The Billionaire’s Secret Wife(59)
The part of him that went out and fixed things wanted to grill her until she told him everything. Then he would know what to do. But the empathetic part could see that whatever had happened must’ve been pretty traumatic, and so it would be better to wait until she was ready to talk.
One thing he knew: whoever had hurt her was going to pay. People always said it was Barron who had no sense of proportion, that he was the meanest and most vengeful son of a bitch on the planet. They had no idea. Justin hadn’t just learned from the old man, he’d surpassed him. Just because he kept his claws and fangs hidden didn’t mean they weren’t there.
“I met…my half-sister,” Vanessa said finally.
He frowned. It was no secret her family had a half-brother named Blaine, who was Salazar’s by-blow with some woman in Tennessee. “Blaine has a sister? I thought he was an only ch—”
“No. It’s not Salazar’s. It’s”—she inhaled and exhaled—“hers. My mom’s.”
Justin looked up at the ceiling, thinking Uh oh…
“Her name’s Peggy. My new half-sister.”
He’d always known Ceinlys had lovers. Not that he’d ever blamed her for that—Salazar was the worst kind of playboy and would’ve driven Mother Theresa to cheat on him. But Justin had thought Ceinlys would be more careful. She had a lot more to risk by cheating. The prenup she’d signed ensured she’d lose everything if she misbehaved.
“So…this woman just looked you up out of the blue?” he asked.
“Not exactly. She wants some money.”
He sighed. He should’ve anticipated this and created a way to insulate her from greedy acquaintances and so on. People were going to know—already knew, in fact—that she was married to him, which to them was like winning a jackpot. Money brought out all the roaches. “I’m sorry. I hope you told her to contact my lawyer.”
She snorted. “I don’t know your lawyer. And I thought she was Dad’s, so I wanted him to take care of her. She says her mother has cancer.”
“Let me guess. She wants you to pay for some expensive chemotherapy. Or no, wait…some new kind of experimental drug. One that costs a lot because it’s not in mass production yet.”
She turned around. “That’s pretty cynical.”
A frown was pulling her eyebrows together, and he put his forefinger on the spot. “Because honey,” he said gently, “that’s always how it is. So what happened?”
“Dad told me she wasn’t his kid because he’d never slept with anybody in Provo, the city where she’s from. He also said”—her breath hitched—“I wasn’t his.”
“What?”
“He knew about Mom’s affairs. He had a vasectomy after Shane was born. He said there was no way I could be his, but he looked the other way because he didn’t mind ‘another mouth to feed.’”
If Vanessa hadn’t needed him right then, he would’ve driven back to the Pryce mansion and beaten the crap out of her father. Salazar Pryce had lost the right to judge and say cruel things the moment he’d decided to cheat on his wife. Everyone knew he hadn’t even tried to be faithful. He’d started banging other women within a year of the marriage.
Vanessa’s gaze lowered. “He told me to get out. But it explained so much about how he’s treated me.”
“Was he nasty to you?” Justin asked, mentally starting a list of Salazar’s sins.
“It was more like he was always…preoccupied whenever I was around.”
“Bastard.”
“I thought maybe he was busy. I mean, he already had four rambunctious boys… Anyway, I think I was just in shock when Dad told me.”
“Do you want me to take care of your sister?”
“What do you mean by ‘take care of’ her? Don’t ignore her or send her away. She might be telling the truth.”
“Even so, I don’t like opportunistic parasites.”
“She might be desperate to save her mom. I don’t blame her.”
Justin sighed. “Okay. Let me check her out. If she’s who she says she is and her mother really has cancer, I can see about helping them. But if not, I’m going to make sure she never bothers you again.” It wouldn’t end at that. He would make sure she paid for causing Vanessa pain.
“Okay. Her cell phone number is in my purse. She wrote it on a napkin.”
Justin nodded.
“And Justin?”
“Yeah?”
She reached out and took his hand, twining their fingers together. “I’m glad you’re with me.”