CHAPTER 14
BROOKE
“I’m so sorry, Brooke. None of us ever meant to hurt you.”
My sister, Jade, was crying as she sat on the couch of my apartment in Citrus Beach.
Thank God one of us still lives in the same place.
I think I was the only one in my family whose life had stood still while I’d been gone.
Every member of my family except me now owned a residence on the water in the most prestigious area of the city of Citrus Beach. I hadn’t seen any of my siblings’ homes yet, but I was comforted by the sameness of my own apartment, which I’d lived in for several years.
“I know that,” I said grudgingly.
I wanted to stay angry about the fact that every member of my family had betrayed me, including Evan, but reality was slowly setting in. All of them had acted out of love and concern.
“It almost killed me every time I talked to you. You’re my best friend. I wanted to be able to share everything with you,” Jade said tearfully.
My heart squeezed, knowing that keeping the truth quiet had been difficult for all of them.
I’d had an escort from Evan’s security force with me until I’d finally stepped into my apartment. I’d dismissed them, but they hadn’t actually stopped watching out for me until Jade had gotten to my place. They must have had instructions from Evan not to depart until my family was with me.
I’d left Amesport with my mind completely overloaded, and I hadn’t trusted Evan. But as the entire picture came into focus, and Jade told me more about all Evan had done for my family, I couldn’t help but regret the reckless things I’d said to him.
“Evan didn’t deserve the things I said to him,” I told Jade.
She swiped at her tears as she answered, “He’s done nothing but nice things to help since he found us. He joked about never missing the money, and maybe they didn’t miss it. But my mind is still blown over the fact that he saved and invested for us all those years. I guess we all trust his judgment now. He is one of the savviest business minds in the world.”
“I was angry,” I explained. “I said some mean things to him that he didn’t deserve. Honestly, I think I was scared.”
“Because things have changed?” Jade asked thoughtfully.
I nodded. “It seems unreasonable now, but I guess I was looking for things to get back to normal, and they’re all so different. Everything has changed.”
“We haven’t changed, Brooke,” Jade said softly. “Our brothers are all still jackasses just like they were when we were poor. I don’t think the money has changed any of us. It just allows us to do more of the things we always wished we could do before. And we have more family. Unfortunately, it includes more interfering brothers, but they live on another coast, which is a plus in my book.”
“We have a sister,” I said, still stunned by everything that had happened while I was gone.
My anger was dissipating. Now that I’d gotten the whole story from Jade, I could put myself in my family’s shoes. It had been a no-win situation for them. I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same if the roles were reversed and it was Jade who needed time to heal.
Granted, I thought they could have told me a little sooner, but the whole situation had been uncertain. The reporters hadn’t stopped trolling Citrus Beach until a month or two ago, and nobody had known if they’d show up again.
Jade smiled wistfully. “What’s she like? You met her, right?”
“I did. But I didn’t know she was my sister,” I answered, sorry that I hadn’t gotten to know Hope Sutherland better when I’d been in Amesport. The beautiful redhead had crossed my path several times, but I hadn’t talked to her very much.
I was her waitress; she was a customer.
That was pretty much the extent of my knowledge about my new sister.
“She’s nice,” I told Jade. “She’s beautiful. And I can tell she loves her husband. They’re quite a power couple, but you wouldn’t know that either one of them is megarich.”
Jade shot me a doubtful look. “They were both billionaires before they got married,” she reminded me.
“They aren’t like that, Jade. Hope is a nature photographer, and she’s good at it.” I’d seen my newfound sister from a distance taking photos many times over the last year. “None of the Sinclairs in Amesport have an attitude. They’ve donated millions to help the town, and most of them are a lot less intimidating than Evan. Hope just looks . . . happy.”
The few times I’d seen her and her husband, Jason Sutherland, in Liam’s restaurant, they’d been just like any other couple who adored each other.
Jade nodded. “Good. I was hoping none of them would be stuck-up. Evan tries to act like he doesn’t care about anything or anyone, but I know he does.”
“He adores his wife,” I said thoughtfully. “Actually, every single Sinclair marriage seemed happy to me.”
“What was Xander Sinclair like?” she asked curiously. “His career was so tragic. I loved his music.”
