Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
One more day.
The wedding was one day away.
So was the biggest competition of his life.
It had been two weeks of silence from Faith, and Brent was close to losing his mind.
All he had to do was last one more day. If he could get through the final competition, then maybe he could bring back the evidence to his folks that he was made for this life.
Brent was determined to make it big. He was going to do everything in his power to prove everyone wrong.
Was the bronc riding field dangerous?
Of course, but it wasn’t any more dangerous than some of the other sports out there. Football. Hockey. Those were some of the obvious ones he could think of off the top of his head. Where were Faith’s comments on those?
That conversation still rubbed him the wrong way. He couldn’t understand why Faith would turn on him so suddenly.
But it wasn’t suddenly, now was it?
He’d seen the way she’d slowly withdrawn from him over time. And he’d blatantly refused to acknowledge it. Maybe that was his downfall. Maybe he should have forced her to confront her issues when it came to his career goals.
Brent dragged a hand down his face as he exited his house and collapsed on the top step of his porch.
In the distance, he could see the people his parents had hired to set up for the wedding.
They were putting together large tents that would protect them from the sun or possible weather.
Tomorrow they’d likely add the chairs and the more delicate decorations.
In twenty-four hours this place would be crawling with people from town. His brother would likely be a nervous wreck who’d need his brother to stand by his side and tell him that everything would be okay.
And Brent would.
But he wasn’t going to stick around for the party after the ceremony. The reception was scheduled to go into the night. He hadn’t figured out how he would slip away without being noticed, but he’d do it because his life was just as important as his brother’s.
Movement out of the corner of his eye captured his attention and he turned his head in time to see Hallie moving toward him.
Immediately he got a sour taste in his mouth. She was the last person he wanted to see. Whether Faith wanted to admit it or not, Hallie was the source of the problems growing between them. She’d done something to convince Faith to talk to him about quitting.
While they hadn’t broken up, the distance he felt from Faith was still eating him up inside and all he wanted was his support system back.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Hallie muttered. “You’re not innocent in all of this.”
“Neither are you.”
That made Hallie pause. She stopped at the bottom of the steps and her eyes narrowed. That was all the evidence he needed. Hallie was terrible at keeping her emotions hidden.
Hallie huffed out an irritated breath. “Look, I’ve let you do this long enough. But now you need to pay attention. You need to hear me out and accept that you’re going to sabotage yourself if you keep walking down this road.”
Brent snorted. “You’re delusional.”
“I’m not, Brent. This is serious. You need to stop competing. At least until you’re ready to accept the consequences of your actions and tell your parents.”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” He shot to his feet and his voice rose. She didn’t bat an eye at his reaction. If anything, she looked just as irritated, but there was also a layer of boredom as if she expected him to retort.
“Not hard enough,” she snapped. “Have you considered the fact that your incessant desire to make your folks happy is only going to cause more problems than not? It’s already putting a strain between you and your family. Your brother. Faith.”
With hands gripping the railing to the stairs, Brent leaned forward. His voice came out in almost a growl. “You need to mind your own business. Stop meddling. With my job. With my girlfriend.”
She let out a sharp bark of laughter. “I’m not meddling. I’m making recommendations based on what I know. Your selfish decisions could rip this family apart.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Brent could feel his heart racing a little faster than before.
Why did it sound as though Hallie had her own secrets she was keeping.
It felt familiar—like that itch beneath his skin he couldn’t get to.
The same way he felt around his parents when he pushed them for a better reason to steer clear of the rodeo all together.
“What’s going on, Hallie? You better tell me now. ”
There was a brief hesitation in her demeanor. It was just enough to catch his attention, but Hallie was nothing if not good at distracting people from a topic she didn’t want to discuss.
“If you don’t agree to tell your folks, I’m going to. Because this is getting to be too much. I can’t be quiet anymore.”
“What?” he hissed.
“You heard me. This isn’t even about our family anymore.
It’s so much bigger than you and frankly, I’m disappointed I have to even bring it up.
I can tell you care about Faith. It’s written all over your face.
And she cares about you, too. Tell me, Brent, what happens when this all blows up in your face? ”
“What if it doesn’t?” he argued. “Just because it’s dangerous doesn’t mean I’m going to be a casualty. It’s a risk but one I’m happy to take.”
“Do you even hear yourself? That’s so selfish,” Hallie snapped at him. “You’d rather go chasing after something when you have something better right in front of you!”
His head reared back. Was she referring to his family life? Faith? Maybe all of it. “Did Faith ask you to do this? To talk me into coming clean?”
It was her turn to be surprised. “She talked to you?”
“So she did—” He could feel his anger rising.
“What are you talking about? No, she didn’t ask me to do anything.
I confronted her and asked her to try to reach you.
Heaven knows that she’s probably the only one who can understand you when it comes to this.
” Hallie let out a disgruntled laugh and pinched the bridge of her nose.
She seemed to be struggling with something.
Did it have anything to do with the strange feeling he had that people were keeping things from him?
It wasn’t just his parents and Hallie. Hadn’t he gotten the feeling that Faith was keeping something from him? But that didn’t make sense. She wouldn’t have any reason to do that, right?
He was scowling at the ground when Hallie’s quiet voice ripped him from his thoughts.
“I’m sorry Brent, but I’ve made my decision.”
Lifting his head, he set his stare on her.
“Don’t pretend this has anything to do with you or our family.
I don’t know your angle, but I can tell that you’ve been keeping something from me.
Call it a gut instinct. What I don’t get is why you wouldn’t just tell me what’s going on.
It’s like everyone in my life is treating me with kid gloves.
I’m an adult, Hallie. I deserve to have all the information at my fingertips before I make a decision.
And what you and Faith are doing is pushing me up against a wall and expecting me to roll over and just accept it. ”
She almost looked like she felt guilty.
