“Charles set it up. Decided it would be good optics for her to attend with someone from an established family.” Jace’s hands clench into fists. “She agreed.”
“She said it was just as friends,” Cal adds, not looking away from his screens. “That it wasn’t a date. But?—”
“But Charles thinks Ryan might be the father,” Jace finishes. “Of one or both of the boys. He asked Cal to dig into their paternity. Find out who Noah and Liam’s father is.”
Ice floods my veins, followed immediately by fire. “He what?”
“He’s concerned about optics,” Cal says, and there’s something bitter in his voice. “About Parker being back after six years with twins and no explanation. He wants to make sure there’s nothing problematic about their paternity that could be used against her.”
“So he asked you to invade her privacy? Dig into her medical records without her knowledge?”
“Pretty much.” Cal’s fingers start moving again, code scrolling across the screen. “And I’ve been trying to break through her firewalls to access the twins’ medical records.”
The admission makes my vision go red.
“You’re doing it?” My voice comes out dangerous. Low. The tone that usually precedes violence. “You’re actually fucking doing it?”
“I don’t have a choice!” Cal spins in his chair to face me, and there’s genuine anguish in his amber eyes. “If I don’t, Charles will just find someone else. Someone who doesn’t give a shit about her privacy or her feelings. At least this way I can control what he sees, how the information is presented?—”
“At least this way you betray her trust before someone else can?” I take a step into the room. Then another. “That’s your fucking justification?”
“Silas—” Jace starts.
“No.” I turn my anger on him. “You’re okay with this? You’re just standing there while he hacks into Parker’s life?”
“I’m not okay with any of this.” Jace’s voice is tight. “But Cal has a point. If Charles wants this information, he’ll get it one way or another. Cal doing it means we have some control over the situation.”
“Control.” I laugh, sharp and humorless. “You think we have control? Parker is going to a gala with Ryan Matthews—a man Charles apparently thinks could be the father of her children.Cal is breaking into her medical records. And you’re justifying it because at least we’re the ones betraying her?”
The words hang in the air like smoke.
“What would you have us do?” Cal demands. “Tell Charles no? Refuse? And then what—he gets suspicious, starts asking why we’re so protective of Parker’s privacy, starts digging into our relationship with her?”
“I’d have you tell Parker the truth,” I snap. “Tell her what Charles asked. Let her decide how to handle it. Instead of going behind her back like she’s a fucking target instead of the woman we supposedly love.”
“I do love her,” Cal says quietly. “That’s why I’m trying to protect her.”
“By lying to her?”
“By making sure that if Charles finds out the truth, it comes from me, us, and not some stranger who’ll use it against her.” Cal turns back to his monitors. “I’m not looking for dirt, Silas. I’m looking for answers. And if one of those boys is mine, yours, Jace’s, we have a right to know.”
“You have a right,” I repeat slowly. “What about Parker’s rights? What about her choice to keep that information private until she was ready to share it?”
“She’s had six years to be ready,” Cal shoots back. “At what point does her need for privacy outweigh our right to know if we’re fathers?”
The question hits harder than I want to admit. Because he’s not wrong. We’ve been patient, waiting for Parker to open up, to trust us with the full truth. But every day that passes withoutanswers feels like another day of being kept at arm’s length, another reminder that maybe she doesn’t trust us as much as we trust her. I know neither of the boys are mine. There’s no way, but?—
“This is about Ryan Matthews,” I say finally. “Charles plants the seed that Ryan could be the father, and suddenly you’re both spiraling.”
Jace’s expression darkens. “He said Ryan’s been helping Parker while she was in California. That he’s been in contact with her, checking in. That maybe there’s history we don’t know about.”
“And you believe him? You know that’s bullshit.”
“I don’t know what to believe,” Jace admits. “Parker agreed to go to that gala with him. She’s kept the boys’ paternity secret for years. What if there’s a reason for that? What if?—”
“What if you’re both being fucking idiots?” I cut him off. “Parker chose us. She’s stayed with us. She’s trying to build something with us. And the first time things get complicated, the first time someone suggests maybe she’s not completely ours, you both fall apart?”
“That’s not fair,” Cal says.