I’d been a fan of Xander’s music, too, so seeing him as a real person had been a little daunting. “He’s funny, but he didn’t used to be. From what I understand, he was pretty much a recluse in recovery when he met his wife, Samantha.”
“But he’s okay now?” she said anxiously.
It was going to take me a while to recognize Xander as my brother, but I could see that Jade was already past that point. She was worried about someone she didn’t know because he was family.
“He’s good. He’s one of Liam’s best friends. They razz each other constantly, kind of like our brothers do, but you can tell there’s a bond between the two of them.”
“I’d like to meet them all,” Jade said in a melancholy voice.
I shifted in my recliner, trying to get comfortable. I’d barely had time to adjust to being back in my apartment before Jade had flown through the door in tears, distraught because she’d had to keep the truth from me for months.
“I’m sure you will meet them,” I responded. “Evan said he was going to break the news to them right after he told me. They probably know by now.”
Jade eyed me carefully. “Look, I know how you’re feeling. We all went through this together while you were gone. It’s pretty surreal. Don’t feel like you’re alone. You’re not. None of us have gotten used to the whole thing.”
They’d gone through it, and were now at least over the initial shock. I was still trudging along in disbelief by myself. “I still can’t believe that Mom didn’t tell anybody.”
“We were kids,” Jade pointed out. “Her kids. I think she was trying to protect us.”
“She didn’t even have the chance to confront him about being a bigamist,” I considered. “Evan said his father probably died before Mom knew the truth.”
“She was really alone,” Jade murmured.
“I like to think she would have told us eventually, but Noah was already out of high school when she passed away, and she didn’t tell him,” I said.
“I don’t think any of us knows whether or not she would have eventually told us the truth,” Jade responded.
“It’s hard to believe she never recognized him. He was always one of the wealthiest men in the world,” I said, wondering how my mom would have missed seeing him in the media.
“She didn’t exactly operate in those circles, and when did she have time to read the news on rich people? She was always working,” Jade said wryly. “I thought the same thing until Noah pointed out that she never watched TV, and Evan’s father didn’t really show his face outside of the world of finance often. It’s not like he was a generous or philanthropic kind of man.”
“You’re still calling him Evan’s father,” I said, slightly amused. “He’s our father, too.”
Jade crinkled her nose. “Maybe I don’t really want to claim him,” she admitted. “He was a sleaze.”
I crossed my arms. “Then you wouldn’t have any connection to Evan.”
“Okay . . . since you put it that way, I’ll claim the bastard if I can still have all those new siblings,” she teased.
I laughed. “God, I missed you.”
I’d come home with a ton of anger, but not nearly as much as I’d had when I’d left Amesport. I’d had a lot of time to reason things out while I flew home, and I couldn’t stay angry at Jade or my brothers. It really wasn’t their fault. I’d just been so confused, and so afraid for my family. Halfway through the flight, I’d regretted leaving Liam without talking to him. Yes, I was planning on returning, but he deserved so much more than the fumbling information I’d given to Tessa.
I wrapped my arms around my body, feeling vulnerable and wishing I had Liam’s strong presence here in Citrus Beach. Maybe he didn’t talk a lot, but I could always feel him there for me. He was so solid and real that I’d come to rely on him being with me.
“I missed you, too, Brooke,” Jade replied emphatically.
We’d already hugged until we were strangling each other, and blubbered like babies soon after she’d entered my apartment.
“I can’t wait to see my brothers tomorrow, but I have to get back to Amesport. I never really said good-bye to Liam,” I told her with regret in my voice.
“Are you going to say good-bye?” she pressed.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. We never really got that far.”
Liam and I had been happy living in the moment. Maybe we both realized that tomorrow was never a given, and we’d been okay just enjoying our time together. Unfortunately, I think I’d loved being with him way too much. I was completely addicted to him, and I was already feeling the pains of withdrawal. “I hope not,” I finally shared.
“You’re in love with him,” Jade pushed, trying hard to get more information from me.
I sighed. “I’m pretty sure I always have been.” I was in a safe place with a sister I trusted. If I couldn’t admit to her how I felt, I wasn’t going to tell anybody. “I’m not sure if it was just lust in the beginning, but it’s grown into something I never could have imagined. You know me. I’ve never been a big believer in happily ever after. We’re survivors.”
