Gracie & Gray

Chapter 53

G R A C I E

Gray winced. "Is that when I..."

His voice trailed off as though he couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.

Naomi shot him a pointed look. "You and Lydia didn't have sex that night."

Gray blinked in disbelief. "No fucking way."

"I wouldn't lie about this shit."

"But... the next morning... I woke up in Lydia's bed... and I'm pretty sure that some of my clothes were missing," Gray recalled with a dazed expression. "I-I thought, for sure, that something must have happened between Lydia and I—"

Grimly, Naomi interjected, "Lydia actually slept on the couch that night. You two never touched each other. Except for the kiss at the bar. As for your clothes, I think she removed them."

His expression darkened. "What the fuck! Why would she take my clothes?"

"To make her story sound more, um, convincing. She wanted to make it look like you guys slept together."

I couldn't stop myself from asking, just to be sure, "So... Gray never slept with my sister?"

"That's correct," Naomi confirmed softly.

In an eerily calm voice, Gray relayed, "I don't understand. Why did Lydia go through so much trouble to lie about this shit?"

"Because she was trying to protect the identity of the real father. He's... married. With kids."

"Oh, fuck," I whispered. "Lydia was having an affair? With a married man?"

Refusing to meet my eyes, Naomi nodded again.

"Do you have proof," I prompted, "that he's the father? And not Gray?"

"I do, actually. Lydia had a paternity test done while she was pregnant. Because he wouldn't believe her."

I stifled a gasp. Naomi's answer shouldn't have caught me off guard. But it did. It made me so fucking furious at my sister. The depths of Lydia's deceit kept running deeper and darker as more of the truth came to light.

"I want to see it," requested Gray with an unreadable look on his face.

"I don't have a copy of the test results on me," Naomi responded, "but I can send it to you once I get home."

Gray thanked her in a grudging manner.

"Can you tell us more about Stevie's real father?"

"His name is Andreas Coleman," Naomi revealed, "but I think it's best if you guys leave him alone. The less you know about him, the better."

I frowned. The name "Andreas" sounded vaguely familiar to me. I felt as though Lydia might have mentioned a breakup with him at some point.

Feeling extremely off-balance, I questioned, "Have you spoken to Andreas at all?"

Naomi coughed. "I tried to reach out to him a while back, but he only replied to a few of my emails. When I tried to set up an in-person meeting with him, he refused to speak with me again."

"I assume that means," I observed, "he doesn't want anything to do with Stevie?"

"At this point, I'd say that he's siding with his wife and family. I don't think they'll welcome an illegitimate daughter. Stevie would cause too much of a scandal for them."

It seemed they didn't see her as a living, breathing human being. They only saw her as an inconvenience. A dirty, little secret to be swept under the rug.