by Law, Kim
“But thanks to Arthur, she had to give that up. He wouldn’t acknowledge a child with her, and he promised ostracism if she so much as uttered his name. He wanted her gone. If she’d stayed in DC, he assured her that her choices would be limited. He’d used her, and he was done with her.
“He did offer abortion, as I understand it, but that wasn’t an option for Mom—thank goodness.” He winked at the horrified expression that came to Cat’s face, but kept on going. “So she told no one, and she came home. She’s been teaching at the community college ever since. She’s happy—and she has been for years—but it infuriates me that Arthur changed her life that way. And that he had zero remorse in doing it.”
Brody wrapped an arm around Cat and held her close. “Not to mention having nothing to do with me,” he added. “Mom never talked about my father. I didn’t understand why at the time, but I accepted it. He was someone she’d previously worked with who had chosen not to be in my life. That was all she’d ever say about it.”
“That must have been hard,” Cat said. “Not to know more.”
Brody nodded. “It was. I was curious. But I was also mad. Why didn’t he want anything to do with me? And deep down, I wondered if it was the fault of my mom. Maybe he had wanted me, you know? But she’d chosen not to let him?”
Cat squeezed his hand.
“I know,” he agreed with her unspoken comment. “I shouldn’t have doubted her.”
“You were a boy, and you had no dad. Of course you’d wonder. Any kid would.”
Her support warmed him.
But she was wrong. He should have had more faith.
If he had, he and Cat may not be in the situation they were in today. He wouldn’t have sought the man out.
“I found a picture when I was sixteen,” he told her. “It was from the time Mom worked in DC. It was her with Arthur Harrison and another guy. Arthur Harrison was a senator in Washington by that point, and the other man was a guy my mom had known since college, Clark Trent. Clark lives in Boston and works for the New England Political Science Association. Very intelligent guy.
“I’d met him a few times in my life, and we were friends.” He shrugged. “As much as you can be friends with your mother’s friend. But we got each other. We had a lot of the same likes, and he was one of the people who encouraged me to work hard in school. He’d even offered to help with college entrance essays when the time came.”
“You thought it was him?”
He nodded. “Made sense to me. And that hurt. Clark had come around my whole life. Not all the time, but consistently through the years. He’d show up to visit Mom, but he always made time for me. Yet he didn’t care enough to want to be my father? That did not make sense.”
He shrugged again as if none of it mattered now. But he’d wished so many times Clark had turned out to be his dad. “So I headed off to confront him,” he stated.
A laugh rolled out of him as he remembered that day. The look on Clark’s face.
“I confronted him all right.” He glanced at Cat and placed a quick kiss on her upturned mouth. “He didn’t seem all that surprised to see me, but he did manage to surprise me. He introduced me to his life partner.” Brody shook his head in fond remembrance of that day. “Clark was most definitely not my father.”
Cat made a small O with her mouth, humor in her eyes. But the humor disappeared as she somehow figured out what he had yet to say. “But he knew who was?”
Brody nodded. “Told me to go home and ask my mom. But I didn’t need to. The minute he looked at the picture I’d brought with me, I got it. My real father was the other man in the photo. Arthur Harrison. At the time I found out the truth, Arthur was up-and-coming. Had a kid, married for fifteen years. He had the ideal life.”
He paused long enough to let his mind really settle into that time. He’d been angry. But he’d also been hopeful. Maybe once Arthur met him in person, he’d see that they were family.
Brody felt like a chump, even today. He never should have gone to DC.
He forced a curve to his lips, but he didn’t look at Cat. And his smile was stiff. “I didn’t go home and ask Mom. I got back in my car, and I headed south that night. The car barely made it. It was such a piece of junk.”
“The car you have now?” she asked. “You said it was the first car you’d owned, right?”
Remembering her early description of his car, his smile turned real. He ran his hand up her arm. “Yeah. The car I have now. The ‘red one.’ ”
She grinned at his teasing, and he had to force himself not to kiss her again.
She held his heart in her hands, and she could either squeeze the life out of it or she could make him the happiest person on earth. He didn’t want to give her that power, but she had it. That scared him.
He turned his attention back to the open doors beyond the foot of the bed. “I had to stop at an auto shop on the other side of New York,” he said, remembering that trip and the pleading he’d done to get the service guy to cut him a break. “Took the last cent of the money in my pocket, but he got it running good enough to get me the rest of the way. When I got there, it was dark. I had no idea where to go, so I slept in my car. I showed up at Arthur’s office the next day.”
Cat’s gaze was on him, he could feel it. But he didn’t turn to her.
“By this time, my mom was frantic. I’d called her the day before and left a message but hadn’t talked to her myself. I’d intentionally called when I knew she would be out. Of course, I didn’t get that particular earful from her until I talked to her days later.” And he had gotten an earful. Until she’d learned where he was.
“I went to Arthur’s office the next morning but was stopped by his receptionist. Senator Harrison was much too busy,” he mimicked the snotty woman who’d been behind the desk, “but she’d be glad to give me a signed photograph of the senator as a thanks for my support.
