Chapter Ten
River
While Bella and Julianna disappear into the bathroom together, Romeo’s mother, Aunty Victoria, finds me alone in the kitchen and comes for a chat.
“How’s my sister?” she asks, taking a sip of her drink. She’s gone hard on the spirits tonight, and I wonder if there’s a reason for it, or if she’s just in the mood to party.
“She’s good,” I reply, pulling a chair out and sitting down. “She’s happy. You should give her a call sometime.”
“I tried,” she admits, shrugging. “She doesn’t want to have much to do with me, it seems. We used to be close. We were more than just sisters—we were best friends when we met your father and my husband. I pretty much took care of her for her entire life.”
That is not the version of the story that I heard. “Really? I thought she was more the caregiver.”
Aunty Victoria laughs and takes another drink. Her hair is messy, her makeup smeared and it looks like she’s had a rough night. “Maybe, maybe. But she owes me. She knows why. You know we never talk about Robert anymore. But he’s not Voldemort—why can’t we talk about him? He did exist, you know.”
“Oh, trust me. I know,” I mutter.
The bastard haunts me and he always will. He was an abusive man, with a bad temper and a drinking problem, and he made our lives hell.
Until one day I fought back and sent him to his own hell. Now we are all living our best lives without him.
Victoria grabs the chair next to me and sits down, her drink spilling in the process. “She always worried about you, you know. With everything that happened. You took it all on. You shielded Matthew and Corey, and you protected her as best as you could.”
“I don’t think—”
She laughs without humor, cutting me off. “But even with all that she didn’t tell you the truth. The reason why Robert hated you so much.”
This is rich. “What, I didn’t like being a punching bag?”
“Robert wasn’t even your biological dad. He hated you because you reminded him of your mother’s infidelity.”
My blood turns to ice.
What the fuck?
“What do you mean?” I demand, leaning forward and looking her in the eye. “Robert wasn’t my father?”
“I don’t know how they all kept it under wraps for so long.”
What she says next, in her drunken stupor, stops me in my tracks.
“Andrew is your father. That’s right. My husband fucked his own brother’s wife. Why do you think I let her raise Romeo with you? Might as well keep the brothers together, right? And after all these years I think it’s time the truth came out.”
Romeo is my half brother?
This can’t be true.
Maybe she’s just drunk and making something up.
Or maybe the truth is finally coming out after all of these years.
I don’t know.
While she keeps on ranting about how my mother betrayed her, my life flashes before my eyes. I thought I knew who I was. The son of an angry man who could never control his temper. A temper I inherited, or so I thought.
I guess that answers the question, then.
Environment wins over genetics.
Bella steps into the kitchen, resting her hand on the doorframe, smiling widely. Her lipstick is still perfectly put on, unlike the woman next to me. “There you are. Julianna is calling it a night.”
“Do you want to go home?” I ask, standing and feeling relieved to have a way out of this conversation.
“She’s a beautiful girl,” my aunt comments, looking between the two of us. She too stands up, wobbling, and grabs a bottle of wine with her on her way out, with no idea or care of the damage her words have just inflicted.
“Yeah, I think I’m ready to go,” Bella says, pulling me from my thoughts. She takes my hand in her much smaller one. “But you can stay and keep on partying—I can get myself home.”
“If you think I’d let you go home alone in the middle of the night, you must be crazy,” I comment, leaning down to kiss her. “Let me make sure Romeo doesn’t need me for anything.”
We find him outside, watching Jeremiah doing a shoey. For those that don’t know, that’s when you pour alcohol into a shoe and drink from it like a glass.
“Classy,” Corey calls out, shaking her head. Damon isn’t with her, and for that I’m thankful. Last thing my sister needs right now is a man. She needs to focus on college, not some pretty boy. Let alone an Angel pretty boy.
“I’m going to take Bella home,” I say to Romeo, who nods. “You all good if I bail?”
“Yeah, go ahead,” he replies, slapping me on the back. “I’m going myself. Julianna has had enough.”
“Most of us have.” Aunty Victoria’s words echo in my ear, and I try to drown them out. Now is not the time to address this. I need to be alone with my girl. I can deal with the rest later.
“Not the birthday boy,” Romeo laughs.
I notice Jag, our new recruit, looking at me, and I arch my brow at him. He pales. No idea what that is about, but right now I just want to get my woman home and be naked in bed with her.
We all say our goodbyes, and I drive us in Bella’s car back to her house, where I strip her down and taste every inch of her. It’s the best kind of distraction. After she’s come twice, she gets down on her knees and takes as much of my cock as she can into her sweet mouth.
I don’t last long, but I make up for it when I fuck her slowly afterward, torturing and teasing her, making her come over and over again.
