“Edwards. Michael Edwards.”
“Chase, Meghan found a birth certificate with Daisy’s name—your original birth certificate. Michael Edwards is listed as the father.”
Chase’s face was tight.
“I want to see Daisy. I want to ask her myself.”
Aubrey sat back on the couch and watched Chase walk the room. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen, Chase. She may not make it. You may never have the whole truth. That’s life, right?”
He flinched, and Aubrey was surprised to feel a pinch of pain in her chest. You can’t feel anything for him. You’ve been a pawn in his game all along, just like you were in Josh’s.
She steeled herself against him. She couldn’t allow him to hurt her. He was just another man, like all the rest.
Wasn’t he?
Watching him, in clear pain, she was torn between anger at him for betraying her and insatiable curiosity. Chase was Josh’s brother. Somehow, she’d known it all along.
“Why did you lie to me? Why didn’t you just tell me you were doing a story?”
“Because I am an ass, Aubrey. Because I thought the story was more important. Because I didn’t count on . . . you.”
“Me? Or what happens next?”
“What does happen next?”
“I don’t know. You tell me. You need the ending to your story, don’t you? That’s why you’ve been sticking around, to see if Josh shows up for the money tomorrow. What are your plans after that?”
He stopped moving, his face pale. “That is not true.”
Aubrey smiled sadly. “It’s partially true.”
He stopped pacing. “It’s not. I am not playing games with you, Aubrey.”
She chewed on her lip for a minute. She was such a terrible judge of character. Chase had lied to her, to them all. He’d used her to get at the story, and knowing that he was a part of all of this, even tangentially, was simply mind-blowing.
But by damn, he actually seemed to be telling her the truth now. If she couldn’t recognize honesty when it bit her on the ass, she could recognize pain. And Chase was clearly hurting, badly. He stopped in front of her, dropped to his knees.
“Please,” he said. “Please forgive me.”
Aubrey shook her head quickly. “We don’t have time for this. You have all your research, right? You need to see the story through. You need to find out the truth. Here it is. I think he’s alive.” She went to her bag and pulled out the photo.
He glanced at it, then handed it back. “I’ve seen it before.”
“What? How?”
He laughed, short and hard and utterly humorless. “Sent anonymously to me. I was going to show it to you today when I confessed all my sins.”
“It wasn’t sent anonymously. I’m certain Derek Allen sent it. The man Josh was working with. He knows you’re working on the story. He saw you at the hospital.”
“What?”
She explained everything. Chase listened, then shook his head. “I can’t believe it.”
Despite her anger at him, she reached over and smoothed the hair back from his forehead. “But it’s the only thing that makes sense, Chase.”
Chase just shook his head. “Aubrey. I’ve been in this story for months now. I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe Josh is still out there.”
She knew that. Of course she did. But what if he wasn’t? There had to be a reason Derek Allen was terrorizing her.
“You said Cutter told you Josh was running drugs with Derek Allen?” Chase said. “Well, here’s what I think was going on. I think Josh was being blackmailed. If there’s one thing I learned about him during my investigation, it’s that he would do most anything to make sure you weren’t hurt. Blackmail fits.”
Aubrey nodded. “That’s what Arlo and Tyler think, too.”
He reached for her hand, and she let him take it. “Aubrey. Let me help you. I’m here, telling you the truth. I refuse to betray you. Never again. I love you.”
She flipped a hand, brushing the words from the air before they reached her. She couldn’t hear this, not now.
Chase’s lips tightened. “I see. I fucked up. And now you and I are finished, aren’t we?”
She should say yes. She should. She knew that she couldn’t have a future with Chase. Not after he’d lied to her, used her. And now that she knew he was Josh’s brother? It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. Yet, she still didn’t know what she wanted.
Despite herself, she leaned over and kissed him, lightly at first, then with a growing hunger. He responded in kind for a few moments, then broke away.