“Whatever you tell me, I won’t judge you. These things can be complex.” She rested a hand lightly on his knee.
He placed his hand on top of hers, and she waited patiently while he gathered his words.
“When I went into the military, the Army accepted all my paperwork initially. But after a few months, I was called into an administrative office. There was a problem with my birth certificate.” It must have been obvious that she didn’t know what that was because he added, “That’s an official Earth document that proves your parentage and where you were born.” When she nodded her understanding, he said, “Mine was a forgery.”
“What?”
“That’s what I said. And the records keeper showed me how the document I had did not match up with the records from the county where I was born. There were other things. The certificate wasn’t properly embossed with the county seal. They’d tried multiple times to get an official copy, thinking it was just a mistake, but there was no record of my birth… anywhere.”
“Oh, Liam, that must have been confusing.”
“That’s the understatement of the year. I had no choice but to go to my mother to clear things up. But she couldn’t. In fact, when I confronted her, things became far more complicated. She told me to drop it and offered to have their lawyers speak directly to records administration, but I couldn’t let it go. I could tell she was hiding something. So I went to my father and asked him for the truth. He was never a kindhearted man. Always the type that enjoyed the kill a little too much. He couldn’t resist telling me the truth, and he made no effort to soften its sharp edges.”
He stopped talking and rested his head against the back of the seat to stare at the roof of the carriage.
Charlie didn’t want to push him, but she lifted from her seat and moved to his side of the carriage, taking his hand in hers. It was a tight fit with her wings, but she perched on the edge of the seat and waited in silence.
He took a deep breath before adding, “My father had an affair with one of our housekeepers. Actually, it was more than one, I’m sure, but this particular affair resulted in a pregnancy. My mother threatened to divorce him, but he held all her financial assets. He had complete control and a team of lawyers to back him up. And my mother had wanted a baby. I’m the oldest child. Spencer and Kara weren’t born yet. So my dad came up with the idea of paying this poor woman to cut all ties with the outside world and deliver me in secret on Morris property. My family’s private doctor delivered me, and Dad’s lawyers created the fake birth certificate when the doctor refused to lie on the real one. After she delivered, my mom was paid off to never speak of me again and was released from her position.”
Charlotte had to force herself to swallow. She couldn’t imagine having a child effectively stolen from her arms. No wonder Liam carried such awful feelings about his father.
“By the time I knew her name, my real mother was dead, and so was the doctor who delivered me. No one else knew. Not even my siblings. And of course my dad said if I told anyone, he would deny it. His lawyers made a new birth certificate happen after the Army started sniffing around, this one registered correctly with the county. I have no idea how much that cost him.”
“Gods, Liam, I’m so sorry.” She squeezed his hand and wrapped one wing around his shoulders.
He finally met her eyes. “The worst part was that I lost both my parents that day. I despised my father for what he did, but I also lost my mother. Not because we didn’t share the same genes. I didn’t care about that. I lost respect for her. She’d lived with my father’s cheating my whole life. It was so clear to me then, the things you remember as a kid but don’t put together until you’re older. And she’d gone along with his plan. She’d even made a photo album with staged pictures of a fake pregnancy and my first day home. The lie was… elaborate to say the least. And because of that, I never even had the chance to meet my own flesh and blood.”
“No wonder you didn’t choose to honor his death. How hard it must have been for you. He put you in a place where you had to redefine your identity and then abandoned you to do it on your own.”
Liam nodded. “I’m sure you can understand why I don’t like to share about this.”
“I understand. Especially to someone like me whom you’ve only known a matter of days.”
He snorted. “Days. It feels longer, doesn’t it?”
She nodded slowly. “As if we’ve known each other for years.”
“It’s the strangest thing.” Their eyes locked and held. When he finally looked away, he said, “I struggle, now that he’s dead, with how involved I want to be with the rest of them. As complicit as she was, my mother had little control over the situation. She was at his mercy like everyone else. And my siblings didn’t know anything at all. Maybe, now that he’s gone, I should give them another chance. She requested I come this year for Christmas, said she had an important announcement. I’m considering it.”
She studied him for a moment, heartbroken by the sadness that seemed to plague him. “I can’t possibly tell you what to do in this situation, Liam, but I know if you look into your heart, you’ll find the right answer.”
He nodded. The carriage came to a halt, and the driver opened the door.
“We’re here,” she said softly.
They exited into the streets of Hobble Glen, but he refused to release her hand. “As excited as I am to explore this town, you owe me a secret.”
Chapter
Fifteen
The village of Hobble Glen was something straight out of a Tolkien novel with slate-roof cottages and stone masonry. The layout reminded him distantly of Paris, with a central square and streets that branched off in a pie shape, the village circling out toward the mountains in the distance. But as quaint and fascinating as the architecture and civic layout was to Liam, his notice of it was fleeting. He was far more fascinated by the woman at his side.
Telling Charlotte he was the bastard son of a megalomaniac was something Liam had dreaded, but somehow he felt lighter having done so. In all his life, he’d never told anyone about his parents. The only one left alive who knew besides himself was his mother. But somehow, now that Charlotte knew, it felt more real, like this illicit story of his origins had meaning. It mattered, he realized. Over the years, the truth had begun to feel like something he’d made up, a vivid dream that he couldn’t shake. Saying it out loud gave it credence, and he’d needed that more than he thought he did.
“My secret feels shallow now that I know what yours is,” she said. “I almost hate to tell you for fear of trivializing your situation.”
He yanked her to his side and smiled against her ear. “Oh no. You’re not getting out of this that easily. I want to know no matter how trivial.”
