“He betrayed my trust, Whitney.” His eyes look at Jacob. “Michelle and I trusted you. We let you around our kids. You helped raise them! Just to… do this?” He shakes his head, the tears in his eyes have started to fall. “Last night, when I was at your house and Whitney was there… I felt like something was off. Something I couldn’t put my finger on and then it hit me out of fucking nowhere. I couldn’t even believe my mind went there.” His hands ball into fists so hard that I hear his knuckles crack as he draws in a breath of air through gritted teeth. “You knew I could see it. I saw the way you looked at me. Like you were apologizing. When we were in your office, I could sense it but I couldn’t believe it. There was no way that Jacob Price, my best friend and the most trustworthy, honorable man I knew would ever touch my daughter. My baby… my pride and joy.” His nostrils flare. “I thought I knew you. But this just proves that you’ve been fooling us both for thirty fucking years!? You lied to us about who you were for this long!?”

“Kevin, I am still that person. I would do anything for you and Miche and…”

“NO! You don’t get to say that after this,” he yells. “You gave up our friendship the second you touched my CHILD.”

“I am not a child! I was never a child when we did this,” I scream, wishing I could drive home that point so they stop looking at Jacob like he’s a predator or that he groomed me for this.

“Semantics and you fucking know it, Whitney. And maybe if this was something you were exploring now for the first time, I may be handling this differently. Trust me, I’d still be pissed but all the lying and sneaking around three years ago!?” He shakes his head. “I will never forgive you for this, Jacob.”

“Dad—” I go to touch him when he moves back quickly out of my reach as if he doesn’t want me to touch him. I place a hand over my heart as if I’m trying to shield it from the pain he’s causing at this moment. He used to tell me that my hugs were his favorite thing in the world. The Whitney Bug Hugs he’d call them and now he can’t even bear me touching him.