“Hey, Joe,” I said when he answered. “If you’re not busy, would you mind coming over? I’m looking at these yearbooks, and I’ve come across something that intrigues me.”

My brother cleared his throat. “Yeah. No problem. Talon’s here with me. I’ll bring him along.”

“Great. See you soon.” I ended the call.

I looked again at the photograph of the future lawmakers club. Damn. The magnifying glass I’d been using sat on the bar next to my now empty glass of wine. Okay, now empty second glass of wine.

In less than fifteen minutes, my brothers arrived. Joe carried a manila folder. “What’s that?” I asked.

“Some stuff we need to discuss,” he said stiffly.

“You sound like you could use a drink,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“No drink, Ry,” Jonah said. “We need to talk.”

“Yeah, we do. I need to show you guys something.” I grabbed the yearbook showing the photo of the future lawmakers club, all six members. “Check this out.” I picked up the magnifying glass. “Look at the fingers on their right hands. They’re all wearing identical rings. At least Dad, Simpson, and Mathias are. I can’t see the others’ hands.”

“Let me see.” Jonah took the yearbook and the magnifying glass and stared at the photo. “Yeah. They are. That’s weird.”

“That’s what I thought. There’s some kind of strange design on the ring that I can’t make out. Do you remember Dad ever wearing a ring like this?”

“The only ring Dad ever wore was his wedding ring,” Talon said.

“That’s what I thought too,” I agreed. “Maybe we should look through his old stuff and see if we can find this ring. We should talk to Bryce too. Maybe he can find Tom’s. There might be some clues there.”

“Definitely. Good call, Ry. What made you think of looking at the photo with a magnifying glass?”

“I don’t know. I just felt like we had to be missing something that was right under our noses.” The word “nose” hurled me back to the meeting with Larry. You have your mother’s nose. I still couldn’t get that out of my mind.

“Did you find anything else?” Talon asked.

“No. Not yet. But I’m just getting started. I plan to go through these with a fine-tooth comb. I’ve been AWOL on this stuff for too long. I know it was my busy season, but that’s no excuse.”

“Ry—” Talon began.

“No, Tal. It’s no excuse. You saved me all those years ago, and I should have been here with you, figuring this out. You can count on me from now on. I swear it.” I turned to the back of the book. “The only other thing I noticed so far is that Wendy Madigan’s parents are listed in the sponsor section for the yearbook. I thought it was weird that Grandma and Grandpa weren’t. After all, they had more money than anyone else’s parents could have.”

I pointed to the entry. Mr. and Mrs. Warren G. Madigan, parents of Wendy Madigan, sophomore.

“What about Simpson or Mathias? Are their parents listed?” Jonah asked.

“Nope. Just Wendy’s. Probably not anything big. What was most noticeable is that our grandparents weren’t listed.”

“That is weird,” Talon said. “Of course, no weirder than Dad lying to us that he went to Snow Creek High School.”

Jonah shook his head. “I’m afraid Dad wasn’t the man we remember him to be. This is only the beginning, unfortunately.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. Joe had been acting strange since before we left for Jamaica. I was going to find out why. “I’ve had the feeling you’ve been keeping something from me for a while now. Both of you. I didn’t want to screw up your wedding, so I kept quiet. But now I want to know what’s going on.”

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Joe said.

My nerves jumped. “Okay. Now you’re freaking me out.”

“Let me say something, first,” Talon said.

“Of course.” I’d always listen to Talon. He was my hero, my savior.

“You’re our brother, Ryan. Always. In every way that matters. I love you, man.”

Now I was really freaked out. “Tal…I’m not sure you’ve ever said that before.”

“It’s not what guys say,” Talon said. “But I love you.”

“I do too,” Joe said.

Jonah had said he loved me recently, and now Talon? Very odd. “I love you guys too, but you know that. What the fuck is going on?”

Jonah grabbed the manila folder he’d brought with him and took out some documents. “We came into some information recently. Information we were hoping would be proved false.”

“Yeah?” Icy fingers crept up my spine.

Joe cleared his throat. “You know Wendy Madigan?”

“Of course.”

“While I was with her, after she kidnapped me, she made a claim. About you.”

“What about me?”

“God, Joe, how can we do this?” Talon asked.

“We’re going to rip the Band-Aid off,” Joe said, and then looked me straight in the eyes. “These documents prove something. Something we hoped wasn’t true, but is.” He cleared his throat. “I wish I didn’t have to tell you this.”

“Tell me what? Jesus Christ, Joe. What the fuck is going on?”

Jonah exhaled. “Ryan, Wendy Madigan is your mother.”