Chapter 25
Cassidy
My brothers froze. I did too, bracing for their reaction to Xavier's admission.
His declaration hung in the air like an unexploded bomb.
"Jesus Christ." Declan ran his hand through his hair.
"This is bullshit!" Kayden's palm cracked against the table, making the plates jump.
"Why the hell would you think that?" Mitch's voice was dangerously controlled.
Xavier swallowed hard. "My mother told me she and Frank, well, you know. She said it was a mistake. Just once."
My face twisted with disgust. "Frank was screwing around on Mom."
"Jesus, Cassidy!" Mitch's eyes snapped to me, blazing. "How can you believe this bullshit?"
I didn't just believe it. I knew Frank had cheated on Mom. I'd known for years.
The secret clawed at my throat, begging to be released. But I couldn't tell them—not without revealing everything else.
They'd hate me. They'd never forgive me.
"Mom pretended Dominic Hawthorne was my father for my whole life," Xavier said. His voice was surprisingly steady, especially with the way Mitch and Kayden were glaring at him. "When she told me the truth about Dominic not being my father, I did a DNA test to confirm he wasn't."
"That doesn't mean Frank is." Declan's lip twitched.
"That’s correct." Xavier met his stare without flinching. "But a simple DNA test will confirm whether my mother was lying. Again."
Mitch hadn't moved. His fists were clenched on the table, knuckles white, every muscle in his body coiled tightly like he was barely holding himself back from launching across the table.
He didn't say anything, but the fury radiating off him was worse than Kayden's explosion. It was cold. Controlled. Lethal.
Declan stared at Xavier like he was waiting for him to admit this was all some elaborate con.
"What a load of shit!" Kayden shoved back from the table, his chair scraping against the floor. He jabbed his finger at Xavier. "He's not just after those jewels. He wants a piece of Koolaroo."
"I'm not here to claim any?—"
"You think you can just waltz in here and take everything after some fucking DNA test?" Kayden threw his hands up. "No way. No fucking way. This is our land. Our family's land."
"That's enough," I said, slapping my palm on the table.
"Stay out of this, Cass," Kayden snapped.
"No. You're not being fair."
"Fair?" Kayden's laugh was vicious. "What's fair about any of this? What's fair about some Yank showing up claiming Dad knocked up his mother?"
"He didn't ask for this either," I shot back, my voice rising. "You think he wanted to find out his whole life was a lie? That his mother lied to him for more than thirty years?"
"Why the hell are you defending him?" Kayden demanded, his eyes narrowing. "What, you got a thing for him now? You don't even know this guy."
"Are you two together?" Mitch's voice cut through like a blade, and the question landed like a grenade in the center of the table.
My heart thundered, and every instinct screamed at me to deny it, to laugh it off, to protect myself.
"He thinks he's our brother," Mitch added, his eyes locked on mine with an intensity that made my stomach drop.
My face burned. Mitch's words hung there, ugly, damning, and impossible to ignore.
Before I could think or talk myself out of it, I reached for Xavier's hand.
He'd been sitting there with his palms flat on his thighs, staring at the wood grain like he was trying to disappear into it.
When my hand covered his, his fingers curled around mine.
Warm and solid and real. I lifted our joined hands onto the table where everyone could see.
The room went silent as three pairs of eyes locked on our joined hands.
I didn't let go.
My heart slammed against my ribs hard enough to crack them. My brothers' faces ranged from shock to disgust to utter betrayal. But I kept Xavier's hand on the table where they could see it. I forced myself to breathe. To stay steady. To not fall apart.
Because … this was it. The moment I'd dreaded for over twenty years. The moment everything would come crashing down.
"There's something else you need to know." The words scraped out of my throat like broken glass.
"Cass." Mitch's voice was careful. Lethal. The tone he used when he was trying to talk Kayden down from a rage. "What are you doing?"
"Something I should’ve done a long time ago."
"Are you serious right now?" Kayden's jaw worked. "You're holding this bloke's hand when he claims he's our brother. Do you understand what that looks like?"
"He's not my brother."
Oh God, am I really doing this?
The room went very still.
Xavier turned to me, his frown deepening.
Declan cocked his head. "What are you talking about?"
I let go of Xavier's hand—not because I wanted to—I desperately didn't want to, but because I needed both hands free to hold myself together.
I pressed my palms flat against the table and looked at each of my brothers in turn.
Kayden, seething. Mitch, guarded and dangerous. Declan, genuinely confused.
