Page 37 of Lone Star Hostage

----- ? ----

Presley had to mentally replay Ari’s words a couple of times before they sank in. And they didn’t sink in well.

“Shit,” he muttered, and he wanted to follow it with a string of bad profanity, but then he looked at Ari’s face.

That arrogant sonofabitch was loving this. He was loving it as he watched Victoria and Olivia. They were speechless. Stunned. Gutted. Presley didn’t want to give the asshole the satisfaction of seeing him that way, too, so Presley reined it all in, and he put on his cop’s face.

“Get out, Ari,” Presley told him.

Ari laughed and looked ready to spew more of his venom, but Victoria put a stop to that.

“Get. Out,” Victoria snapped, and she sounded a lot stronger and significantly louder than she had just minutes earlier.

Ari lifted his chin. “Why should I?” he taunted.

Victoria looked him straight in the eyes. “Because I control what happens to your father’s estate, and I will cut you off at the knees. Not a penny. First chance I get, I will ruin you.”

Ari certainly didn’t laugh at that, but he still looked ready to challenge her. Then, he must have realized that he’d stepped in the shitstorm he’d started. He spat out some profanity, and without giving any of them a glance, Ari stormed out of the room.

“Is it true?” Olivia asked, and Presley saw the tears streaming down her face. “Is it true?” she repeated, her voice cracking over a sob.

Victoria nodded and seemed to take a moment, trying to compose herself. Presley was doing the same. Hell. This had been another gut punch.

“Yes,” Victoria muttered. “It’s true. I did give birth to Presley and you. I’m your biological mother.”

“But…” And that was all Olivia managed to say for a couple of moments. “You can’t be.”

“I am,” Victoria assured her. “And I’m deeply sorry you had to find out about it this way.”

More silence. More tears. Presley was actually thankful that Victoria’s attention was on Olivia because he needed the time to steady himself. The woman looked on the verge of completely losing it.

The woman, he silently repeated.

But she was more than that. She was his sister.

Hell.

That required to take another deep breath, and he was glad when Billie moved closer to him and brushed her arm against his. Just that subtle contact helped him rein in the worst of the emotions, but it was going to take a while for him to process all of this.

“Does Dad know?” Olivia asked, and she pressed her trembling hands to her mouth while she waited for an answer.

“He knows,” Victoria said, and she cleared her throat. “Jesep and my parents were friends, and when I got pregnant, Jesep told them that his wife always wanted a daughter, and they hadn’t been able to conceive again after they had Ari. In fact, they were in the process of doing an adoption application.”

Presley could see all of this playing out. Rich, snobby parents, their teenage daughter pregnant, and rather than try toraise their own grandchildren—or help Victoria raise them—they preferred to give the kids away. That way they didn’t have to deal with the gossip.

Maybe her parents had thought they were giving Victoria a fresh start. A clean slate, so to speak. But obviously something had gone wrong for him to end where he had.

“So, your parents pressured you into handing over your child to Jesep and his wife,” Presley finished when Victoria had been quiet again for several long moments. “Except it wasn’t just one child.”

Victoria made a sound of agreement. “When I got the ultrasound results and saw that I was carrying a boy and a girl, Jesep said he wanted the girl. He said he also had a close friend who wanted the boy.” She stopped again, and a groan tore from her throat. “Jesep wouldn’t tell me the name of his friend, insisting the couple wanted to keep the adoption private, but he swore to me they were good people and would love you as their own.”

“Clearly, that didn’t happen,” Presley muttered. “So, something went wrong. What?”

She took a glass of water from the table next to her bed and drank several sips before she answered. “I needed a C-section for the delivery, and I ended up being fully sedated. After I woke up in recovery, my mother was there, and she said the babies were already with their parents.”

Well, shit.That had to have knocked Victoria for a proverbial loop.

“My mother insisted that I was to put all of this behind me and never shame her or my father again. I didn’t even get to see either of you,” Victoria added with her voice outright shaking now. “You were just gone.”

---