Page 75 of Shared By Her Brother's Best Friends

“He’ll come around eventually when he realizes how serious we are,” Mason adds.

The others murmur their agreement, and I reply, “I hope so. He’s my brother and I love him, but I don’t think I could give any of you up.”

“Good, because you’re stuck with us,” Jax says happily.

“I can’t believe that everything worked out alright in the end. There’s just one thing that’s still bothering me," I admit.

“What?” Ty asks with concern.

“It’s Jessica…”

“What she did to you was unforgivable!” Mason replies ever eager to rush to my defense.

“I know. But I also know how persuasive Adam can be, the lies he told her. She wouldn’t have willingly gone along with Adam’s plan, not if she knew he was just using her. I don’t doubt that he will have made up some lies about me being a bad mom too.”

“Well then, she’s an idiot if she believed him, any idiot can see what a great mom you are. Fuck, even the Child Protective Services people were embarrassed as all hell and immediately gave you custody of Max again once the police informed them of the situation,” Jax replies.

“I’m not explaining myself properly. What I mean is, while I am hurt and betrayed by what Jessica did, I can’t stopthinking about her poor kids and wondering what will happen to them.”

“Won’t they go to live with their dad?” Ty asks with a small frown of confusion.

“Honestly, I don’t know. He left Jessica for another woman when Lucy was still a baby and said he wanted nothing to do with her. He remarried and had kids with another woman and moved out of state. According to Jessica, they had an affair resulting in Ben’s conception. He immediately said he wasn’t interested and went back to his other family.”

“What an asshole,” Jax says with a snort.

“Quite. However, I can’t help now wondering if Jessica could have been lying… that maybe Ben is someone else’s son, and she didn’t want people to know…” I say, voicing the niggling thought I’ve been having.

“You think Adam could be Ben’s father?” Ty asks astutely figuring out where my mind is going.

I nod. “Potentially. I never met Jessica’s husband, but the whole story seemed a little off, not that it wasn’t believable, but she was always very guarded about the circumstances around Ben’s birth. She was very forthright about how he left after Lucy was born and how he had a new family and never got in touch or wanted to see her, but she was always vague about how it then came to be that they had another child that he also abandoned. I always knew she was in love with Adam, but now I know how he was manipulating her, I wonder if there’s more to it, if they’d had an affair and Ben is his. The boys look awfully similar, and we were living around here when I fell pregnant. It would alsoexplain why Adam wanted to move to San Diego once Max was born. Perhaps he felt guilty.”

“Or he was worried you’d start to suspect something or that Jessica would spill the beans,” Mason says icily, not wanting to give Adam the benefit of the doubt.

He’s probably right.

“Okay, so let’s say Ben is Adam’s, what do you want to do about that, if anything?” Ty asks.

“I’m worried that Jessica’s husband will deny him, that he won’t take him, heck he might not even agree to take Lucy on. Jessica’s parents died a long time ago and she was an only child, so there’d be no family left to care for them,” I explain, biting my lip.

“So they’d end up in the care system,” Mason states.

“Exactly,” I reply with a nod. “Those children are innocent in all of this. They’re great kids who deserve a loving home. I hate to think of them losing everything or even potentially being split up.

“So what can we do about it?” Jax asks in confusion.

I take a deep breath as I brace myself for what I’m about to ask. “I would like to ask about fostering or even adopting them myself. While I know I’m not responsible for Adam’s actions, those kids are like family to us.”

The guys take a second to process what I’m asking, and I almost backtrack before Mason answers first.

“I think that’s a great idea if they have nowhere else more suitable for them and the social services will allow us to, I’d happily help take care of them.”

“Me too,” Jax agrees. “I’ve always wanted a big family.”

Ty takes a second longer to reply and I know he must be thinking about how difficult it could be having an almost teenage girl in the house. Max might be close in age to what Danielle was when she died, but he’s a boy. Watching Lucy grow up and go through milestones that his own daughter will never get to experience might be too painful for him. My heart is in my throat as I await his response. I don’t want to hurt him or force him to do something he doesn’t want to, but I also can’t bear the thought of letting those kids down, of not doing something to help if I can.

“Yes, I’m in. Those children deserve a mother as wonderful as you,” he says before softly kissing me.

“Thank you, I don’t know how I got to be so lucky to have you all,” I say as tears of happiness spring to my eyes.

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