The man has the decency to cringe, and I don’t think it’s at my flat sarcasm.
And let’s be real.
That’s exactly why I’m afraid my plan won’t work.
It’s why I need the triplets’ help.
They need to convince the board that they’d be a problem and make my father look like a problem. Without that—without that, I need a new plan.
And I don’t like my options. Not when it’s taken four years and a dose of luck to get this close.
“They might want money from you,” Rhys says.
“I have plenty. I also have the capacity and proper positioning to make plenty more. Why wouldn’t I share with siblings who didn’t have the same financial advantages I did?”
“If that’s true, why are you lying to them about who you are?”
“Seriously?”
“If you’re not worried they’ll ruin your family, and you’re not worried they’ll want money, then why lie?”
“I have trust issues in personal relationships.”
“No shit. What else?”
“Trust issues are enough of a reason where I come from.”
“Like you didn’t have them investigated to dig up all the skeletons in their closet before getting within a hundred miles of them.”
He’s not wrong. “Do you like your stepsiblings, Rhys?”
His eye twitches. “We’re not talking about me.”
“So long as you’re threatening to blackmail me, we are. Do you like your stepsiblings?”
There’s something delectable about making a man’s jaw go tight and his lips flat. “No.”
“Do you have any family that you like?”
“No.”
“Do you ever wish you did?”
“You don’t like your family?”
“I adore my sister. Fuckingadoreher. She’s funny and unpredictable and strong as hell and she has the biggest heart of anyone I know. Why wouldn’t I want to get to know more people who might be like her?”
“While lying about who you are. Great way to build a relationship.”
He shoots, he scores.
I spent too many hours debating if I’d tell them who I really am while I was laying the foundation to come here and meet them. If there was a way to be fully honest from the start where I wouldn’t be at risk of tipping my hand on what I’d ultimately be asking for or freaking them out at where their genes came from.
Of my father finding out where I am.
In the end, I decided it was better to risk the triplets hating me forever when they find out who I really am than it was to risk that it would get back to my father that I was with sons he didn’t know he had.
The only way my hostile takeover works is if he doesn’t see it coming, so I have to do this the slow and steady way.
