A long chapter ahead. It explains why Steve hates Aiden, and you already know some things from His Everything. However, I needed to repeat them so the events that follow would make sense. Remember that His Fresh Start is meant to be read after His Everything and Their Forever. Things won't make sense if you skip Aiden and Ellie's books.

***

My dad took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"Lots of work?" I asked.

"Too many projects at once." He squinted at the screen. "And another meeting soon. So, the book arrived well, right?"

"It's perfect. Aiden's gonna love it."

"How's he?"

"We'll have lunch today, and I'll tell you more after we do. I think he's feeling much better, but Leo told me to be cautious."

The camera of Dad's phone focused on the Parisian skyline, and then I saw his face again. "Sorry. New phone. I keep messing things up. Tell me how things went, okay?"

"Will do."

"Oh, and Thierry."

"Yeah?"

Dad sighed. "Listen to your friend. Don't assume Aiden is okay just because he tells you he is."

"Of course, I won't. Talk to you later."

As soon as we hung up, I grabbed my jacket and Aiden's gifts and walked out of the house. Lou must've been waiting for me, and I didn't want to be the last to arrive.

Twenty minutes later, I parked in her driveway. Lou must've seen me through the window because the front door swung open before I put my feet on the porch steps.

"Impatient." I kissed her when I was by her side.

Lou hugged me. "Very. And eager to spend some time together. Come in."

I followed her into the house. "Tonight, right?"

"Yes. I don't think Ellie would mind if I stayed at your place."

Our jobs and what happened with Aiden didn't leave us much time for dates. Plus, Lou's uncle was still staying with her and Ellie. He wasn't at Lou's today, though, and I knew that even before she told me he wasn't home. Louise looked relaxed, and that hardly ever happened in his presence. 

We barely had time to enter the living room when I heard the rumble of an engine. Ellie and Aiden arrived, and Lou rushed back to the hallway to greet them.

"Happy birthday! You're officially a young man now," she said to Aiden, hugging him.

His cheeks reddened. "Thanks, Louise." 

I didn't want to make the boy even more uncomfortable, so I limited my displays of affection to a brief hug.

"Come in," Lou chirped. "We're ready, but we wanted to give you something first."

When Aiden perched on the living room couch, Louise and I gave him our gift — cologne and some running gear. 

"This is from my dad. He mailed it from Paris; it arrived a couple of days ago," I said, extending the book about Parisian architecture to Aiden.

He stared at it in wonder. "Wow, you didn't have to do any of this. And thank Victor on my behalf, please. It's really nice of him."

Ellie leaned in closer so he'd show her the illustrations, and he smiled, flipping through the colorful pages. "Thierry's dad told me if someone wanted to see the real architecture, Paris was the place. As I'm not sure when or if I'll be able to go there, he must've decided to show me," he said to Ellie.

Judging by the way she glanced at me as if she were afraid I'd say something, she decided not to mention the scholarship to Aiden.

Just when Lou was about to speak, the front door creaked open, and footsteps thumped in the hallway outside the living room. Steve and his colleague Raymond Hutches appeared in the doorway. 

I had nothing against detective Hutches. The only thing I felt toward him was gratitude for investigating the robbery at my bistro and catching the guys who broke into it. But seeing him with Steve put a damper on my mood. The presence of the two men brought the tension we didn't need, especially not when we were going to celebrate Aiden's birthday. I would hate it if Steve made one of his snarky comments.

"Mister Donovan, it's good to see you again. Detective Hutches, it's been a long time," I said, rising to my feet. "We're leaving for lunch now; make sure to stop by Thierry's soon."

Raymond shifted his weight. "Thank you, Thierry, and I will, but-"

"Guess your plans will need to change. Detective Hutches is taking Aiden to the station with him."

Steve's words thundered, breaking the calm that reigned in the room minutes ago.

Confusion flashed across Aiden's features. "Could you at least explain what this is all about?" he asked.

"He can't," Steve said. "Not until you're at the station."

Ellie glared at her uncle. "No! He didn't do anything, so you can't just take him wherever you want without an explanation."

Ellie's voice shook, and I heard Aiden whisper words of reassurance, but my attention was on the two men. How could they do this today of all days? It was Sunday. And that Steve appeared at Lou's while we were still there told me he knew about Aiden's birthday celebration and our plans.

I snapped out of it and looked at Aiden, who was kissing Ellie's forehead. "Don't cry, okay? I'll be back soon," he told her.

At least Raymond had the decency to look uncomfortable. He avoided looking not only at Ellie but also at Louise and me. His eyes were glued to the rug instead.

"Can I follow you there in my car?" Aiden asked Steve.

"It's not-" Steve uttered.

To my relief, detective Hutches spoke. "Steve, don't! You know he can."

Aiden's steps were more determined than I expected when he followed Raymond to the front door. Steve pivoted to go after them, but Lou's voice made him halt.

"Wait! I know how it works; they absolutely don't need you there. You'll stay, and you'll explain what the hell is going on."

