I take it and the bundle of papers from him and start scanning over the certificate. My name is at the top, only I stop short. “It says Henley Meadow Rivers,” I gasp, making both Tully and Noah stop what they’re doing and look over my shoulder, though I guess that would make sense. Gina might not have known my father’s surname at the time of filing the paperwork so went with her own.
I guess seeing it written that way was a little alarming and I guess, seeing as though it’s on the birth certificate, that’s officially my name. I don’t know how I feel about that.
I continue down, reading all the information that I thought I knew about myself. Which hospital I was born at, my birth weight. Hell, I even double check the date just to make sure dad had had it right all this time.
I‘m about to comment about how cool it is to finally have this document in my hand when I find myself stopping short once again. Someone else’s details are written where my fathers should be.
“What the hell is that?” Noah grunts, clearly seeing what I’m seeing.
Tully shakes her head. “That can’t be right.”
I stare at the words written before me, feeling absolutely sick to my stomach because right here in my hands, my official birth certificate is telling me that Anton Mathers is my biological father.
I shake my head. This can’t be. There has to be a mistake somewhere.
I hastily check over the other documents in my hand and gasp as I find a DNA report. I flip it open faster than I’ve ever flipped anything open in my life. There has to be a mistake here. Maybe she was wrong and jumped the gun on naming the father.
My eyes scan over the report, taking in every last detail. “No, no, no, no,” I panic, reading over it.
“What is it? What does it say?” Noah demands, grabbing the papers from me in his desperation to get some answers.
My body crumbles as my eyes fill with tears. Noah catches me a moment later, desperately searching my eyes. “Gina had a DNA test done. It dates right after I was born. Anton is my real father.”
Chapter 20
I pace back and forth across my living room. This can’t be happening.
Anton Mathers is my father.
No. I refuse to believe it; because if he is, that means my actual father, the man who has been there for me since the very beginning, is not mine at all. It means that Aria is not my sister and that Rivers is my full, biological brother.
This can’t be happening. Dad and Aria are the only true family I’ve ever had. They can’t be taken from me.
I’ve already suffered through learning that Kelly wasn’t my real mother, and now this? Has my whole life been a lie? Is anything I know and love real? Hell, maybe Noah is going to turn around and tell me that it was all a joke, that he never loved me, and that he’s leaving. That seems about right.
Anton Mathers is a monster. Just sharing the same DNA as him has covered Rivers world in darkness. I can’t have that. I’m already screwed finding out my real mother is a convicted criminal, now my father is a mobster who walks around pointing guns at teenage boys.
Fuck me. I can’t handle this shit.
My phone dings on the coffee table for the hundredth time. It will be a text from either Noah or Tully checking in with me again and making sure I’m not going off the rails.
Being alone right now probably isn’t the best thing for me. I should have told them to stay, but I wanted this time alone to panic. If they were here, they would have made me talk it through, they would have tried to make it alright, and I’m simply not there yet.
I need to scream. I need to cry. I need to throw a fucking hissy fit and smash a few things against the wall, and if my phone keeps dinging the way it is, that’s going to be the first thing smashed.
The only good thing that could possibly come from this is having Rivers as a full brother– everything else? I’m fucked?
What’s dad going to say when he finds out? He’s going to be crushed. Is he going to kick me out knowing I’m not his daughter? Am I going to be out living on the streets or moving in with Rivers? Good thing my mother is in prison; I could use her old room. You know, considering I clean up all the evidence of her prostitution ring.
Shit, what about Aria? She’s going to be devastated learning that I’m not really her big sister. She only just found us and now our family is already going to be torn to shreds. How is she ever going to get past this? Especially after all the bullshit she’s already been through.