muttered, not knowing where to start with this information, but he only chuckled weakly.

　　"I think I've moved on from that loss," he said, and even though I managed to nod, I knew that a pain like that didn't just disappear on its own. I knew that from firsthand experience.

　　"Go on, Aidan," I encouraged.

　　"Her loss must have turned on something in him, but he became miserable. A monster," Aidan said, hate roping around his words. "He hated everyone. Me, his other wife, their child…it was hell. It was so bad, one day, she upped and left with her son, and it was just me and my father left. I didn't leave him. I thought if I stayed loyal to him, somehow, he would see me as more than a shadow of my dead Mom." Aidan laughed. "He didn't."

　　"I'm so sorry, Aidan," I said, hoping that my tone carried my heartfelt sympathy.

　　Aidan nodded. "My view is that he was mad I got to be blessed with a mate that I wanted, and that was why he was so against my happiness. I also think he had something to do with my seemingly childless situation, but that's by the side." Aidan unclasped his hands from his thighs and folded them across his chest, and it was then I realized that my hands were now on my lap.

　　"Why I'm telling you this is because a year ago, his controlling side manifested in my life when he decided that I couldn't be Alpha of Attica Pack if I didn't have an heir bearing my name. He knew it was an impossible task for me…or an almost impossible one, but I still wanted to prove myself. Isn't that pathetic?" Aidan asked, his eyes coming up to hold mine.

　　I shook my head. "It's anything but." Aidan's words meant that he had been single up until only a year ago, and so was his marriage to Kayla. The curiosity made me ask. "Is this how Kayla came into the picture?"

　　Aidan nodded. "I needed a child…Kayla had a daughter. Kayla needed financial assistance, and I had it in abundance…"

　　Realization hit me when my eyes dropped to the file in Aidan's hands.

　　"So you entered into a contract marriage with her," I said, rather than asked.