Page 19 of Culmination
She watches in silence as I cross to the nightstand, holster my gun, and throw my phone into my back pocket. The moment I move to pass her to exit the room, a gentle hand touches my arm, stopping me in my tracks.
Eyes the color of the water on the emerald coast on its calmest day meet my gaze. They’re not the same color as mine, but the rest of her features? It’s uncanny. It’s almost like staring into a fucking mirror, and as much as I want to look away, I just can’t. I’m captured, and for the first time, I see beyond her beauty. Faint lines crinkle at her eyes, and when her mouth is turned down, the weariness shows. Despite the luxury she’s accustomed to, life has still been hard for her. It’s enough—almost—to keep me here. But my fervent need to find Brie is too strong to continue wasting time.
“I would’ve never given you up if I’d had any other choice.” She lets out a small laugh. “I can’t believe Theo still managed to find his way into your life, whether he knows it or not.”
That stops me cold. “Do you think he knows who I am?”
“I wish I could tell you, son. But I do believe he has his suspicions, meaning it’s only a matter of time…”
I’m not your son.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to correct her, and I think she notices, because she quickly continues.
“The Theo Morningstar that I knew knew everything. There wasn’t a thing I could do, a place I could go, a person I could interact with that he didn’t know about. The fact that I got out still shocks me to this day.” Another scoff. “I guess the only authority Theo realized he shouldn’t cross was royalty.”
She must see the question in my eyes, because she squeezes my arm and leans in close. “I couldn’t have taken you with me. If you were with me on the island, I’d have had to watch over my shoulder every second of every day. He’d have stopped at nothing to find you. He already had one of my sons in his grasp whom I couldn’t save. I couldn’t allow him to have you, too. So I decided that it was better for him to have thought I lost the baby. That way, he’d never think to look for you. But I did, Raphael. I chose the Matthews for a reason, knowing they’d bring you up to be a kind, compassionate man, and they promised to keep my apprised of your upbringing. There wasn’t a single day I didn’t think of you. A single day I didn’t love you.”
A lone tear drops onto her cheek and I have the urge to wipe it away for her. But I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to comfort a strange woman who just told me that not only am I her son, but my enemy, the man who wants Brie for himself, is my brother.
How the fuck do I reconcile that?
And then it hits me, rocking me to my core.
I tell myself that it doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter. Fuck, I share blood with the man who killed her father. With the man who’s toyed with her for two years only to kidnap and nearly kill her. And now, her baby—our baby—shares that same blood, too?
How in the fuck am I going to tell Brie?
CHICAGO.
I love this city. I forgot just how much since I’ve been away. The sights. The sounds. The smells. Just walking down Michigan Avenue is like coming home, and if I weren’t in such turmoil over my spat with Rafe, I’d be in heaven.
How could he think I’d return to Adrian?
Yet I was with him, so is it really that out of bounds that Rafe’s rampant, paranoid imagination would go there?
How did I ever get myself into this mess? And more importantly, how am I going to get out of it?
For starters, Brie, get out of your damn head and forget it all for a while.
That’s precisely what I intend to do.
I start heading towards the Art Institute of Chicago, wanting the comfort of feeling close to my mom. I’m halfway there when I stop myself. It’s one of the first places Rafe will look.
When I plop onto a nearby bench, my mind wanders. Just a few short months ago, I was blissfully unaware that my boyfriend, the man I thought I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, was the son of the man who killed my parents. Who would’ve killed me if he’d had the chance.
I think about Adrian and the way we met and it’s hard for me to believe that it was all contrived. It was all part of some higher plan. He hadn’t pursued me. I mean, sure, it’s not like I made it hard on the guy, but in the beginning, and until just a few months ago, he was gentle with me. Kind. Domineering in bed, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but out of it, he was my rock.
Or so I thought.
It’s all so confusing now.
And what about Rafe? Everything he’s done has been to keep me safe. So he says. How is it that I believe him when he tells me that? That I believe he lied to me to protect me.
Isn’t that what Adrian claimed?
I blink away the tears clouding my sight. Rafe lied to me about his job, not his feelings. I know, deep down in my soul, he loves me. He loves our baby. With Adrian, he may think he loved me, or that he still does, but it was all a game, even if he doesn’t want to admit it.
So I stand, take a deep breath, and rise from the bench. I want to go back to Rafe—I do. I just… I can’t.
