Page 17 of Crossfire Creek Vengeance

Deacon’s stare sharpened, his shock giving way to confusion, then to something heavier. “Why would she keep this from you? From Noah? Noah’s not an asshole. In fact, he’s a decent man and probably was thirty years ago, too. I don’t understand why she wouldn’t tell him.”

She let out a bitter, shaky breath. “I don’t either.”

And she didn’t. Months later, it still felt like trying to solve a puzzle missing half its pieces. Every time she thought she had an answer, another question opened beneath her feet.

“I don’t know the details of their… romance,” she said carefully. Even the word felt strange on her tongue. Romance. Her mother and Noah Riggs, the very man who was her brother’s business rival. “Lauren didn’t leave much for me to go on. But she said that once she realized she was pregnant, she hid it from her parents.”

Deacon frowned. “Because they didn’t like Noah?”

“They didn’t approve of him.” Jessa dragged her fingers through her hair, needing something to do with her hands. “Noah was in the wrong social class, and they were strict. Controlling. And they would’ve disinherited her for having a child out of wedlock.”

Deacon’s eyebrows pulled together even tighter, but she pushed on.

“Her family’s money… it wasn’t just money. It was power. Legacy. Expectations.” A humorless laugh slipped out. “Her standard of living was important to her. She grew up sheltered and watched every second of her life. But she didn’t want to disappoint them either.”

Deacon shook his head as if he couldn’t picture it. Like he didn’t want to.

“She told her parents she was taking a gap year,” Jessa continued softly. “Traveling Europe. Figuring herself out.” She swallowed. “But she was hiding a pregnancy. She gave birth to me overseas. Nobody knew, not her friends, not her parents, not Noah.”

“And then what?” Deacon pressed.

“She arranged for me to be brought back to the U.S. and placed in the foster system.” Her throat tightened again. “She told herself she’d… circle back. When she could. When her life was stable. When she was old enough to fight her parents for custody.”

Deacon stared at her, horrified. “She put you in foster care.”

“She said she hated herself for it,” Jessa whispered. “Every day, she hated herself for it.” Her breath trembled, but she forced the rest out. “Years later, when she had the means, she found me. And she adopted both Roman and me since by then he was my brother in every way that mattered.”

Deacon’s eyes softened, but only made the ache in her chest worse.

“She gave me a home,” Jessa whispered, voice cracking. “She just… didn’t give me the truth. And now the one person who knew everything is gone,” she whispered, “and Wynn is turning her secrets into weapons.”

Deacon stayed crouched in front of her, his expression tight with sympathy. He dragged a hand down his jaw, then met her eyes again.

“So what about Roman?” he asked quietly. “Is he… Lauren’s too?”

Jessa shook her head immediately. “No. Roman wasn’t her biological child.”

Deacon frowned. “Then why adopt both of you?”

Jessa let out a breath that trembled more than she wanted it to. “Because Lauren thought it would make her look less suspicious to her parents if she adopted a boy and a girl. A matched set. Something her parents could applaud as a ‘charitable act.’” She forced a hollow laugh. “She hid me in plain sight. She thought adopting Roman would keep them from ever looking too closely at me.”

Deacon blinked, stunned. “Jesus, Jess.”

“I know.” Her throat tightened. “What she did, what she arranged, wasn’t legal. Not all of it. There were private adoption loopholes, paperwork that wasn’t exactly aboveboard. She never told me every detail, but she didn’t have to.”

Deacon’s gaze sharpened. “Roman knows?”

She nodded. “Yeah. He found out a long time ago.”

“And he kept it from you?” Deacon pressed.

“He kept it from everybody,” she said softly. “Lauren made him promise. And when some… issues with her inheritance came up, Roman fixed them.”

Deacon’s brows shot up. “Fixed how?”

Jessa exhaled. Small. Uneven. Heavy with implication. “I don’t know the specifics. I didn’t ask. But Roman can and has bent the law when it comes to protecting us.” Her voice dropped. “Whatever he did, it wasn’t clean.”

Deacon muttered a curse under his breath.