Chapter 10 Mason
Mason
I knocked on the door to my father’s office before walking in. He looked up, his eyes wide as he stood from his chair. “Mason! What are you doing here?”
The genuine smile and excitement to see me hurt me more than I expected as he walked around his desk and made his way to me, arms wide open. Just like always, I walked into his embrace. “Hey, Dad. How are you?”
He hugged me tightly as the familiar scent of the cologne he’d worn for years filled my nose. Releasing me, he extended his arms and looked at me. “I can’t believe you’re here. What a wonderful surprise. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“It was a last-minute trip.” I stepped back out of his embrace and sat in the leather wingback across from his desk.
He frowned. “Is something going on? You’re not being traded, are you?”
It wasn’t easy to look at him, so focusing on my hands was the best way to go. My knee bounced, telling him all he needed to know. And when he walked around and took the chair next to me, I felt terrible. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
When I didn’t answer right away, he called my name. I could hear the fear in his voice. “Mason?”
My heart hurt as I looked at the man I’d idolized my entire life. My father had been my champion and the one I’d cried to when my mother took her anger out on me. “I need to ask you something. And I need you to tell me the truth.”
He leaned forward to touch my leg. “Of course. Always. You’re worrying me.”
My knee bounced uncontrollably. Even though I’d been over this a thousand times, I didn’t know where to begin.
“Son? Please tell me what’s going on. I’m here to help.”
I swallowed thickly before speaking, and when the words came out, they were shaky. “I was called in to meet with Mr. Carlisle and our PR manager.”
“Okay,” he breathed slowly. His voice was full of trepidation. “Is there a problem? What can I do to help?”
He turned his chair to face me, then leaned closer. I looked down at his wedding ring on his finger. With my phone gripped in my right hand, I lifted it. He sat back as I touched the screen, making it light up. Accessing my photos, I pulled up the one I wanted him to see.
Glancing at it, I held it out to him. He took the phone and looked at the screen. “Who is this? Why have you never told me I was adopted?”
As he stared at the photo, all the color drained from his face. Wiping his hand over his mouth, he looked up at me. “It’s not what you think. I can explain.”
I held up my hand to stop him. “That’s not what I asked you, Dad. Please answer the questions, and for God’s sake, don’t lie to me.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as his eyes went back to the photo. I thought I was going to have to ask him again, but he took a deep breath as emotion filled his face. “You’re not adopted, Mason. At least not like you think. You’re my son. And he’s your older brother.”
There was no way. “Please don’t lie to me. I know I don’t match either blood type, so don’t fucking lie to me.”
He swallowed. “I’m telling you the truth. I’m your biological father, but Melinda… she isn’t your biological mother.”
I sat back, shocked. “But… my birth certificate lists her as…”
He nodded. “I know. I only agreed to marry her if she adopted you.” He looked at me with tired eyes full of tears. “We should have told both of you a long time ago.”
My head was spinning as the pain surfaced. Was he telling me the truth, or was this another lie? Leaning over, I thought I might be sick. “That’s why she took her anger out on me. I wasn’t her fucking kid.”
He looked at the floor, but nodded his head.
“What about Axel? Who adopted him? You have more money than you know what to do with, and you let someone else take my brother? How could you do that to him?”
He lifted his head, but looked like he was going to be ill. He stood and held up his hands to calm me, but I didn’t think I’d ever be the same person again. “Mason, it’s not like that. I promise. Your brother stayed with your mother. He wasn’t adopted by anyone. She kept him.”
His words almost took the breath from my lungs.
If he had hit me, it would have hurt less.
“But not me.” I fell back against the chair and scrubbed my hands over my face.
Hot tears sprang to the surface as I tried to make sense of this.
I wanted to yell and scream, but I held it in.
Pushed it down with the other lies I’d been told.
With all the memories of the hell inflicted by the woman who I thought was my mother.
Her snubs, her vile remarks, her anger at him deflected on me.
And he let me take it. Let me endure her punishments that were meant for him.
My father put his hand on my shoulder. “Son, I’m sorry.”
I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth before I pushed his hand away. “Don’t.”
He immediately stepped away. I’d never rebuffed his touch. He was the one constant in my life other than my sisters. And now I learn he betrayed me and my brother, for what reason. What was a good enough reason to do this to us?
Glaring at him, my hurt was beginning to morph into rage. “How much older is Axel?”
He stared wide-eyed at me, and for the first time in my life, I saw fear in his eyes. How could this get any worse? “Mason,” he pleaded.
