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All of it swirled around in my mind and confused me. I had planned on telling Saryn the day we went to my house for the first time, but one thing led to another and we ended up spending a glorious morning in bed together, and I totally let it slip from my mind. That was until Evie had reminded me of the dinner my mother invited everyone to tonight. I’d texted Roger to ask him if Mom had invited him, as well, and he said yes.
A million questions ran through my mind. Did my father really know Tim was his son? Did my mother know? Did Dad know Liliana was his granddaughter? What would Saryn say when she found out?
“Fuck,” I mumbled as I made my way up the steps of Saryn’s front porch.
When I walked into the living room, I saw Ryan sitting on the sofa and Saryn pacing across the floor.
“Truitt, you went and saw Tim? What were you thinking?” she asked.
My eyes swept over her body. She stood there, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. My God, she was beautiful.
And she was mine.
“I was thinking he needed to stop hurting you and Liliana. That he needed to take his ass back to Dallas and leave you alone. And it worked.”
She smiled slightly. “Is it true you hit him?”
My eyes darted over to Ryan who wore a smug smile.
“Yes, but only once. Unlike Ryan who kept hitting Tim until I pulled him away.”
Saryn’s eyes widened in horror. “What! Ryan! Why?”
“He said some pretty bad shit about you, Saryn. I’m your brother and that kind of talk isn’t going to fly with me.”
She rubbed her temples. “Okay, well, what does this have to do with going to your parents’ house tonight?”
“You might want to sit down,” I said as I motioned for her to sit next to Ryan. When she did, I sat across from her.
“Tim enlightened me on a few things during our…talk,” I said.
Her brow rose. “Such as?”
“Well, for one, he told me that he overheard me and Nolan talking in the library my senior year of high school. I told Nolan how much I liked you, and that I was worried what Ryan would think if I asked you out. Nolan talked me into it. That was the same day I came over to your house and …”
Her face went white. “I told you I was going out with Tim. He told me that day that you…”
“Wanted to take your virginity and brag about it. Yeah, I know. The way you acted makes a hell of a lot more sense now.”
“Truitt…”
I held up my hand. “None of that matters now. What matters is this moment. You and me, right now. Tim isn’t going to be interfering with us ever again.”
“We think,” Ryan mumbled.
Dragging in a deep breath, I went on. “Some of the things Tim said that day didn’t make any sense to me. He was clearly very jealous of me and made comments about me having everything: a family, girls, popularity. He mentioned he liked you, and when he found out I did, too, he was hellbent on making sure I didn’t get to be with you. It didn’t make sense why he hated me so much until he dropped a bit of a bomb on me.”
Saryn swallowed hard. “What kind of bomb?”
Ryan reached over and took her hand as I somehow managed to say the words.
“He’s my half-brother.”
If I thought her face was white moments ago, I was wrong. I almost stood up to go to her because I thought she wasn’t breathing.
“Wh-what? How?”
“According to him, and I’m not really even sure if he’s telling me the truth, but according to Tim, my father had an affair with his mother. His father found out about it, and from that moment on he abused both Tim and his mom.”
Saryn closed her eyes and shook her head. “My God. It all makes sense. All of it.”
“What do you mean?” Ryan and I asked in chorus.
She looked between us both. “Tim’s father has always been…distant. I even remember one time asking Tim where he got his blue eyes from because his father had brown and so did his mother.”
Her eyes met mine. “His eyes aren’t nearly as blue as yours and Roger’s, though. Now I know why Liliana’s eyes always seemed so familiar. Tim doesn’t look anything like the two of you.”
I nodded. “No, he doesn’t, but I got to thinking as Ryan and I drove back from his hotel. Tim looks almost identical to my grandfather. I never saw it before, because honestly I never thought to look for it.”
“So, he disliked you so much that he only came after me to get back at you. I get that. But why did he keep up the act all through college and ask me to marry him? And when our marriage wasn’t working, why did he fight to keep me…oh, my God. He only wanted to keep me from you.”
