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“Not even a little bit, but what other choice do you have, Alec?”
He was right. We were out of options. As much as I hated being another person to cause Quin pain, there were certain lines I wasn’t willing to cross, and keeping something like this from her was one of them. She had every right to know the truth.
I steeled my features as the SUV drove up the gravel driveway, carrying my future in the back seat. When it came to a stop, the rear passenger door flew open and three giggling girls spilled out. Leaning against a pillar, I heaved a breath as I watched the girls practically skip up the front steps.
“Hey, Hot Shot.” Quin threw herself into my arms when she reached the top.
“Hi, baby.” I kissed the side of her head. “What were you three laughing so hard about?”
“It’s better if you don’t know,” Luc said, coming up behind Emory, shaking his head.
“No way. If we had to sit there and listen while they had a dick-measuring contest using vegetable emojis, then he should hear about it too,” Rico grumbled, his arm around River.
“I was the eggplant, right, baby?” I fake-whispered in her ear.
“Gabe, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”
With Luc’s words, the lightheartedness of the last few seconds disappeared into a flurry of nerves.
“He’s here because we found out some new information that we need to share. Let’s all go inside.”
The group followed as I took Quin’s hand and led her into the house. Ma, Pop, and Millie were in the living room when we walked in.
“Where’s Charlie?” I asked Pop.
“He went upstairs for a nap.”
“Good.”
“What’s going on, Alec?” he asked.
Millie began to shift in her seat, fiddling with her fingers, as if she could sense my mood.Good. She should be nervous.Finding an empty seat on the couch, I pulled Quin down onto my lap, circling my arms around her waist before I answered, hating every second of what I was about to do.
“Do you want to tell her, or should I?” I directed the question to Quin’s mom.
“How did you find out?”
“I run a security company, Mrs. James. Honestly, did you think you’d be able to keep this from her forever?”
“Yeah, we did,” she sighed, shoulders slumping as she turned her focus to Quin.
“Mom? What are you talking about?”
She stood and began to pace back and forth.
“You have to understand, Quinny. We weren’t close. We weren’t even raised together.”
“Who are you talking about?”
I tightened my grip on my girl, already knowing the blow that was coming next. Millie came to a stop, lowering herself to her knees in front of her daughter, palms on her thighs.
“Stacy.”
“My birth mom? What about her?”
“She’s my sister, well, half sister.”
Quin went stock-still in my arms. I knew when everything started to click in place for her, because her body began to vibrate, either from shock or fury, I couldn’t tell which. When Quin told me Charlie called her Millie repeatedly, I saw it…how much they looked alike. At first, I dismissed the thought, the idea being far too absurd. Then I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something we were missing. That was when I texted Keaton.
