Isabelle

I sat in my lawyer’s office, looking for answers I wasn’t sure he’d have, but unsure of who else to turn to. Because the last thing I’d expected to find while going through my mother’s things was a birth certificate that wasn’t mine, stashed away in one of my mother’s safety deposit boxes. “I need to know what the hell is going on. The birth certificate has my mother’s maiden name listed, saying she gave birth to a baby boy—years after she married my father.”

James Stein shook his head with a weary sigh, sitting back in his leather chair, his eyes meeting mine with a sympathetic gaze. “Honestly, I wish she’d spoken to you about this, since I don’t have a whole lot of information to give you.”

“But you know what happened. Don’t you?” I gritted my teeth in anger, lacking the patience to deal with James dragging his feet.

He nodded. “Your parents had separated when you were younger. You couldn’t have been more than four years old, and they were only apart for a year or two. You’d been left in your father’s care, but…in the time that your mother was away, she secretly gave birth to a baby boy, and then put him up for adoption. I believe she was having an affair and got pregnant. Having decided to go through with the pregnancy, a separation from your father would have been the only way to keep it a secret.”

“I can’t believe it… I have a brother?” I’d refused to get my hopes up when I found the birth certificate, but now that I was faced with the truth, I’d never been more shocked in all my life—and I’d never been more angry. “How could she just put him up for adoption?”

“I’m sorry, Isabelle. I’m not exactly sure of the circumstances. Your mother never did say what happened. But she told me of the birth and the adoption because she had some legal questions she needed answered.” He looked truly sorry that he didn’t have more information on my brother, and that I’d been handed a blow that would forever change how I thought of my past. “I will say that, having been your mother’s lawyer before her marriage to your father, I know that there was an infidelity clause in their prenuptial. A baby would have been proof that she had an affair—though I knew your father well, and he would have never have wanted that child to be put up for adoption.”

“But I do know my mother. She’d never risk losing access to my father’s fortune—not even if it meant putting her child up for adoption.” Somehow, I wasn’t at all surprised that she’d made the choice she had—and it forced me to face what I’d always known about her. That she had always put herself first, above all else.

Never had she been a kind and loving mother. I’d just been lucky enough to have my father, though it only made his loss all the more heartbreaking.

James handed me back the birth certificate, which was all I had on a brother I’d never known about. “Maybe as you go through your mother’s things, you’ll find more information stashed away. Perhaps she kept a journal?”

I scoffed, shaking my head, still trying to wrap my head around my mother’s secret and trying not to hate her for choosing money over my brother. “No. My mother wasn’t exactly the journaling type. Though I’ll have to go through the rest of her things to see if there’s anything else there. My father…did he ever find out?”

“No. I don’t believe he did. I believe your mother did everything she could to make sure your father never found out about the affair she’d had or the child she gave away. Honestly, I don’t think anyone knew. And if that was the only information you found, and she never mentioned it to you, then frankly, I don’t think she wanted you to know about your brother either. Not even after her death, since she didn’t leave me with any information I could pass on to you.” He got to his feet when I stood up, ready to go. “I’m truly sorry that you’ve had to deal with such shocking news. If there’s any way I can help…”

“If you come across any other information on my brother…” I had a brother. I was still waiting for that to sink in.

“I’ll be sure to let you know.”

I sat in the back of the town car, holding onto the only information I had on my brother. There was hardly anything on it. Just a birth certificate. Nothing more.

How could she? How could she leave my father, have a baby, put it up for adoption, come back as if nothing had happened, and never say a word? I didn’t want to think ill of the dead, but for fuck’s sake…there was no swallowing down the rage that was threatening to consume me.

I looked at the birth certificate again.

All I had was a name—and chances were good that it had changed once he was adopted.

Andrew. Andrew Jameson—my mother’s maiden name. Of course. So there’d be nothing tying the child or my mother to my father.

It was so little to go on. How the hell was I supposed to find him?

Tears slipped down my cheeks as I mourned the years I could have had with my brother. Years that I would never get back—and years that I may still lose if I wasn’t able to find him. Who knew what Andrew had gone through…what sort of life he’d ended up having.

I could only hope that he’d been happy and well loved.

Yet I had so many questions—and no answers whatsoever, especially now that my mother was gone. My relationship with my mother had always been more than a little strained and tenuous.

But this? It felt unforgivable.

And what if she hadn’t died? Would she have ever told me about Andrew? Would she have ever bothered with trying to find him?

I didn’t even know how or where to start looking for him.

But…I knew someone who might.

I made a quick call to Blackthorn Security and then gave my driver a new address, before sitting back and trying to ignore the pounding of my heart and the storm of emotions that battered my soul. I wasn’t sure I was quite ready to face Slater, but the truth was I’d missed him these last few weeks, even if I was still angry and hurt by the way he’d simply walked away.

At least he’d called and tried to apologize—repeatedly. Not that it made it any easier to get over the humiliation I felt. I still didn’t know why he’d left, since he hadn’t bothered to say in his messages. But maybe seeing him again would make me realize that what I’d felt for him was a naïve infatuation, and nothing more.

We pulled up in front of Slater’s home and I knocked on the door, desperately trying to slow the racing beat of my heart as I waited in anticipation, wondering if he was even home. It was eleven a.m., so there was a good chance he might be at work. Yet before long, a shadow moved behind the frosted glass, and the door was soon pulled open.

“Izzy.” His eyes met mine, a look of surprise on his face as he stood there in a pair of jeans and no shirt, making it impossible to ignore his washboard abs and tattooed arms.

“I’m sorry to just show up like this, but I need your help and I wasn’t sure who else to turn to.” I hated feeling so vulnerable, but it felt like my whole life had been turned upside down. “May I come in?”

He shook his head as if suddenly realizing that we were still standing at his front door. “Yeah. Of course. Come in.”

He stepped aside to let me pass as I did my best to ignore just how good it felt to see him again. I just hoped this wasn’t a mistake. Because one thing was clear: all the things I’d been telling myself about how this thing with Slater was nothing more than an infatuation that had gotten out of control was nothing more than a lie.

The last month apart had made that much clear, since he’d been my only waking thought and in my every dream. Because I wasn’t infatuated with Slater.

I was in love with him.