Page 95 of Seductive Scoundrel

Dexter Senior is full of shit.

My dad is my dad.

Isn’t he?

My mom would never cheat on my dad and risk destroying our family.

Would she?

I can’t breathe.

“Now, I’m willing to do a DNA test to confirm,” Dexter Senior continues when neither Dex nor I respond. But I can’t speak. My heart is in my throat and no words will form. “But looking at you and Dex, I don’t even need one. You’re so clearly blood-related that I’m surprised you never noticed yourselves.”

I don’t look like Dex.

Do I?

Jesus Christ.

I am completely off-balance and have never felt anything like the painful storm brewing in my gut. My whole life was a lie – maybe – and I’m finding out in front of two relative strangers. Sure, Dex has become a friend, but we’ve only known each other for a short time, and now all of a sudden we could be brothers?

I always wanted a sibling growing up, but not like this.

Never like this.

“Why now?” It’s all I can manage to say, and my words are muffled like I’m underwater.

Maybe I am.

Maybe I’m dreaming.

Maybe I’m drowning.

Dexter Senior shrugs. “I joined the rest of the world and got Facebook. As soon as I saw your mother’s profile picture, which is a family photo, I immediately suspected that you were my biological son. So I approached you, using Seneca as my leverage, because she never would have given me the time of day.”

Facebook. Fucking Facebook.

“Please excuse me for a moment.” The words are coming from my mouth, but I’ve never heard my voice so strangled before.

I’m a stranger now, even to myself, because everything I thought I knew could be a lie. And I fucking hate lies.

And liars.

I’m striding across the restaurant so quickly that everything is jumbled, all while fumbling with my cell phone through blurry vision. My mom answers right away, and my heart breaks at how happy she sounds to hear from me.

Could she be nothing more than a liar?

She and Mia are – were – the most important women in my life, and now both relationships are going to be over because they couldn’t tell me the fucking truth about things I needed and deserved to know.

“I have two questions that you’ll think are coming out of left field, but they’re very important to me,” I tell her without preamble. “Okay? Very important. And I need you to answer me with one hundred percent honesty. Can you promise me that you’ll do that?”

“Dean, you’re scaring me.” Her voice shakes, and part of me thinks she already knows what’s coming. Maybe she was always waiting for me to figure it out.

I look nothing like my red-headed, fair-skinned father. But I’m good at looking past things I don’t want to acknowledge. I did the same with Mia.

“Promise me.” My voice is sharper than I intended, but the truth needs to come out.

“I promise,” she whispers.

---