Page 62 of A Billionaire Gentleman

“What’s this?” I asked as I took it.

“A letter from your mother. She wrote it a couple years after you were born and gave it to me for safekeeping. If I ever had to tell you the truth about your parentage, she wanted me to give it to you.”

I’d passed the point where I could feel anything at all, my fingers so numb that I didn’t know if I could even open the envelope without tearing it. “None of this gives you the right to do what you did. How you did it. It doesn’t make Sofi’s lies okay.”

“I was wrong,” he said. “And, yes, Sofi had a part in the deceit, but her feelings for you are real. That’s why she didn’t tell you about Aurelia being your half-sister, even after she told you everything else.”

“I can’t trust anything she says.”

“Maybe not.” He stood up again. “But you need to understand that she risked everything to tell you the truth. She could lose her son because of this. If that isn’t proof of how she feels about you, I don’t know what is.” He came over and put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll leave you to your letter. I’ll be in the kitchen if you want to talk more.”

He left, and I was alone.

I stared at the envelope in my hands. My name was on the front, written in handwriting I hadn’t seen in a long time. I didn’t know if I could do this, if I could read a letter written by my mother to tell me…

No. I had to do it. I had to know.

I unfolded the paper and began to read.

My sweet Deklin,

As you sit on my lap, you’re too young to read this, and I hope you never will, but I know that life doesn’t always go the way we want it to. If you’re reading these words, then I must not be there to explain things, and I’m so sorry for that. And I’m so sorry for what I’m about to say.

I made a mistake, and I’ll never forgive myself for how it’s going to hurt you…

Thirty-Seven

Sofi

Another beautiful day in Tahiti.Clear blue skies. A cool breeze coming in off the water. Paradise.

I’d cleaned the entire bungalow by dawn, unable to fall asleep with so much chaos in my head and heart. The physical work had been enough to stop me from thinking for a while, but it hadn’t done anything to ease the pain. With every passing minute, it had gotten worse until I’d given up trying to stop it.

The terrace chair was comfortable and the view beautiful, but I couldn’t enjoy it, not when all I could see was the expression on Deklin’s face when I’d confessed what I’d done. I didn’t know if I’d ever stop seeing it. Perhaps the best I could hope for was time with Dallas to replace it.

Except I probably wouldn’t even have that now.

I was giving it all back. Every penny I hadn’t spent, I was sending back to Jude Holden, whether he wanted it or not. I’d find a job waiting tables or working in a casino that didn’t care about my drug plea. I had to trust that Mrs. Islip and Ms. Stanton would be able to see the truth of Mead and tell the court that Dallas would be better with me.

I’d thought I’d do anything to have my son back, but I’d found the one thing that I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t hurt an innocent person. Not again. Maybe that made me a bad mom, but I wanted to believe that it meant I wanted to be a mom whose son could be proud of her.

As the sun disappeared, I wondered if I should call Jude again. When I’d talked to him earlier, he’d told me that he’d be in touch and that I should stay in Tahiti while he decided how to handle things. Since we hadn’t planned on being back in Houston until tomorrow, I was covered on the probation end of things, but being here was just depressing now.

The front door opened, and I sat upright, heart pounding. Someone was here.

“Sofi?”

My pulse went from racing to a dead stop, or at least, it felt like it did. “Deklin?”

I hurried back into the house and found him standing just inside the front room. I opened my mouth to say something, then snapped it shut again. What could I say that could even come close to fixing what I’d been a part of?

“I talked to Grandad.”

That explained the shell-shocked look in his eyes.

“Aurelia’s my half-sister.”

I nodded. He knew the whole truth now…and he’d come back. I desperately wanted to know why, but I wasn’t going to make things worse by jumping to any conclusions.

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