Page 33 of A Billionaire Dom

Davin

I wasgrateful for the complication with Evangeline Ryan’s property as it’d kept me busy all day yesterday, and I hadn’t had a chance to stew over what was going on between Linsey and me. In fact, I’d worked late enough that I’d been exhausted when I finally went home and had fallen asleep without much problem.

When I’d gotten to the office this morning, I’d already felt better. Refreshed and clear-headed for the first time in days. Ready to tackle the remainder of the property issue and get things back to where they belonged for my client.

“I understand what you’re saying, Simone, but the fact is, your bank agreed to these terms after having ten days to review them. It’s not Ms. Ryan’s fault that you put off reading through the terms until the day before the deadline and signed without having finished a read-through.” I kept my voice even and firm.

My ability to keep a cool head was one of the reasons I handled things like this instead of Dad, but Simone was trying my patience. We’d worked with her once before, and that had turned into a disaster, but she’d been fairly new, so we’d decided to give her a second chance. There’d be no third.

“Ten days isn’t enough time,” she protested. “You’re not our only client.”

“It’s the same standard deal everyone gets with Holden Enterprises,” I countered, “and you could have asked for an extension. Instead, you rushed, and now you don’t like the terms. That’s not our concern. Youwillhonor the agreement, or we will take you to court.”

I didn’t like playing the litigation card, but sometimes, that was the only thing that worked.

After a few seconds, she sniffed and I could almost hear her gritting her teeth. “I’ll speak with my superiors and relay our conversation to them.”

There was no doubt in my mind that she saw her comment as a threat. Cool head or not, I’d never responded well to threats.

“When you do that, be sure to let them know that I’ll be more than happy to speak to them directly about the matter.”

My statement was met with stony silence.

“I expect this issue to be resolved by the end of business today. If it’s not, I’ll instruct Ms. Ryan that we’ll be changing banks, and your institution will pay any penalties my client incurs as a result of her project being off schedule. Good day.”

I hung up without waiting for her to respond. As far as I was concerned, the discussion was done. Even if she managed to fix this, I intended to speak with her employers. It’d taken me almost twelve hours to untangle the mess and find out who was responsible. Her name wouldn’t have been buried so deep if Simone hadn’t been trying to hide something. This looked like incompetence, but I suspected it might have been something more. Figuring out what she was up to wasn’t my responsibility, but I did consider it my duty to alert her superiors.

Leaning back in my chair, I closed my eyes and gave myself a minute to release the tension that had built up over the course of my morning. I needed to call Ms. Ryan back, but I didn’t want her to hear the frustration in my voice. Besides the fact that I really didn’t want her to misinterpret it as being directed at her, I also didn’t want her to think there’d been a whole fiasco behind the sale.

She needed to believe that I had taken care of the problem and was capable of dealing with anything else that might come up in the future. There was a fine line between confident and cocky, and tone of voice played into that a lot, especially when on the phone.

The text tone I’d assigned to my youngest brother broke the silence. I frowned, sitting forward. Why was Deklin texting me instead of coming up to see me? Had he taken the day off? Or was it the sort of thing that he didn’t want to say face-to-face?

None of my questions were answered when I read the short message that’d been sent to both Damon and me.

Are you guys free to meet me for lunch? I need to talk to you.

Ignoring the dread gnawing at my stomach, I respected his wish to talk to us at lunch and told him I could meet him. I’d sworn to myself when I’d gone to college that I’d never put my job above my brothers if they needed me.

Two hours later, I sat down with Deklin and Damon at Truluck’s, Deklin’s favorite restaurant. Damon and I exchanged concerned glances as Deklin greeted us, his tone serious but not upset. Since he made small talk as we perused the menu, I assumed he didn’t want whatever it was he had to say to be interrupted.

Sure enough, after the waiter took our orders and menus, Deklin cleared his throat and folded his hands on the table, nerves bleeding through for the first time. He looked at me and then at Damon, something unreadable in his eyes.

“There’s really not a way to ease into this, so let me say it, and then I’ll explain.” After Damon and I agreed, Deklin said, “Dad isn’t my biological father.”

If I hadn’t seen the anxiety on Deklin’s face, I would’ve thought his announcement was some warped joke. I didn’t have to look at Damon to know that he was as shocked as I was. Of all the things I’d imagined Deklin saying, that hadn’t even been on my list of possibilities.

“You know how I told you guys that Grandad hired Sofi to break up Aurelia and me? Well, it wasn’t because he thought we were going too fast or because he didn’t like Dad pushing me into it. She’s my half-sister.”

I leaned back in my chair, completely…honestly, I couldn’t think of a word to describe just how utterly shocked I was. Gob-smacked. Flabbergasted. Staggered. Astonished.

None of them quite got there.

“I’ve got some questions.” Damon found his voice first. “Do you want to explain a bit, or should I just start asking them?”

“Apparently, Mom and Dad were going through a rough patch, and so were Ronall Kane and his wife. It started off with Mom and Ronall going to each other about the problems they were having in their marriages, giving each other support, and at some point, it turned into an affair.” Deklin gulped half of his drink before continuing. “They both realized around the same time that they wanted to fix their marriages, not break them completely. That’s why the Kanes moved away in the first place, to give them a fresh start. Ronall told his wife. Mom never told Dad, but she told Grandad…when she realized she was pregnant with me. She never told Ronall about me either.”

“Which was why he and Dad pushed you and Aurelia together. They didn’t know you were related,” Damon said.

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