Page 31 of Trouble

“Hey, sweetheart, come in and get comfortable,” Bishop announced as he pushed me out of the way to wrap his niece in a full bear hug. He was obviously feeling it too. She could leave us all over this and none of us could blame her if that’s what she chose to do.

“Okay, you’re all making me more nervous than the creeps in the gas station. What’s going on?”

Hollywood shut the door and we all took our seats. I stayed beside Trinity and held onto one of her hands while Bishop took the other side. Hollywood turned around and frowned at not having a spot beside his sister-cousin. I almost laughed at the thought. The asshole wouldn’t stop calling her that and while it was funny, we got some strange looks whenever he said it where outsiders could hear that shit. He thought it was hilarious. I wasn’t so sure Trinity would feel the same. Then again, those twohad the same damn sense of humor, so she would probably get a kick out of people’s reactions.

Bishop gave me the nod. “When you had your mother’s funeral four years ago, I was there.”

“I know, I saw you when we were leaving,” she said. “Why didn’t you come up with the rest of us?”

“We didn’t get along that well back then and I wanted to give you space to grieve without having to be mad that I was in your space,” I explained. “I still wanted to be there for you, just in case.” Trinity’s eyes softened and her body melted into mine. I relished the feeling and prayed that she would still want me when this was all said and done.

“Your dad was there, too.”

She shot up straight then and turned wide eyes on me as she leaned back into Bishop and fully faced me. “What do you mean, my dad was there?”

“Tommy showed up and talked to me while the service was underway.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He asked me not to, and you’ll understand if you give me a few minutes to explain. Tommy had some paperwork he needed me to give you. Part of that was the deed to the house.” She nodded, having probably deduced that much for herself. “The rest included a DNA test.” We all watched as her shoulders slumped.

“You know,” she whispered.

“What’s that, sweetheart?” Quickshot asked.

“You know that Tommy Monroe isn’t my biological dad. All of you know?” She asked and glanced around. When she got to Bishop, tears started to fall down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t want to lose you and Hollywood because my mom was a liar and a cheat.”

“Never, Trinity.” Bishop said with such conviction that I felt it to the marrow of my bones. “You are my niece.” He shook his head then. “That’s not entirely true. I think of you as more of a daughter than anything. That will never change. Not because of some silly DNA test that says my brother missed out on being biologically related to you. You’re still my little girl and always will be. I’ve known as long as Trouble has. Nothing’s changed.”

“Sister-cousin for life!” Hollywood teased and thankfully made Trinity smile.

“You really need to stop telling people that,” she mumbled. “I don’t understand. If you didn’t care, why did you hide it?”

“To protect you,” I said and she turned back to me.

“From what?”

“From who,” I started to say as I shook my head.

“My biological father,” she tossed out. “Did Tommy tell you who the hell it was? It was the one thing that my mother didn’t have written down. There were two DNA tests. One had my name and Tommy’s and it showed he wasn’t the father. The other had the man’s identity blacked out.”

“We believe the man you met at the gas station, Warren Anderson, is your biological father.”

“Wait, Anderson? As in…”

“He is Whitney and Natalie’s uncle.” Hollywood supplied. “Well, one of them anyway. We had a brother here until a few years ago named Battle. David “Battle” Anderson. He was her other uncle. Her father seems to be the only strait-laced asshole of the lot. Although, I have a theory that he’s the man behind the money and he knows how to wash the dirty stuff to make it clean.”

“Wow. So I’m from a family of criminals and cunts. This just keeps getting better.”

“At least you still have us,” Hollywood announced. “You do still have us, right?” He asked, and even I could see the worry in his eyes.

“Unless telling me about my parentage somehow changed things for you, then of course you still have me.”

“You’re not angry that we didn’t come clean sooner?” I asked.

Trinity shook her head and then slid back up to my side. Her arm wrapped around my waist as she plastered her side to mine. “I can’t be angry with any of you when I did the exact same thing. I was willing to lie to all of you for the rest of my life rather than lose the relationships we had. I can’t very well blame any of you for doing the same damn thing, and you had slightly better reasons, being that you knew a bit more and wanted to protect me from the bad guys who I might be related to.”

“There’s no might about it. Keys managed to hack the system. She compared DNA on file in a criminal case against your father that was thrown out to the DNA testing that was done to prove who your sperm donor was.”

---