“What business?” Beau asked.
“Correcting a few mistakes,” Tolliver said.
“Will you just answer me?” Dash’s papa demanded.“Why,Tolliver? Why is it there?”
“Because you’remyson, Aspen. Not my brother’s.”
Dash stopped breathing for a few seconds, blinking.
“You’re misremembering again, Grandfather,” Quinn said.
“No!”Tolliver roared, jabbing the floor with his cane. “I am not!”
Silence settled over them.
“I havenotcompletely lost my mind yet. While I still have use of my faculties, I need to fix the mistakes of the past.” His watery gaze drifted to Aspen. “Your parents were not a fated pair. They were a match made by my parents for political gain. There wassomeaffection. At first. But it waned with time and they grew somewhat adversarial over the years. Your papa eventually asked for a dissolution of their mating. My brother asked me to convince him to stay. We didn’t need a scandal. What happened next was worse than what the dissolution would’ve caused.”
Dash’s head swam. He walked closer to the bench seating and sat as far from Tolliver as he could while continuing to listen, Emerson moving with him.
“Your papa was beautiful and I was weak,” Tolliver said to Aspen. “We began an affair we had no business having. I thought myself in love and so did he. Months later, during one of his heats, he told your father he was going to one of those retreats, but we met in secret instead. I knew I shouldn’t, but I wanted him. And I took what wasn’t mine. The following month, he didn’t go into heat and he came to me, in a panic.”
Tolliver sighed. “I secured medicine to help him cover it up and fake another heat with my brother the next month. And then I ended our affair.”
“You used him until you got what you wanted—and then ran from the consequences of it,” Dash said.
Tolliver stared at him, silent a few seconds. Ultimately, he nodded. “I could lie and attempt to escape your contempt, but I won’t. That’s exactly what happened. I convinced him to remain in his loveless mating and allowed my brother to raise my son because I didn’t want a scandal.” He turned to Aspen. “My brother learned of it years later and it nearly destroyed their relationship—which had somehow warmed after our affair. I sometimes think that was because of their shared love for you, Aspen.”
Dash eyed his papa, whose eyes were filled with tears.
“My brother was a better man than I was. Always had been. You were better off with him,” Tolliver told Aspen.
“I know something bad had happened. There’d been shouting and anger just before they left for Miamian. Was that why they left to work on their relationship? Daddy had learned about you cuckolding him?”
Tolliver nodded. “Yes.”
“They never made it back from that trip, Tolliver!” Aspen roared.“Their bloodis on your hands.”
Tolliver’s gaze shone. “Yes. Yes, it is.”
“You brought me into your home, called me your nephew, and raised me in their stead. Why did you never tell me the truth?” Aspen asked. “Now, before you die—that’swhen you finally toss this grenade into our laps?”
“I had my will changed with inheritances for you all, which I planned to tell you if you’d come to me. By changing your birth certificate, Aspen, you and your sons can inherit without question.”
“Keep your damned blood money!”Aspen roared before storming off.
Dash’s father rushed after his mate.
Dash eyed Beau and Quin. They all looked to be in a state of shock.
“Grandfather, are yousureyour memory is as clear as it should be?” Beau asked.
Tolliver reached into the inside jacket pocket of his suit. A small diary was clutched in his hand when it came back out. “This was Aspen’s papa’s. There’s proof inside that he and I had the affair and that he’d gotten pregnant by me.”
Dash scoffed. “You should’ve told Papa long ago.”
“After it came out, I’d made a promise to my brother to never tell Aspen. It was part of the agreement he and I made in order to move forward.”
“He died,” Dash said. “You could’ve told Papa.”
