“Does Mia know about this?”
Anthony stared without saying a word, and dammit, Bronson knew.
How the hell could she keep something like this from him? Maybe this really was some scheme devised by Anthony and Mia.
The mother of his child.
One crisis at a time.
“So now what?” Bronson asked, turning to his mother. “I hope you don’t expect me to accept him as my brother. I never liked him before, and I sure as hell don’t like him now.”
“Bronson,” Victoria’s soft, smooth voice cut through his anger. “Nobody is asking you to do anything. The truth is out there, now we just have to deal with it.”
“The truth?” He laughed. “If Mother had been so worried about the truth, she would’ve told us years ago.”
“And disrupt the only life Anthony had ever known?” Olivia interjected. “I made my choice to give him a better life, and I wasn’t going to push my way back in. I couldn’t afford to tell anyone.”
“All these years Bronson and I feuded were hell on you, I’m sure,” Anthony said to Olivia.
Olivia’s eyes filled, and one tear slid down her aged cheek. “It was torture to see my children always at odds.”
“This isn’t happening,” Bronson muttered to himself. “This cannot be happening.”
“I assure you,” Anthony said. “I’m no more thrilled that we’re related than you are.”
Bronson walked to his mother, angry at her for keeping something so…life-altering from him all these years, but at the same time heartbroken because he couldn’t imagine giving up a child.
“Mom.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I honestly don’t know what to say here. I want to be angry with you, but I can see you’re at war with yourself. I can’t welcome him into the family. I just can’t.”
Olivia sniffed against his polo and nodded. “I know, son. My only wish is that you two will cease this feud and at least try to get along.”
Bronson doubted that would happen, but he’d appease his mother. “I’ll do my best.”
He eyed Anthony over his mother’s shoulder. The illegitimate brother stared back, a knowing look passing between them. Anthony wasn’t any more eager to have Bronson for a brother, and that was perfectly fine.
Because this whole brother thing was a non-issue as far as he was concerned. What was a concern was Mia. The woman he’d made a baby with, trusted and started falling in love with.
She’d betrayed him even more than his mother—though he hated to call what his mother had done betrayal. She’d given up the child nearly forty years ago and had reasons for keeping it a secret.
Mia, though, had known from the second she’d stepped out wearing only a towel that he was Anthony’s brother. And she’d never said a word. Never even hinted at the fact.
Bronson eased back, keeping an arm around his mother’s shoulders. “What did you promise Mia for keeping silent about this?” he asked Anthony.
“Nothing. I asked her to keep this to herself until I had a chance to talk to Olivia.”
Bronson laughed. “And she just agreed to it?”
The muscle in Anthony’s jaw ticked, his dark eyes narrowed. “And here I thought you knew her. You know nothing about Mia if you have to ask that.”
That’s exactly what Bronson was beginning to see. Just how well did he know Mia?
He knew her body better than she did. He knew she lit up like a child at green M&M’s. Her culinary skills were amazing, and she kept the locket with a picture of her parents around her neck at all times so she could always have them with her.
That much he knew.
What he didn’t know was how deep her love for Anthony ran—platonic or not. He didn’t know if she truly had an agenda as far as he and his family were concerned and the pregnancy threw a wrench in her plans.
At this point he knew nothing except his life had just done a one-eighty and now his worst enemy was his brother and a woman he thought he knew was carrying his child.
“Leave Mia out of this,” Olivia said. “If she knew, then I’m even more impressed with her for keeping this to herself.”
“Impressed?” Bronson wasn’t impressed at all right now. He was angry, hurt, betrayed. “After all she and I have been through, she should’ve told me.”
“Loyalty is something Mia prides herself on,” Anthony said. “And even though right at this moment you’re angry with her, she’d be just as loyal to you if you asked her to keep something to herself.”
Bronson turned toward Anthony. He was the dead last person Bronson wanted to have a conversation with regarding Mia.
“This changes nothing.” Bronson narrowed his eyes. “You want to spend time with my mother and try to form some sort of bond, that’s up to her. I’m not feeling very brotherly.”
“Bronson.” Victoria came to stand beside him, placing a delicate hand on his arm. “Don’t say things right now that you don’t mean. We’ve all sustained a shock. Let’s just think this through, let it all settle and then we’ll decide how to proceed.”
He glanced down at his sister who had a loving heart for everyone. “Tori, my feelings won’t change for him just because we share a mother. I’ve never trusted him, and I’m not going to be buddies with him. You and Mom are free to do what you want with this newfound relationship, but I want no part of it.”
Unable to stay in the same room with the tension, the lies and the hurt, Bronson turned to leave.
“No,” Anthony said. “I’ll go.”
Bronson looked over his shoulder. “What?”
His illegitimate brother crossed the room. “I’ll go. You three have a lot to discuss and you don’t need me here. I realize I’m not part of this family, and it’s certainly not my intention to break anything up. I know this will take a lot of time to deal with.”
Bronson was shocked at Anthony’s gracious action, volunteering to leave. He wouldn’t have thought the man would step aside at a time like this. Bronson was grateful…though he wouldn’t admit it.
He nodded to Anthony, who then turned to Olivia. “I hope I can call or stop by again soon.”
Olivia’s face lit up as a smile spread across her face. “Anytime, my darling.”
