Chapter Twenty-One
The Bennet Ranch
Nate and Sam arrived early and helped Aly in the kitchen while Landon and Cal finished up the chores.
Landon still wasn’t used to having Cal help, even though he had every day since that morning he’d been hugging Aly. Landon was even less used to Cal helping without commentary or complaint.
Cal was silent but worked hard. There wasn’t that … fragile quality to him since he’d gone and talked to Glenda to invite her to dinner the other day. He had more … determination. Landon didn’t know what had changed and didn’t ask.
He couldn’t decide if that was withdrawing again or just being a rational human being who didn’t need to poke into everything. He hated being uncertain.
Still, Cal seemed to fit right into the ranch work—quite the shock since he’d been doing his level best to avoid it most his life. Landon almost commented on it, but Cal spoke first.
“Better get back. Don’t want to be late for the explosion.”
Landon wished he could think dinner was going to be anything else, but he just couldn’t. “Yeah, nothing like adding to the casualty list.”
Cal snorted and they trudged out into the snow to walk across the yard from stables to house.
As they came up to the house, Landon heard an engine coming up the drive. Since it was coming from the road below, and Nate and Sam were already here, it had to be Bo Lake, not the Harringtons.
Cal and Landon stopped, watched the unfamiliar car crest the rise, pull to a stop next to Nate’s truck. A man got out, clearly not noticing them standing between house and stables.
Landon figured he’d rolled with a lot of damn punches, so he should know how to deal with this one. But he could only stand there and stare at the man who hesitantly began to walk up to the house.
There was no exaggeration. No reach. If Bo Lake wasn’t a Bennet, Landon would eat his hat.
Maybe he was shorter than the three of them, a little scrawnier, but the hair was the same shade, had the same wave to it. Something about the set of his shoulders. Even the way he moved felt like looking into a warped mirror.
“Christ,” Cal muttered.
“Yeah, that about sums it up. Come on.” He nudged Cal to walk with him to the back where they could shed their ranch wear before heading inside.
They were silent about it at first, but by the time they were moving from the mudroom to the kitchen, Cal pointed out something Landon hadn’t been able to fully grasp. Maybe didn’t want to.
“Nate said he looks like Dad, and he does. But he doesn’t just look like Dad, you know.” Landon looked at Cal, who was marching on ahead. “Something about him reminds me of Mom too.”
Landon didn’t know what the hell to do with that, so he followed Cal into the living room, where everyone was gathered.
Sam seemed to be acting as kind of cohost. While Aly fluttered about the room, Sam made introductions.
“Bo, this is Landon Bennet. And Cal Bennet. Nate’s brothers.”
Landon saw what Cal was talking about. Just … something about the nose, the way his lips were shaped. It wasn’t Dad.
“Good to meet you, Bo,” Landon forced himself to say around the tightness in his throat.
Bo blinked at him, no doubt having the same reaction to how much they looked alike.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, you too.”
“We’re just waiting on two more people,” Aly said cheerfully, but it was her fake cheerful voice.
Landon would have crossed to her, taken her hand, settled her some, but he felt rooted to the spot, looking at this man’s nose and trying to picture his mother.
Bo looked to Sam. “Like … more Bennets?”
Sam shook her head. “A neighbor and her granddaughter. Another possible connection.”
“Oh. Okay.” The guy nodded along, clearly so beyond uncomfortable.
But weren’t they all? Still, he just came off as … young. Sam had said how old, but Landon couldn’t remember. Twenties maybe? Cal was probably a decade older than him. But if Bo was in his twenties, he certainly had been born when Mom was still alive.
If Landon followed the natural conclusion that Bo Lake was Benjamin Bennet’s long-lost son, it meant Dad had cheated on Mom.
Considering he’d murdered her, that shouldn’t be a surprise. It was just Landon had thought he’d reached the end of all their father’s betrayals.
He should have known better.
Except, what Cal had said was true. Bo didn’t just look like Dad.
He looked like Mom too.
*
Jill felt sick to her stomach as she pulled her truck into the spot dug out of the snow for her in front of the Bennet house.
Grandma had spent most of the day on Jill’s computer typing something up.
Jill hadn’t demanded answers, but she’d printed it out when Grandma had asked.
Grandma hadn’t offered answers, she’d just folded up the pages and put them in her pocket.
She’d also put some pictures in her purse, but she didn’t show them to Jill ahead of time.
So as Jill helped Grandma up the shoveled walkway to the house, she felt nothing but heavy, weighted dread. It was slow going, but they made it up the porch stairs and Jill knocked on the door.
