AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No stalling. I’ll take care of them. Go on now,” she urged, shooing Graeme into the room behind his son. Before either man could change their mind, she slid the door shut.
Alone with his dad, surrounded by plants, Lucien sucked in a deep breath and decided to blurt out what he was trying to avoid. “I know all about Evan, my half-brother.”
“What’s that now?”
“I took a DNA test and sent off this swab to a lab. In addition to that, I paid for a genealogy tree. It said that I have a sibling living in San Diego.”
“That’s news to me. Are you sure someone isn’t trying to do a con job on you?”
“I’m sure. Everything else on the family history checks out, even on Mother’s side. Your other son goes by the name Sanders, Evan Sanders. I’m not sure what the last name’s about because the birth certificate lists the mother as Daniella Hudson. Did you ever know her?”
Graeme went white, all the color draining from his face. He looked around for a place to sit down. After dropping into a chair, he downed every drop of the drink in his glass.
“I take it by that reaction you knew Daniella well,” Lucien charged.
“Well, yeah. But I didn’t know Dani was ever pregnant. I swear it. You knew her too.”
“I did?”
“Almost twenty years back, Dani handled Indigo’s European tours. She was our PR person.”
“Wait a sec. That smoking hot lady who used to bring Brogan and me breakfast every morning on that summer tour through the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark?”
“That’s the one. You noticed.”
“Hard not to notice a woman like that when you’re on the cusp of puberty. Not only was Dani gorgeous, but she also went out of her way to be nice to us kids.” He narrowed his gaze. “Why did she quit being the PR person?”
“About eighteen months in, I guess she realized I wasn’t the faithful type. Hey, there was never a word about being exclusive.”
“There never is.”
“One day, I woke up, discovered she’d packed her bags, and left the tour. I think we were in Copenhagen when that happened. If this is my kid, why hasn’t she come after me for child support, though?”
“That’s an excellent question. Maybe Dani fooled around on you. Did you ever think of that? Could she be uncertain about who Evan’s father is, even at this late date?”
“Who’s listed as the father on the birth certificate?”
Lucien took out the paper with the genealogy results he’d tucked inside his jacket pocket. He scanned the family map again. “The space for father has been left blank.”
“What the hell kind of outfit doesn’t give you all the information upfront?”
“The father’s name must’ve been left off the birth certificate. But see, scroll down to this part under siblings, it lists Evan Sanders, San Diego. Age nineteen. And tells me his date of birth.”
Graeme jerked the paper out of his hand. “I’m not buying this. It’s something else you need to look into.”
Lucien rubbed his forehead, where a headache began to form. “I’ll check into it.” He held up a hand. “Don’t worry. I won’t contact this guy until I have all the facts. That means getting my hands on a copy of his birth certificate.”
“Make sure you find out who else Dani could’ve been with twenty years ago.”
“I’m good at what I do. So is Brogan. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“See that you do. Thanks a lot for ruining my whole evening.”
“Nothing like anight of full-blown family drama to liven up an otherwise nice evening with friends,” Lucien bemoaned as he locked the door behind the last departing guest of the evening.
“Just be glad Graeme wanted to head back to Santa Barbara with Janet instead of staying overnight.” Brogan glanced around at the signs they’d just hosted a successful Halloween party. The bar was a mess of dirty glasses with leftover watery alcohol. There were kids’ sticky fingerprints on the tabletops, a streak of black makeup on the wall, and gum stuck to the rug. She took a closer look at the kitchen floor. “I hope that’s melted chocolate.”
“I’ll get the mop,” Lucien offered, shedding his jacket on the way to the mudroom.