“Goodbye, Anthony,” Victoria said with a tender smile.
Anthony spared Bronson one last look before leaving.
Bronson turned back to his mother. “You’ve always known?”
Olivia lifted her chin. “Yes, and I’m not ashamed of my actions because I’d do the same thing again to give my child the best start at life.”
Anger, confusion and hurt spread through Bronson. He wished he had somewhere to place the blame, but he didn’t want to castigate his mother. In his heart, he knew his mother had made the hardest decision of her life, and making her pay for it nearly forty years later wouldn’t fix anything.
“Oh, Mother, I wish you’d said something.” Victoria wrapped an arm around their mother’s shoulders. “The pain you must’ve felt all these years with all the turmoil between Bron and Anthony. Why didn’t you at least tell us? We never would’ve told a soul.”
“Because if Anthony never came to me, I would’ve died with this secret.” Olivia smiled at Victoria. “I do have him in my will, and I even had letters to each of you that you were supposed to receive if something happened to me. I gave specific instructions for you to read the letters well before the reading of my will so you wouldn’t be as stunned.”
“Letters, Mother?” Bronson asked, resting his hands on his hips. “I never took you to be afraid of anything, yet you couldn’t tell us this?”
Those sparkling blue eyes that had dazzled the camera for decades turned to him. “To be honest, I didn’t want either of you to be disappointed in me. I was human. I met a man I thought I loved, got pregnant and knew I was in no position to raise or care for a child properly. It wasn’t until a couple years later I met your father, and I told him everything before we married. He tried to get me to reclaim Anthony then, but I couldn’t do that. I’d given him up to a loving family, and I refused to tear them apart.”
Bronson swallowed, unable to even fathom giving up a child. He’d lost one and thankfully had the chance to be a father again. But to willingly give the baby up so he could have a better life?
He wrapped his arms around two of the most important women in his life. “You’re the bravest woman I know,” he whispered to his mother. “I’m glad you don’t have to carry this secret anymore. Just please don’t expect me to change overnight.”
Olivia clutched his shirt at his back and hugged him to her side. “I won’t, son. But promise you’ll try to make amends with Anthony. For me.”
For his mother he’d try anything. But first he had another woman in his life to deal with.
Sixteen
Mia opened her door to a very tense, angry Bronson. The muscle ticking in his jaw, the thin lips and narrowed eyes were all directed at her.
Her heart stopped and she knew the secret was out. Now was possibly her one and only chance to salvage their relationship and prove that her love for him was never in question.
“You saw your mother?”
“Would you ever have told me, Mia?”
Mia’s gaze darted down to her bare feet, then back up. “No.”
“My mother said the same thing,” he whispered. “Betrayal from all sides. This secret just gets better and better.”
A flash of pain tore through Bronson’s eyes before he pushed past her and entered her house. With a heavy heart and a sickening pit in her stomach, Mia shut the door and followed him.
“Your mother knew?” Mia asked, shocked.
He spared her a glance as he moved into her living area. “She’s known the whole time.”
Bronson stood looking out on to her patio, his back to her. “You want to tell me again that there was never anything between you and Anthony? Why your loyalty is stronger for your previous employer than the father of your baby?”
She would not fight. There was no reason to start arguing, Mia told herself. He was hurting and looking for a place to lay blame, and she was in the path of his destruction. She had to be strong to keep this relationship afloat on these rocky waters.
“I’ve never lied to you about my involvement with Anthony,” she told him in a soft voice. “I love Anthony like a brother, and I saw him struggle with this secret. I happened to stumble across the information just about a week before I was set to leave and come work for your mother. I assure you, more than once I wished I’d never known the truth.”
“But you did.” He turned, hands on his hips. “You knew the truth that would change my life. You slept with me, made a child with me and professed your love for me all the while knowing this.”
How could she deny anything?
“Yes.”
He threw his arms in the air, his voice boomed through her house. “How can I trust what you say, Mia? How can I ever trust you to be open and honest with me? You of all people know how important family is.”
Okay, that was low, but she refused to let him pull her into a fight, refused to throw away this family she’d already come to love.
“Bronson, family means everything to me, too.” A soft flutter slid through her stomach as her baby moved. “But this was not my secret to tell, and if Anthony had decided to never open up, then my spilling the secret would’ve ruined everything.”
“Did you know he was going to talk to my mother?”
“Yes. He told me last week he’d be talking to her in the next few days.”
Bronson’s lids fluttered down, and a curse slipped through his lips. “So the whole time we were gone you knew what was happening back here?” he asked, directing those blue eyes at her.
Mia nodded. “I was so worried what we’d come home to, but I wanted that time with you, Bronson. I wanted that time with just us because I have fallen in love with you. Not because of the baby, but because of us.”
Bronson laughed. “There is no us, Mia. Us implies a unit, and I’m not going to be part of a team where I can’t trust my partner.”
The burn in Mia’s throat quickly spread to her eyes, but she wasn’t giving up. She’d known going in this would be hard, but she had never been a quitter.
“If you look back, you’ll see I did nothing to make you not trust me, Bronson. If you think that you can’t see where this relationship would go, then fine. Walk out that door and don’t look back. Don’t give me a second thought. But I know you can’t do that.”