Asher bounced the baby on his knee, drawing giggles. “I received some information. This mostly affects Zinn, but I understand you’re a package deal now.” He waggled his brows.
Zinn rolled his eyes. “What’s going on?”
“There’s no easy way to say this,” Asher said seriously. “And I feel guilty for not having more emotions around it.”
“What?” Zinn prompted.
“Jem died.”
Assa had to rack his brain to remember that Jem was Asher and Zinn’s older alpha brother.
Zinn’s head snapped back. “What?”
“Jem died.”
“No…I mean, I heard you the first time.” Zinn scrubbed a hand over his face. “How?”
“Car accident, but…”
“But what?”
“It looks suspicious. Like maybe Jem’s husband ran them off the road intentionally.”
“Like a murder-suicide?”
“That’s the theory. Father and Daddy shut down the investigation, of course, had it declared an official accident, but that won’t stop the gossip. Apparently, Jem had been cheating on his husband for a while. You remember how much they hated each other, right? That our parents arranged their shitty marriage?”
Zinn nodded.
“Fuck,” Valentin whooshed out, and Assa realized he also must have known Jem, at least peripherally.
“Jem and his husband had a terrible relationship, and I suppose his omega just lost it. Or maybe it was a legitimate accident. Either way, he’s gone.”
Calder scooted closer to Zinn on the couch, rubbing his thigh. “You okay, sunshine?”
Zinn shrugged. “I don’t know. I honestly haven’t thought about Jem at all these past three years. And even before, when I lived at home after Ryde was born, I hardly ever saw him.” He turned back to Asher. “How did you find out?”
“I told you I kept my phone number the same. Daddy reached out with the basics. A few hours later, I got a longer message from Antoni with the rest of the story.”
Asher made a funny face at Lachie.
“You’ve still never told them about finding me?”
“No. Until this, I hadn’t heard from them in over a year. Besides the fact that I never forgave them for what they did to you, they were done with me the minute I left accounting to go into construction. They had Jem, so they didn’t have a reason to chase after me.” He grimaced. “That might change now.”
Zinn’s lips twitched. “You would have made a terrible accountant.”
Valentin snorted. “Tell me about it. Every time we go to lunch, you have to pull out your phone to calculate the tip.”
“It’s true,” Asher said with a wan smile. “But now that our parents don’t have an alpha heir, they’ll probably look for me.” He eyed Zinn. “And if they do, they’ll find out that you and I are in contact.”
“Does it matter?” Wes asked. “The Parkensons have no claim on Zinn.”
Zinn opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no words came out.
“It’s not that,” Assa explained. He looked at Zinn, who nodded gratefully. “Zinn has gotten used to not having his parents in his life. Even a tenuous connection would differ significantly from a severed one.”
“You may not have a choice,” Asher said to his brother. “They half-heartedly looked for you at one point, but with Jem gone, my guess is they’ll want to account for both of us. Daddy alluded to it in his message.”