I'd rehearsed this a thousand times. Lying on my bed in the dark at fourteen, heart pounding, telling myself I'd find the right moment. Then sixteen. Then twenty. Then suddenly it was too late, and the lie had become so woven into my life that pulling it out felt like pulling out my spine.
There was no right moment. There would never be.
This probably wasn't right either.
But Xavier was sitting here, taking their fury, their disgust, their accusations, all because of something his parents had done. Something Frank had done. He deserved to know he wasn't alone in this, that he wasn't the only one whose father had betrayed them.
Xavier leaned sideways, just an inch, closing the space between us. Not touching, but present. Solid. Like he was preparing to pull me in for a hug if I needed one. Like he knew what I was about to say would ruin everything.
"I'm not Frank's daughter." The words came out small. Too small for a secret that had been crushing me for twenty-one years. I cleared my throat and forced myself to say it louder. "I'm not a Branson by blood. I never was."
Silence followed.
Then Kayden laughed. Hard and sharp. "That's not funny."
"I know. It's not meant to be."
"What?” His laugh died. “You're lying." Kayden's tone turned dangerous. "Mom would never?—"
"Yeah, no way," Declan cut in, shaking his head. "Mom wouldn't cheat on Dad."
"Not Mom," I said quickly, my voice cracking.
Mitch's jaw tightened, his eyes boring into me. "What are you saying, Cass?"
"It wasn't Mom who cheated. It was Frank."
The room went utterly still.
"What?" Declan's face went pale. “None of this makes sense.”
"My mother was Sally," I continued, keeping my voice as neutral as I could manage.
If I let any emotion in, I'd drown. "She was a housemaid here.
Sally and Frank had an affair, for months.
" I forced myself to hold Mitch's gaze. "She fell pregnant, but …
" I swallowed hard. "She died during the birth.
But during the labor, she told Mom the baby was Frank's. "
"Son of a bitch." Mitch's words came out like a hiss.
"Wait—what? How the hell do you even know this?" Declan demanded.
"Do you remember when my appendix burst? When I was fourteen and got medevacked to the hospital by the Royal Flying Doctors?"
Mitch and Declan nodded slowly. Kayden just stared, his face a storm of confusion and rage.
"During the flight, they took blood from me, Mom, and Frank." I paused, my throat tightening. "When I woke up after surgery, I overheard Mom and Frank arguing."
I squeezed my eyes shut. My mind catapulted back to that moment in the hospital room—the one that had cleaved my life in two and forever became a before and after.
"Hey, it's okay." Mitch's voice had softened just a fraction, but enough. "Tell us."
I opened my eyes. Tears blurred my vision.
I wiped them away with my knuckle and inhaled a shaky breath.
"Up until then, Frank had believed I was his daughter.
The whole time Mom raised me, they thought I was his.
But it turns out Sally—" I had to force the words out.
"Sally, my mother had been with someone else, too. Frank's blood didn't match mine."
The memory crashed over me. Frank's voice through the hospital room door had been raw with rage. That bitch was screwing around on me the whole time! Like he was the victim. Like he had been betrayed.
And then Mom's laugh had come. Cold and sharp as a blade. Now you know what it feels like, Frank? Now you know exactly what I've lived with. You stupid, rotten bastard.
"Frank lost it when he found out," I said, my voice hollow. "He said I wasn't his problem anymore. That he wanted nothing to do with me."
Xavier's hand moved to my knee under the table and rested there, warm and steady.
Kayden's face went slack with shock, or maybe sympathy, I couldn't tell.
"But Mom—" My voice cracked. "Your mom, Edith, told him that I was their daughter. That she'd raised me, loved me, and if he ever said anything different, she'd bury him out in the paddock alongside Sally's body."
"Oh shit! Mom actually said that?" Declan's eyes widened.
I nodded, still hearing her fierce voice in my head. Cassidy is my daughter. She will always be my daughter. And if you can't accept that, Frank, then you’d better watch your back.
"Wait? So you're not our sister at all?" Kayden's frown deepened, his face struggling to process what I’d said.
"No. I'm not related to Frank, or Edith, or any of you." My chin trembled. "I'm nobody's daughter. Nobody's sister."
Xavier’s hand squeezed my knee, conveying a silent message that I had no hope of comprehending, while Mitch, Kayden, and Declan just stared at me.
The silence stretched so long as my heartbeat thundered in my ears.
"But why didn't you tell us?" Kayden's voice had lost its edge. Now it was just loaded with confusion, maybe even hurt.