CHAPTER 13
LIAM
My ass landed back on the chair as I sat down to absorb Evan’s admission. Thoughts raced through my mind, and I tried desperately to understand the bombshell he’d just delivered.
“Does she know?” I asked in a distant, flummoxed tone.
Evan took his previous position on the couch. “She does know now. I had to tell her. Her brothers and sister have known for almost a year. I couldn’t keep the information from her anymore.”
So all that time, the months that Brooke had been here, she hadn’t realized that Evan was related to her? I shook my head, still not quite ready to believe that my Brooke was actually a Sinclair. “How?” That one word was all I could get to leave my mouth.
“She would have already known, had the shooting at the bank not occurred before Noah and I could tell all my siblings. But we’d barely discovered the truth when the incident occurred. Brooke was in an understandable amount of pain, and we didn’t want her to have to deal with anything else.”
“I didn’t know her last name was Sinclair.” Brooke had always gone by the last name of Langley.
“Langley was her fictional last name,” Evan said with a nod. “She’s always been a Sinclair. She assumed that our shared last name was coincidence. It’s not uncommon.”
I’d never asked Brooke if her last name was real. It had never been a priority. “How did your sister end up on the West Coast? I don’t get it.”
“Most people don’t,” Evan stated evenly. “It’s a long story,” he warned.
“I have time,” I rumbled. “I need to know. If I’m going to California, I want to know exactly what to expect.”
Evan leaned back on the couch. “I told you the truth because I know you care about her. If you didn’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
I waited impatiently for him to continue. I was going to get everything I could out of him before I tried to figure out what was happening with Brooke. I took some comfort from the fact that she was safe, but not nearly enough for my liking. And now I was worried about her state of mind.
“Although it was never common knowledge, my father was an abusive bastard,” Evan shared. “When I was young, he took it upon himself to train me to be his heir. They were painful lessons, but his lessons weren’t always physical, although more often than not, those sessions were physical abuse. One thing he always tried to use while he was attempting to break me was the existence of another family, his family, and how it would have been so much better if those kids had been his real heirs. Recently, I found out from Noah that they really didn’t know our father that well. He came for a few days every so often. They saw him for a few minutes and then he left with their mother for a day or two. It seems he used the information to taunt me. He never really knew his other children at all.”
I was incredulous. “All of Brooke’s brothers and sisters are yours, too?”
He nodded before he continued. “Half siblings,” he corrected. “We all share the same father. When he died, I went through all of his possessions to try to find out their identity. All I found were a couple of pictures, something that I assumed Brooke’s mother gave to my father. I had nowhere to search. I wasn’t even certain they were US citizens. My father traveled internationally.”
“So what did you do?”
“At the time of my father’s death, I put a portion of his money aside, hoping that I’d eventually discover who they were. I was hoping they’d come to me.”
I looked at him sharply. “And they did?”
He shook his head. “Not intentionally. But when DNA and ancestry sites developed, I put a sample of my own DNA on every website I could find. It took a long time, but I finally got a match.”
“Noah?” I guessed.
“Jade,” he corrected. “Brooke’s sister has some impressive primitive-survival skills, and she was curious to know if she had any Native American blood, since she knew very little about her father. She didn’t find any Native American ancestors, but she found me. I matched her as a half sibling. We discovered each other right before the robbery at the bank. I didn’t have the chance to talk to anybody except Noah and Jade before it happened.”
“So Brooke was kept in the dark and shipped over to the East Coast?” I growled, hating the fact that her family had played God and hidden everything for almost a year.
“Do you think that’s what I wanted to do?” Evan snapped. “Brooke had been through hell. There was no way I could drop all of this on her.”
“So I take it she has a significant inheritance.” I had to admit it had been pretty damn nice of Evan to recognize them as possible heirs, even though he didn’t have to. But I was still pissed off at him.
“Do you care?” Evan asked as he stared intently at me.
“No. I have more money than we’d ever need.”
Evan rose. “I think I could use a drink. Can I get you anything?”
“Beer, if you have one,” I answered distractedly. I didn’t indulge very often, but tonight seemed as good as any to break my usual abstinence.
I leaned back in my chair, my entire body tense from absorbing Evan’s information.
