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The pain on his face brought back how I’d felt after my mom’s death, and I automatically reached up to where my shirt hid the tattoo with her initials. It must’ve been awful for him, going through that alone. At least when Mom died, I’d had my family.
“At one point, she said something about naming me after someone she owed a lot to. I didn’t really think anything of it, but after she died, I was going through her things and found the name Jude Holden on some financial information. I did some digging and found him. I thought he might be my father, so I came here to meet him.”
Silence followed as everyone processed what we’d just been told.
Not surprisingly, Dad was the one who broke the silence. “What do you want from us?”
Grandad glared at Dad. “JP just wanted to know the truth about who his father was. I would think, you of all people, should respect a desire for honesty.”
Dad actually had the grace to look embarrassed. “Sorry,” he muttered. “You’re right. Even when we think we’re lying to protect someone, all it does is hurt our relationship with them.”
I looked up at Linsey and found her looking at me. Our eyes met, and I knew we were thinking the same thing. While I might not agree that even the occasional white lie wasn’t necessary, honesty had to be the foundation of a relationship.
Someone cleared their throat, and for a minute, I thought it was Grandad. Except he was looking in the same direction as everyone else. At Deklin.
Shit. I knew what he was going to say.
“You’re right, Dad. If we want to have a healthy relationship with someone, we can’t lie to them or keep things from them.” Deklin looked at Grandad, who nodded. “Which is why I need to tell you the whole truth about why a relationship between Aurelia Kane and I would never have worked.”
Linsey caught her breath. We hadn’t come here for this, but I couldn’t think of a better time for the truth to come out. If Deklin had wanted to keep it a secret, I would’ve honored his wishes, but after seeing how hiding things from people destroyed trust and relationships, I couldn’t help thinking that we’d be a stronger family once there were no more lies.
“Ronall Kane is my biological father.”
I winced. I wasn’t one for sugarcoating but stating it so bluntly was rough.
“Mom had an affair with Ronall. It wasn’t long, and they broke it off when they both realized they wanted to save their marriages. Ronall doesn’t know.”
Deklin took in a deep breath, but before he could continue, Grandad stepped in. “But I did.” Grandad met his son’s gaze full on. “Cheryl told me when she found out she was pregnant. She wanted to know what I thought she should do. I told her not to tell you.”
I kept waiting for Dad to yell, but he just sat in the chair, clearly too stunned to do anything but blink as Grandad and Deklin explained everything that’d happened, including Grandad’s sabotage of Deklin’s engagement. Sofi flushed when her name was brought into the conversation, but Deklin put his arm around her and whispered something in her ear.
Once everything was out, we all waited to see what Dad would do.
A full minute ticked past, the second hand on the grandfather clock in the corner the only sound in the room. Finally, Dad stood up and walked over to Deklin.
“You are my son.” His voice was quieter than I’d ever heard it. “Biology or not, you’re my son, and nothing will ever change that.” His eyes shone with tears. “I loved your mother more than anything, but I wasn’t always a good husband or a good father. I have to live with the consequences of that. But I will never see you as any less my boy than Davin and Damon. You’re a Holden. You understand that?”
Deklin was up and in Dad’s arms before any of us could finish processing what had just happened.
It was going to be okay.
The truth had come out, and my family was still together. Stronger, actually. Nothing was perfect, and we’d have disagreements eventually, but we were going to be more than okay.
I pulled Linsey down onto my lap. “Thank you,” I whispered in her ear.
“For what?”
“For helping my family heal from wounds we didn’t even know we had.” I turned her face toward mine. “I mean it, Linsey. None of this would’ve happened if we hadn’t met.”
“You helped me when you didn’t even know me,” she reminded me.
“Isn’t that the way things are supposed to be?” I asked. “I save you. You save me right back. Rinse and repeat.”
She laughed and kissed my cheek. “I like the sound of that.”
“I hope you like the sound of what I’m going to do to you when we go back to my place,” I said, leaning in close so no one else could hear the dirty things I whispered in her ear.
Hopefully, we wouldn’t be here too much longer. I didn’t have much self-control when it came to the woman on my lap. I just needed to remember that tonight was only the beginning. We had a future stretching out in front of us, and I intended to enjoy every moment of it.