Page 160 of Pretty Wicked Secrets

When she agreed to belong to us, even though she’s leav—

My phone pings, and I unclench my hands and snatch it up, grateful for the interruption to my spiraling thoughts.

It’s the results of Chloe’s DNA test, and for a split second, I almost delete it. Forwarding this confirmation to the executor of Sutherland’s estate will put the ball into motion, but there’s never been any point in avoiding the inevitable, so I conquer the weak impulse to manufacture a delay and swipe it open, letting my eyes quickly skim over the results while I start to plan out the next steps in helping Chloe claim her inheritance and seeing the Sutton sisters on their way.

Then I blink, my brain stuttering to a halt, and read through it again more deliberately.

“Logan?”

I look up. The question came from Maddoc, but they’re all four staring at me.

I hold up my phone. “Chloe isn’t the one.”

“The one what?” Chloe asks, her brow crinkling in a way that reminds me so much of her sister I have to look away.

“Your DNA isn’t a match for the Sutherland heir,” I tell her, my brain rapidly clicking through odds and impossibilities.

“What… what does that mean?” Chloe asks as Riley moves next to her and wraps an arm around her waist, hugging her close.

My brothers both look stunned, and I don’t blame them. I donotmake mistakes.

“Could McKenna have sabotaged the results somehow?” Dante asks after a moment.

Maddoc makes a rude sound, and I have to agree.

“He’s not that sophisticated.”

“Are the results of these things always accurate?” Riley asks. “Maybe we just need to… to have her do it again?”

They’re all fumbling for answers, but I retreat from the conversation for a moment to mentally reexamine the facts. I don’t make mistakes… but sometimes, I do make assumptions.

“Riley,” I interrupt, drawing everyone’s attention. “It could be you.”

“What?”

“You need to take the test,” I tell her, already moving toward the supplies I’ll need to swab her according to the protocol. “I may have… misinterpreted things.”

“Walk us through it,” Maddoc demands grimly, an assessing gleam in his eye as he looks toward Riley.

I quickly sort through the medical supplies I have on hand and collect a fresh DNA kit from the multiples I ordered out of my usual habit of redundancy.

“William Sutherland’s daughter left her family and changed her last name, obscuring her identity,” I start. “The family took care to bury whatever scandal caused her to break with them, but I was able to document enough to realize that she had… a relationship.”

“With Frank,” Riley says in a faint voice.

I nod. “I knew that Frank Sutton had an affair. And when the Sutherland heir’s trail led to him, I thought…” I swallow, unexpectedly embarrassed to have to admit my failing. “Iassumedthat she was his mistress.”

“Wait, now you’re saying she wasn’t?” Dante asks, his brow furrowing.

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” I say grimly. “Because if Chloe isn’t the heir, then her biological mother wasn’t a Sutherland.”

“You think…minewas?” Riley asks incredulously, the shock on her face stirring something inside me that I quickly put a stop to. “You think Mom would have stayed withFrankif she came from something… better?”

“Not necessarily better,” I correct her, the thing I thought I put a stop to putting its claws into me. “Wealthier, yes. But I wasn’t able to find out why she cut ties with them. And—”

My throat spasms, as if trying to deny the sentimental words, the words of comfort, that want to come out.

“And?” Riley presses, looking at me with a desperate need for answers that wrench them out of me.

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