It was the first time I'd seen her blue eyes blaze. She didn't seem her usual kind self, which wasn't surprising. It was apparent Steve was keeping secrets.

Steve sat on the couch, and Lou pointed the finger at him. "You knew we had plans; you knew it was the boy's birthday. Couldn't it wait until tomorrow? Before you say anything, I need to call Derek."

Steve's dark brows rose. "Derek, who?" 

"Aiden's lawyer." Lou jumped to her feet and headed toward the kitchen.

Aiden was lucky to have her in his corner. Not many people in his situation would realize they needed a lawyer. How could you think if you were ambushed, after all?

Ellie looked crestfallen. Pale. She must've been scared on top of puzzled and angry. Although I tried to keep my interactions with Steve few and neutral for Lou's sake, I couldn't help but shake my head. "Mister Donovan, was that necessary? It's Sunday; what was so urgent for you to make Aiden go there?" I said.

"Our job doesn't understand Sundays or birthdays. Why does he need a lawyer anyway? Maybe he's not as innocent as you all think here."

Of course, Steve would say something like that. Sometimes I wondered if he really was as kind as Louise told me he was back when I met her.

"He has a name," Ellie said. "Aiden's been through hell in the last weeks, and you ruined this day for him. You could at least tell him why he had to go to the police so he wouldn't worry himself sick."

Steve's jaw clenched, and his face reddened with poorly contained anger. Not that he'd try to hide how mad he was. 

"Well, excuse me if I can't bring myself to care about the son of your mother's murderer!"

I blinked. Ellie's mouth fell open, and Lou, who was back in the room, dropped her phone. It landed on the rug, breaking the quiet.

My brain struggled to process Steve's words. Unfortunately for all of us, they made sense or at least explained the secrecy and Steve's sneaking around, working when he had to be on vacation. But even if Daniel Kennedy did something despicable, his son had nothing to do with it. The boy could be politely asked to stop by the station instead of being treated like a criminal.

"How long have you known?" Louise picked up her cell and sat on the couch. "How the hell long has it been going on?"

I suddenly felt like an intruder. I wasnt sure the information was meant for my ears. "Sweetheart, I can go..." I said to Louise. If she preferred to listen to Steve and tell me everything later, I was okay with that.

"Stay," she mumbled, her gaze fixed on Steve. "I need you here. How long, detective Donovan? How long have you been lying to your family?"

Steve sat and looked at his clasped hands. "Eight years."

"Eight years are not enough to tell the truth, are they?" 

"I couldn't, Lou! We hit a dead end. We couldn't prove it was him without the body, although we knew it. I moved abroad because that case was eating on me; it almost ended my career. You know what an unsolved case does to a detective's reputation. More than one resigned afterward. I needed to get to the bottom, and I never stopped trying."

"Your career?" Ellie whispered. "What about our lives? Can you even imagine what it will be like for Aiden when he finds out?"

"You're an orphan because of his father, and you are seriously worried about that—"

"Enough," Lou snapped. "I need to know the truth. Ellie does, too. She's old enough to understand, and we need an explanation."

"I'll cancel the reservation." Taking out my phone, I went outside to text my friend to say we wouldn't have lunch at his restaurant and sent a message to Marco explaining what was going on. He said he'd make sure we had a table at the bistro if we decided to eat there. It was the best-case scenario, and I wanted to believe Raymond was kind enough not to keep Aiden at the station all day, torturing him with the information about his father's cruelty. If anyone suffered from it first hand, it was the boy Steve hated.

Back in the room, I sat next to Lou and hugged her shoulders.

"One summer, when you were about four," Steve said to Ellie, "Daniel Kennedy and his family came to the village on vacation. Your mother was alone, taking odd jobs and looking after you the best she could, not having family or even close friends to lend her a hand. 

"When he went after her and seduced her with gifts, she got involved with him. They became lovers. It lasted over a year. His rare visits soon became not enough. She threatened to tell his wife about the affair if he didn't choose her. The cost of that was her life."

"How do you know it was him?" I asked.

"For a long time, we didn't. Abigail lived on the edge of the forest out of Southville with no neighbors around. Whatever went down that night, nobody heard or saw it. No witnesses. 

"When we found Ellie, we didn't figure out whose daughter she was straight away. People knew, but many of them kept quiet. When they finally spoke, many said Abigail must've taken off, leaving Ellie behind, tired of the life she led. 

"That was what the villagers thought, and we made a mistake of believing it. If we'd had the budget we have now back in the day, we would've searched every inch of the ground. Unfortunately, small towns mean limited resources. We couldn't find anything to confirm Abigail was dead." He rubbed his temples.

"When Lou adopted you, Ellie, something happened. A woman came to the station, asking about Abby. She was her childhood friend who'd moved away some time ago. She and Abigail kept in touch through the years, writing letters. She wondered why the correspondence suddenly stopped. 

