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One
Sunshine and blue skies. It was the kind of June day that made most people happy to be on Nantucket. But Logan knew the cell phone signal would be iffy at best and that he was on the island to attend the wedding of his business rival. Not exactly his idea of fun.
And having arrived at his grandmother’s large “cottage” on Nantucket to find his brothers all gathered in the study secretly conferring instead of socializing with other wedding guests, Logan couldn’t help but hope that it meant his cousin Adler had come to her senses and jilted Nick Williams.
His family was large and the connections were complex but they were all here on Nantucket for the wedding of his cousin Adler Osborn. Adler’s father was the rock star Toby Osborn and her mom was Logan’s aunt Musette, who had died when Adler was a baby. His mom had been a surrogate mother for Adler and honestly his cousin was more like a sister to them all.
Nick Williams was another story. For as long as Logan could remember Nick and his father, Tad Williams, had been rivals to Bisset Industries. Logan had probably spent more time with Nick than any of his siblings and personally couldn’t stand the guy, who was always trying to outmaneuver him.
In fact, Logan had been late arriving on Nantucket because he’d wanted to one-up Nick and had been negotiating to buy a patent out from under him.
“What’s going on?” he asked his brother Zac, who’d been on the island for several days with his new girlfriend and the maid of honor at the wedding, Iris Collins.
“Dad’s just admitted to having an affair with Cora Williams thirty-five years ago. Nick is our half brother,” Zac informed Logan as he handed him a whiskey and Coke.
“Are you f-ing kidding me?” he said. Not the news he was hoping for. Maybe he’d heard Zac wrong.
Logan didn’t need another brother. He already had three—besides his younger brother Zac, there was Leo—also younger—who had left Bisset Industries and started his own successful company after butting heads with Logan. Then there was their eldest brother, Dare, who was a United States Senator. And their little sister, Mari, who was engaged to the Formula One driver Inigo Velasquez.
“I wish I was. Mom is...well, very upset. Cora and her husband are with her and Dad in the study, with Carlton,” Dare said, pouring more whiskey into his own glass and offering more to Zac and Leo as well.
“Am I the last to learn?” he asked. He wasn’t surprised that his dad had brought in Carlton Mansford—the family PR person and his father’s assistant.
“Mari’s not here yet,” Leo said, mentioning their youngest sibling and only sister. “But she is on the ferry. I texted her the deets.”
“The deets?”
“Stop acting like you don’t know what it means,” Leo said.
“I just prefer it when we talk like we’re adults,” Logan said, feeling angry and spoiling for a fight.
“Thanks, Dad Junior, should we expect any surprises from you too?” Leo asked.
Logan lunged for his brother, fists clenched. He could use a fight; it would give him something to do with all the anger welling up inside him at the thought of Nick Williams being their brother.
“Stop it,” Dare said, wrapping his arm around Logan and physically hauling him back. “Us fighting is the last thing Mom needs right now.”
“You’re right,” Logan said, pushing away from Dare and looking out the window at the neatly manicured gardens that spread toward the ocean in the distance.
Family.
It was the one thing that had made him the man he was, but it was also the most difficult thing for him to navigate. Logan took pride when people said he had his father’s tenacity and his mother’s charm. Arguably, he was the best blend of his parents. Though he knew that Leo might argue, but his youngest brother just liked to debate. And Dare would argue there weren’t any good qualities in their father, a sentiment shared by Zac. Marielle adored their father, so she’d side with him.
“How is Mom?” Dare asked.
Only Zac had been in the conservatory when the news about their father’s affair had been revealed.
“She looked broken,” Zac said. “I didn’t want to let her be alone with Dad, but he wasn’t going without her.”
“He won’t hurt her,” Logan said. “He would never do that.”
“Well, other than sleeping with another woman while Mom was pregnant with you and then finding out thirty some odd years later that her niece’s fiancé is really our half brother,” Zac said sardonically.
“Right. Aside from that,” Logan said. “This isn’t like Dad.”
“It’s exactly like Dad,” Leo said. “You just don’t see it because you want to be like him.”
“I don’t want to be like him, I am like him,” Logan said.
