Page 80 of If You Were Mine
I swallowed hard before chugging the rest of my beer. “Dad left it to me because I kept his secrets while he kept mine.”
Nobody said a thing and I knew they were letting me breathe. Finally. “Dad had more than one mistress, not just Constance. He slept with dozens of women all over the world. I don’t know how he found the time, but he did.”
“He was always a bastard,” Flynn growled.
“Completely. But this is one of the places that he would meet women. Usually from the resort. He’d pick them up, bring them here. Then one day Joshua and I came out to play in the small creek in the back. It was between two Cage houses, so we just walked over the land like we owned it.” I snorted. “I just didn’t realize that Dad did own it.”
“He made you keep that a secret?” James asked and shook his head. “What exactly did you walk in on?”
“They were in the yard fucking against a tree. Because that’s exactly the image I wanted to see.” Bile coated my tongue, and I went for another beer. “Fucking against the tree out in the open and Joshua and I just walked past. I thought he would kill me. He looked so damn angry, that vein on the side of his neck bulging. He pulled up his pants and I was so startled, I was like a deer in headlights. And when he caught me by the neck and shoved me into another tree, I just laid there. Joshua had run off because he thought I was right behind him. He eventually came back, but thankfully Dad didn’t hear him. I met his gaze and tried to tell him not to do anything because it was just Dad.”
“If he wasn’t dead, I’d kill him again,” Aston snapped.
“You’d have to take a number,” Hudson said so coolly that right in that moment, I knew Hudson would kill a man if he had to. Maybe he already had.
I swallowed hard, trying not to relive the fear that had slammed into me when I’d been younger. “He threatened me, said he’d beat me and take my money, that I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone.”
“But Mom already knew about the cheating. Was it because of a scandal?” Flint asked, sounding utterly confused.
“Later I learned that Mom knew about one mistress, not the rest, and that would’ve endangered the company. They didn’t have a prenup,” I said.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Aston snapped. “There was paperwork for Mom.”
I shook my head. “There was the postnup, which is apparently a thing, and that’s what the lawyers confused us with. The postnup is what allowed Dad to keep a mistress and keep the secrets. And why Mom is so fucking annoyed with the way that the trust is set up now, about how we have to have dinners and shit once a month, because hers is all twisted up in that. I’m so glad I’m not a lawyer.”
“Damn straight,” Flint growled.
“I’m so sorry he threatened you,” Aston said as he moved forward, but I stiffened. “What else?”
I met their gazes and swallowed hard. “I would’ve found a way to tell you guys, but you used to suck at keeping secrets. But then he told me something else.” They didn’t say a thing, and Lucky leaned against my leg. I ran my hand over his head, taking comfort from the love of Harper’s life. “He told me that he wasn’t the only cheater. That Mom cheated too.” I looked up at each one of my brothers and met their similar gazes. “Mom cheated just like Dad did, and I was the result.” For a moment it was so silent you could hear a pin drop and then everyone roared at once.
“What the fuck?”
“She has to be lying.”
“You look like us.”
Countless things were thrown at me, and I just set down my beer and rubbed my temple. “I have the DNA test. I’m not a fucking Cage. Yes, Loren Cage is on my birth certificate, but I have no idea who the hell my biological father is.”
“So that’s why Mom acts the way she does,” Hudson snarled, letting out a breath “Because you’re the one she feels isn’t touched by Loren.”
I nodded. “It’s sick, twisted, but that’s it. I’m not even a Cage. The other Cages? The girls and Kyler? We don’t share any blood. That’s the bombshell. I’m a half of a half at that point. However the math works for it. I’m not a Cage. After all this, I’m not a fucking Cage.”
I tried to move past Aston, but instead he gripped my shoulder and glared at me. “Stop it right there. We are not Loren Cages. He can go fuck himself. The only reason that we even started doing these dinners was to save the company and this town. Not to deal with whatever megalomaniacal issues that man dealt with. But we are all family, all of us. The girls and Kyler? They’re not our halves. They are siblings just like you. Fuck whatever the others say.”
“I’m just going to let Aston continue this, because yes,” Flynn said, throwing up his hands.
“Why the fuck are you keeping up with this house then?” Ford asked, his voice low.
“Because I need to fix something. Everything’s just breaking down around me. And I don’t know, I thought maybe if I fix this, it would all just go away, and I wouldn’t have to worry about the fact that I’m not even related to the girls and Kyler.”
“You’re our brother, that’s who you are. Fuck genetics.” Hudson shrugged as we all stared at him. “Fuck it. I’m twins with this asshole over here, but I act more like James and Ford than anyone,” Hudson added after he pointed towards Flynn.
“We’re all different and we all look very similar,” James put in.
“But I’m not even Loren Cage’s son.”
“Maybe you’re better off,” Theo said dryly. That made me laugh and the others joined.