He was back quickly, handing me a bottle of beer while he drank something that looked slightly stronger. He started to speak again as he took a seat. “Like I said, I was in a bad situation,” he said in a husky voice. “I wanted to tell Brooke, but I didn’t want to impede her recovery from something that most people will never have to see.”
“I get that,” I grudgingly admitted. “I guess what doesn’t make sense is the fact that they never knew who their father was.”
Evan shrugged. “Maybe their mother planned to tell them someday, and she got sick. On the other hand, I wouldn’t blame her if she never mentioned it. Her children were under the assumption that he was dead, which he was, but she never told them that the marriage she’d thought was legal was invalid. My father married Brooke’s mother in Vegas. He was probably drunk, and he must have known the marriage was illegal, but he was a pretty heavy drinker. I’m assuming he thought he would never get caught, and he didn’t care.”
“Did Brooke’s mother ever know?”
Evan nodded. “As far as I can gather from Noah, she found out when my father died. He said she cried a lot, but she was angry, too. I’m assuming she discovered that my father was already married and had a family. If she hadn’t learned that, she never would have let go of finding her supposed husband. My guess is that she found him after his death, and then discovered that he had a legal wife and other children.”
I took a deep breath and then let it out, wondering how in the hell that had to feel. Finding out that you’d borne your husband that many kids, and he wasn’t really your husband. “It had to have been hard for her,” I said sympathetically.
“I’m sure it was,” Evan agreed. “I just wish she had come to me.”
He sounded truly regretful, and I had to give him credit for his sense of responsibility. “Most billionaire families wouldn’t have talked to her,” I pointed out.
“The Sinclairs aren’t most families,” he answered. “My father didn’t define this family. His children do. All of them.”
My respect for Evan grew as I realized that he felt just as responsible for his half siblings as he did for his full-blooded sister and brothers. “Brooke said she grew up poor.”
“She did. I think my father probably gave her mother enough money in cash, when he saw her, to keep the family afloat. But once he died, the money stopped.”
“So he lived like a billionaire while half of his kids lived barely above poverty level?”
Evan nodded sharply. “After he died, they had nothing. Brooke’s mom really had no skills. She was young when he married her, and she died early from breast cancer. All she did was work, according to Noah. Until . . . she died.”
“What a miserable fucking life,” I cursed. “For all of them.”
“Strangely, all of them turned out to be decent human beings,” Evan informed me. “They worked hard to have a better life. They had to have been taught that by their mother. It certainly didn’t come from my father. In fact, I see very little similarity between any of them and my father.”
“They’re close because they helped each other,” I added.
Evan had a ghost of a smile on his face as he said, “They’re actually rather extraordinary.”
I noted that he looked pretty damn proud of the bastard Sinclairs, but I was more interested in what had happened to Brooke. “So why did Brooke have to go?”
“I’m afraid she’s a little suspicious of my motives. I’m not sure if it’s because she doesn’t trust me, or she was worried her whole family had changed while she was here in Amesport.”
“Have they?” I questioned.
“Not for the most part. I admit that I had to give them all some time to digest the information, but we eventually saw eye to eye. It wasn’t our fault, but it sure as hell wasn’t theirs, either. The people responsible are dead, and we were all victims of circumstance. My siblings and I had the money, but all of us put up with our father’s abuse. Brooke’s family had an actual bond that money could never take away, but they struggled because they were poor. I’m not sure which was worse or better. It’s taken years for my sister and brothers to be this close. Brooke’s siblings have never known what it’s like to not protect each other.”
“So all of them are suddenly wealthy?” That had to be a shock for the California Sinclairs.
“Billionaires,” Evan said. “I worked their share of the inheritance as hard as I did my own. They all received over a billion dollars once I’d separated the funds.”
I’d been raised in a middle-class family, and I still wasn’t used to being a millionaire. I could only imagine how Brooke and her siblings must feel.
“Did they all accept it?” I asked curiously.
“Not right away. It took them a while to realize they were entitled to it. They were heirs, even though their mother’s marriage to my father wasn’t legal. He was already married with children when he decided to become a bigamist, but they’re all blood children.”
“Are you sure there are no more families?”
Evan took a drink from his glass and swallowed before he answered, “As sure as I can be. I think by now, I’d probably know. The pictures I saw were definitely of Noah, Seth, and Aiden. They verified it.”
“What kind of person does something like that?” I wondered aloud.