The next morning Bella can tell something is off with me, but I’m not ready to talk to her or anyone about what Aunty Victoria told me until I find out the truth. After having breakfast with Bella, I drive straight to my mom’s house to get some answers.
“River, what are you doing here?” she asks as she opens the door. She must notice the expression on my face. “Is everything okay?” She steps back to let me inside.
“I need to ask you a question,” I say, pacing up and down her living room, while she takes a seat on the brown leather couch.
“What is it?” she asks, brow furrowing. She’s wearing the cashmere sweater I bought her for Christmas last year, and she crosses her arms over it.
“Is Robert my father?” I ask her, stopping to look her in the eyes. “My biological father.”
Her visible eye widens, the other hidden by the patch, and her face pales. “River—”
“I just want the truth, Mom,” I demand, jaw clenching. I need it like I need fucking air.
She looks down at her hands. “No, he’s not. Who told you? Victoria?”
I nod. “Yes, she got drunk last night and let it slip. She said Andrew was my father.”
My mom starts to cry, covering her face with her hands. “I’m so sorry, River. I know I should have told you, but I didn’t want to... I don’t know, ruin their family, I guess. We only slept together twice, and it was a mistake. It never should have happened.”
“Twice? Once is a mistake. Twice is a plan.”
“I know,” she sobs.
“Did Robert know?” I ask, swallowing hard.
“Yes, he did,” she admits, blinking quickly, her lips pouting in misery. “He knew. We never spoke about it, but inside he knew. The timing of your birth gave it all away.”
“But you’re sisters...” I say. How could they want to sleep with the same man? Where is the family loyalty?
Mom shrugs, a flash of sadness in her eyes before she shields it. “And they were brothers. But he definitely knew. You know, we met Andrew and your father at the same time. Andrew and I got along well, but your aunt had her eyes set on him and I...stepped aside.”
I shake my head in disbelief. Aunty Victoria is a piece of work, but I can’t wrap my head around that Mom kept this from me. “You let me believe that monster was my father! For what? I’ve spent my whole life trying not to be like him, then blaming him for the way that I am, and he’s not even my biological dad?”
She sobs. “He was Matthew and Corey’s father—I didn’t want you to feel different in any way. Did you think Andrew would want to raise you with Victoria? She barely raised Romeo. He was here, with us.”
I continue to pace. “I don’t even know what to do with this information.”
Romeo is still older than me, which puts me next in line, and if anything were to happen to Romeo, touch wood, the club would go to me. At least until he has a child. While even as Robert’s son this would always be the case, being Andrew’s son does change the dynamics a little. If I wanted to, I could always fight for my place as the next president. But I don’t want that.
I never have.
“Me and Victoria decided it was best that I told Andrew you weren’t his,” she adds, wincing. More deceit, what a surprise. “He may have his suspicions, but he doesn’t know for sure.”
“And how do you know for sure?” I ask her, frowning.
“I was pregnant with you before Robert and I were...intimate,” she admits, sighing deeply. “Six weeks pregnant. What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know,” I say, sitting down. I need time to process this, because it changes so much for me. Robert has been haunting me this whole time, and he’s not even the man who created me.
“How’s Corey?” she asks, changing the subject. “Is she doing okay?”
My jaw tenses at the fact that she’s so easily done talking about something that changes everything for me. “She’s fine. You should call her, or see her,” I suggest offhandedly, leaning back on the couch and staring straight ahead at the turned-off television.
The two of them haven’t had much of a relationship since Matthew died. Mom needed someone to blame, and instead of me, she took it out on Corey. I suppose their relationship was strained even before that, but losing the glue of the family is what finally broke them. “And is that all you have to say about this?”
“I did the best I could, River,” she says after a moment of silence. “I know I messed up, and I never should have slept with Andrew in the first place. The first time it happened was before he and Victoria started seeing one another. Then they had a drunken night together and she got pregnant with Romeo. The second, and last time, we were together it was supposed to be closure. A goodbye. I was going to leave the MC life altogether. But I got pregnant with you, and then Robert showed his interest in me. I should have chosen a man better than Robert to raise you all. I’m so sorry. I took the coward’s way out.”
I lean over and hug her. There’s no point blaming her for anything—she did do her best, and she always loved us. Robert was a piece of shit who took advantage of a nice woman like my mother, and our lives are all better now that he’s gone.
“It’s okay,” I lie, not wanting her to be upset. “I wish you told me the truth, instead of hearing it from Aunty Victoria.”
“We both said we’d never speak of it,” she says, touching my face with her hand. “It did no one any good to know the truth.”
Probably not, but I deserve to know my truth. This has caused a complete identity crisis in me.
I leave her house feeling more confused than ever. But until I process my emotions, I’m going to keep this information to myself.