Victor spoke up. “Don’t keep us in suspense any longer. Tell us the tale.”
Vincent nodded. “I’ll start at the beginning, then. You may not know this, but when Delores and I started trying to have a family, there were problems. She had two miscarriages. When we finally found out she was pregnant, we were over the moon. Her personality was mercurial at times, so I worried a bit about the pregnancy, but if anything, it served as a mood booster. And each trimester was better than the last.
“When it came time to deliver, we headed for the hospital.” He paused suddenly and looked at Pierce and Nikki. “Victor and I lived in Charlottesville back then…Wolff Mountain didn’t come along until five years later…when both Laura and Delores were taken from us.”
Pierce nodded tersely. After Nikki had admitted to researching the Wolffs, Pierce had done so as well. He’d read the tragic accounts of the kidnapping during a shopping trip. Despite a ransom being paid, the two young Wolff wives had been murdered in cold blood. He shivered as if a ghost had flitted through the room. Had things been different, he would have lost his mother at a young age.
Vincent continued, the cynosure of all eyes. “The labor was long…as is often the case with first babies, but Delores did well. I was in the delivery room part of the time, because she wanted me there. But I stepped out often. Men of my generation were not as involved as dads are now. It was the one time when I keenly felt the fifteen-year gap between my young wife and myself.”
He smiled wryly. “Anyway, I had been in the hallway grabbing a cup of coffee when there was some kind of hubbub in the delivery room. Panicked, I went back in and saw that all the nurses and the doctor were laughing and even crying….”
He took a deep breath. Everyone around the table seemed to lean forward.
“We had twins,” he said simply. “It was a miracle. We were on the cusp of the time before ultrasounds were commonplace, and our doctor did not use them. During the pregnancy, one baby had hidden, as they call it, behind the other, so the doctor had only ever heard one heartbeat.
“Delores was in shock, as was I, but oh, the joy…” He wiped his eyes and blew his nose on a handkerchief. Tucking it back in his pocket, he continued. “The babies were born in the wee hours, so no family was with us at that point. We decided to save our news for the morning. And since we were exhausted, we sent the babies to the nursery for a little while so we could get some rest.”
His throat worked, and his eyes teared up again. “A few hours later, a doctor came into the room and told us that one twin had died. Only Devlyn was still with us.”
A hushed silence fell over the room. Devlyn fell back in his chair, his eyes wet. “I had a twin?” he croaked.
Vincent nodded. “Delores became hysterical and had to be sedated. Before she fell asleep, she made me swear not to tell anyone what had happened. She felt she wouldn’t be able to talk about it, and in her mind, since no one knew to begin with, it was better to erase that baby as if he had never existed. She begged me over and over, and I wanted to do anything to give her peace. So I promised. And I kept that promise until today.”
Victor, older by only a couple of years, stared at his brother. “You didn’t even tell me,” he said slowly.
“No. I knew you would feel obligated to tell Laura, and Laura’s compassionate heart would have bled for Delores. So it became our dark secret.”
Another of the men spoke up. Pierce identified him most likely as Larkin, Devlyn’s younger brother. “So why now? What’s going on, Dad?” Suspicion etched his face as if he seldom took things at face value.
Vincent continued in a somber voice. “Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from the doctor who was on duty that night. She’s well over ninety years old now, and she made a confession to me…a dreadful truth that she has carried with her for all this time.”
Pierce tensed as the words sank in. Gertrude had called the Wolffs? Stunned, he turned to Nikki. Relief cleansed the dark corners in his heart. She hadn’t betrayed him. Fast on the heels of that jubilant realization came intense shame that he had been so quick to accuse her. And grief, because she had faced so much rejection in her life and he had made her live through that hurt again.
Her smile was wry as he stared at her, speechless. He needed to get on his knees and grovel, but the most he could do in that moment was to reach for her hand beneath the table and squeeze it, because the rest of the assemblage was hanging on Vincent’s every word.
Bit by bit the old man told his sons and daughter and brother and nephews and all the in-laws the same dreadful tale that Gertrude had shared with Pierce and Nikki. The horrified expressions on the faces of everyone in the room were difficult to watch. Pierce had had a day and a half to process the ugly truth, and he was still having trouble.
One of Victor’s sons spoke up. He glanced at Pierce briefly. “I’m Jacob. As a doctor myself, I can hardly fathom what Vincent is telling us.”
Pierce felt the urge to explain, to try and stand up for his elderly great-aunt, but Vincent beat him to the punch. He told them about the flu epidemic and why a doctor ended up delivering her niece’s child. A niece she had raised as her own daughter. He echoed the old woman’s despair when that niece’s child died soon after birth.
Vincent was a natural raconteur, and the dark tale unfolded with mesmerizing effect. “Later,” he said, “there was an autopsy. The baby had died of a heart defect that was inoperable. It was amazing that he lived even for an hour or two.”
Devlyn shook his head, his hands fisted on the table. “He?”
“Yes. The third boy born that night was the one who died. Not your twin.”
Pierce tensed. Devlyn stared at him with eyes that held both grief and a dawning astonishment. “So this Pierce fellow…?”
