And now everyone gasped while the woman got even paler and started to shake. He raised his voice even louder like he did in a courtroom to project. “Seems like I’m the only one who knows this, so let me share a deep, dark secret. My parents gave me up for adoption when I was born. They are Sue Lancaster and Bob Lemmon.”
From the look of complete shock on Bob Lemmon’s face, Nolan finally believed that his biological father had had no idea that he had another son.
Sue shook her head as tears filled her eyes, the eyes she’d genetically passed onto him and he onto his children. “I wish you hadn’t done this…” Tears trailed down her face. “Not like this…”
He’d only met her twice. The first time had been nearly a year ago when he’d finally decided to figure out why he’d been given up for adoption, why nobody had wanted to keep him. First his biological parents, then his wife.
He hadn’t told Sue his name then, or anything about himself. He’d wanted answers, not to answer any questions himself. And then, several weeks ago, when Sadie Haven Lemmon had started digging around about him, he thought he’d better give his biological mother a heads-up that her secret was probably going to come out.
“I gave you the chance to tell him if he hadn’t known,” he reminded her.
“But I didn’t know if he knew or not…” she whispered.
“I didn’t know,” Bob said. “I had no idea…” He kept shaking his head like he still didn’t believe it.
“I paid your assistant to get something with your DNA on it,” Nolan admitted. “I can show you the results if you need proof that I’m your son. Your oldest son.” He glanced at Brett then to see how he was taking the news that he wasn’t the firstborn anymore.
Brett looked as stunned as his father. Not upset or mad. Just surprised.
The only person who looked mad was Frankie Dempsey. But that would probably be the way she always looked at him. She shook her head. “This was a real jerk move even for you, Stokes,” she said.
And then he finally saw himself how she was seeing him, as someone who’d snuck around and stirred up trouble and had now caused a big scene at a party for her very pregnant cousin.
He’d been so hurt and angry over his wife leaving not just him but their children, too, that he hadn’t been thinking clearly. His kids’ pain had affected him most, and he’d blamed himself for it, for the reason they’d been abandoned. Something had to be wrong with him or with the people who’d brought him into this world. And he’d let his anger build, not with his wife, but with his biological parents, with Sue Lancaster and with Bob Lemmon.
But now that he could see more clearly and see what he’d done, he had to admit that Frankie Dempsey was right. He was a jerk.
No wonder his wife had left him and that he had no friends and family. Except he did have family…
Nearly everyone in this house was related to him by blood or marriage. And now he had probably just alienated every single one of them just as he had Frankie Dempsey.
Yet, for some reason, alienating her seemed to bother him most of all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Brett couldn’t figureout what was the biggest shock. Finding out that he had an older brother or the fact that Trish had been willing to give up her share of the ranch to protect it from her mother and her ex.
Blake and Liam had both offered to do that at some point in the course of the will being contested. But then they had both felt a bit strange to be inheriting at all since they hadn’t worked at the ranch as long as he had. Trish, on the other hand…
He knew how much the ranch meant to her. That it was the place where she’d made her happiest memories and it was the place where she wanted to raise her children. She wanted to give them the childhood she’d wished she’d had. And she wanted to share that experience with other kids through her camps.
She didn’t just love the ranch; it was everything to her. Her safe space from her mother, from criticism and pain. And she’d been willing to give it up to keep it safe.
“Are you okay?” she whispered to him.
He shook his head. He wasn’t okay. He was so in love with her that he could barely breathe, let alone think. She was the kindest, most generous person he’d ever met. And he didn’t want to lose her.
So he just kept hanging on to her, their fingers entwined. She kept him anchored and calm as the revelations kept coming. He was more worried about his dad than he was himself. It was clear Bob had had no idea he’d fathered a child with his prom date all those years ago.
And then, after dropping that bomb on all of them, Nolan Stokes just turned around and walked out of the room. Someone rushed out after him. Maybe Frankie.
Sadie and Lem might have, too.
He couldn’t see them, though. He saw only Trish as she turned toward him and rose on her tiptoes. With her free hand, she touched his jaw that he hadn’t even realized he was clenching.
“Are you okay?” she asked again. “I am so sorry. I had no idea…”
Neither had he. He’d never been in love before, but he was now. And he finally understood why his brothers had risked their hearts like they had. It wasn’t as if he had a choice, though.