“You never knew my father,” Evan replied drily. “Be glad you didn’t. He should have never been a father at all. He was not only psychotic, but a sadist as well. Life wasn’t easy in our household, and every one of us lived in fear of his tirades. It was a relief for us when he was out of town.”
“Do Hope and your brothers know?” I asked, wondering if anyone except Evan had been informed.
“Not yet. I couldn’t risk any of them slipping up with Brooke, but we’re getting together over the weekend. I’ll tell them when they’re all here. I can happily say that I doubt a single one of them will have anything but love to give to our half siblings.”
Evan sounded proud of that, and I couldn’t blame him. I knew he was right. Xander would love having more family, and I was willing to bet that Hope would want to meet her newfound sisters and other family. The only Sinclair sister had been outnumbered for years. “Hope will love Brooke,” I said without thinking.
“I know she will,” Evan drawled. “She’ll finally have females on her side.”
“I think it will destroy Brooke that all of her family kept this from her,” I warned.
“She’ll eventually understand that we were put in a bad situation. It was either lie, or dump all of this on her when she couldn’t emotionally handle any more. None of us liked lying to her or keeping things from her.”
“So did she go back to California to check on her family?”
“More like confront them,” he explained. “She had plenty of choice words for me, and I’m sure she has many left for her family. She’s angry. And obviously hurt. Everything has changed in Citrus Beach. I think she needed to see if everyone was still the same.”
“Changed . . . how?”
Evan threw back the rest of his drink before he answered, “Her siblings started putting their money to work months ago. Noah left his computer-programming job to pursue his own business. He’d developed a dating app that’s actually quite clever. Now he finally has the resources to launch his own ideas. Seth and Aiden left their regular jobs, too. Seth was in construction, and Aiden fished commercially. They’re doing start-ups in their fields of interest now. Jade can do much more than work for other people now that she’s earned her doctorate. Owen is still in his residency, but he no longer has to worry about how to pay his student loans.”
How many people wished they could get the same break in life? Not that I didn’t think all of Brooke’s siblings deserved it, but it must have completely blown their minds. “Why do I have a feeling that you’re hands-on in all of their businesses?” I said suspiciously.
“I’m not,” he stated. “I help them when they need me, and I’m happy to do it. But I have no financial interest in any of them. I’m pretty sure my brothers and Hope will jump in to offer them their expertise as well.”
I never doubted that Evan wasn’t trying to profit from what his new siblings were doing. I was just certain that they weren’t doing it without some of the best business advice. “I knew you’d help them,” I clarified.
Having assistance from Evan Sinclair was probably every entrepreneur’s dream.
He was solemn as he replied, “All I want for them is to be able to have the life they should have had.”
I stood up, no longer able to sit without trying to reach Brooke again. “I have to go throw some stuff together so I can leave for California. I have to see Brooke.”
“I wanted to protect her from anything that could hurt her after all she’s been through, but we didn’t end on a good note,” Evan said with an uncharacteristic remorsefulness.
“You’d have to stand in line to protect her,” I rumbled. My possessive instincts were on full throttle, and I wanted nothing more than to be there to try to shelter Brooke from all of this. Maybe she’d eventually see the whole thing as a big positive—which it was—but considering what had happened to her, she really needed normal right now. And becoming a Sinclair family heir was as far away from normal as I could imagine.
Evan nodded. “I assume you’re going to take me up on the offer of transportation?”
“Yes.” I didn’t really care how I got to California, but Evan’s jet was the fastest.
“Take care of her,” Evan requested.
“Count on it,” I agreed, holding out my hand to him.
“We’re all coming to the wedding,” Evan warned.
I could tell that Evan was concerned, even though he didn’t outwardly show it much. “She’ll appreciate what you did eventually,” I said gruffly to him as I moved toward the front door. “She’s thinking with her emotions right now.”
Brooke obviously hadn’t stopped to think things through before she left. If she had, she would have come to the same conclusion I just had: Evan had done everything he could for her and her siblings, even before he’d had confirmation of who they were.
I still had questions, but none of them were as vital as my need to find Brooke. I had to know that she was okay.
Home wouldn’t exactly be home anymore since everything had changed. If she needed one stable thing in her life right now, it was going to be me.
Without another word, I strode out the front door, unwilling to stop until I knew for a fact that she was going to be okay.