Not The Mom
Max
WHAT DID THAT KID JUST SAY?
Everett sinks to the floor, bawling while staring at my mom, oblivious to the shards of glass. Has this kid lost his mind? How did Maddox not know he was mentally unstable?
Whatever this is, I need to protect my family. “Daire, go get Mila and take her to your house,” I whisper so as not to startle Everett.
The next question is, what if the kid loses his mind and tries attacking Mom? I move to put my body between her and the sobbing boy. He shifts so that Mom is back in his line of sight.
This isn’t good.
Every instinct in me wants to neutralize the threat. But is Everett a threat? Anguish and pain seep out of every pore of this boy’s body.
Could it be a trick? Yeah, but a sniper’s bullet would have been more effective and easier than sending an assassin in posing as a boy. But mentally unstable people do strange things.
Mom sets a hand on my shoulder. “Let me handle this.”
Absolutely not. But Mom doesn’t wait for me to acquiesce. She walks right up to him.
Everett attempts to stand, slips, and lands with his hand right on shards of glass. He winces but tries to get up again.
“Here. Let me help you.” Mom offers him a hand.
“You’re alive. They didn’t kill you.” Everett springs up and wraps his arms around Mom. “How did you survive? Did you escape?”
Escape? What is he talking about? Mom was never taken.
Unless…could something have happened while she was gone? Something she didn’t want to tell us about?
Dad. Dad will know what to do, because none of this makes sense, and I very much need it to make sense.
Everett cries into her hair.
Max: Come home immediately.
A brother…I could have a brother.
That feels…
Everett is probably lying. There have been dozens of people over the years who have claimed to be related to me.
The boy billionaire has to be an easy mark.
But I saw through every one of them. From the guy who showed up, saying he was my second cousin and needed money to pay for his Great Dane’s prosthetic leg.
He didn’t even own a Great Dane, let alone have any family ties to me.
To all the sobbing women who needed money to help my sick great-aunts.
That story must be going around somewhere as an urban myth.
All of them had two things in common. They never dared to come anywhere near my home, and I never even thought for a single second that one of them wasn’t lying.
Could Everett really be my brother?
What happened to my mom?
She told us stories about her time away. We met people she worked with. Not for one second did she ever even hint that something might have happened while she was gone.
My phone vibrates.
Dad: Did you call your uncles?
That’s code for ‘are we under attack’ and ‘do I need to come in hot with weapons loaded’.
Max: No, but drop Hope off at Aunt Bonnie's on the way home.
There’s no point in exposing Hope to this if it’s all a hoax.
Dad: Milia?
Max: Daire took her home with him.
Hopefully, completely oblivious to anything happening right now.
Dad: Be there as soon as I can.
From Dad, that could mean anything from he’ll ignore all speed limits to he’ll hop on a chopper.
Why do I think it’ll be the latter? Maddox always has a chopper at the ready. We do too, but it’s here and not there, which means it won’t save him that much time.
Dad’s travel plans aren’t my problem right now.
The boy, holding on to my mom like she’s the only life jacket in a churning sea, is.
Is he lying?
My gut believes him.
My mind wants to stab him and drag him away from my mother before the kid can do any damage to my family.
Mom takes a small step back, searching his face. “Why don’t we get you fixed up?”
That’s a good idea. I can drive him to the hospital and pump him for information.
“Max, go get my bag from the closet.”
Her bag? Does she want to go with the kid? It’s not like he’s bleeding to death…That thought in this room brings images of blood, fear, pain, and joy to mind. My gut wrenches.
It’s not the time to think about that.
Focus on the now.
Keep Mom safe.
“No, I’ll take him to the hospital or to the clinic on Willow Street if he prefers.” Anywhere that’s far away from here.
“He doesn’t need a hospital. The cuts aren’t deep. He just needs to be cleaned up, a few butterflies, and a bandage or three. Now go get my bag.”
Does she really think I’m going to leave her alone with the crazy boy? Or is she trying to get a private word in with him? It doesn’t matter which is the right answer. I’m not leaving Everett’s side.
“Overprotective men.” Mom glares at me, warning clear in her eyes.
Like I’m going to kill my possible brother.
“I’ll be right back.” She pats Everett’s arm.
His body moves to follow her, and I step in between them. “Mom will be right back.” Time to find out some details. “What name did you know her by?”
“Who?”
Time to pander to his psychosis a bit. “Our mother.”
“Our what?” Everett stares at me like I’m the one who lost their mind.
“Our mother,” I repeat.
Everett looks from me to the door Mom just walked out, like he hadn’t already made the connection. “Her name was—” He snaps his mouth shut like he almost gave away a state secret and not a simple name.
I lean back against the bar and study him. This kid makes no sense. “Where were you born?”
His mouth stays firmly shut.
“You know you’re supposed to be convincing me that we’re related if you wanna get your hands on my money.”
“Massimo Rage Vincenti, how dare you say something like that?”
And now I’m in trouble. “All I was trying to do was—”
She holds a finger up.
It’s my turn to snap my mouth shut. It seems I’ve reached my limit for talking back to my mother today.
Mom turns to Everett. “Do you want some lidocaine to help with the pain?”
He shrinks back, shaking his head. “No. No meds.”
“Max is the same way…” Mom starts the endless doctor-comforting chatter. I’ve seen her do it dozens of times with family.
***
My phone dings fifteen minutes later, alerting me to Dad’s arrival.
