Shewasn’t enough.
Or perhaps, his demons were simply too great.
Either way, maybe it was time to finally admit they were not meant to be together…and love wasn’t meant to be this hard.
“There’s something else I need to tell you.” Letting herself fall back onto the mattress, Joanna stared at the ceiling where a leak in the roof had turned the plaster a dull yellow. Mold was beginning to grow along the edges. But then, that was what happened with problems when they were not addressed. They didn’t disappear. They didn’t vanish. Instead, they grew larger and larger, until they couldn’t be ignored.
Like a family secret left to fester.
Or a detective who refused to acknowledge what was right in front of him.
“What is it?” Evie asked, sitting on the corner of the bed.
Joanna pushed herself up onto her elbows. “I don’t know how you’re going to react.”
“Let me decide that,” said Evie. Then she gave a small gasp. “Is it the ring? Kincaid mentioned he had a lead. Has he found it?”
Joanna bit her lip. “Not exactly…but he knows who has it.”
“Who?” Evie demanded.
“Perhaps I should start at the beginning.”
“You’d best startsomewhere, or else I’m likely to die of anticipation.”
“I don’t think people can die of anticipation.”
“Jo.”
“All right, all right. Give me a moment,” she grumbled. “I’m still figuring it out myself. It seems Mother’s affair wasn’t just with anyone. According to our great-aunt—”
“We have an aunt?” Evie interrupted. “When did we get one of those?”
“A great-aunt,” Joanna clarified. “Lady Ellinwood. She is our grandmother’s sister on Mother’s side. We’ve never met her because she has never left England. She married a viscount, who has since passed, and is the guardian of Miss Rosemary Stanhope, our cousin. Or second cousin. Third, maybe? I am not sure how that works, to be honest. At some point, we’re going to need to write this all down.”
“What happened to Rosemary’s parents?”
“They died, I assume.”
Evie frowned. “People tend to expire quite frequently in our family, don’t they?”
“So it would appear.”
“At least we had a viscount for a while,” Evie said optimistically. “That’s exciting!”
Just wait, Joanna thought silently.
“During Mother’s stay in London, it seems Lady Ellinwood was privy to many of the intimate details about her life, including her affair with my birth father.” Joanna paused. She was not trying to be deliberately climactic. She merely needed a chance to gather her thoughts. To center herself around the enormity of what she was about to reveal. Because once she spoke the truth out loud, there would be no taking it back. No undoing what was about to be done. And even though answers were what she’d sought when she’d come to London, these were not theonesshe’d been expecting.
How could she?
How could she possibly have anticipated that thiswaswhere her searching would lead? To a great-aunt and a cousin, to a father and a grandfather, to ahalf-brother. She had a half-brother! A half-brother who was as much a part of her blood as Evie or Claire.
A half-brother who had set this all in motion when he took what wasn’t his to take.
It was ironic, really.
If he hadn’t stolen the ring, none of this would have happened. Coming to England. Falling in love with Kincaid. Discovering the identity of her birth father. In an obscure way, the Earl of Hawkridge had foundher.