“Please,” he ground out. He rose from her bed. “I didn’t want a photograph of the man. I knew what he looked like.” Brody pointed to himself. “He has my eyes. I saw it the instant I knew who he was. It infuriates me. I don’t want to look like him. When I told the receptionist to let him know that Annabelle Hollister’s son was there, his schedule suddenly opened up.”
Cat peered up at him from the bed, her hair wild around her face and her eyes as scared as he’d felt that day. “What happened?”
“At first there was denial,” he said. He grabbed the ridiculous leggings off the floor and stepped into them, realizing he stood there naked. “Claimed he didn’t know what I was talking about. I presented the facts. I told him to look at my damned eyes. I told him when I was born. Seven months after my mother quit working for his father.” He swallowed and nodded, then crossed to the open doors. The sky was growing lighter. “He relented. He believed me. But he claimed he’d never known anything about me.”
“That’s what you wanted to hear,” Cat said when he paused.
He nodded. Guilt washed over him. His mother had built her life around him and he’d doubted her.
“Over the next few days, I met his wife and son,” he continued. “I stayed at his house—as Thomas’s friend. It was made clear that I was to tell no one who I was. Not yet. They had to figure out the best way to share the good news.”
He turned to face Cat, anger raging. “It was bullshit. The man went for two weeks acting as if he was happy to know about me. Told me to my face that my mother had kept me from him. He made me hate her. By this time, I wanted him to be my father. And I was willing to shun my own mother for her part in keeping him from me.”
He rammed his hands into his hair, pulling on the ends before letting go and clenching his hands into fists. “He bought me a car,” he gritted out. “A brand-new Mercedes.” Gullibility had never sat well with Brody. “It was a hell of a lot better than the piece of shit I was driving. I even let him
get rid of the old car for me. No need for me to bother with such trivialities.”
His laugh that time was harsh, and he saw Cat cringe with the sound.
“The reality was, my piece of shit was parked in Arthur’s driveway. It was presenting the wrong image with his million-dollar home.”
Cat nodded as if she got it. And she probably did. Her world revolved around the image she and her family presented.
“So what happened?” she asked.
“He suggested I move in. We could make it permanent.”
Cat’s eyes widened. He’d been an idiot to believe anything Arthur Harrison had ever said to him.
“I went home to pack my bags. Mom didn’t explain things at that point, but we argued. A lot. She kissed my cheek before I left, and told me she loved me. I hurt her that day. I said ugly words to her. But I didn’t let that slow me down. I hopped in the car and arrived back in DC before Arthur was expecting me. I found him in his study with his personal assistant. They were discussing the best way to present me to the public. What would win him the most support? He was a wronged man, you know? Had never even known he had another son. It was a gold mine of an opportunity.”
Brody shook his head in disgust. His jaw clenched. “Then he said something which took me a few minutes to digest. He said, ‘Send Annabelle another check. The first one kept her quiet for sixteen years.’ ”
Cat put her hands to her mouth.
He pressed his lips together before finishing. His chest swelled with his breath. “ ‘If he’s going to be my son,’ ” he continued, his voice breaking, “ ‘then Annabelle can’t be involved. Double the amount, and tell her she no longer has a son.’ ”
“He’d known about you all along,” Cat whispered. She rose from the bed. Naked. But he barely registered the fact.
“Of course he’d known,” he spat out. “And I was an idiot for not getting that.”
“You were sixteen. You wanted your father to love you.”
“I should have known better.”
She reached for his hands. “He hurt you, Brody. That’s on him. It’s not your fault.”
“I’d gotten rid of my car for this guy.” The pain in his chest pissed him off. He didn’t care enough to be hurt by this man any longer. “I’d worked afternoon jobs for three years to save up for that car, and I gave it away without a blink.” He clenched his fingers in hers.
“You left then, right?”
“I couldn’t stay.”
“What about Thomas?” Cat asked.
“That was the hard part. I was suddenly an older brother. I loved that. As an only child, you couldn’t have given me a better present.”
“But you wouldn’t have been able to see him after that. Not after you confronted Arthur.” She sucked in a breath. “You did confront Arthur?”
“Oh, yeah.” He nodded. “I let him know in no uncertain terms what a piece of trash he was. He still tried to save himself. Pointed out how much better my life would be as a Harrison. All I had to do was keep my mouth shut. No one could ever know that he’d known about me.”
Brody released her hands and stooped to pick up her gown. He pulled it over her head, caressing the silky material into place, and he let himself kiss her then. He needed to feel the goodness of her on him.
When he pulled away, her eyes swam in tears. She reached up and cupped his jaw.
“I came home and asked my mother about what he’d said,” he told her. “Had she taken money from him? She had. She’d used it to buy our house. Didn’t want us to ever have to worry about needing a place to live. She hadn’t come from money. She had a degree and a job, but unless I wanted to go to community college, the job wouldn’t pay for an education.”
“You didn’t ask Arthur to pay for school?”
