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“Welcome to our home,” Marlowe said, before handing the baby off to her fiancé.
She stepped forward, coming closer and closer, and even then, Nova found herself unable to move. The other woman considered her. Her gaze wasn’t unkind—far from it—but Nova also understood how the woman had reached the upper echelons of the Colton Oil boardroom.
Marlowe was no one’s fool.
But when she extended her hands, taking both of Nova’s in hers, there was also an unexpected warmth. Nova’s flat-footed anxiety finally receded and she regained the ability to squeeze the fingers that wrapped around hers.
Marlowe stepped back but kept their hands linked, then turned to her fiancé, who had come to stand beside her with their son. “I was curious for the secrecy but now I know.”
“Know what?” Nova asked, around a throat dry and tight with nerves.
“That my brother has a secret he’s never told any of us.”
* * *
Nikolas let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He should have known Marlowe would figure it out. He’d worry what that said about his poker face—or poker voice—later.
But, of course, Marlowe would figure it out.
“Come on in, and have a seat.” Marlowe sniffed and wiped at her nose. “It’s a big day for all of us.”
Emotions were running high but Nikolas didn’t get a sense that Marlowe was upset. She’d also had a lot of years of practice as an executive at Colton Oil, and was well able to hide her emotions when needed.
It was that reality that had Nikolas leaning in as they wended their way to the living room.
“You mad at me?” He kept the question casual as they all took seats around a coffee table. Bowie still held the sleeping Reed, but when she took the seat next to him, Marlowe leaned into her fiancé’s shoulder, her hand resting on the baby’s small back.
“Not at all. But I am curious. About Nova and, to be honest, about how you got involved. You know the rest of the family will be, too.”
Nikolas glanced at Nova. The stiffness that had characterized her posture on the way over had relaxed at Marlowe’s welcome, only to be replaced with a shyness he’d yet to see from her.
God, how overwhelming would something like this be for a person?
Oddly, while he loved digging into secrets and finding answers for his clients, he realized that he’d spent precious little time thinking about what came after. He found the reasons people behaved as they did, but he’d never considered what happened when those reasons came home to roost.
“How do you know I’m related to Ace?” Nova asked.
“The eyes and the nose. You’re definitely his daughter.”
Nova smiled, the faint tilt of her lips obvious, even through the nerves. “It’s that obvious?”
“Very. The question is, how?” Although he’d remained quiet, Bowie chose that moment to speak up. He wasn’t rude, but it was clear from his clipped tone that he carried more wariness and reservations than Marlowe. “You’re an adult.”
“I’m twenty-three.”
“Ace is only forty. That means—” Marlowe broke off, her dropped jaw snapping shut. “Wow.”
“He and my mother had a relationship when they were teenagers. Both were on vacation at a resort and, according to my mother’s version, fell madly in love.”
“Why doesn’t he know about you?”
Nova was careful, but to her credit, she gave the same tale to Marlowe and Bowie as she had the day before in his office. The young lovers, meeting while on a carefree summer holiday. Ace’s commitments back in Arizona after the vacation was over. And the strange unwillingness Allegra had displayed to tell him about his daughter.
“I didn’t know myself until several months ago. My mother—” Nova stopped, the first shot of emotion clearly catching up with her as her eyes filled with tears. “She was diagnosed with aggressive cancer. She shared a lot with me in those last weeks.”
Nikolas reached out and took her hand, holding tight as Nova recounted her last days with her mother.
“I am so sorry to hear that.” Marlowe cried in unison with her niece as she reached over and took Nova’s hand. “And even more sorry you had to go through that alone. That you had such momentous news dropped on you without any warning.”
