Page 302 of The Billionaires

This stranger is my father.

But is he really?

Gritting my teeth, I examine Tristan’s face the same way he’s been doing to me all this time.

Hell’s bells. We have features in common, so it could actually be true. But…

“How?” I ask, not sure whom. I’m feeling an odd numbness at this point, like someone else is speaking for me.

“It was as I told you. We met at a nightclub,” Mom says.

“And it was just that once,” Tristan says, sounding a bit defensive.

“The number of times wouldn’t have made you any less married,” Mom says to him. Turning to me, she adds, “And he had his own baby on the way as well.”

His own baby. I clutch my chest as my overwhelmed brain finally makes the connection.

Tristan is Sydney’s father too—so she is the baby he had on the way. If this is all true, this makes Sydney my half-sister. And we do share amber eyes, black hair, and small faces—I noticed that when I met her, but I didn’t realize the significance, of course.

How Jerry Springer. A guy has come between me and my half-sister. So much for sisters before misters.

Then another thing hits me. This makes Piper my half-niece.

I like this realization. A lot. It even explains a few things, like why she felt like my flesh and blood the moment I met her. Because she is. We share twelve-and-a-half percent of our DNA.

Then again, she’s such a sweetie I would’ve loved her regardless.

“—swear I didn’t know she was underage,” I hear Tristan say, and that tidbit drags me back to the conversation. “She told me she was eighteen.”

“All women lie about their age,” Mom says defensively. “And you could’ve checked.”

He nods. “I could’ve done a lot of things differently back then.”

“You can say that again,” Mom snaps. She turns to me. “When I told him I was pregnant, he gave me money—for silence and an abortion.”

“Hold on.” I struggle to catch my breath. “You always said you never saw my father after the one-night stand. That you didn’t know his name.” Tristan winces at this last one, but I continue. “You couldn’t have known you were pregnant the morning after the one-night stand.”

Mom glares at Tristan. “This is why I wanted to talk to her first.” Turning to me, she says, “I’m sorry I lied. Between him being married and pushing the abortion, I thought you'd be better off without him.”

Tristan looks at me earnestly. “I didn’t push, I merely suggested it as an option, and I’m very sorry about that. With Georgiana being a minor, I was afraid I’d end up in jail—and as we’ve already discussed, I had a baby on the way.”

I rub my throbbing temples. “So… until today, you thought I didn’t exist?”

Not that this would make me forgive him, but?—

He grimaces. “I felt guilty about the way I acted toward your mother, so I tracked her down a couple of years later to apologize.”

“More like to make sure I’d keep quiet,” Mom mutters.

“Which is when I learned that she decided to keep you,” Tristan continues. “So I offered to help in any way I could, but she told me she didn’t want me in your life—and I decided to respect her wishes.”

“More like he decided to let sleeping dogs lie,” Mom corrects.

Tristan sighs. “Maybe that’s true, but as time went on, I regretted it, more and more with every passing year.”

I shake off the daze gripping me. “Clearly not enough to find me or speak with me.” I point toward the courtroom. “If you want to know how a father should act, just look at the lengths Adrian is going to in order to be in his daughter’s life.”

Tristan takes a step back. “I wasn’t sure what I’d even say if I approached you.”

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