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CHAPTER 17

Barren couldn’t believe this. His entire day had been a mess. Paul Lancaster had turned up to their meeting with all of his brothers. He was demanding that Barren find them a buyer for their multi-million-dollar corporation. One that they’d wanted to sell since their father died.

But as he kept telling him, his father had left equal shares to all of his eight children. So if they wanted to sell the entire thing, they needed everyone to agree. Honestly, it seemed that they were still arguing amongst themselves about selling.

He was about to tell them all to get lost when Melly had called him to tell him that Krystal was here and abusing Phoebe. Well, he wasn’t having that. He hadn’t expected his clients to follow him out… or for them to say…

“Sister?” he repeated, glancing from Phoebe to Paul Lancaster and his brothers.

Zane Lancaster stepped forward, scowling at Krystal. “Why would our sister need his money when she is likely worth twenty times what he is.”

“Seems this bitch didn’t do her homework,” Joseph sung, grinning.

Wait. Hadn’t she said that he had a brother called Joseph? And one called Paul?

Holy. Shit.

This didn’t make sense, though.

“Sister? Phoebe isn’t your sister. Your sister’s name is Persephone Lancaster.”

“Worse name ever,” Phoebe said grimly. “I changed it to Phoebe years ago. Well, not legally. And I was using my mom’s maiden name because?—”

“She’s been hiding from us,” Zane said. “And doing quite a good job.”

“Who would have thought you’d all turn up here.”

“What… what’s going on here?” Krystal asked.

Right. He had something to do.

“Krystal, get out,” he said tiredly. “And you’re not welcome back.”

“But… but… you love me! I wanted to talk to you about a reconciliation. And I don’t understand… she told Freida she’s only with you for your money!”

“That’s not what I said!” Phoebe cried.

He hated that this was happening publicly, but Krystal had brought this on herself.

“Krystal, we’re not reconciling and frankly, I did love you, but I don’t anymore. I mourned the loss of our relationship for a long time, but what I realized was that it wasn’t you I was missing in my life. It was the idea of us. I wasn’t happy and neither were you. That’s no way for either of us to live.”

“But you’re happy now? With her?” Krystal gestured to Phoebe.

Barren held out his arm and thankfully, Phoebe flew into his embrace. Leaning down, he kissed her head, grateful that Krystal hadn’t sent her running. Although she did have a bit of explaining to do. She knew how he felt about secrets and lies. And it seemed she’d kept something very big from him.

Someone wasn’t going to be sitting comfortably tomorrow. Even if he was sure that she had her reasons.

“I do. I love Phoebe. She’s my world. I’m sorry if that hurts you to hear, but you moved on a long time ago, Krystal. You were the one who chose to break our marriage. Although I can see now that it was the best thing for both of us. Go back to Rand.”

“But… but he broke things off with me. He found a younger girlfriend.”

“Then be by yourself for a while. Find out who you are. Maybe think about who you have become.”

“I don’t need this!” Krystal screeched as she stomped out of the room. “And I don’t need you! This is it! You will never hear from me again.”

Frankly, that would be a relief if it was true.

“Well, I think I need to go speak to Linda,” Melly said, leaving them all alone.

“Are you all right?” he asked Phoebe, drawing her away from his chest so he could study her.

“Y-yes. But I need you to know that those things I said to Freida, it wasn’t… I wasn’t… I was just going along with what she said. She was being so condescending and rude and I?—”

He stopped her with a kiss, pulling her closer again. “Shh, baby,” he whispered in her ear. “I know what Freida is like. It’s okay. You can tell me all about it. Right after you explain how you’re actually Persephone Lancaster.”

Sooo, this was awkward. She wrapped her hands around the glass of water that Barren had poured for her as she stared at her brothers.

“You ran from us,” Darin said.

“Not cool, Phoebe,” Tony added.

“Totally irresponsible,” Paul scolded as he paced up and down the room. “We’ve been searching for you.”

“We even hired a private investigator.” Eric scowled.

“Really? But I left a note.”

“You left a note saying that you needed time to think and that you’d be in touch!” Paul yelled. “It’s been weeks.”

“I’m going to warn you once, you will not yell at Phoebe,” Barren said in a low, dark voice. “You will not upset her. I know how much you’ve hurt her in the past and that ends now.”

“Or what?” Paul dared asked.

“I will ruin you all. And don’t think that because you have more money than I do that I can’t do it. Being her brothers won’t save you. In fact, that makes things worse. You all are supposed to protect and care for her. Yet, all you’ve done all her life is put her down.”

“We have not!” Tony said hotly. “We tried to protect her.”

