Chapter Thirty-Seven #2
Wes nodded. “To be fair, he genuinely believed your parents might hurt you if you tried to find us before you could legally leave. The story he told us…everything they did to you. It’s easy to imagine why he was so worried.”
Zinn rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated breath. “I am so sick of other people deciding to keep things from me in the name of protecting me.”
“I hear you,” Assa said, raising a sardonic brow at Wes.
“Asher had no right to decide what I should and should not know. He watched me wither away for years. Years! And the whole time, he could have set my mind at ease.”
“Maybe you can talk to him, get his side of the story,” Assa said carefully.
Zinn ran a hand across his jaw. “I’m too mad right now to even think about that. This distance has been good. I’m not sure what’s left for me with him.”
“You don’t have to decide right now, sunshine,” Calder said.
Zinn turned back to Assa. “My parents weren’t with him, were they?”
“No. In fact, you might be surprised once we explain what he told us,” Wes offered. “The short version is that Asher knew who adopted your baby. Your fathers did not.”
Wes and Assa relayed Asher’s story. Zinn was dumbfounded to discover that he hadn’t given birth in the hospital, and that his parents had created a fake birth certificate for his son when they’d changed his birth date.
The Pashuks also told Zinn that his brother had taken a job in Bellwether Province hoping to find him, but they promised not to disclose his whereabouts to Asher.
The only unanswered question for Wes and Assa was the identity of Ryde’s alpha father. It was obvious that Calder knew, but Zinn did not want to tell the couple. At least not yet.
“I’ll get there eventually, give you that story, but this is a lot for me without adding him to the mix,” Zinn explained. “At some point, I suppose I’ll need to seek him out and tell him about Ryde. But right now, I’m not ready to find out why he didn’t stay for me and our baby.”
The omega’s voice cracked. He clearly still had strong feelings for the man from his past, even as his love for Calder was undeniable.
Wes had no qualms about Zinn’s hesitancy.
Not finding Ryde’s alpha father benefited them, considering he was the one person who could unravel the adoption.
The alpha had never agreed to it, so he might have a claim.
It would be a longshot after eight years, but since Wes had inadvertently hired his son’s birth father to make his birthday cake, he was willing to believe in extraordinary coincidences.
“Asher seemed convinced that your old butler—Antoni?—knew what happened to Ryde’s alpha father. If you ever decide to track him down, he would probably be a good place to start,” Wes said.
Zinn nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
Calder eyed Wes and Assa. “Please continue to keep Zinn’s identity secret. His parents might still be looking for Zeller.”
“They must have realized by now that Zinn isn’t going public with his story, so why would they look?” Assa asked.
“To keep tabs,” Zinn responded. “They don’t like loose ends. I’d like to think they wouldn’t do anything to me, but I can’t take the risk that they’d come after Calder or you guys.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Calder said, pulling Zinn’s chair next to his.
“Too late,” Zinn looped his hands around the big alpha’s elbow. “We’re a team now, cap. You said this was what you wanted. No take-backsies.”
Calder looked at him with shiny eyes. “I want all of it.” He kissed Zinn on the nose.
Assa squeezed Wes’s knee. Thank stars Zinn has him, he mouthed.
“Okay.” Calder slung his arm over Zinn’s shoulders. “We’ve deconstructed as much as we can about how we got to this point,” he said. “The more important question is, what are we going to do moving forward?”
Wes was about to reply when Zinn cleared his throat. The other three men looked at him. He wiped a tear from his cheek.
Calder tried pulling him closer, but Zinn held him back.
“No. I’m okay. I need to get this out.” The tension in his limbs was clear as he faced Wes and Assa.
“I know this is hard for you. On all of us… But I’ve had three hours sitting here, and honestly for the past eight years I’ve asked myself what I would do if I was ever in this situation, if I found my son happily living with adoptive parents… ”
Assa’s fingers twitched and Wes knew he wanted to soothe the omega.
“…Now that I’m here, the answer I came up with a long time ago hasn’t changed.
I don’t want to disrupt his life. I’m not here to try to take Ryde away from you, or to insert myself into your family.
” Another tear slipped out, and he let it fall.
“That being said… I can’t force you to do this, and I understand if you’re not ready to decide, but I would like to ask you, humbly, if there’s a way for me to be a part of my son’s life.
If I had been given a choice, I never would have been separated from him.
And if it’s possible, I’d like to…know him.
But I’ll also accept it if that’s not what you want. ”
Assa let out a small cry. He circled Zinn in his arms. “Oh, Zinn!” Leaning back, he cupped the omega’s face.
“You’re correct that we’re not ready to hammer out all the specifics tonight, but you are absolutely going to be a part of Ryde’s life, of all our lives.
We are going to figure this out. I promise. ” He looked at Wes.
“Yes,” Wes said. “We'll figure this out.”