“We could start there.”
“My sons were going through some papers and found your birth certificate and the restraining order against me. Did your mom tell you about that?”
Alec swallowed, his throat suddenly thick with too much emotion. He didn’t realize he had half-brothers. “She mentioned it. I didn’t know if it was true. She’s not exactly a beacon of honesty.”
He nodded and pulled some papers from his briefcase resting on an empty chair next to him. He slid the papers in front Alec. “Here. You can see it for yourself. You don’t have to take my words at face value.”
Alec didn’t move for a few moments, as he tried to convince himself he didn’t care, but in the end, his curiosity won out. He scanned through the documents, noting the accusations of threats of physical harm against him and his mom. Shrugging, he slid them back to Brad when he’d seen enough. “What do you want me to do? Give you an award for staying out of our lives and not challenging the lies in there?”
“No. I want you to understand why I stayed away. I had gotten married and my wife was scared and pregnant with twins, your brothers, and I didn’t want to put her through a bitter legal battle. It was a high risk pregnancy.”
Alec folded his arms across his chest and lifted one eyebrow. “Do you want me to say you made the right choice so you can be absolved of the shit my mom put me through?” He tried not to get so pissed that he couldn’t finish the conversation, but he didn’t need another person asking for forgiveness. First his mom and now the father who couldn’t be bothered with the fact that his bastard son didn’t have food to eat for days on end as a kid.
“No.” He dropped his head and a flush slid up his neck. “I just want you to know why I didn’t do anything when Jim died.”
“Great, and what about the years after Jim died when my mom didn’t come home for days at a time because she was too drunk or stoned to remember she had kids?” Alec slammed his hands on the table. “Or better yet, what about when I stopped by your house asking for money because my sister and I hadn’t eaten for days and your precious wife slammed the door in my face?”
Brad’s face paled. “I didn’t know about that,” Brad said, his voice low and shaky.
Alec scoffed. “Well then, you’re dumber than I thought. I shouldn’t have expected anything else, though. I mean who fucks their brother’s wife and then lets that same woman outmaneuver him with some bullshit restraining order? She was a fucking alcoholic, drug addict…give me a break.” He pulled out his phone and texted Violet to pick him up. This conversation was a dead end. He couldn’t stand the thought of spending another thirty minutes listening to Brad’s excuses.
“Cecilia wasn’t Jim’s wife when I was with her. She was always my girlfriend, not Jim’s, and even when I left for college, we stayed together, but then I came home one Christmas break and my parents told me that Cecilia and Jim had married.” He looked away, looking weary. “I get why she did it, but it hurt.”
“What?” He never heard any of that information before, but it made sense.
Brad took a deep breath, apparently fortifying himself. “I understand why your mom picked Jim over me and why she tricked him into believing you were his.”
Alec locked eyes with Brad, cocking one eyebrow, refusing to ask the obvious question hanging between them.
“I was in college, but I was a total fuck up then. I drank. I cheated on Cecilia. I smoked pot all day long. I barely passed my classes and I didn’t give a shit about anyone except me and my band.”
“You played in a band?” Alec asked, feeling a mixture of emotions rushing through him at the discovery that Brad played in a band once, too.
He nodded, but didn’t say anything further about his band. “I thought I loved Cecilia, but I didn’t…not really, anyway. We’d been together since the ninth grade. I took her for granted and assumed she’d be waiting when I was ready to clean up my act. Unfortunately, it took her marrying Jim for that to happen. Jim was my polar opposite. He stayed close to home for college. He was responsible and got good grades and he’d been in love with Cecilia for a long as I could remember. For her, marrying him was a no-brainer.”
“So why did you interfere?” Alec spoke in a low tone, feigning indifference.
“I didn’t realize you were mine until Cecilia drunkenly confessed it to me at my wedding. Two weeks later, I forced her to get a paternity test and I confronted her about custody the day after I received the results—the day Jim…died.” His voice dropped on the last word and sadness flashed across his face.