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I don’t waste any time and get stuck into it with the main questions that have been plaguing my mind. “Why’d you give me up?”
“Starting with the good stuff, huh?”
“I’m not here to make friends,” I tell her. “I need my questions answered and then I’ll be out of your hair.”
She nods. “Alright, but I can’t guarantee that you’re going to like it.”
“And I can’t guarantee that you’re going to like anything I have to say about your son.”
Gina’s brows dip down. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“My question first,” I tell her.
Realizing that she’s backed into a wall, she lets out a sigh and starts giving me the information that I’ve been desperately looking for. “I’d been fighting with my boyfriend and met your father in a bar. He was cute and made me smile so I let him take me home. Three weeks later, I realize that I’m pregnant. Naturally, my boyfriend wasn’t thrilled. Samuel was only a few months old and we’d been careful, so he knew that I’d cheated and every time he looked at me and saw my stomach growing, it was a reminder that I’d been unfaithful. He hit me every day and by the time I gave birth to you, I already hated you. I resented you for the pain you’d caused and I needed you gone. You were causing too much trouble in my relationship and because of that, I gave you up.”
“You resented me because you cheated on your man? That hardly seems fair.”
“I resented you for what you represented,” she snaps. “Now, who’s telling the story here?”
I hold up my hands in surrender and let her continue.
“You were a few days old when I showed up on your dad’s doorstep. I dropped you off without so much of goodbye and that’s where you stayed. I had no interest in being your mother and to be honest, you would have been better off.”
“I was better off,” I tell her. “I’ve had a great life with my Dad.”
Gina nods and I don’t miss the way her eyes tighten, but I don’t dwell on it. I have so much more than I need to know. “Is that boyfriend Riv…Samuel’s father?”
She shakes her head. “One for one, remember. It’s my turn to have a question answered.”
“Ok,” I say. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything about him.”
“Well, what do you already know? When was the last time you talked to him?”
“The trial. Six years ago.”
My brows shoot up. Well, shit. “He’s never visited?”
“I’m losing my patience, Henley,” she says. “Start talking.”
I let out a breath, hoping he isn’t going to hate me for talking to her about him, but it’s not like I’m going to be telling her private information, just the stuff that everyone seems to know. “Ok, well, I’ve only really known him for the past six months. He’s the black sheep. He’s quiet and mysterious but everyone is terrified of him because he has the ability to drop any motherfucker around. He’s damn near lethal,” I tell her. “He’s never told a soul about his personal life, in fact, the rest of the world knows him as Rivers. We only discovered his name was Samuel two weeks ago and that’s because my father told me about you and we looked you up.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” she questions.
I decide to bypass the whole ‘one question at a time’ rule and give her what she wants. “Noah and Tully Cage. They’re twins and Rivers’ closest friends. They’ve been friends since he was eleven.”
Gina nods. “Oh, yes. I briefly remember something about a friend ‘Noah’ before all hell rained down on me,” she murmurs. “Go on.”
“About two months ago, we were involved in a car accident and he disappeared.” I watch as concern filters over her features but she doesn’t stop me. “We later found out that he joined the military. He’s been at boot camp ever since.”
If she’s concerned about him joining the military, she doesn’t show it. “And that’s why you’re coming to me,” she muses. “He’s not around to answer the questions for you.”
“Exactly right.”
“So, what now?” she questions.
“Now, you tell me what the hell happened to Rivers after you got locked up and if he knows that he’s my half-brother?”
“And If I don’t?” she questions.
“Then you don’t get his picture.”
She nods. “He was sent to go live with his father,” she tells me. “And as for you, he knows nothing about you, unless his father has divulged that information, but considering he couldn’t stand the sight of you, I highly doubt it.”
“Who’s his father?”
“Oh, honey,” she laughs. “We’re not even going to touch on that.”
“Why not?”
“Look, I’m happy to give you information that concerns you, but Samuel’s father has nothing to do with you. Besides, he has obviously kept that information private and I’m not about to go and tell you something that he wasn’t willing to share with you in the first place.”
