Page 50 of Everlasting

“He’s so big,” Deck cried. “I missed it all.”

“No, you missed a small chunk, babe. That’s why we need you to fight and come back to us. So, you don’t miss any more.”

He was quiet for a moment, just staring at us and then when he spoke again, I thought my heart would physically break for him. “I thought I was dead a few times,” he admitted.

“The drugs?” I asked for clarification because I knew he had also suffered some abuse. The pictures I’d been sent showed that clearly enough.

“No. I don’t know. Maybe it was the drugs, but I don’t think so. Toby used to visit me sometimes. When he’d come, I figured they finally managed to off me, but that stubborn, bastard brother of yours kept telling me that I had too much to live for and it wasn’t my time yet.”

“I believe you,” I admitted as I put our son in his arms for the first time. Archer didn’t shy away or act as he did with other adults he met for the first time. Instead, he leaned in and laid his head right down on his father’s shoulder. Deck smiled so sweetly as a result that I wished I could have captured the moment forever and saved it to watch over and over again. He didn’t understand how special that moment was because it just felt natural for my boys to be together.

“You really do believe me, about Toby, don’t you?”

“One day, when you’re up for it, I’m going to tell you the real story about how I found you. I think you’ll believe me too.” He simply nodded and then turned his head so that he could plant a sweet kiss on our boy.

“I named him Archer,” I finally told him.

“Archer,” he said the name as if he was weighing it’s worth. Then he crooked his finger at me so I would bend down to where he sat with our son falling asleep on his shoulder. Once I was close enough, he leaned forward, making sure not to disturb Archer, and he kissed me. “I love it.”

“I love you.”

We spent some time with Deck getting to hold onto our son and me filling him in on some of the things he’d missed. I also told him that when the girls were home, I’d bring them over to see him. It wasn’t until I was about to leave to go pick them up that I remembered something he had said earlier when he looked over the DNA testing.

“What was it you thought the club could use?”

“Huh?”

I tipped my chin up indicating the papers that were lying on the bed behind him. “You said there was something in the results that the club would be able to use.”

“Oh, yeah. Did you send Sasha’s DNA in too?”

My face turned red. “Sorry, I asked them to do a workup of her DNA in case you ended up being the father, so we’d know if the baby had any potential health issues based on whatever her genes are. You know, since obviously she was off her rocker crazy.”

“That makes sense then because there’s a notation in there that the paternal DNA for the baby also happens to be a close match for the paternal DNA for his mother.”

“What? How is that possible?” I asked, completely confused.

“The baby belongs to her own father?” I questioned.

“No, but it looks like the baby might just belong to one of his uncles.” I shuttered as I thought back to her reaction when I told her that the younger brother had been killed.

“That’s gross!” I finally managed to get out. “How will that help the club though?”

“They’re not going to want that information to get out. I’m certain there was a reason the bastard son wasn’t accepted. Durbin spoke with me about rumors he heard about the oldest son before. Some people claimed that the son was a product of a relationship between the father and his sister.”

“What the fuck is wrong with that family?” I asked.

“Who the fuck knows? Still, I think they’d hate that there was proof out there that the rumors may be true, you know?”

“Well, if the club uses the proof, I want you to spin a tale that the baby was stillborn. The DNA test was just done to confirm whether it had been yours or someone else’s.”

“Why?”

“MiMi and Dane are going to keep him. She offered to take him, no matter what the results of the test were, but I told her they could only do it if the baby wasn’t yours.”

“You seriously would have raised that baby with me?”

“I love all of you, Deck. When are you going to realize that? Nothing that happened while you were away was your fault. If that baby had been yours, I wouldn’t have punished you or him by sending either of you away. We’ve all been through enough.

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