Page 56 of Stolen Love

“What you’re saying is…?” No! Just no! We’re not going there. We are not considering the implications of Ivy being a…No! There is no fucking way!I leap off the bench and stumble backwards. “Mom, tell me it isn’t true.”

She rubs the heel of her palm against her chest. Sniffs. “I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you differently, but Robert was your father. I am one hundred percent certain of that fact.”

“My last name used to be Hawthorne,” Ivy’s voice is quiet, strained. “Before my dad changed it legally. I was born a Hawthorne. My mom’s name is Nicole Hawthorne. Have you ever heard of her?”

“You have to tell us that you don’t know her.” I grab her by the shoulders. This is a coincidence. What are the chances that our father and Nicole are related? “It’s a common enough name. There are a lot of people with that last name.”

“Rogue.” Ivy covers her mouth with her hand. Shakes her head.

“Rogue,” Rebel calls my name.

That tone… the way he clears his throat… the way I can sense he’s watching me before I turn around and see the awkward apology in those identical blue eyes.

“Don’t say it.” All I want to do is grasp Ivy’s hand. Pull her against me. Protect us from the words I know are coming next without having to hear them. But I don’t reach for her. “Please don’t say it.”

He holds his phone up and turns the screen for me to see. “Nicole and Robert Hawthorne are siblings. They were born and raised together in Phoenix. Alec Hawthorne is our cousin. Ivy—”

“Don’t say it,” I snarl.

“Is our cousin.” He pushes the information on me.

Ivy whimpers behind me, and I whip around to see the woman I love stare at me with absolute agony and horror in her beautiful eyes. “No.”

“No, baby.” My own eyes grow blurry. I take a step toward her. It isn’t true. “It can’t be true.”

Not after all we’ve been to each other. What we are to each other. And the possibility that Ivy is carrying my child.

She trips as she backs away from me. “What if it is?”

“Then…” I don’t know. The hand I’d reached out to steady her drops to my side. “It’s not. Think about it… have you ever met Robert Hawthorne? Or our brother?”

“No, but… I never met any of Nicole’s side of the family.”

“Ever heard her mention them?”

“No,” Ivy whispers.

“What about Alec?”

A crease forms between her brows. “I…I don’t know.”

“That’s your dad.” Mom points at the man in the picture Rebel is showing her. “I remember her too. She could be so cruel.”

And yet, fate, it seems, is crueller and far more damaging than Nicole could ever possibly hope to be.

An orderly approaches. “Betty, it’s time to go in.”

“I think I need to stay,” Mom says.

“You need to take your meds,” the orderly reminds her.

“Right.” Mom glances around like she’s searching for something. “But I—”

“It’s okay, Mom,” I say softly. We got what we came for. Even though I want the result to be something else. Anything else.

She smiles at us. “I wish the circumstances of your visit had been different. It was lovely to see my boys.”

We watch the orderly escort her away before Rebel says, “You can legally marry your first cousin in California.”

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