Chapter 13 （Rhett）
RHETT
Sage and I have been camped out across the kitchen table from each other.
Disbelief and shock rattles the silence between us.
For the last hour, we’ve discussed the even messier family history we now share.
Could this be how our family rivalry started?
If I had to make a bet, that’s what I’d put my money on.
The contents of that drawer weigh heavily on both of our minds.
I can’t imagine how Sage must feel. Not only is her mother in a fucking nuthouse for potentially murdering my parents, but mic drop, one of us is her sibling.
How much of this should we believe? Laurel is clearly off her rocker.
That much was evident by the ranting in her letter.
But in her ramblings, there was a seed of truth.
Lucy and Jonah fell off that cliff. We never knew what really happened that day.
Could her story check out? I fucking hope not.
For all our sakes, I pray Sage’s supposed half-sibling isn’t the one sticking his dick in her. Kade would lose all reason he has left—which isn’t a lot to begin with.
My mind is going ninety in a thirty, trying like hell to process the sins of our parents.
How could they have done that? How am I going to break news of our mother’s infidelity to my brothers?
Does Grandma Jo know? Fuck. Tires crunch the gravel outside, and I cock my head toward the sound. “That’ll be Kade.”
Sage drags in a breath as she wipes her palms over her thighs. Wincing, she nods. “Yep.” Her eyes hold all the same uncertainty I’m feeling. My guts are knotted so badly I wish we could rewind time and leave the truth locked away in that desk.
“It’ll be okay, Sage.” My lips part, but I think better of saying anything more just yet, and my mouth snaps shut again, jaw clenched.
She pushes back from the table. “He’ll be wondering about dinner. But I might be a little too keyed up to eat right now. What the hell do we tell him? This is so fucked.” Her voice hitches, and it damn near breaks my heart.
Scrubbing a hand over my stubble-coated cheek, I huff out, “I don’t know.
” A bomb exploded in her father’s office, sending scandalous debris flying in all directions.
All these years, Sage thought her mother left her when the reality is Ridge must have sent her away and never said a word.
Jesus H. Christ. It’s a lot to take in. For all we know, we’re the only ones who are aware of Laurel’s whereabouts and why she disappeared and never came back.
Now, the burden of sharing our findings falls squarely in our laps.
I wish we could spare everyone from the uproar that is certain to follow.
A protective surge flashes through me. They’ll be looking to me for my reaction. For how to handle this. I heave out a stress-filled breath. “This isn’t something we can keep to ourselves.”
“No, it’s not. Secrets like this have a habit of slithering out of their hiding places at the most inopportune times,” Sage mumbles as Kade’s footfalls outside draw closer. With her anxious eyes pinned on mine, she sighs, “Rhett, how the fuck do we approach this?”
Closing my eyes, I pinch the bridge of my nose, easing the tension as I turn her question over in my head.
“I don’t know. I’m trying real fuckin’ hard to put myself in our parents’ shoes, but I can’t imagine what they were thinking …
the upheaval and anger and turmoil it must have caused.
They chose to bury the secret. But—” Before I can finish, the door swings open and Kade fills the frame with his tall form.
I swallow hard like there’s an uncooked bit of potato caught in my throat.
Hovering in the doorway, my brother’s sharp eyes cut quickly between his girl and me. “What’s goin’ on?” His brow furrows hard as he studies us before glancing around the kitchen.
I clear my throat, but Sage speaks first. “Sorry. Um, I haven’t gotten started on dinner.” Her teeth clench. She gives him a half-hearted smile filled with all the worry that’s clearly begun to bottle up inside her.
“No problem, Wildflower. But what the hell is happening? You two are actin’ cagier than a couple of foxes trying to bust into a chicken coop.”
Mashing my lips together, I gesture toward a chair at the table. “I think you’d better sit down for this.”
“The fuck,” he mutters on a harsh exhale, gripping the back of a kitchen chair. “I’ll stand.”
“You know Sage has been concerned with some of the bookkeeping around here …”
He gives a swift nod, removing his hat and plunking it on the table in front of him. “But this feels like more than a simple fuckin’ clerical error. Am I wrong?”
“Well, what we discovered had nothing to do with the ranch itself.” I glance at the girl who is now an extension of our family, though I have no clue of the exact relation. Her hands have begun to twist together on the tabletop. Eyeing her, I murmur, “It’s gonna be fine, Sage.”
“Spit it the fuck out, whatever it is,” Kade erupts, his gaze bouncing between us.
I raise a brow, a disturbed chuckle falling from my lips, unbidden. “Actually, it’s more than one thing.”
The distress etching Sage’s features makes me want to step in, but she gives a swift jerk of her head.
“I need to say this first bit out loud.” She trains her gaze on my brother.
