“It’s not ridiculous and you know it,” he said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be faking your period in order to get out of sleeping with Michael tonight.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“Running a halfway house meant making sure all the teenage girls there had what they needed each month. It kind of became a habit to keep track of it,” he said.

“That’s not why I’m doing it,” I said.

I was really hoping that he didn’t ask me for the reason why I was doing it then, because I was starting to run dry on last-minute excuses.

“Yes, it is.”

“You can’t tell Michael about this,” I pleaded. “Not until we have the proof that it was just a mix-up. He’ll drive himself crazy overthinking it.”

“How could he not?” Adam asked. “I’d be overthinking it too if I suddenly found out that I was in love with and having sex with my sister.”

“Ugh,” I said exasperated. “You don’t even have a sister.”

“True,” he said. “But it might be possible that you have a brother; another one.”

“Adam please, just stop it. And don’t say anything to Michael until we have it all resolved. I just finally got him in a good place with things.”

Adam shrugged his shoulders which was definitely not a convincing gesture of agreement.

“Please,” I said again. “Promise me that you’ll keep this to yourself.”

“Okay,” he said. “But I really think you should abstain for a while. Like you said, at least until it’s resolved.”

I didn’t say anything in response to him. I simply walked out of the greenhouse to take the herbs back into the kitchen. On my way, I passed Rob.

“Anything?” I asked.

“No, nothing,” he said. “And Lisette, I’ve tried looking everywhere I can. I even called in a few favors and had some of the other guys check into it for you. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any answers for you. There’s literally no information on Michael’s father at all.”

I heard Adam walk up behind me and make a small noise that sounded like a “humph.” I turned to face him with hot cheeks that I knew were as red as the encroaching sunset.

“Just because Rob couldn’t find any answers, doesn’t mean that the answer you’re hypothesizing is the correct one. There is still way more proof on the side that it was just a glitch, than there is that somehow my father had an affair with Michael’s mother and somehow no one even knew that our fathers were the same person. I mean, think about it. If Marta wasn’t married to another completely separate man as Michael’s father, then who in the hell was she married to? No one?”

I was angry for letting myself get mad about this. It was ridiculous and I wasn’t going to waste even another single moment on the crazy idea. I walked back into the cabin, leaving both of the other guys outside to mull it over between them, and went straight into the kitchen to set the fresh herbs down on the counter.

“Hey,” Michael said when he heard me come in and got up to come over and wrap his arms around me.

“Hey,” I said as I smiled and leaned forward to kiss him.

His body pushed into mine as my back pressed up against the kitchen counter. Everything was perfect now. I loved him, and wanted him, and digging into all of that stuff about his dad was a stupid idea. But, none of it mattered because Michael and I were lovers, and most definitely not brother and sister.

And even if I didn’t have concrete proof, I knew that in the pit of my gut.

Michael and I were not related, and I had to find the shred of evidence that proved me right.

24

“I’ve found something,” Rob said to me as I rubbed my eyes open while I waited for the coffee to percolate.

Michael was in the shower and Adam was just walking in to get some coffee too.

“What did you find?” I asked.

“I’ve found someone that knew Michaels’ dad,” he said.

“What, really? That’s great!” I said. “I want to talk to him. This is exactly what we need to put an end to all of this nonsense.”

“I’ve already arranged it,” Rob said. “We can meet with him in an hour in town.”

“An hour?” I asked as I stared at the coffee dripping slowly into the pot and wished it would hurry up.

“Yeah, apparently, he happens to be here in Asheville on business for the next couple of days, so now is our chance. Get dressed. I’ll grab your coffee and we can leave before Michael gets out of the shower and asks where we’re heading off to,” Rob said.

“I want to come along too,” Adam said.

“Nope, you need to stay here and come up with some excuse to tell Michael about where we’ve gone,” Rob chuckled. “You’re pretty good at coming up with shit, as I recall.”

I ran in the bedroom to throw some clothes on and tied my hair up in a quick and messy ponytail on top of my head. By the time I had come out, Rob had my coffee poured into a travel mug and I could hear that the water from Michael’s shower was still on.

“Okay come on, let’s go,” Rob said as he grabbed his keys and walked toward the door.

I stopped to talk to Adam quickly before we left.

“Don’t tell him anything about this,” I said to him again. “Remember that you promised me you wouldn’t.”

“I actually didn’t promise,” Adam said.

“Well don’t say anything anyway,” I said.

“Lisette, we need to go,” Rob called from the door.

Adam’s eyes watched me leave over the top of his coffee cup. I really hoped that he would keep his mouth shut. Since he hadn’t actually promised, that didn’t give me much hope that he would keep his lips sealed, but hopefully, Rob and I would be returning with news to disprove all of it anyway so it wouldn’t matter.

Rob had tracked this guy down somehow by looking through old court records. Apparently, Michael’s dad and the man we were going to meet, had engaged in a lawsuit against another company together years ago. He had called the guy to make sure that it was indeed the man who knew my father and when he found out that it was, he arranged the meeting.

When we pulled up to the diner where we were meeting the man, we walked inside, and Rob knew how to spot him from the profiling that he had already done on the guy. Rob led the way as we walked over to the table and the two of them shook hands. We sat down and the waitress brought us another round of coffee that I was extremely grateful for.

“Lisette, this is Gary James. He is the one that I was telling you about who was in a collective lawsuit with Michael’s dad,” Rob said.

I smiled and nodded my head to the man, although I wasn’t really sure why. If he had any dealings with Michael’s dad, and if Michael’s dad was anything like the rumors that I’d heard, then this guy was probably a shady criminal too.

“Mr. James,” I said in my most polite voice. “Thank you for meeting with us. I was just hoping that you might be able to provide some clarification on who, exactly, the man was that you knew.”