Page 75 of Beautiful Dark Temptation

I shoved the envelope back on principle.“Why?” My voice shook. Something inside me started to swell. Iswallowed that shit down. “My mother was your high schoolsweetheart. I am a bastard by definition. You don’t owe meanything.”

“Because you are my son and I failed you asa father. I want … I know my ask won’t be easy, but I want to getto know you. I want to try. I know you don’t remember, but I wasthere when you were born. I held you. We wanted to have you. Ivisited you as often as I dared.”

“I don’t remember you.”

“I stopped when you were a toddler. It gottoo risky.”

“I need to think about it.”

“You have to decide today.” Another whiteenvelope dropped on the table. “This was your mother’s. She wantedme to give this to you on your birthday, but I had hoped I couldkeep you out of all this. I was wrong.”

With that, he walked out along with hisbrothers. Their absence made it easier to breathe.

I plopped down on the chair and opened theletter.

I remembered her clean script. It alwayslooked as if she used a ruler to keep her lines so straight. Imissed her so damn much.

Kieran,

I wish I could’ve been there to see you growup. I know you’ve turned out to be a good person. A survivor likeyour father. Hopefully, you have my looks, not my heart. I couldkeep a grudge until the end of days. I guess for me, the end ofdays already came and went.

Tristan is in a terrible situation. Hisfather is a hard man but Tristan has remained soft hearted. A goodman. Maybe too good to be in the line of work he’s forced into. Wewere so young when we had you. Fools. Not sure what we were goingto do with you, but we loved you, wanted you. Always.

If you find yourself lost, please trustTristan. He can help you if you just let him.

We kept his information from you because weboth wanted to give you a chance to grow up without the money,power, and violence. To grow up like a normal kid. But now it’syour choice. I hope you don’t hate me for it.

I love you, baby. I know you’re going tomake the right decision.

Your mom

I read the letter several times trying tofind the good she saw in me and came up empty. I tried to find thegood in Tristan but came up empty. I’m sure if she would’ve beenable to write the letter in the current times, it would’ve beensomething much, much different.

My whole life had been grounded on hating myfather. The thought of him protecting me, trying, didn’tcompute.

Rumor had once told me there were twostories to every tale. The reason we should never assume. Thereason we needed to ground ourselves in fact first. I had failed inthat regard. I saw my father as ruthless as I had my grandfatherbecause it’s what I wanted to believe. Tristan had let me betortured. He had done nothing to protect me.

Because he hadn’t known, asshole.

I looked upjust as Tomás walked into the room. My heart swelled. Yeah, nodenying that shit. He had shallow wounds on his face, but thewounds seemed to have sunken deeper than flesh. I scanned thescratches on his face as he took a seat next to me. “Whathappened?” I asked, grazing one of the deeper ones near his jawwith my finger. His dark eyes never left mine. Two pools of onyxstones with a cast of light, so breathtaking. I had to remember tobreathe.

“My mother,” he said, his voice soft. Withno emotion behind it. We had never talked about anything personalbefore and the mention of his mother obviously hurting him made mewant to ask more questions. “She doesn’t like me very much. I thinkbecause I remind her of my brother. My half-brother, Maddox,” headded.

The one thing Henry hadn’t been able to findout was the link between Tomás and Maddox and he was trusting mewith that information. Offering me his own version of a truce.

“We share the same mother,” he went on. “Noone knows. He adopted me to protect me from his father.”

The mention of Cillian made me stiffen.

“It’s why I had the contract out on me. Youwere right, I should’ve gone back to school.” He lowered his eyesand I cupped his chin, forcing him to look at me.

“Cillian isn’t going to hurt you.” I bitback what I really wanted to say. I didn’t have to tell Tomás thatCillian was dead. That it had been me who saved him. He knew.

The silence between us stretched. I don’tthink we’d ever had a moment where we weren’t fighting. Bitching ateach other. Even the sex had been kind of violent. But he felt likehome.

“What are you going to do, Kieran?”

I turned back to the letter. It’s what I hadalways wanted. To be legitimate. To be someone important. Power.But it felt wrong. “It’s what I always wanted, to be recognized, tobe … someone, but I wanted to earn it, not have him just give it tome as a way to protect me. It feels all fucked up.”

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