Grandma gave her hand a squeeze, kind of like reassurance that everything would be okay. Jill wished she could feel reassured at this point.
“Hi, guys.” Aly’s smile was bright when she opened the door, but tight around the edges. “Come on in. Bo, this is Glenda and Jill Harrington. Our neighbors.”
Jill stepped into a living room full of Bennets. And Sam. And this new person. Who was so clearly a Bennet because the resemblance was staggering, really.
Jill looked at Grandma, but the woman’s gaze was direct on Bo.
Bo looked at Glenda, his eyebrows slowly drawing together as he stared at her. “Wait. I know you. Don’t I … know you? You look familiar.”
Jill felt like her heart stopped.
Glenda shook her head, but she moved across the room right to Bo. Once she reached him, she held out one of the photographs from her purse.
Clearly uncomfortable, Bo took the photo and looked down at it.
“That’s…” Bo looked up at Glenda. “That’s my dad. My adoptive dad. Matthew Lake. And my aunt Stevie.”
Grandma shook her head, made a motion for him to turn it over.
“‘Glenda Harrington and cousin Matthew Lake. Lake Family Reunion, 1960,’” he read aloud. “My dad, but the girl … she looks just like pictures of my dad’s sister. Not some Glenda,” he muttered. He looked up at Glenda. “Not you, but you do look sort of like Aunt Stevie.”
Grandma made a couple signs, and with the picture’s label, Jill thought she put it together.
“Matthew and Stevie are Grandma—Glenda’s cousins, maybe …
second cousins?” she offered, and Grandma nodded in confirmation.
It still didn’t quite make sense to Jill.
“Your maiden name isn’t Lake,” she said to Grandma.
Grandma signed grandmother. Her grandmother’s maiden name was Lake. Jill didn’t know anything about Grandma’s family, and she’d never really thought of that before.
Until this moment. But it hit her now. Grandma never brought up anything before she’d met her husband. Dad’s dad. Even Dad didn’t talk about family beyond his parents. She didn’t remember him telling stories of grandparents or cousins or anything.
But Grandma was going to Lake family reunions when she was a girl?
“So, Bo’s real connection is to the Harringtons?” Aly asked, clearly as confused as Jill felt.
Glenda shook her head this time. Then she pulled out the folded pieces of paper and handed them to Jill. She signed Read it to them.
Jill looked down at the papers, trying to hide the fact her hands shook. “Uh, Grandma typed this out all morning. I guess she wants me to … read it to you guys.”
She gave one glance at Grandma, who gave a go-ahead gesture, then Jill forced herself to read carefully and clearly to a room full of people who wanted answers.
“‘Twenty-five years ago, Marie Bennet came to me with a problem,’” Jill read. Marie Bennet. The brothers’ mother. “‘A problem I promised her I’d never tell anyone about. I don’t break this promise lightly.’”
Jill’s heart was hammering in her chest. She didn’t want to read this. Didn’t want this, but… Well, it fell to her anyway. And maybe that was best. Everyone else in this room was traumatized by something Bennet.
Except her.
“‘I could have kept Marie’s secret,’” Jill continued. “‘Would have, but if what Detective Hayes told Sam is true, and there’s some chance Benjamin’s lawyer knows about Bo, I don’t have a choice. The goal has always been to protect Bo.’”
Jill snuck a look at Bo, who was still staring at the picture Glenda had given him. His eyebrows were drawn together, and he didn’t seem to fully breathe.
But Jill had to focus on the words. Get this out for everyone waiting. “‘Twenty-five years ago, Marie came to me for my help. It wasn’t the first time. It wouldn’t be the last. This time, she was pregnant and didn’t want to be.’” Oh, Jesus.
“Wait,” Cal said. “You’re telling me…”
“Let her finish,” Aly said, reaching out and gripping Cal’s arm with one hand. Landon’s with the other. “Go on, Jill. Get through the whole thing. We need all the information before we … react.”
Jill had to clear her throat, but she kept reading.
“‘She kept it from everyone. Even tried to keep it from Ben, but eventually he did find out. She didn’t want to bring another child into that house. So we came up with a plan. Luckily, I’d done some midwife work in my early days out here, and when Marie had the baby, she did so at my cabin.
Without Ben knowing. She told Ben she’d had a miscarriage, and I confirmed it.
Made sure he believed it. And I made sure to get the baby far, far away from Marietta, Montana, and Benjamin Bennet’s reach. ’”
“I’m … the baby. The baby she lied about?” Bo asked, looking at Jill, but Jill looked helplessly at Grandma.
Glenda nodded, pointed to Jill.