“We found my mother. She’s been at a mental institution of some sort.
There’s evidence of payment from my dad’s personal bank account.
He’d known all along and said nothing. He made me believe she’d abandoned me. ”
At the tremor in her voice, Kade tugs his girlfriend from the chair.
In one swift movement, he eases them both back down, her in his lap, his arms encircling her waist. “Fuck, baby.” They stare into each other’s eyes, and without him saying anything else, she nods.
Huffing out a breath, Kade shakes his head. “She’s been there this entire time?”
Sage bites her lip. “It would seem that way. But that’s only a small piece of what we discovered.” She glances my way for help.
“There’s no easy way to tell you this, so I’ll get right to it. Mom had an affair. She cheated on Dad. With Ridge.”
Kade’s eyes bug out, and he blinks several times, his face swiftly leaching of blood. “When?”
I hold up a hand. “There’s more. They had a child. We found a photo of the two of them. Impossible to tell when it was taken, though.”
“What the fuck? Who?”
“That was our reaction, too.” Sage peers at my brother’s clenched jaw, complete with twitching muscle.
“Wait.” Kade’s eyes dart to Sage’s.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know,” she mumbles, answering the question he didn’t ask, but is hovering at the edge of all our thoughts. She twists in his arms, burrowing her face into his neck. “No. I’d know. We’d know.”
I scrub my hands over my face. “Is it Lucy? Is it me? Is it you? The twins? There’s no fucking obvious answer.” I use this opportunity to slide the letter over to Kade. He takes a moment to read, biting back a series of curses as he gets to the bottom.
“Not only did she confess to killing our parents”—his gaze darkens as he stares at me—“she’s alluding that their infidelity had something to do with Jonah’s and Lucy’s death, too.”
My eyes drift shut as I silently nod, then huff out a breath. “We’ve been trying to make sense of her crazed revelations, and all we can figure is that they found out about the secret baby, and they died before they told anyone what they’d discovered.”
“I think we’d better have a fuckin’ conversation with Grandma Jo,” Kade bites out. “She has to know something.”
“Who invited Garth Brooks to dinner? Cause thunders rollin’ across all y’all’s faces,” Grandma Jo greets us as we storm into her kitchen.
Her cheery disposition disappears when her ridiculous play on words doesn’t even garner a single chuckle.
“All right, who died?” Eyeing us, she sets down the Dutch oven in her hands on the kitchen island with a clunk and removes her oven mitts.
“Last time I saw y’all lookin’ like that, trouble followed. ”
I lock eyes with Kade, inviting him to get the ball rolling.
Broadening his shoulders, my brother crosses his arms over his chest. “When were you going to tell me I might be fucking my sister?”
With a sly curl to her lips, she rattles the drawer that holds the infamous wooden spoon before whipping it out and waving it at him.
“Calm down, you’re never too old for me to whack your backside, boy.
Besides, you’re makin’ that pretty thing behind you blush.
” She sets the spoon on the counter, unfazed, then proceeds to the sink to rinse her hands like nothing is amiss.
When she’s done, she grabs a dish towel and dries off before tossing it at Kade.
“This is my house. You’d do well to remember that.
” Her eyes flick to me. “I think you’d better sit down. All of you.”
Once we’re gathered around the kitchen table, she takes her usual seat at the head. “Tell me what you think you know.”
We spend the next ten minutes explaining the discovery Sage and I made earlier today, and once we’re done, I slide the photograph we found across the table. Her gaze flicks between me and Sage.
It should have been more obvious to me all along.
There were signs. Big, flashing neon signs.
The strained relationship I had with my father.
I’m the only Rivers allowed on the Everett ranch.
Ridge chose me out of all the other veterinary apprentice candidates when he supposedly hated my family.
The fact that Jonah always felt like more than a friend.
And now that I’ve had a chance to get to know her, why I feel so protective of Sage.
It was all there. A blind man could see it.
The realization shudders through me, rattling my foundation and the very core of who I’ve always thought I was. “It’s me, isn’t it?”
She doesn’t confirm nor deny, but she pushes from her chair, walking over to a cabinet.
Reaching for a blue box on the top shelf, she rifles through the contents before pulling out a piece of paper.
“I’ve held onto this for a long time, never knowing whether I should show it to you or not.
Just remember, you’ll always be my grandbaby.
A piece of paper doesn’t change what’s in here,” she reassures me softly, pointing at her heart.
I can’t even look at Sage or Kade to acknowledge their reaction to this news.
With shaky hands, I reach for the document and solidify what I already know.
My eyes flick down to what I presume is my original birth certificate––one I haven’t seen before.
There in bold black letters is the only proof I need: My name is not Rhett …
it’s Everett Jameson Rivers. Everett, as in Ridge Everett. Holy. Fucking. Shit.