“Please,” My father bellowed once he saw us approach the doorway. “Come in.” He looked down at our hands and then at Michael first, then me. “You seem to favor this one, don’t you?” he asked.
I ignored him, realizing that he was just trying to provoke the guys and start trouble. We sat down around a table together, and there was a spread of meats and cheeses and filled wine glasses at each spot. I hated sitting at a table with my father. I’m not sure why, but it was one of the things I hated most. No one said anything as we waited to hear why he had invited us there. He stared around at all of us as he guzzled his wine and looked amused by our presence.
“So, tell me,” he said. I could already tell by the tone in his voice that whatever he was about to say would surely be repugnant. “Do you all sleep with my daughter at once, or do you take turns?”
Adam growled. “Why you son of a—”
I was surprised to see that it was Adam getting ready to lose his cool instead of Michael. Julian grabbed his wrist before Adam had stood up from the table and tried to take a shot at my father.
“It’s not worth it,” he said to him as Adam sat back down in his chair with his fists still clenched.
“Why did you invite us here?” Michael asked. “I’m guessing it wasn’t to gloat over your murder of my mother because then I would have to be the one to jam a knife into your throat tonight.”
My father did a pathetically poor job of acting sorrowful over Marta’s death. “Horrible thing,” he said. “She was a lovely woman.”
I reached my hand under the table and placed it on Michael’s thigh to keep him calm. I could feel the nervous energy surging in him, and the last thing I needed was for one of my guys to further provoke this nonsense.
“But no, that’s not the reason I invited you here. I wanted you to meet someone.” He motioned to the doorway, where someone had apparently been waiting.
My jaw dropped when the platinum-haired boy from my dream walked into the room. Except he wasn’t a boy anymore, he was a full-grown man. It wasn’t because of how handsome he was that my mouth hung open; it was because of the uncanny resemblance to the guy I had literally just dreamt about. I had the haunting feeling that I knew him from somewhere. I looked over at Julian, and I could see that he had the same reaction.
We both remembered him from somewhere, but I still didn’t know where.
The man walked closer, and Julian kicked me under the table.
“I know where I’ve seen him before,” he whispered. “He used to hang out with your mom.
“What?” I never remembered seeing any other kids around my mom besides Julian and me.
“Yeah, I’m sure of it now. He used to hang out in that shed behind your house.”
I was bewildered. But the surer Julian looked about it, the more the memories from my childhood started to crawl back into my mind as well. He was right; I remembered that boy too. I remembered that sometimes my mom and I would have him over for dinner and that sometimes we would put puzzles together on a blanket that my mom would spread out in the back yard. He didn’t come over too often, but sporadically throughout my whole childhood, I would see him every now and then.
How could I have forgotten about him?
I still didn’t remember his name, though.
“Everyone,” my father announced as he stood up and put his arm over the man’s shoulder. “I’d like you to meet David, my son.”
Everyone at the table stared at me as if I had some sort of prior knowledge of this, which of course, I didn’t.
“Your son?” Julian asked.
My father motioned David to sit down next to him.
“David,” my father said as he motioned to us. “This is your sister, Lisette, and her three lovers.”
“Careful,” Michael said in a low growl. “You invited us here, Jack, and we came. Let’s not make this messier than it already is.”
“Agreed,” my father replied.
“But I don’t have a brother,” I said.
It was impossible for me to wipe the look of shock from my face.
“You didn’t think you had a brother,” my father said.
“You and Pauline had a son?” It was obvious that Julian was having just as much difficulty accepting this to be true as I was. “Why didn’t anyone ever know about it then?”
“Pauline was not my mother,” David said. His voice was strong but quiet. His voice was the kind of voice that has been used to staying in the shadows for a long time.
“Then who was?” Julian asked him.
David’s eyes turned to Michael. “Marta was my mother.”
No one spoke for several long minutes.
“Oh yes,” my father said after a while, as if he had just remembered something important. “I guess that makes him your brother,” he said to Michael. “More importantly, your half-brother.”
Michael stared across the table at David, completely stupefied. Then he looked back at Jack.
“Did you tell him that you just murdered his mother?” Michael said aggressively.
“Yes,” my father answered. “And I also told him that he was the reason I killed her.”
My skin started to crawl, and I felt as though my nerves were going to explode if I didn’t get out of this room. Michael looked like he was going to jump across the table at my father at any moment. Everyone else looked like they were completely frozen in shock.
“You see, I just found out about David myself. It seems that they kept him a bit of a secret,” he glared at Michael. “Your mother took it upon herself to hide my son from me for all of these years. I had a son--an heir to my fortune--and she kept him hidden. When she came back after her little erroneous visit to you the other night, I had men follow her. She led me straight to him. He looks a lot like me, too, can’t you see the resemblance?”
