Page 84 of Taming the Boss

“PI,” Oliver said matter-of-factly. “After originally consulting the PI, I had a conversation with our father about the, uh, compensation he’d given our mother to…disperse. Which led to some other revelations recently. Very recently.” He cleared his throat, sliding a glance toward Owen, who wasn’t paying any attention. At least as far as I could tell.

“You hired a PI to check on your own mother?” Jude demanded before cracking a smile. “Me, too. Guess we are family.”

“No kidding?” Oliver smiled too. “Call it curiosity. Then I talked to Dad about what I’d learned and he admitted what happened. He paid her off to go, because a number of years before, she’d been unfaithful. But she took something with her he didn’t realize until very recently when he learned of your existence and did some math. Apparently, they’d tried once previously to reconcile.” He hissed out a breath. “I’m sorry to tell you this way, man. I know it sucks.”

At my side, Jude stiffened. And his grip on me grew more desperate once again. “There has to be some mistake. My father is Wayne Keller.”

“I’m sure she wanted you to believe that. But I don’t believe it’s true. Though if I were you, I’d verify via testing. Hell, maybe we should too.” Oliver indicated his twin.

Seth’s eyes narrowed. “And you didn’t feel I should have this info about Jude, as well?”

Oliver tipped back his head to stare at the dark sky. “I didn’t know if we’d ever meet. And then Jude moved here…”

“And you still said nothing,” Seth pressed as his wife consolingly stroked his leg, much as I was doing to Jude. But Jude had basically gone to stone beside me.

“I didn’t know how to handle any of it.” Oliver straightened his tie as Sage put her head on his shoulder in silent support. “I’ve gone over and over it in my head, and I just had no idea. I fucked up, man,” he added to Seth, who reached over to clap his brother on the back.

They squabbled here and there, but they were tight. Twins, for God’s sake. They’d be okay.

But Jude…

“What about Sydney?” Jude asked in a hollow voice.

Oliver shook his head. “Just you are part of this. Not your sister. I mean, she’s mom’s child, of course, but not dad’s. No chance there. She was conceived years later.” He leaned forward to lock his hands between his knees. “Man, I apologize for laying this on you this way. I should have done it in a better way. Eased you in, maybe.”

Jude laughed coldly and took my hand when I set it on his thigh. “What way is there to ease me in that I never even knew my own father? Although I gotta say, it explains a lot.”

He looked for Owen, zeroing in on where he sat on a nearby raised flower bed. He was swinging his legs as he drew on the concrete with a colorful piece of chalk. Reagan stood at his side, her gaze heavy as our eyes met. Christian and Honey stood nearby too, dealing with Jacob as he fussed.

Obviously, Reagan had heard the conversation. Oliver hadn’t exactly whispered. He seemed so disgusted by all of this.

He was definitely not the only one. I just wish they could have gone a bit easier on the big reveal. Not saying there was really a way to say it gently, but I just couldn’t see how Jude would be able to enjoy any of this night now. How could he?

First, the Melissa appearance, now this. So much for a fun holiday.

I hurt so badly for Jude that I had absolutely no clue what to say. I felt as if I’d gone mute.

While I knew both of the Hamilton brothers and their wives, to say the least, we were not particularly close. But I was still going to make a suggestion for Jude’s sake.

“The Spinning Wheel has lots of drink specials tonight,” I said brightly, catching Seth’s eye and nodding to Jude. Seth nodded, taking a deep breath.

“Yeah. And there’s always pool too.” He tried to nudge Oliver, but he was looking anywhere but at his twin. “Whaddaya say, Ol? Feel like maybe a Guinness and a couple of rounds at the table in back?”

“Um, it’s only a half hour before the fireworks start. Remember our children?”

“The children currently roaming about with their grandfather?” Seth tried to nod toward Jude while speaking to Oliver, but it took Ally nudging Sage and then Sage nudging her husband for the idea to land.

“Oh. Okay. Right.” Oliver braced his hands on his legs and looked to Jude. “You like Guinness? Or pool? Or just getting people off your damn back?”

“Not particularly,” Jude began until I jabbed him with an elbow. “What?”

“Go,” I mouthed to him until he sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, sure. Pool and Guinness. Yay.”

I made myself smile. “I’ll handle Owen. Don’t worry. Go off and have fun with your brothers.” I made sure to emphasize the final word and finally, a light seemed to spark dimly in his eyes. Of course that might also have been because it was night time and even with all the lights around, I could only see so much. But I feared any light at all in him might’ve been squashed by what he’d learned today.

“Thanks, Maddie,” Seth said softly. “Does this mean you’ll now be part of our family too?”

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