Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Please, don’t stop on my account,” Adele said and took another photo. “Well done, darling. I always suspected he had a tail. But, good grief, that’s practically a leg.”
Sky swept a hand through his hair, too stunned to do anything but stare. “Jesus, Mom! What are you doing here?”
“Getting proof, obviously.”
“Proof of what?” Sky asked. “That Mason has a tail?”
Adele snickered and offered him a salute. “Very good, Skylar. Although, we already knew that you like your men large and climbable, like trees. Is that an autism thing or a gay thing?” She batted her lashes at Sky while aiming the phone’s camera at Mason and taking another picture.
“Put that away!” Mason ordered her while holding a throw pillow over his crotch.
“Fine!” She made a show of swiping at her screen and folded her arms over her chest, looking extremely pleased. “I knew something was going on with you two and that I’d catch you in the act if I was patient. And guess what I overheard when I checked the front door’s camera tonight?”
“Why would you want to catch us in the act?” Mason shouted and threw up a hand in disbelief, earning a cold sneer from Adele.
“I told you not to fuck with me, Mason. I won’t let you ruin my reputation and our family.”
That snapped Sky out of his shocked stupor. “How would pictures of me and him protect you and our family?”
She scoffed and pointed at Mason. “I’ll expose him if he exposes us!”
“At the cost of my dignity and reputation? I’ll never beat the home-wrecker allegations if those pictures get out.”
“One more reason for him not to expose us,” she countered airily.
“Expose what?” Sky asked Mason but he shook his head.
“Nana told me something before she died, something I have no intention of ever telling another soul,” he said with a hard look at Adele.
“It’s not my secret to tell and I don’t want to be the one to deliver that kind of news, not when I don’t have any of the other details or a way to explain why the fuck any of it happened.
I won’t risk hurting Sky more if you’re going to be a heartless asshole about it, which you clearly are. ”
Sky turned to his mother. “What the fuck is he talking about?”
“It was nothing! Bringing it up now accomplishes nothing whatsoever,” she insisted but Sky shot her a threatening glare.
“Tell me what the fuck Nana said, or I’ll tell them you’re allergic to alcohol when I’m in charge of your care.”
Adele responded with a loud gasp and she looked like she might faint. “You wouldn’t do that to me!” she whispered and clutched the collar of her black silk blouse.
“Sure I would,” Sky replied, his neck craning. “I was already planning to as a fun gag. What did Nana say to Mason?” he repeated firmly.
“Alright, but remember that you asked for this,” she muttered under her breath.
“You might want to sit down, Sky,” Mason said gently, still holding the pillow over his private parts.
“What the fuck?” Sky asked as he lowered onto the sectional. He realized he was still naked when Mason bent and tossed his joggers at him. “Mom?” Sky demanded as he pulled them on with clammy hands.
She huffed out an irritated breath and stomped her foot. “Fine! Stewart Sutton wasn’t your father. I had a thing with Lance and I got pregnant with you,” she said with a nonchalant wave. “Stewart knew you weren’t his before you were born so it was never that big of a deal.”
“It was never that big of a deal?” Sky repeated weakly. The room was suddenly hot and Sky was dizzy and nauseous. “Thanks for telling me to sit down, Mase.”
“Here,” Mason whispered as he handed Sky a vase from the shelf next to him. “In case you get sick.” He had pulled on his boxers and was shaking his head at Adele. “That’s it? You ‘had a thing’ with Lance?”
“A lot of people did,” she replied with a shrug. “Except for Cora. She was the only one who didn’t want to sleep with Lance—or anyone for that matter—and was perfectly fine with him running around as long as he left her alone.”
Mason whimpered as he scrubbed his face. “This fucking family!”
Sky nodded in agreement, lightheaded as he was bombarded by memories and questions. “I can’t believe that Uncle Lance was my dad, and I’m the last one to know. Please tell me that Sarina wasn’t his, too.”
Mason made a heaving sound and clapped a hand over his mouth. “I swear, I will dig that asshole up and kill him all over again!” Mason whispered angrily but Adele held up a finger and wagged it at them.
“Oh, no! I was very careful until the doctor confirmed that there was a Sutton in the oven. After that, it was sex, sex, sex! Nonstop sex until I couldn’t hide that I was pregnant and I was back at it as soon as the stitches healed.”
“Mom!”
“What?” Adele held up a hand. “I never would have had you if I had honored my vows like a good little wifey. Do you know many patients your father slept with? I had two abortions before I was pregnant with you and I almost had another, but you were Lance’s.
