Vera pulled a small face and Ewan felt his stomach twist. If Callum suspected there was a chance he wasn’t his son … he wouldn’t love him the way he’d loved Arran.
‘Then who’s my father?’ he asked, a surreal feeling passing through him. That was something he’d never thought he’d be asking his mother.
‘A man named Ian. He and I were old friends. Your father could be quite … difficult at times,’ she said quietly. Floss exchanged a raised eyebrow with Ewan over their mother’s head. ‘Your father—Callum,’ she corrected quickly, ‘had a terrible relationship with his own father. He was a reprobate, treated Callum’s mother terribly. Callum was trying to save the estate, and all his father was worried about was keeping his mistress happy with expensive cars, jewellery and holidays. He could see his inheritance slipping away, and he had a family to support.’ Her words faded. ‘He was so angry all the time, stressed and miserable. It’s no excuse whatsoever, but I didn’t realise how much it also affectedme. I stopped going into town, I stopped visiting friends and family. I couldn’t connectwith my husband. I was feeling so lost. Then, one day I had to go into town on an errand and I bumped into Ian. It started off innocently enough, with just an occasional chat here and there. He made me feel like me again. Then, one day, I agreed to meet him for lunch and … that was the last time I saw him. I realised I was making a huge mistake and I ended it there and then. There was some talk around town at the time, but it died down. That’s why I think Callum may have suspected something, but he never brought it up. I couldn’t hurt him by telling him the truth, I just couldn’t. I was a coward, I know, but my family means everything to me and I was determined to make it work. I think, in the end, it actually brought us closer together. Something changed in both of us from that point. If he’d ever asked me about it, I would have told him,’ she said with a sincere look on her face, ‘but everything was somehow better, and I guess neither of us wanted to ruin that. So we just went on like nothing had happened.’
‘Except now you’re telling me, after all these years, that the man I thought was my father isn’t,’ Ewan said, removing his arm from her shoulders and sitting forward.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, reaching her hand out to touch his arm.
Ewan stared at the hand on his arm before shaking it off and standing, pacing the floor.
‘Does my real father know about me?’
‘No,’ Vera said softly.
‘He’s still in Scotland?’ Ewan asked.
He saw his mother open her mouth slightly, before hesitating, ‘He died in a car accident a few months after I found out I was pregnant,’ Vera said, fresh tears falling. ‘So you see why there was no point in telling anyone.’
Ewan felt a crushing weight against his chest. He’d never get to meet him.
‘Oh, Mum,’ Floss said sadly, squeezing her mother’s hand. Ewan saw her send him an equally sympathetic look, but he was numb. This was all too much—none of it seemed to be soaking in. Every new piece of information was just bouncing off him, leaving small dents.
After a cup of tea to help soothe the rather emotional afternoon, Vera put her cup down and let out a long breath. ‘Right. Well, I’m off home to speak with your father.’
‘You don’t have to do this,’ Ewan said, looking at his mother’s defeated face.
‘There’s no point not telling him now that you know the truth. And after what he did to you and Kenzie,’ she said setting her shoulders straighter, ‘he brought this on himself.’ ‘I don’t want you to do anything that’s going to destroy the family,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t affect me. I knew when I left before that was the end of things here for me. I’m okay with that. I never wanted this place the way Arran did, and I honestly could never work alongside Dad again. So not being part of it? I’m okay with that.’
‘He’s just blustering as usual. There’s no way on earth I would allow him to write one of his children out of the will.’
‘But I’mnotone of his children,’ Ewan said.
‘You’ve always been his child. He’s just not a man who trusts his own emotions. He wasn’t brought up in a loving family and he’s never dealt with Arran’s death. I tried to get him to open up, but that’s not the way he is, and I fear it’s too late to change him now.’
After their mother left, Ewan said, ‘It’s kind of ironic that Dad and I have finally found something in common. He’s about to get the same news as I got on that DNA report. Maybe I should take him over a beer so we can commiserate.’ He gave a self-deprecating grunt.
Floss raised an eyebrow as he sat across from her, but didn’t say anything.
‘At least it explains a lot,’ Ewan said quietly. ‘He and I never got on, even when I was a kid. We never connected.’
‘He didn’t make it easy for anyone to connect with him. It wasn’t just you,’ Floss pointed out gently.
‘He never had a problem with you,’ Ewan said with a small smile. ‘The little princess.’
She gave a small grunt. ‘Yeah, and he never took me seriously about anything. The only reason we got the vineyard up and running was because he put Joe in charge and would only let us have the land if it was run under Laire-Mor’s umbrella. It will never truly beourvineyard.’
‘At least he let you follow your dreams.’
‘You know, just because he isn’t your biological father doesn’t mean you two don’t have a lot in common.’
Ewan sent her a raised eyebrow in return.
‘You’re as stubborn as each other. That’s why you don’t get on; he could never bend you the way he did most people. He never found that one thing that he could hold over you to make you toe the line. With Arran, it was always this place and his need to prove himself worthy of taking it over. He got me with the winery, knowing how much it meant to Joe and me to run our own place. But he could never get to you.’
‘Until now,’ he said quietly, taking a long sip of the beer Floss had opened for him, allowing the bitterness of the yeasty brew to spread across his tongue. ‘He took away my kid and any future I was planning with Kenzie.’
‘He certainly threw a spanner in the works,’ Floss acknowledged with a grimace. ‘But he doesn’t have the power toactuallytake your future with her and Poppy away.’
