Page 165 of The Renegade Billionaire
“I am your uncle, Sage. Fucking DNA doesn’t change that.”
He frowns. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean?—”
Guilt slaps me in the face. “No, I’m sorry,” I say. “But I also mean it. I’m your uncle, regardless of what a Q-tip says.” I scrub both hands over my face, using the pressure to center myself. “Ace thought we might be related, but wanted us to decide for ourselves because…”
“Because maybe it opens a can of worms you can’t undo,” Pops says.
“There are a lot of scenarios here,” Grey agrees. “If we’re brothers, our parents could’ve had an affair. Or…” He swallows hard, the alternative too shitty to even say out loud.
“Or it was just a hunch that Ace had that turns out to be false, and my father hated me for reasons we’ll never understand. Let’s pretend, for the sake of covering all our bases, that our parents did have an affair. It makes sense that they’d want to keep that quiet.”
“My father was so caught up on image he allowed it to take my sister from me, so yeah, I believe he would’ve done anything possible to keep it out of the press.” Grey grows agitated andstands so he can pace. “But Alistair has nothing to lose now. Why wouldn’t he have already leaked it if it were true?”
Madison reaches across the table with her palm facing up. I place my hand in hers and squeeze, thankful for the contact.
“Okay,” I say slowly, gathering my thoughts as I go. “Your father would’ve done anything, and mine, well, we know he’d do anything for money. But how far would he go? If he’s not my father, and knew it, why would he sign the birth certificate? He had everything he ever wanted. He married into money. He had full control of Montgomery Media, at least until he crossed that final line.”
“He did.” Grey scratches his head, then meets my gaze. “But what if he took money for something that wasn’t exactly legal, or to cover up something?”
Do we look alike? Our coloring is different, but the rest of our features could definitely pass as a relation.
“Wait.” I rub at my temples as a memory fights its way to the surface. “Didn’t Ace say he didn’t give Alistair any funding for the Whisperloop after the initial start-up money because he thought gossip columns were trashy?”
He nods as the pieces fall into place in my mind.
“Yeah.” Grey’s already rushing to his computer. “And that start-up money would’ve only carried him so far.”
“Do we have access to the financial records for Montgomery Media from thirty years ago?”
“It’ll take some digging, but if it’s there, I’ll find it.”
“Find what?” Madison asks.
Grey lifts his face from the computer screen, and the second we connect, I know it’s true.
“We’re searching for evidence that Alistair took a big payout from Darren Wells before or shortly after I was born,” I say. “And if there was a payout, there would be some kind of contract or paper trail.”
“That would explain why he hates you so much,” Sage mutters.
“It would,” I agree while searching my memory for any clues that make this true. It’s all there—the disdain from Alistair, the indifference from my mother. I don’t even resemble my siblings, I look…like a dark-haired version of Grey.
“Let’s say this is all true. What would he do with this information now?” Madison asks.
“Revenge,” Grey and I say in unison.
“He has nothing to lose,” I say gently. “Grey’s father is in prison, and Alistair’s already turned on my mother and siblings in a bid to save himself.”
“And this would…” Grey pauses mid-sentence, and when he turns to Madison, I see concern in his features—he cares about her because I care about her. “This would kick up a media frenzy we haven’t seen in years. A scandal between the Wells and Reyes/Montgomery families would be front-page news, and not only on Alistair’s Whisperloop site. This kind of scandal would make every late-night talk show, every morning news broadcast. It would be everywhere.”
“But…why?” Her voice cracks, and I stand to take the chair next to her.
“If my father invested in Whisperloop so that Alistair would falsify the birth certificate and raise Brax as his own, that sounds an awful lot like selling a baby, and?—”
“That’s illegal and unethical,” she mutters.
“Right.” Grey’s fingers fly over his keyboard. “And Alistair is too arrogant to think we’d ever find proof. He’s so sure of himself, he’d do it just to ruin Omni-Reyes.”
I snap my attention to Grey, and when the room remains silent, he lifts his head.