I think I truly might have loved that man… ”
Sky studied his mother, wondering if she was human and if she cared about him at all.
“How could you lie to me like that for all these years?”
“You’re one to talk!” She pointed at Sky and clicked her teeth. “How long has this been going on? I don’t know who’s worse: Mason for cheating on his wife, or you for having an affair with your sister’s husband.”
“I have never cheated on Sina,” Mason ground out.
“Really? How do you explain what I just saw?” Adele waved her phone at them and Sky threw his hands up, laughing.
“Mason and Sarina have never been together like that! She knows about us, and she doesn’t care. She has her own…thing,” he said with a shrug.
Adele’s jaw fell. “What do you mean they’ve never…? They have a son.”
Sky shook his head. “No, he’s Lance’s too.”
Adele staggered back, as if he had slapped her and grabbed the wall for support. “Sam is…? Lance and Sarina…?”
“Oh… You didn’t know about that,” Sky realized. He looked to Mason for guidance but he was backing out of the room and shaking his head. “Why are you leaving?”
“Unbelievable!” Adele spat, attempting to pull herself together. “You might be the only person in this family Lance didn’t fuck,” she said to Sky while smoothing her hair and fixing her collar.
“I didn’t!” Mason protested as he peeked around the wall, making Adele snort.
“Of course, you didn’t. That would make you interesting.
” She rolled her eyes while retrieving a flask from her bra and opening it.
“But I’ll bet he tried it, the horny old bastard.
” Adele took a long drink and waved it at Sky.
“Stewart and Lance were a thing, long before I met your father, and he told me that he and Lance were a package deal the night we were married.”
“What?” Sky rasped, not sure if he really wanted to know or if he should plug his ears. “What do you mean they were a thing and a package deal?”
Adele widened her eyes and cleared her throat suggestively. “They were ‘roommates’ in college. The kind who fucked and occasionally shared their one-night stands. Lance came back with your dad after they graduated and they both got married, but they never stopped fucking.”
“Mom!”
She rolled her eyes and shrugged again. “No one was hurt, and we all got along fine. I got to do whatever I wanted as long as I was discreet and the first child was Stewart’s.”
Sky’s ears popped. He was going to faint. “Me. I was hurt. How could you possibly think any of that was fine?”
Adele groaned wearily. “That was rather petty of Stewart. He was such an ass about me and Lance, except when he got to join us. I told Stewart not to take it out on you and tried to reason with him, but you know how thin-skinned that man could be.”
“Thin-skinned?” Sky was in awe of his mother’s utter lack of awareness. “You had an affair with his best friend and had a child with him.”
“Stewart was having sex with him too! All the time. Why do you think you were never invited to go golfing with them? They had a whole weird scoring system and couldn’t risk you catching one of them on their knees,” she said with a wry chuckle.
“Trust me, Lance would’ve gotten Stewart pregnant if it was possible.
Had him bent over every piece of furniture in this place and Sutton House. ”
“Mom!” Sky gave her a pleading look. “I don’t need it to be vivid, I just need the truth.”
“That’s it, as far as I know,” she replied and looked around for Mason.
He had reappeared in the foyer behind her, in a fresh pair of jeans and a gray T-shirt.
“I don’t know anything else. Except that Nana said there was at least one—or possibly two—other children Lance may have fathered,” he added carefully.
He raised his hands, glancing between Sky and Adele. “That’s all I know, I swear.”
“There you have it,” Adele declared with an irritated huff. “You know all of our family’s darkest secrets and his name is Lance Gifford. Are you happy now?” she asked Sky.
“No…” He shook his head, not sure why she would think he would be happy. “I don’t think I ever want to see you again or step foot in our house or Sutton House ever again.”
“Ha! So I’m the villain in all of this?” Adele spluttered angrily. “Lance had plenty of opportunities to tell you. Your father could have told you during any of his endless lectures. Nana could have told you. He could have told you,” she said as she pointed at Mason.
Sky’s face twisted. “How many of our messes is Mason going to clean up? I’m not even sure if telling me was a good thing but you…
” He flailed wildly, overwhelmed as questions and memories clogged his brain and his synapses misfired, causing his skin to prickle as he started to sweat and his ears rang.
“Why would you do this to me? I don’t feel good,” he said and reached for Mason.
“I was never going to tell,” Mason growled at Adele. He rushed to the sofa and sat next to Sky and put an arm around him.