Page 61 of A Billionaire Gentleman

I glared at him, but his mild gaze never wavered.

“My PI found her at a club in Vegas, but she was never a stripper.” His tone was even and calm, grating on my raw nerves. “Yes, I hired her to turn your interest from Aurelia, but sex wasn’t part of it. And it hasn’t been a job to her since she stepped foot on the plane to come here. That’s real.”

“Bullshit!” I snapped. “I can’t believe you did this to me! To Aurelia! What the fuck?! Whatever your problem with me is, why did you bring her into it like this? Why didn’t you just talk to me?!”

He stood, something that looked an awful lot like guilt on his face. “Life is rarely as simple as it seems.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He sighed. “It means that I was caught between a promise I made and watching my grandson – who I love, despite what he’s thinking right now – make a horrible mistake.”

I shook my head, confusion adding to the mix of my chaotic emotions. “If you thought Aurelia and I were moving too fast, you could’ve just said so.”

Grandad walked over to the cabinet where he kept a couple bottles of expensive alcohol. “Would you like a drink?”

“I don’t want a drink. I want answers.”

He nodded, as if that was the answer he’d expected. “Cautioning you to slow things down wouldn’t have fixed anything.”

“Why not?” I was getting tired of playing twenty questions.

He poured himself two fingers of some scotch that probably cost more than my car and drank half of it in one go before turning back to face me. The distress on his face shocked me, but I couldn’t let this go. I had a right to know why he’d done what he’d done.

“She’s your sister.”

I sank down on the couch, knees suddenly weak. “What?”

He sighed and came over to sit next to me. “Aurelia is your half-sister.”

“Dad–”

Grandad shook his head and drank the rest of his scotch. “Your parents went through a rocky patch, and at the time, Ronall and his wife were having some problems too. Your mom told me it started innocently, with them confiding about their marital problems, and they became close. Too close. The affair lasted a couple months, but they both ended up deciding that they wanted to save their marriages. They ended things, and the Kanes moved away.”

My head spun. This wasn’t possible…but I couldn’t find a reason why he’d make any of this up. He and my mom had always gotten along. He wouldn’t be telling me about this if it wasn’t true.

“When Cheryl found out she was pregnant with you, she came to me for advice. She told me about the affair and that Ronall was the father of the baby. Of you.”

My dad wasn’t my dad.

I was going to throw up.

“She didn’t want to lose Walter, and I knew if he found out, he’d leave her and take your brothers. It would destroy her.”

Half-brothers.

Each new revelation changed my world even more.

“Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, but I told her not to tell either man. To raise the baby as hers and Walter’s. I promised I’d keep her secret, but I never imagined that Ronall Kane would come back here, let alone have a daughter.”

He stood up and went back to pour himself another drink. This time, he brought one back for me. I took it in one gulp, coughing as it burned its way down. Probably a waste of good scotch, not savoring it, but I didn’t need it for the taste right now.

“Who else knows?” My voice was hoarse.

“Cynthia knows that I encouraged a relationship between you and Sofi, but not why.” He hesitated, and then added, “Sofi knows.”

“She knows,” I repeated dully.

“When I first told her what I wanted her to do, she thought I was a horrible person, wanting her to break up an engagement.” He held out an envelope I hadn’t seen him pick up. “So, I showed her this, and she realized why it needed to be done.”

---