“How much older?” I yelled, as tears sprang to my eyes.
His face crumpled once again. “Three minutes,” he whispered.
Three minutes. Three minutes. He wasn’t just my brother, he was my twin.
The rage I thought I held boiled into a fury I wasn’t sure I could stop.
I got to my feet, but I didn’t know what to do with all the pain.
I had to vent this somewhere before I hurt him, and for the first time in my life, I was afraid of what I might do.
So I stepped forward and, with one sweep, I sent everything on his desk crashing to the floor.
My father jumped up, not knowing how to deal with me. But it wasn’t enough to vent my rage. Eyeing the desk, it was going to be next until strong arms wrapped around me like iron bands. His scent soothed me as he whispered in my ear. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m here.”
My body shook violently as his words sank in.
Sobs ripped from my chest and burst through the surface.
My heart and my head hurt as I gripped onto his arms and cried.
He stayed with me as I lost track of time and where my father was.
I knew it was a matter of time before someone called security, but I didn’t care.
“He’s my twin, Thomas. Axel is my twin.”
He hugged me tighter, giving me the support I needed. “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay. I’m here. I’m here,” he whispered. Thomas held me as the fight drained away and the pain set in. When I began to sag, he spoke again. “Sit down and get your answers. Then we’ll go.”
I released a shuddered breath as Thomas guided me back to my chair.
He spoke to my father, but I didn’t pay attention to what was said.
My brain was close to overload, but I knew I had to hear it all.
Wiping my hands over my eyes wouldn’t make it go away, and there was a possibility I may not ever get another chance after he kicked me out of his life.
When I lifted my head, my father had taken his seat behind his desk. Pale and visibly shaken, that was probably safer for him. God, I hated this. Every second of it.
Thomas stepped out to speak to my father’s assistant, then pulled the other chair over to me. I stared into space, waiting for security to come through the door. He could have me arrested, but at the moment, I didn’t care. All I cared about was Axel and all my unanswered questions.
“Can I explain?” he whispered.
My eyes immediately found his. “How could you do this to us?”
My father looked down at his trembling hands. His voice was thick with emotion when he answered. “It’s not what I wanted. If I could go back, I’d change it all. But I was young, and I didn’t have much of a choice.”
I gritted my teeth to keep from losing control. Clenching and unclenching my fists wasn’t enough of an outlet, so my knee began to bounce.
“You need to know your brother and your mother were taken care of financially. I didn’t leave them alone.”
Like pieces of a puzzle snapping into place, things began to make sense. Weeks of travel and her rage when he returned. She must have known where he was. “Were you part of his life?”
My father licked his lips. Wringing his hands, he looked at me with pleading eyes. “Yes. But he didn’t know who I was.”
Until that moment, I had never experienced the soul-crushing effects of a broken heart, and he’d accomplished it with a single word. I couldn’t look at him a minute longer and needed to leave before I raged again, and Thomas might not be able to stop me.
Standing, I loomed over him as he looked up with fear in his eyes. My father had never looked at me that way, and it made me sick to my stomach to see it now. Who did he see when he looked at me? Did he see Mason, or did he see my brother?
Unable to form words, I strode to the door as my father urged me to stay. “Mason. Please stay. I can explain. Please don’t walk away like this. You owe me that much.”
At those words, I whirled on him as my anger grew so fast it caught me off guard.
I didn’t recognize myself, but I couldn’t control it.
Shaking with rage, I pointed at him. “Don’t you dare say I owe you any fucking thing.
You separated me from my mother. Because of you, I don’t know her or my brother.
The only good thing I got out of this farce of a family was Maddie and Makenna.
So don’t you fucking dare say I owe you a god damn thing. ”
His mouth hung open as all the color once again drained from his face. There was a time I would have worried about the impact my words held. Never would I have spoken to anyone like that. But I was a mess, inside and out, and if I didn’t get out of there, I wasn’t sure what I would have done.
Yanking the door open, it bounced off the wall hard enough to dent the drywall. But I didn’t care. Maybe every time he looked at it, it would remind him of how many lives he’d destroyed.
Heading for the stairwell, I pushed the door open and jogged down each flight until my legs burned.
I was so caught up in my head, I’d forgotten about Thomas.
I checked over my shoulder to find him a few paces behind me.
He didn’t require words. He didn’t need anything from me.
He was just there, like he said he would be.
When I reached the bottom floor, I pushed through the stairwell and headed for the street. The city noise dulled my thoughts as I walked, block after block, with Thomas following behind me.