“People change,” Jade said softly. “I know we’ve always had to work hard to survive, but that doesn’t mean that we all can’t have our own happily ever after, too.”
“What about yours?” I ventured.
She snorted. “I seem to be plagued by rich men all of a sudden. Well, maybe not a lot of wealthy guys, since I avoid them if I can. They’re not all as nice as the Sinclairs. But just one is more than enough.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You met somebody?”
She paused a moment before she reluctantly answered, “Eli Stone. He’s a complete asshole.”
I knew the name. She didn’t have to say another word. “The Eli Stone? The crazy-hot, crazy-rich Eli Stone?”
Most people knew the billionaire by name, especially women. He made tattoos look sexy, and I wasn’t all that crazy about tats, except for Liam’s because they had purpose and they were beautifully done. Since Eli Stone had so many physical hobbies, it was pretty easy to see a photo of him without a shirt.
“He’s a spoiled, uptight prick,” Jade said venomously.
I’d rarely seen Jade react negatively to anyone, so I was more than a little surprised. “That bad?”
“We’ve . . . butted heads a few times.”
“You have a pretty hard head,” I replied in an amused tone.
“I wanted to punch him in the face, but I had to remind myself that he’s rich, and I’d probably get arrested for assault, so I had to hold myself back,” she said with disappointment.
Having been raised with three older brothers, Jade and I were perfectly capable of fighting dirty when we had to.
“He always seemed like a laid-back kind of guy,” I mused, thinking about the things I’d read and seen about the young billionaire.
“Take my word for it, he’s not,” Jade said in a clipped response.
“You could always sic our older brothers on him,” I said with a laugh.
“I wouldn’t. The bastard would get revenge. He’s not a pleasant kind of guy.” Jade hesitated before she changed the subject. “Forget Eli Stone. So what are you going to do about Liam? I’m dying to meet him.”
I knew she was deliberately changing the subject, and I let her. Her dislike for Eli Stone seemed to put her in a bad mood, something I wasn’t used to seeing from my sister. Jade pretty much liked everybody, and she never held a grudge.
Apparently, Eli Stone wasn’t the type to apologize.
“I’m going to fly back to Amesport in a private jet that our brother owns and apologize to Liam for leaving so abruptly. Then I guess I’ll see where we end up after we talk.”
“Maybe you should just seduce him,” Jade contemplated. “Guys like that.”
I had no doubt that if I pushed Liam, he’d break his promise not to have sex with me in a hot minute, but we’d developed a trust between us, one that I didn’t really want to mess up. “I think we’d better just talk first,” I answered.
Jade nodded. “And then you can have sex.”
I rolled my eyes at her. She obviously had sex on the brain, and I had to wonder if her hatred for Eli Stone ran all that deep. I’d never seen her react with this much anger toward a guy.
I stood up. “I’d better get some sleep. I think we both need it, and I’ll obviously be dealing with our brothers in the morning. It’s late.”
I’d see my three elder siblings tomorrow. Apparently, they’d let Jade be the one to explain. Right now, I was exhausted. I wasn’t sure if it was emotional or physical, but I felt like I’d reached the limit to what I could absorb in one day.
Jade hopped up and hugged me, and I held her a little longer than I usually did. Since the robbery, I held everything I loved a lot dearer than I had before, maybe because I learned just how fast it could all be gone.
Once I’d closed the door after my sister had departed, I wandered around my small one-bedroom apartment, feeling disconnected.
I didn’t belong here anymore. Being home didn’t have the same comfortable feeling that it always had before the shooting at the bank.
But I didn’t really belong in Amesport, either. Yes, I knew I had family there now, but I didn’t know any of them.
I’d learned that where I lived was just a location. My only safe place was with Liam, and he wasn’t here.
Tears leaked out of my eyes as I wandered around the single bedroom of my apartment, not sensing that I was home anymore.
Disgusted with myself for allowing so much self-pity, I searched in my drawers for an old pair of pajamas and underwear. I’d brought very little here to California, but I still had some things I’d left behind.
I undressed, feeling the exhaustion in every part of my body, my movements slow and heavy as I stepped into my small shower.
For a moment, I felt slightly revived by the streams of water pouring over my tired body, but my uplifting moment ended abruptly. My relief morphed into terror as a large body slammed into me as it entered my shower.