Page 89

Inside, Ophelia and Jarrett have made themselves comfortable on the stools at the kitchen island.
“Nice haul, little dude.” Jarrett nods approvingly.
“There’s more in the truck if you wanna help.” Paxton has taken Bear’s word that these are good people without question, and I’m in awe at how trusting he is.
Although, when it comes to Bear, I’m exactly the same. He just has this whole aura about him that makes him, well, everything.
“I’ll help. Jarrett’s the one with the news.” Ophelia jumps off the stool with a wink in Jarrett’s direction and follows Paxton back out to the truck.
“Cheers for that, Kitten.” Jarrett rolls his eyes and looks straight at me. “I have some shitty news and some better news, depending on how you take it.”
I have subconsciously made my way over to stand in front of Bear, who easily wraps his arms around me like a security blanket. There’s a vibration through his chest, a low grumble showing his annoyance at the situation, but he’s letting me deal with it, all the while making sure I know he has my back.
“Okay. Shitty news first then. That’s the way it works, isn’t it?” I shrug, unsure what he’s about to say because what could he possibly have to tell me?
“So we’ve been digging into where your mum was kept and we found her, but she died about five years ago.”
My heart soars and drops within the space of a few seconds, the hope of seeing Mom again quickly doused.
“We found your dad though.”
Oh, wow. I never gave my father’s identity a thought, and I’m not sure I really want to know. I always imagined it was one of the men Mom’s owner forced on her, and those were not nice people.
“He’s dead too.”
Okay. My eyes feel like they’re about to pop out of my head as I try to process all the information Jarrett’s giving me, and it doesn’t feel like he’s finished yet.
“I killed him about seven months ago. And here’s the kicker… he was my dad too.”
He lifts his lips up into a tight smile at the same time his shoulders lift, as if he has no idea how I’m going to react and he’s waiting for me to blow up.
But I’m not. Instead, a strong feeling of something I can’t really explain creeps up and makes tears spring to my eyes.
“So you’re my brother? I have a brother?”
He nods, relaxing his shoulders as his grin widens.
“Yeah. And I have a little sis. Is that okay?”
“Oh my gods, yes!” I turn in Bear’s arms and beam up at him. “I have a big brother!”
“It seems you do, yeah, Baby Girl.” He kisses my forehead before I turn back around to face… my brother.
“Best Christmas ever.” It doesn’t matter that this is the first Christmas I’ve ever truly had, it will go down forever as the best.
“I’ll agree to that.” Paxton comes back into the kitchen with his arms full of gifts.
“Can they stay to watch the film with us?” I ask Bear, because I’ve been looking forward to it all day, but I can’t bring myself to let my new brother leave just yet. Or my new sister-in-law.
“This is as much your house as it is mine, you don’t need to ask my permission to do anything, Baby Girl.”
“Seems I won’t need to worry about the whole big brother speech and making sure your intentions with my lil sis are good.” Jarrett chuckles as Bear huffs a laugh.
“You could try, man.”
“No need to size up your dicks, I’m sure they’re both huge. So I take it the news went down okay?” Ophelia settles herself on Jarrett’s lap after putting down the gifts she carried.
“It’s a lot, still kinda processing, but would you guys wanna stay and watch the Christmas movie Paxton picked out for this evening with us? We have snacks.”