AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sneak a look at Dash to see if he’s seeing what I am. His eyes go wide, and he takes a step closer to me. “You okay? You look pale.”
Shaking my head, I don’t know what to say. The longer I look at Graham, especially as he stands toe-to-toe with Dash, the more certain I become. He’s part of our family, no question about it.
And suddenly, it all makes sense. If our dad made a big investment in Duck Feather because its owner is his son—albeit not by our mother—then all of his advice to me about “talking to your brother” is even more logical.
“Kingston Corbett is your dad,” I say, not a doubt in my mind.
Slowly, the remainder of the smile fades from Graham’s face, and he swallows hard. His Adam’s apple works in his throat just like Dash’s does a few paces away. Dash reaches for my arm and pulls me closer to him protectively. He’s now turned the shade of pale I imagine he sees on my face.
Graham nods. “Yes. He’s my dad.”
An hour later, my siblings are gathered in Archer’s living room, and it feels like a contest over who is more pissed off and who can be louder about it.
“So Dad had an affair. Is that what you’re saying?”
Dash puts his hands out defensively. “I don’t know. It’s not even for sure that we’re related, though Peej seems to think it’s a slam dunk.”
“I just said he looks exactly like our family, which he does. And it makes sense that Dad would maybe give an extra son money to start a winery.”
“You think that makes sense?” Archer’s face is so red it looks like he just came back from a long run in the cold.
I take a step away from him and lower myself to the couch. I’m too emotionally drained to get into it with him. Or anyone.
Beatrix paces the room in a pantsuit, not a hair out of place from her tidy bun. “So that’s where the money went?”
“It makes sense with the paper trails I’ve been following, actually,” Jackson says. “The only thing we can’t know is whether Dad made the decision under duress. Did this Graham kid seem to know about Dad’s dementia?”
“We didn’t stick around to find out. As soon as he said he was Dad’s, we got the hell out of there. We needed to regroup.”
Jackson nods and rubs a hand over the beard he’s been growing. “This is so fucked up. I have no idea what any of it means, but I do know that.”
I look from one sibling to the next, and it seems like we have a consensus there. And after another hour of going through the same facts as we know them, we’re no farther along.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Colin
My front door is open when the elevator dings, and Archer exits on the floor of my apartment building. I hear his voice before I see him because he doesn’t come directly into the living room, where I’m sprawled on the couch.
Instead, I hear the faint tinkle of ice cubes hitting glass and the rumple of a chips bag being opened. It reminds me of my trip to the grocery store with PJ, and I immediately feel sadder than I already did.
“Here, seemed like you might need this.” Archer strides into my living room and hands me a glass of what looks like scotch on the rocks. He has a bag of Doritos and a bag of Wavy Lays tucked under his arm and his own drink in his other hand.
I take the proffered drink and sip it, grateful for the oblivion it might bring. My life has been a shit show ever since the night PJ went back to Napa and I stupidly trashed our relationship to that reporter.
She hasn’t taken my calls, which is probably a good thing because I didn’t really know how to make things better. Eventhough it was just the recorded greeting on her voicemail, I wanted to hear her voice.
“I dunno. Does scotch turn an asshole into a guy with work-life balance?” I take another sip, hoping it does. “Guess, if nothing else, it blunts the fact that I ruined things with your sister. Oh, I’m in love with her, by the way. And I know you told me to stay away from her, so if you’re here to rake me over the coals for not listening, you can fuck off.”
Archer says nothing. Sitting in the navy wingback chair across from the couch where I’m hunched over my drink, he stares at me. “I should do that, but I won’t.”
“How magnanimous not to kick me when I’m down.”
He plucks a large chip from one of the bags and offers it to me. I decline and lean back against a furry beige pillow. “It’s not that. It still gets my hackles up that you pursued something with her behind my back, but…we’re not in college anymore. She’s a big girl.”
“For what it’s worth, I wasn’t just fucking around. I fell for her. Then I ruined it, as you know.” When I called Archer after my newest media spectacle went viral, it was to apologize for the photos he’d no-doubt seen of me with PJ and the awful way I treated her.