"In one of those letters, your mother mentioned a certain Daniel. After almost losing hope, we restarted the investigation. Again, looking for him wasn't easy. Nobody seemed to know him, and as Abby didn't know or didn't mention his last name, we were lost. However, we knew from the letters he had a house in the village. It turned out to be registered under somebody else's name. 

"I moved to the city with your mom and you, so my colleague in Southville questioned Aiden's father. He had a solid alibi, but when another detective talked to his wife, she admitted he was in the village the night Abigail disappeared. We never told her he was a suspect because it would let him know we were after him."

"So, you let him be?" Lou asked.

"We had no choice. Over the years, we'd been watching him. He was doing well financially and enjoying life with his wife and his son. At some point, I started to doubt again. Then he sold the house in Southville, and having the means, we registered it again, finding Abigail's fingerprints. That confirmed the hypothesis but didn't prove she was dead.

"I moved to Europe later, as you know, tired of chasing the ghost. When you got a job here, Lou, and Ellie said that of all people, she was friends with that bastard's son; I just couldn't stay away. 

"I called Hutches; he confirmed Daniel Kennedy was the same person we'd been trying to accuse for years. I couldn't leave it to chance. My intuition said he was guilty, and I couldn't let Ellie be close to his son, so I came back here. We started to dig again, and in December, they found Abigail's body.

"Lucky for us, that made Daniel Kennedy nervous. He went to the village a couple of times, and in his absence, we registered his house. We found the letter Abigail wrote to her friend but didn't have time to send. That and the forensic expertise confirming she was murdered was finally enough to arrest him yesterday. I can't tell you the rest, but there's no doubt."

"Did detective Hutches follow Aiden and me when we were on the date on the beach?" Ellie asked.

I balled my hands into fists. Would they really stoop so low? What would they gain invading the privacy of two teenagers?

"He did. I told him to. Wasn't it too much of a coincidence that he took you to the village where your mother was killed?"

"So, then he saw how we kissed, how we held each other, he heard the words we said to each other. And tell me," Ellie's voice trembled, "where were you and your detective friends when Aiden's father was beating him for the last three years? Where were you two weeks ago when he beat him so much, he nearly died? Because I didn't see you at the hospital."

Steve stared at her. "What?"

Despite the surprise on his face, I doubted he didn't know. But if he knew and said nothing, it meant he was even worse than I believed him to be. 

"You've been making him miserable when he was already suffering. He doesn't have a family as I do. His mother left him, and his father hates him. Do you want to know the words Aiden, the daddy's boy, had to hear from his daddy? 'You are worthless; you are a worthless piece of shit; you are good for nothing.' That's only a little part of what I'd heard, but there are more, Jim heard more. Do you realize that when my mother died, he was about my age? How could an innocent child be guilty of what that monster did? Do you think he'd hurt me?"

"Ellie, these traits usually run in the family—"

"He made me happier than I'd ever been in my life! He is good for me, and we are good for each other. I've hated his father since I met him because I knew what Aiden had to go through because of him. If you saw the bruises—"

"Nobody reported it," Steve mumbled. "We had no clue."

"It looks like your intuition only works when you want it to."

"Listen, Ellie. Even if he's not like his father, he's a stain on your reputation. When the press finds out, they'll be after him because he's no longer a minor. We've been keeping it secret and private, but after the trial, there will be lots of journalists writing about the case. 

"You are my family; how do you think it will look for you to be involved with the son of the person I put in jail? The son of a murderer, for heaven's sake! I don't want you anywhere near him; you are better than that family; you don't want to spend your life surrounded by scandal. 

"It's not a joke! You've already let it get too far, but I'm glad it's over now, whatever the two of you had. I didn't spend eight years of my life chasing that bastard so you could date his offspring!"

Steve's true intentions were crystal clear now, and my heart clenched. He cared about his reputation but not about his niece or her daughter. 

Ellie jumped to her feet and darted upstairs.

Lou buried her face in her palms. When she let her hands drop to her lap, sadness dripped from her features. "How could you?" she asked Steve.

When he said nothing, she rose from the couch and went after her daughter, leaving me alone with the man I now despised.

There was so much I wanted to say the words burned my throat, begging to be let out. But if I told him he was judgmental and cruel, if I said he didn't deserve to have the job he had because he blamed someone innocent for the sins of his father, he'd hate me too, and Lou would suffer.

As much as it sucked, Steve was her family. And I knew from experience it wasn't always easy to break the ties.

I swallowed and averted my eyes not to let detective Donovan see what I really felt.

After a while, Ellie and Lou came downstairs. My eyes paused on the small suitcase next to Lou's daughter.

Rage contorted Steve's face. "Where the hell are you going, Ellie?"

"I'll stay at Aiden's."

"It's a joke, right?"

"It's not." Louise rubbed Ellie's arm. "Thierry, honey, you know where to take Ellie. Make sure she's okay. Both of them."

I nodded and walked up to Ellie. Even though I had no clue what to say or how to fix things, I had to try. And I'd start by trying to be an adult the girl would feel she could trust.