Maddox’s helicopter must be flying away right about now.
Max: kitchen
Finally, I’m going to get some answers.
Mom sets some gauze on Everett’s palm and starts to wrap it. “You’re going to need to change the gauze twice a day. They’ll do that for you at the clinic on Willow Street.”
Everett shakes his head. “No clinics. No hospitals.” There’s that look of terror back on his face.
“Okay. No clinics.” Mom sets a hand on his shoulder. “I can take care of you myself.”
No.
No.
No. If this isn’t my brother, there’s no way he’s getting anywhere near you again.
Heavy footsteps echo into the kitchen, and everyone turns towards the door.
As Dad steps in, Everett dashes for the knife block.
In one motion, I pull Mom away from him and behind my back.
But Everett doesn’t even appear to notice us. He’s completely focused on Dad. “You aren’t taking her.”
Well, that’s a twist. A kid with absolutely no muscle mass and some of the worst knife skills I’ve ever seen is going to fight off my dad, who probably has at least one hundred pounds of pure muscle on him.
Everett doesn’t even blink.
That kid is insane. If he doesn’t get himself killed, which is looking more and more likely every second since Dad doesn’t tolerate nonsense when it comes to Mom.
I’m liking the kid more and more.
“Put the knife down, kid.” Dad’s firm voice would scare any sane person.
Everett squares his puny shoulders and grips the knife firmer. He might be stupid, but he’s brave.
“No one, and I mean no one, pulls a weapon out in front of my wife. I suggest you drop it, before I drop you.”
Mom steps out from behind me. “He’s just a confused boy. He’s trying to protect me.”
“Wife?” Everett’s hands shake as he turns towards Mom and me. “Brother.”
“Drop the knife.”
Mom starts towards the boy.
“Woman, what are you doing?” Dad’s head might explode. The veins on his neck pop out and throb.
“Everett doesn’t realize you love me. He thinks you’re here to hurt me.”
“I don’t care if he thinks there are aliens on Mars. He needs to put that knife down, and you need to step back, woman.”
Mom completely ignores Dad and takes another step closer to Everett.
“Wife. Brother,” he repeats, staring at her. “You have a family. People who love and protect you.”
“Yes, I do. Talon would die for me without hesitation. My son would try, but I won’t let him.”
She’d try to stop me, but I’d fight right along my father’s side if it ever came to it.
“You’re safe.” Everett shifts his gaze to me, asking me, not her, “You’re protected?”
“Always. I’m always protected.”
He waits, ignoring her words.
I nod.
In the blink of an eye, his demeanor shifts, and the knife slips from his fingers. “I’m sorry. I must have been mistaken. You aren’t my mother. Of course you aren’t.”
Everett’s lying. I don’t know how I’m so sure of that fact, but I am with every fiber of my being. I’d bet my entire company on that fact.
“I’m so sorry.” He dashes out the door and out of the house while we stand silently.
“Does someone want to explain to me what just happened?” Dad walks over to Mom, engulfs her in his arms, and scoops her up, carrying her over to the chair.
Mom doesn’t respond. She cuddles into his arms.
There weren’t nearly enough moments like those with Ivy, and yet there were too many.
The times I placed my hand over her delicate fingers to feel our baby growing, knowing that the cancer was growing just as fast inside of her, were always bittersweet.
What would it be like to hold a woman I loved without that worry weighing my heart down?
But that’s something to ponder another day. One when Dad isn’t glaring at me over Mom’s shoulder. “That was Everett Jaymes.”
“The kid Maddox sent over for you to mentor?” Dad’s eyes widen a little bit. “He vets those kids.”
I know, right? This kid is all kinds of odd. “The kid knows his stuff when it comes to computers.” Frankly, with enough training, he’ll probably be better than I am soon. “And he has a photographic memory. Which makes it even odder that he thought Mom was also his mother.”
Talon pulls Mom away from him slightly and stares so deeply into her eyes that I’m tempted to turn away. “You protected us once before. Did something happen to you while you were gone? Something that you didn’t tell me about? Because if someone hurt you—”
Mom reaches out and cups Dad’s cheek. “I’ve never lied to you, and I won’t start now. No one hurt me. That boy isn’t mine.”
Dad lets out a deep breath. “The kid must be lying.”
“He’s not.” Why did I say that? Dad’s going to want an explanation, and I don’t have one.
“It’s not like your mother has a twin. She’s an only child.”
Twin? With all that’s going on with Vex and the DNA service, twins should have been the first thing I thought of. But it isn’t because we know Mom’s history. She is an only child born to two only children. Her birth certificate is in Dad’s safe, along with all of ours.
But Everett seemed to be afraid to even say her name. Maybe I’m overthinking it. What’s a twin but not a twin? That’s it. “Everyone has a doppelg?nger.”
Mom’s head spins around. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Someone clue me in.” Dad pulls Mom back in closer.
“Doppelg?nger. A person who looks exactly like them. Mom has one, and we all know that she was pregnant around sixteen years ago.”
“Miranda! You think Everett is Don Lucian’s kid?”
Do I? “No. He looks and acts nothing like Don Lucian. But…”
“She looks eerily like your mother. We should check to see if she’s his mother.”
Mom shakes her head. “We can’t do that. If she put him up for adoption, it might have been the only choice she had for her mental health.”
Then how are we going to find out if she’s Everett’s mother?