Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
PHOENIX
I watched as Mrs Summers poured herself three fingers of whisky, the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention as I felt someone behind me.
As I turned around, Dominic Summers stood in the doorway of the room.
He looked as pristine as ever; clean-shaven, short haircut, and the suit he wore looked like it had been sewn directly onto his body.
He was like a neater, older me, but of course, I only thought that now I knew.
“I’ll take it from here, Rachel,” he said, scowling at the drink in her hand, which was halfway towards his wife’s mouth. She paused and smirked at him.
OK. So now I was in the middle of their fucking tiff. Not how I had envisaged the moment at all. Resentment must have been pouring from me.
“Look, I can come back some other time?” I suggested with a sigh, ramming my hands into my jeans. “I mean, if you two need to talk.” I made quotation marks with my fingers at the words ‘to talk’ just to be extra antagonistic.
“No. It’s fine. Rachel, please leave us.” Pfft, he spoke to his wife like she was the help.
Rolling her eyes, she drained the entire contents and slammed the tumbler back onto the trolley. Temper, temper. Her attitude and behavior confirmed I was correct in my first assumptions about the mayor’s wife, the last time I was there. Rachel Summers was a handful, just like her daughter.
After she flounced out, my father closed the door behind her and turned back to face me.
“My apologies. I didn’t know she’d be here. My wife left with Storm at the beginning of the week, and they came back today unexpectedly.”
“Look, I don’t really give a rat's ass about your problem in paradise. Can we get on with this?” I stated scornfully. I really didn’t care, and no way would I play Monkey in the Middle, ever.
Summers was unfazed as he shifted further into the room and circled his desk. “Please,” he said, motioning towards the seat opposite. It felt like the business meeting of nightmares.
After a beat or two, I did as he suggested and threw myself into the chair. Half of me wanted to plant my feet on his desk, but I held back.
Hear what he has to say and leave.
“So, the wife took it well,” I said sarcastically.
Ignoring my comment, Summers walked over to the drinks trolley and brought over two fresh glasses and the bourbon Rachel Summers had just literally thrown down her throat.
I watched him with a bored expression as he placed the tumblers and the bottle on his desk. The surface was neat, with just a phone and a closed laptop there.
“What’s with the booze?”
Dominic cleared his throat and sat down. “For emergency purposes.”
“Maybe I don’t drink?”
The man was unshakable, as cool as ice. Instead of calling me out and saying you're full of shit, he leaned forward and placed his elbows on his desk. My smirk grew as he steepled his fingers and replied casually. “Then that’s the first thing we don’t have in common.”
His tone was so controlled as if he was totally unaffected that his long-lost, unwanted child sat across from him, and it annoyed the hell out of me. “That won’t be the only thing I can assure you.”
I knew I was behaving like a monster-dick, but I was still reeling.
Summers then assessed my face, his expression one of scrutiny as he replied. “How would you know? You don’t know me.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” I snapped out, cracking my knuckles. Just my being there should have been a big enough olive branch. The man could go fuck himself if he thought I was going to be reasonable. My reasonable side came out—hmm—let me see, never?
“Indeed,” the old timer deadpanned.
“Look, my to-do list today is pretty long, so could we hurry this up?” I lied. The only thing I had to do that evening would be to apologize to Harper. Why? For throwing her issues back in her face.
And then the man I knew to be my father filled in the blanks, and I listened, forcing myself not to interrupt through the more depressing parts.
What he said made my head spin. It turned out that, like most things in life, it wasn’t as straightforward as you would have thought.
Dominic Summers explained that his marriage to his wife had been for business purposes only.
A clinical transaction between his father and Rachel’s old man since they were teenagers.
He told me about how his entire life had been mapped out, and whilst he didn’t sugarcoat it, he didn’t play the victim card either.
“I was raised knowing where I stood. My father had always had huge aspirations for me, wanted me to go far. By uniting two influential families through an arranged marriage, we branched out and became stronger.
I come from a family of politicians and businessmen, and marrying Rachel gave us strategic advantages, access to resources, and created a strong, unified entity in the government at the time.