“Absolutely not. I walked out of that man’s life and never looked back.” His body went stiff as he thought about the only other time he’d stood in front of Arthur. The experience had made a lasting impression.
“Until my fucking ex tricked me into talking to him again,” he said quietly.
He turned away, gripping the doorframe at the top and stretching his body forward. He needed to go for a run.
“What do you mean?” Cat asked behind him. Her hand landed on his bare back and he stiffened. “How did she do that?”
Brody closed his eyes and rushed the words out. “We met in college, I told you that. She had big goals, and she needed to be in Washington to achieve them. I was opposed at first, but Thomas was there. He was at Georgetown. So I got a job at the university, hoping to get some time with him and actually build a relationship.”
“Had you two talked at all over the years?”
“A handful of times. After he got his license we met once a year. As friends, of course. We couldn’t tell anyone we were brothers. Now that I look back, I think the idea of having a brother bothered him as much as it did Arthur.”
Cat went silent. When she finally responded, Brody knew she got it. She stepped around him so that she faced him. “He was already looking down the road to politics?”
He studied her, seeing understanding. Both his father and his brother had rejected him. “Couldn’t have a bastard brother in the closet.”
“But it wasn’t his fault.”
“Didn’t matter.” He shook his head. “He’s his father’s son.”
“That hurts.” She said the words as if it hurt her.
He nodded. “I get it, though. It’s what he grew up with. I grew up with my mother and I’m a lot like her. My values are hers.” He shot her a tender look. “You grew up with your mother.”
She nodded in understanding.
“I might have even figured all this out years ago. About Thomas. The signs were there, I just didn’t want to see them.”
“So you kept trying?”
“I kept trying.” He lowered his hands to put them on her. His palms curved around her shoulders. “I wanted a brother,” he told her. “In some small way, that would have made Arthur’s rejection okay. If Thomas cared.”
She stared up at him, and he suspected she could see the rest. He let her see it. “You still want him to love you,” she said softly.
“I know he’s like Arthur. I get that. Yet I can’t help but hope he’s not completely like Arthur, you know?”
She went silent as she watched him. Finally she spoke. “That’s understandable. And it’s okay to want that.”
“It’s weak.”
“It’s your brother.”
He eyed her quietly, trying to decide if he really wanted to show her how pathetic he was. Hell, why stop now?
“My brother slept with my fiancée after we broke up,” he said stoically.
Cat went silent. Her eyes narrowed into thin slits.
He told her the ugly truth about his ex.
“She wasn’t aware that Thomas and I were brothers, but she did know an in into national politics when she saw one. And every single time I met up with Thomas, damned if she didn’t manage to show up too.”
“I hate her already.”
He gave her a wink. “So one night I told her who my father was.”
He tried to turn away then, but Cat didn’t let him. She brought his face back to hers, and he saw the concern in her eyes. She cared about him, he could see that. As deeply as he cared about her.
Swallowing his fear, he kept going. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it at the time, but the gleam that came into her eyes that night, it was like a bull preparing to charge. She started in on me not long after, wanting me to go to this fund-raiser. I didn’t want to go. Not that I didn’t support the cause, but the word was the Harrisons were big backers.”
“And you hadn’t talked to Arthur since you were sixteen?”
“Hadn’t laid eyes on him.”
“But yo
u went to the fund-raiser?”
“I went to the fund-raiser. For my fiancée. And the next thing I knew, she had me in front of Arthur, demanding an introduction. She was aware I wouldn’t cause a scene. I was more reserved around her. Always did the right thing. I even dressed differently when I dated her.” His jaw tightened with disgust. “I didn’t see any of that at the time.”
“She wasn’t the right person for you.”
His laugh was hollow. “Clearly.”
“So what happened next?”
“Next . . .” He closed his eyes and went back to that night. Arthur Harrison’s green gaze had turned to ice the instant it had landed on Brody. “He was ‘happy to see his son’s long-ago friend,’ ” Brody explained, as he opened his eyes and looked at Cat. “ ‘It had been too long.’ ”
“He recognized you?”
“Sent his admin to my office the next day. With a check.”
Her jaw dropped. “He tried to buy you off?”
“What can I say? The man likes to write a check.”
“And Devan. What happened there?”
He told her the rest of the story. Devan’s new job for his father. Brody’s ultimatum.
Devan’s choice.
“Oh, Brody. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I think I was looking for an out, too. Didn’t realize it at the time. Things weren’t going well with Thomas, Devan and I were more roommates than a couple, and I was living in a town which raised my blood pressure every time I stepped outside my front door. I didn’t belong there.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I belong here.”
“You do seem to fit in here. People love you.”
He wrapped his arms around her, wanting her in his arms, and sighed at the feel of her body pressed against his. “I love them, too,” he murmured. “It’s a good place.” He kissed the spot between her eyebrows and asked, “What about you? You ever thought about moving away from Atlanta?”
“Me?”
The shock in her eyes pricked at his heart. He didn’t let that show. “It would be easier to be out from under your mother’s thumb if you weren’t there,” he suggested, then carefully added, “if you wanted to be out from under your mother’s thumb.”