Chapter 1
LEIGH
The GPS announced our arrival in Willowbrook, and my stomach tightened.
“Almost there,” Mom said quietly. Her hands gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white. She’d been like this for the last hour. Careful. Tentative. Like I might shatter if she said the wrong thing.
I watched the town through the passenger window. Small and rural, the kind of place where everyone probably knew everyone. Historic storefronts lined Main Street, a gazebo sat in the town square, and people strolled along sidewalks in the golden early-evening light. It was charming in a way that was completelydifferent from Blue Point Bay’s coastal energy. Quieter. More insular.
The place where my brothers grew up.
Even though it had been months since I’d learned of their existence it still felt strange to think. Brothers. Four of them. I wasn’t the first person in the world to learn of another sibling but four was just extreme. Except, I guess I was the extra sibling. The one that had been hidden away even if it had been with good intentions instead of the usual guilt and shame.
“It’s nice,” I said, because Mom was waiting for me to say something. “Different from home.”
She relaxed slightly. “Very different.”
The silence stretched between us, heavy with everything we weren’t saying. I knew what Mom was thinking. What she’d been thinking for months now, since she’d told me the truth about Jasper and my half-brothers. She was waiting for me to be angry with her. Waiting for the blame, the accusations, the resentment.
But I wasn’t angry with her. Not really. Or maybe I was. It was all so complicated. Tangled up with understanding and hurt and years of wondering why I’d never had a father, only to find out he’d existed all along. That Mom had made choices she thought were right, choices that had kept me from this whole other family.
I understood her reasoning. That didn’t make any of this easier.
“Leigh,” she started, her voice soft.
“Mom, it’s fine. We’re here. Let’s just focus on that.”
She bit her lip but nodded. The kid gloves treatment was exhausting. I needed her to stop acting like I was fragile.
“It should be left up here,” she said, almost to herself. “Jasper said the house is on the outskirts.”
We left the small downtown behind, driving through residential areas that gave way to larger properties. Tree-lined roads, space between houses, the kind of quiet you didn’t get in a tourist town like Blue Point Bay.
“There,” Mom said softly.
The house sat back from the road, surrounded by mature trees and sprawling lawn. A long driveway led to a wide front porch. It was ostentatious and screamed the kind of wealth I’d never known in my lifetime. The kind of home that spoke of stability and permanence.
I’d seen photos during Jasper’s visits, but seeing it in person made it real.
This was where they’d grown up. My half-brothers. The ones I was meeting tomorrow.
Mom pulled into the driveway and cut the engine. Neither of us moved.
“If this is too much,” she said quietly, “we could stay at a hotel. I checked, there’s a place in town.”
“Mom.” I turned to look at her. She looked tired. Worried. Older than I’d ever seen her. “Stop. I’m okay. I want to be here.”
“I just need you to know that if I could change things, if I could go back…”
“You can’t. None of us can.” I reached over and squeezed her hand. “I need you to stop treating me like I’m about to break. Please.”
She squeezed back, tears in her eyes. “Okay. I’ll try.”
Before we could get out, the front door opened. Jasper came down the porch steps, his face lighting up when he saw us.
“You made it!” He pulled me into a hug that felt natural now, nothing like those first awkward meetings in Blue Point Bay months ago. “How was the drive?”
“Long but fine,” I said. “Mom’s already threatening to make me drive back.”
