Page 80 of Forever Golden

“Was it maybe something left for him by his grandparents?” West asks.

Boone shakes his head. “That was my first thought, but his mother grew up in the foster care system and didn’t have any family that she knew of.”

I’m so confused, and judging by the look on West’s face, he is too.

“So, where’d it come from?” he asks.

Boone breathes deep, then drops down into the armchair near the bay window overlooking the yard.

“Vin ever tell you boys anything about his father?”

“Only that he grew up not knowing who he was, and never got to meet him,” West explains.

“Well, I suppose that’s true to an extent, but he definitely knows the man’s name,” Boone reveals. “It’s right here on his birth certificate.”

He hands it over to West to scan and I fight the urge to peek.

I study West’s face as he reads, growing even more intrigued when tension gathers in his brow.

“This doesn’t… it doesn’t make any sense,” he stammers, seemingly at a loss for words.

“Augustin was a married man when he had an affair with your paternal grandmother, Liza Golden. That affair resulted in the birth of your father,” Boone explains.

West, keeping his gaze trained on the birth certificate, inches back toward the wall and leans against it.

“Augustin wasn’t in Vin’s life, but he provided for him financially, which explains why Liza never worked. She wasn’t living in the lap of luxury by any means, but her basic needs were taken care of. She was what we used to call a ‘keptwoman’,” Boone adds. “But from what the source revealed, Vin spent most of his life believing his father was deceased, which I’m guessing was an arrangement made between Augustin and Liza. Only, years down the road, on Liza’s deathbed, she apparently told Vin everything because she couldn’t stand the thought of him being alone in the world, without family.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” West says, seeming to share his thoughts out loud.

Waiting until he tells me on his own isn’t working. The suspense is killing me.

“What is it?” I ask.

I expect him to just share what he sees that’s so shocking, but he hands it over instead. I study the document and it only takes three seconds to understand why he’s speechless.

“Holy shit.” I peer up at Boone. “Excuse my language, it’s just… this says Vin’s father was Augustin Ruiz? Is this legitimate?”

“It’s as real as I’m standing in front of you,” he answers with a nod. “Why? That name mean something to you?”

“It… yeah,” I stammer, eventually just zoning out on the document.

Growing up, Ricky was practically his grandfather’s shadow. They went everywhere together. So much that I spent several of those early years thinking Gus Ruiz was his father, only to discover at around age nine that hisactualfather had passed away a little over four years prior. Not too long after Shane was born.

Now, according to this birth certificate, it appears Vin is an illegitimate son of the Ruiz family patriarch.

My mind is reeling right now, and I drop down into the chair across from Boone, thinking about all the signs we likely missed. But how could we have known? Before agreeing to this trip, I double-checked that the family he wanted to visit here in Louisiana had nothing to do with his dad, and West seemed so certain Vin had no inkling who his father was.

Now, we both know that was a huge lie.

“Vin got in good with Augustin at some point and the family took to him all right, I suppose, but word never got out about Augustin having an illegitimate son. Could’ve been out of respect for his wife who was still alive at the time, could’ve been about control. Who the hell knows? But what I do believe is that it suited Vin that this familial tie was an easy secret to keep. After all, the name Ruiz—from what I gather—is one of a few surnames synonymous with criminal activity up there in Cypress Pointe. Is that correct?”

I nod to confirm. “It is.”

“Just as I thought,” Boone says with a sigh. “Long as I’ve known Vin, he’s been two steps ahead. My guess is that he knew he’d want to practically own that damn city one day and couldn’t risk having his reputation associated with the likes of the Ruiz family. Now, don’t get me wrong, he gets in the dirt with them up to a point, gets entangled with some of their endeavors when it suits him—like when he’s got a business venture to fund. How do you think his career in commercial real estate got started? But he’s a proud son of a bitch, and asmartone. As much as I hate to admit it,” he adds with a laugh. “Vin’s always got an angle, though, and you can bet your ass whatever moves he makes, it’s what’s best for him and him alone.”

“The campaign posters,” I say to West, but it’s Boone who’s staring.

“What campaign posters?”

---