Vincent inclined his head. “He’s your brother. He’s a Wolff.”
Pierce cleared his throat. “My parents don’t know the truth. My father is very ill. And the only thing my mother knows is that when I went to be tested as a kidney donor for my father, it was revealed that I am not his son.”
“Son of a bitch.” Devlyn pounded the table. “That old woman should be hung from the rafters.”
Pierce grimaced. “That old woman is part of my family.”
“Not really.” Devlyn’s glare caught Pierce off guard. He’d never thought of it that way—Gertrude wasn’t his relative at all.
Nikki put her hand on his leg, under the table where no one could see. Without speaking she telegraphed to him her concern.
Pierce inhaled sharply. “I don’t know what I am going to do with this information. My priority right now has to be my parents.”
“The people who raised you.” Devlyn’s rejoinder was sharp.
Surprisingly, Nikki spoke up. “Family is about more than blood,” she said softly, though her voice was strong and confident. “Pierce loves his parents very much, so whatever he decides to share with them will have to be honored by all of you. The secret remains in this room until further notice.”
Pierce realized that she was speaking now as his lawyer, and the irony of it almost made him smile. She was like a fierce mama bear protecting her cub. “I need some time,” he said. “This is a lot to take in. And I found out only today that my father has been matched with a donor and will have surgery next week.” He heard Nikki’s soft gasp.
Vincent interrupted, his demeanor exhausted. “There’s a bit more,” he said slowly. “And it affects you all.”
A hush fell. The three siblings who were Vincent’s offspring looked at him with guarded expressions.
He grimaced. “Delores never recovered from what happened that night. She started drinking, though she quit when she was pregnant with Larkin and then again with Annalise. But her mental state was not good. She had manic periods, and she refused to take any medications, particularly whe
n she found that she could carry other children.
“Though it hurts me to say it, she was never a good mother…not like Victor’s dear Laura. Delores blamed Devlyn, I think, for living when her other child died. Irrational, of course, but mental illness is like that. She made an attempt with Larkin and Annalise, but motherhood was too much for her.”
He lurched to his feet suddenly, and his whole body shook with violent tremors. “I know my children probably don’t believe me, but I never knew the extent of it. I didn’t know about the abuse. I swear I would have stopped her. I swear it.” He swayed as if he was about to pass out.
Victor rushed to his brother’s side. Giving Pierce a look of apology, he said, “He hasn’t been well. I need to take him upstairs.”
With the older generation gone, there was a moment of stunned silence. This time, it was Devlyn who stood. He walked to where Pierce was sitting and waited. Pierce got to his feet slowly, fully prepared to defend himself physically if necessary.
But in a move that was devastatingly unexpected, Devlyn Wolff grabbed him in a fierce hug and wouldn’t let go. Slowly, Pierce’s body relaxed. His own eyes damp with unshed tears, he allowed himself to be loved by a man who was his blood brother. Nikki had been right about him connecting to his birth family. He should have listened to her from the start. The sounds of muffled female sobs filled the room. But the tears were cathartic. God only knew where this would lead, but for now, it was enough to be part of the pack.
* * *
Nikki felt as if she had been ripped apart and reassembled with some important parts missing. Her chest ached and her eyes were gritty. Pierce seemed wrapped in a fog, and well he should be. It wasn’t every day that a man discovered a coterie of relatives, all eager to get to know him.
It was now after nine in the evening, and finally, she and Pierce were tucked away upstairs in an opulent guest suite. They had been given separate rooms, but Pierce had ignored what he’d told Vincent earlier about Nikki being a friend and had asked for the more intimate arrangement. Dinner had been served following Vincent’s disappearance. During the meal more questions had followed, everyone struggling to understand the entire sequence of what had transpired the night Devlyn and Pierce were born.
Pierce’s cousins were as involved as his brothers and sister. Gareth and his wife, Gracie. Jacob, the doctor, and his movie-star spouse, Ariel Dane. And Kieran with his Olivia. Pierce’s new sisters-in-law were kind and welcoming, too. Devlyn had married a quiet primary school teacher. Larkin, the closest to being a newlywed, had hitched his star to an heiress with a strong social conscience.
The hardest to read in the whole bunch was the beautiful Annalise, Pierce’s sister. She was the only woman who’d grown up in the testosterone-filled Wolff household, and she stared at Pierce as the evening progressed with a look that said she was both shaken and grief-stricken. Her handsome architect husband, Sam, kept an arm around her all night.
But at last the crew took pity on Pierce and let him go for the moment. Daybreak would bring more assimilation, but for now, the enormous house was quiet.
Pierce took his billfold from his pocket and laid it on the dresser. Kicking off his shoes, he stretched and yawned. The commonplace actions restored a sense of balance to the universe.
Finally, he turned and stared at Nikki, his face etched with fatigue. “I don’t know how you’ll ever forgive me for being such a jackass, but I hope you will. I’m so sorry, Nikki.”
She sat on the edge of the king-sized bed and leaned back on her hands. “I could hardly believe me, either. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that Gertrude would do what she did.”
“I think after we forced the truth from her, she must have been desperate to clean the slate.”