Almost.
He knew better. Her reasons weren’t heroic.
She was dealing with something. Maybe it was as simple as a crisis of conscience.
She’d kept his secret for so long that she couldn’t hack it anymore.
He should have known better than to believe that Hallie could handle knowing his darkest secret and not succumb to the pressure.
Brent let out a huff of frustration and ran a hand through his hair a few times until his scalp ached. “I’m an adult. I get to decide what I want out of this life. It’s not reasonable for anyone to make demands of me.”
Hallie shook her head. “That’s just it. As unfair as it is, we have to accept that being part of a family means we owe them our respect and love. We owe them our hearts. If that means we have to make sacrifices so we can put them at ease, then—”
“No,” Brent muttered with a shake of his head. “That doesn’t mean I have to give up everything I’ve worked for.”
“What have you worked for?”
Brent’s blood chilled to ice in his veins.
He couldn’t move. His eyes remained locked on Hallie while hers were lifted to a space behind him.
At some point the door behind him had opened and his mother had stepped out.
But based on the look of anxiety that flooded Hallie’s whole face, Brent knew it was so much worse.
There was no telling how much his parents had heard.
Slowly he turned to face the intrusion and his stomach bottomed out even more.
Tripp stood there as well. They must have been heading out to finalize something for the wedding tomorrow.
This wasn’t good.
No, this was utterly terrible.
He swallowed hard, scrambling to come up with an excuse he could make but Hallie was faster.
“Brent has been competing in the Rodeo.”
He flinched but didn’t turn to send a glower in his cousin’s direction.
Tripp looked disappointed but not really surprised.
It was the anger in his mother’s eyes that made him want to shrivel up into a little ball and roll away like a tumbleweed.
His father’s expression was impassive, but Brent knew better than to believe he wasn’t feeling something.
Beneath the surface Judd Gilley would be furious.
“Is that true?” his mother demanded. When he didn’t respond, she shifted her attention to Hallie. “And you knew?”
He could sense Hallie getting defensive and his suspicions were confirmed when he heard the sound of her voice. “I was trying to give him the chance to come to you on his own.”
Brent watched his mother struggle with that information. But then the blood drained from her face at Hallie’s next words.
“Heaven knows it’s taken you long enough to come clean with him.”
The hairs rose on the back of Brent’s neck. His mother looked like she was about ready to faint. His father clenched his hands into fists at his sides. But Tripp was the only one capable of speaking. “Come clean about what, mom?”
“Tripp—” his mother started.
“Don’t bother trying to get out of this. I know you’ve been keeping something from me.” That earned Brent another sharp look.
Then his mother’s dark expression pinned Hallie. “I think you need to go.” There were only a few moments before Brent heard the retreating footsteps disappear altogether. The whole time, he kept his eyes trained on his mother. Watching. Waiting.
“We should take this inside,” his father murmured. He lifted his hand and rubbed his wife’s back. “It’s going to be okay, Heather. It’s time.” The words were spoken so quietly, Brent wasn’t sure he was supposed to have heard them.
Brent wanted to tell them that he wasn’t going to take this conversation anywhere, that they were going to discuss whatever it was right here, but the fight had left him. He was finally going to get his answers.
Once inside, he and Tripp sat across from his parents. He kept his eyes trained on his parents’ hands. They were clutching each other tighter than he’d ever remembered. The longer he watched them, the worse the knots in his stomach became.
“Mom,” Tripp prompted. “What’s going on?”
When their mother didn’t immediately start speaking, their father took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m not your biological father.”
It was like he’d been slapped in the face. His ears started ringing as his parents relayed the story. His mother had eloped with his biological father and gone on the road with him as he competed in rodeos across the country. She’d left much to her parents’ disappointment, but she was in love.
“I was so happy,” his mother rasped, her voice teary.
“We both were. Your father was one of the best this world has ever seen. Competing was in his blood.” She cut a look at his father.
“He was winning every competition, until he didn’t.
” A sob burst from his mother’s lips. She hunched over and put her face in her hands.
Tripp and Brent glanced toward the man they’d believed was their father. There was a distinct sense of loss that Brent could feel growing in his chest. It was like his heart had turned into a black hole. Everything he’d known to be true was being sucked into it and disappearing without a trace.
“They said he died instantly. That there was less than a one percent chance this sort of injury would end up in death. It was a fluke.” His father’s voice cracked. “Your father was my best friend.”
Chills scraped through Brent’s body. So this was the reason his parents were so against the rodeo. They’d both lost someone close to them.
But then they’d covered it up.
He couldn’t decide if he was hurt, angry, or simply numb. It made sense—the reasons they had tried to keep him away from the events. Was it rational? No. But love never was.
Brent felt sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to deal with this right now. He didn’t want to sit in front of his parents and hear them make excuses. He and Tripp had his father’s last name. His mother hadn’t even given him a piece of his father.
His parents had stolen his past. They’d taken part of his very identity.
“Name,” Brent croaked.
The two people in front of him—strangers that they were—stared at him with confusion.
“What’s his name? Who was my father?” Brent half-expected his brother to talk him down because he could feel his whole body vibrating with this betrayal.
He didn’t need to ask why his mother would cover this up.
He didn’t want to hear her excuses. All he wanted was to know the name of the man who had sired him.
“Brent…” his mother whispered, looking to her husband. “Judd raised—”
“You can’t even give me that, can you?” Brent shot to his feet and his voice rose. “It’s the only thing I want right now, and you can’t even give me that.”
“Brent,” Tripp whispered, “lower your voice. She’s still our mother.”
Gritting his jaw, Brent shook his head. He didn’t voice it, but right now the two people in front of him didn’t feel like family anymore.
“Louis,” his father said quietly. “Louis Brent.”