In the circles we moved in, it truly was a case of not what you know, but who you know.
Marriage to Rachel was the right thing to do to build on my family's assets.”
“I can hear a but coming,” I replied, lifting the whisky he had poured me to my lips after all. I just needed a nip to take the edge off. I didn’t consider the gesture a drink with my dad scenario.
Dominic then went on to say that there had been no love in his relationship, not even mutual respect at first. When he spoke about his marriage, it was like he was talking about a business transaction. Cold and formal. I couldn’t think of anything worse.
Then he met my mother. His face softened as he said she was fun and exciting, and how he soon developed feelings and became infatuated. He also explained that Luna had been a particularly vulnerable woman and easily upset.
He said he couldn’t be certain, but he’d suspected Luna had planned the pregnancy when he’d tried to break off their relationship. However, with a pregnant wife at home, he’d been attacked by a conscience when Rachel started to suffer with her moods.
Either way, their liaison and my mother’s pregnancy were a mistake, and it came at the worst time.
As well as his wife struggling with her health during her second trimester, Dominic had just been elected onto the city council, where image could make you or break you.
His PR team had painted him as a family man with a wife and child on the way. That child was Storm, of course.
My father told me that he tried to break it off with Luna several times, but she became desperate and started threatening him. Saying she would go to the papers and expose how he got her pregnant. Things got nasty quickly, and the only way he could help fix his indiscretion was with money.
“Luna pushed me into a corner, and yes, I paid her a substantial amount of money and suggested an abortion. It was wrong, and I know that now, but I was only young, Phoenix. Not that much older than you. I had my father breathing down my neck as well as my campaign team, and Luna was out of control. If Rachel had found out about the affair, I’m sure she would have miscarried, and I couldn’t risk that.
I would never have forced her to terminate the baby; Luna must have misunderstood. I’ve always regretted how things ended between us. When she turned up the other night at the game, I thought I was being given the chance to apologize and put the record straight, and then she told me about you.”
I could tell from the strain on his face and slightly fractured tone of voice that he meant every word he said. Politicians had great poker faces, but his wasn’t one of those.
Dominic’s next words surprised me.
“I did look for your mother when she left town.
As I said, I was sorry about how I had ended things.
I did genuinely care about her, but circumstances forced my hand.
Luna vanished without a trace. I looked for a couple of years, but by that time, things had improved between Rachel and me.
Having a baby together changed our relationship, softened it.
We started to develop feelings for each other, like a real husband and wife.
Storm was the glue that kept us together and made it work.
When I heard your mother had come back to Newport last month, I intended to go and see her, make things right, but I couldn’t risk it, so I made a few calls.
I wanted to find out if she’d kept the baby.
I know it sounds unbelievable, but part of me wished she had.
When the PI I hired reported she had a husband and a child, I paid someone for the boy's medical records. I didn’t need them in the end, as the age of the child didn’t fit with the timing of her pregnancy or our relationship. ”
“Alex,” I cut in, deep in thought.
“Yes, Alex, the boy you mentioned the other night, and your half-brother.”
My father poured us another round. Everything he said sounded plausible, and I wasn’t sure how I felt at that stage. And then he made my feelings even more screwed up as he said. “Just like Storm is your half-sister.”
We both drank, taking in a moment of much-needed silence; my head was a sea of questions, and my original fury at the situation had started to wither.
“So where is she?”
“Storm? Probably in her room, unpacking.”
“How did she take the news?”
Dominic raked his hands through his hair. “She was shocked, as you can imagine, and she doesn’t want to accept you as a brother, not yet anyway. Storm says you hate her.”
“I don’t hate her. We just don’t always see eye to eye.”
“Like true siblings then,” he chuckled.
I grunted in response.
“Storm will be fine; she’s extremely resilient. She’s also loyal to this family. And I am sure it will be that way with all members, even those she’s inherited out of the blue.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to be part of this family,” I pointed out. I was being civil, but I wasn’t a sure thing.
“Of course, I apologize. Call it wishful thinking.”