“Perhaps.” Nikki cocked her head. “How are you feeling?”
He shrugged. “Shell-shocked.”
“Any regrets?”
“Tons. Starting with the fact that I was so mean to you.” He sat down beside her and took her hand in his, linking their fingers on his thigh. “It’s no excuse, I know, but part of the reason I was so angry was that I was scared shitless, if you’ll pardon my language. I’ve never in my life been in such a situation. And honest to God, I didn’t know what the right thing to do even was. I’ll tell my parents the truth as soon as my dad is stable after the surgery. It won’t be easy, but I know I have to.”
“Yes,” Nikki said quietly, her heart aching for him.
“Truth be told, if you had been the one who spilled the beans, I should have thanked you, because all of this…” He trailed off, his profile pensive as he stared at the floor.
“You’re happy and sad and confused and concerned and you haven’t a clue how to go forward.”
He shot her a grin. “How did you know?”
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “A lucky guess. You’re a lucky man.”
“I know,” he said soberly. Without warning, he moved off the bed onto his knees, this time taking both of her hands in his. He looked up at her, and suddenly it was all there for her to see…his heart, his emotions…wide open.
“I was a bastard, Nicola Parrish,” he said, the words gruff and low. His deep-brown eyes were filled with pain and regret. “You deserve a better man. I screwed up the best thing that has ever happened to me. I was so damned determined that I didn’t need anyone, but God, Nikki, I need you. All you ever did was try to help me, and I shoved you away. I’ll regret that until the day I die. I am so very, very sorry. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. And since I seem to have an overabundance of family, I’d be honored to share them with you.”
Nikki sniffed, refusing to cry anymore. This day had run the gamut, and she was all cried out. Pierce had laid his heart at her feet, and his genuine contrition healed the broken places in her soul. “That’s about the nicest offer I’ve ever received. And I do forgive you, my love.”
He sucked in a sharp breath, as if her answer had pulled him off a ledge. “And what if I add a marriage proposal to that? We can figure out the D.C. thing, I swear.”
She blinked, her heart beginning to thud slow and hard. “You’re overwrought,” she said. “Don’t do anything rash. And besides, I already told them I’m not coming.”
“My God,” he said hoarsely. “Why?”
“I couldn’t leave you,” she simply. “I didn’t want to.”
He paled. “So you were willing to take a chance on me, and then I tossed you aside?”
“Don’t beat yourself up. It wasn’t all about you. I decided I wasn’t cut out for high-stakes legal practice in the seat of politics. Though it was flattering to be asked.”
He bent his head and exhaled audibly before lifting his chin and meeting her eyes with his. “I love you.” He said it simply. Fervently. As though he’d been waiting forever to speak those three syllables in just that way.
“You do?”
He nodded, smiling. “And you love me, too. Why else would you have showed up today and walked with me into the lion’s den?”
Freeing her hands, she ruffled his hair. “Prurient curiosity? Billable hours?”
He tugged her arm, tumbling her off balance until she landed on the soft carpet beside him. Leaning over her, he cupped her breast, stroking it until she felt her belly curl in pleasure.
They were both fully clothed. But suddenly the room felt too hot for anything but bare skin. She licked her lips. “Shouldn’t we get undressed?” Her heart pounded in her throat and her mouth was dry as cotton.
“Maybe later.” He grinned wolfishly, rebounding with impressive speed from his exhaustion. Shoving her skirt to her waist, he unzipped his pants and settled between her legs. But his face fell as he realized he had no protection. He groaned, his erection nudging urgently at her belly. “Unbelievable.
I propose to a woman and I can’t even seal the deal.”
Nikki giggled, reaching into the side-seam pocket of her dress. “Lucky for you, I’m a planner.” She extracted two condoms and laughed out loud at the look of bemusement on his face.
“Thank God for that. I’ll never complain about your OCD ways again.” Sheathing himself quickly, he returned to the spot where they had left off.
When he entered her slowly, her breath caught. “I do love you, Pierce. I should have said it before.”
“You’re a cautious woman. Nothing wrong with that.” He rolled to his back, taking her with him, settling her legs on either side of his hips. The new position hit nerve centers she never knew she had.
She braced her hands on his chest, already feeling the first ripples of an intense orgasm. When he grabbed her hips and thrust wildly, they both toppled over the edge in unison, their cries mingling as their bodies clung to the last vestiges of release.
She slumped on top of him, boneless, spent, so incredibly dazed with happiness. She thought Pierce had fallen asleep until she felt words rumble from his throat.
“I never imagined I’d fall for a lawyer.”
She shivered as her skin cooled and the night waned. “Well, I guess that’s okay, ’cause I never thought I’d fall for a millionaire.”
He pinched her butt. “That’s billionaire,” he said with a teasing grin. “And as soon as I can manage it, I’ll put a tastelessly large diamond on your finger to prove it.”
She kissed his throat, loving the way he groaned when she raked him with her teeth. “The zeroes aren’t important. All I need is you.”
“I guess that makes us a family, then.” He kissed her nose. “And just so you know, I’m going to want to see those hot-pink high heels you told me about…in the very near future.”
A Wolff at Heart Page 16