Page 60 of Tempted By Eden

I blink, my attention shifting to the boy. He’s a cute kid—dark hair, big brown eyes. There’s something…familiarabout him, but I can’t place it. Then the word hits me like a hammer to my brain. And suddenly, everything tilts.

Momma.

A son. She has a son.

And she never told me.

My fists clench, knuckles whitening, as my pulse pounds in my ears. I try to speak, to demand answers, but the words won’t come. Instead, I take a step back, my mind racing, and all I can think is,why? Why didn’t she tell me?

My eyes snap back to Cora, trying to make sense of it. She’s still standing there, frozen, her eyes wide.

“James, wait—” Her voice is desperate, but it feels distant, muted by the rush of blood in my ears. My feet are already moving, heading toward Emma and Ollie, who are still glued to the dessert display.

“Come on, kids. We’re leaving,” I say.

They look at me, confused, but I crouch down to their level, forcing myself to remain calm. “Sorry, kids. Something came up. I’ve got a work emergency, but I’ll make it up to you, okay? You can have as many treats as you want back at my place.”

“Yay!” They high five each other, already forgetting about the zoo.

I lead them out of the café, every step I take like moving through quicksand. Like the earth beneath me is pulling me down, slowing everything except the pounding of my heart.

I don’t look back.

I can’t.

***

Safe at home, I set the kids up with an ungodly amount of candy and turn on the TV, hoping it’ll keep them distracted long enough for me to deal with the anarchy in my head.

My mind is a chaotic mess, full of questions and suspicions, none of which I have answers to. But one thing is clear—I need to figure this out. Now.

Once they’re settled, I head straight to my office, taking the stairs two at a time. I pull out the old family photo album from the bottom drawer of my desk. It’s dusty and worn, the edges frayed from years of neglect. I haven’t touched it since Jonathon died. I haven’t wanted to.

But now… now I need to.

Flipping through the pages slowly, the smell of old paper hits me, stirring up memories I’ve buried deep. There we are—Jonathon and me, identical in every way. Two peas in a pod. Always together. Always the same. But the image of that boy at the café keeps flashing in my mind.

When I find the photo I’m looking for—the two of us at our fourth birthday party—air stalls in my lungs. The resemblance is undeniable. That boy, her son, looks just like we did at that age.

Same dark hair. Same big brown eyes.

This isn’t a coincidence. Cora’s son doesn’t just look a little like me and my brother. He’s got our DNA.

I close the album and drop my head into my hands as the brutal truth digs its claws into me. And it hurts like hell.

She thinks I’m Jonathon.

I should have picked up on it sooner. She called me Jonathon when I confronted her at work that first day. I shrugged it off back then, assuming it was part of her plan somehow. Another attempt to get into my head. Now it all makes sense. And she must have thought I didn’t recognize her, or worse, that I was pretending not to know her.

Of course she did. Jonathon and I were identical. Same face, same voice, same everything. We even shared the same women when we got older. Hell, no one could tell us apart unless they knew us well, and even then it was hard. And Cora… well, it’s obvious now. She didn’t know me at all.

I close my eyes, groaning as the pieces fall into place. I let her in, piece by piece. I fell for her.

Was it even real?Or was it all just a game? A way to get something from me?Money?She’s up to her ears in debt, so it’s not a stretch. I should have trusted my gut instinct about Cora; it’s never wrong. Now everything feels like a lie. She didn’t trust me enough to tell me about her son.My nephew. And now I’m left wondering if anything we had was real.

My heart is being split open, an ache so deep it’s as if it’s being torn out.

Jonathon wasn’t just my twin—he was half of me, the part that made everything make sense. And when he died, that half of me died too, leaving a hollow space I’ve never been able to fill. I wasn’t there when he needed me. I wasn’t there to stop the car, to save him. And now, losing Cora, realizing she never trusted me—it feels like I’m losing him all over again. The pain, the betrayal, the emptiness—it’s all the same.

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