“Protect her?” Barren repeated. “By telling her to tone herself down? To be someone else? You wanted her to change when she’s perfect the way she is.”

Wow. Just wow. Most of her brothers looked uncomfortable at his words.

“Phoebe has always been different,” Darin said.

“We just don’t want her to be hurt by what other people say or do,” Zane added.

Right. “Because I’m the one in the wrong? Not them?” she asked tightly.

Clay gave her a shocked look. “You’re not wrong, Phoebe. But it’s just… people can be mean, and we didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“It hurt more to have all of you constantly telling me that I’m wrong and that I had to change. That I’m too much. I know you all blame me for Mama’s death?—”

“What?”

“No, we don’t!”

“Who said that!”

They all joined in, their voices growing so loud that she was overwhelmed. Tears dripped down her face.

“Stop! All of you, shut up!” Barren lifted her out of the chair, then sat and settled her on his lap, holding her tight. “You’re all right, little girl. I have you. No one is going to hurt you. I’m here to take care of you.”

There was shocked silence.

“You don’t need to protect her from us,” Eric said tightly.

“Actually, I do,” Barren replied. “Because it’s our family who has the power to hurt us the most. All Phoebe ever wanted was your love and acceptance. Yet, you constantly put her down and made her feel less. Maybe you thought you were helping her, but did you ever think about how she felt? When I met her, she thought she had to behave a certain way so that people wouldn’t get sick of her. That she couldn’t be herself. But she doesn’t need to be anyone but Phoebe.”

What had she done to deserve him? She had no idea, but she was never letting him go.

“We’re sorry, Phoebe,” Joseph finally said. “We’ve been shit brothers.”

“Joseph!” Paul snapped.

“We have been,” Tony added, looking upset. “I know we thought we were helping but look at her. We were just harming her, and she thinks we blame her for Mama dying? Phoebe, nothing could be further from the truth.”

“When Mama died, we were so sad, but also so happy to have you,” Eric told her.

“I heard you talking once about how you missed Mama and wished I hadn’t been born,” she said.

“Oh, Phoebe,” Eric said. She glanced up to see him staring down at her, stricken. “We might have said that in our grief, but we didn’t mean it and we didn’t mean for you to hear it. We love you.”

“Really?” She glanced around at them all as they nodded.

Joseph approached her first and she slid off Barren’s lap to hug him. They all moved in after him, one after the other, until only Paul was left.

She didn’t expect him to hug her or apologize. He’d always been stubborn. Stern.

But, to her surprise, his eyes grew wet as he drew her close. “Sorry, little sister. I think we’ve failed you horribly.”

“You haven’t. I promise. I still love you all.”

“Good. Because we love you.” When he stepped back, he drew her back with him.

Away from Barren.

“But I’m not sure I approve of whatever is going on between the two of you.”

“He seems a bit old for you, Phoebs,” Darin said as he leaned back in his chair and glared at Barren.

“Yep. What are your intentions with our sister?” Joseph asked.

“Where did you two meet?” Paul asked.

“Okay, enough!” She moved away from Paul and sat in Barren’s lap once more. He didn’t seem too upset by her brothers’ antics, more amused. “I love Barren, and he loves me and all of you have no say in who I date. I know you think I’m naive and that I’m going to be taken advantage of, but Barren didn’t even know who I was! He’s not after me for my money.”

“I think we should have some say in who you date,” Eric muttered.

“Nope. Butt out.”

“I don’t know,” Clay drawled. “I think we should make up for being shit brothers by getting very involved in what you do from now on.”

She groaned. God give her strength.

“No one is getting involved in our relationship,” Barren said firmly. “It is no one’s business but our own. I take care of Phoebe now. She’s mine. And I will protect her. From her own family, if necessary.”

“We would never harm her,” Paul protested.

“Not on purpose, anyway,” Darin added, looking at her with sorrow.

“I would like to know about why you’ve been using a different last name and hiding from your brothers?” Barren asked.

She groaned. “After Dad died I was in a bit of a state. As you know, I went to stay with my uncle for a while, and when I came home, all Paul could talk about was selling the business.”

“None of us want to run it, Phoebe,” Paul told her, sitting in a chair. He looked tired as he ran his hand through his hair. “We all talked about it and agreed.”

“Except for me,” she said. “It feels like if we sell it we’re selling the last bit we had of Dad.”

“Aw, Phoebs, is that how you feel?” Joseph asked.

She nodded.

“You should have told me,” Joseph told her. “I thought we told each other things.”

“We do.” She’d always been closest to him. “I just… you were all so united and I felt pressured to agree and I needed some time to think. And none of you would give it to me. I couldn’t go anywhere without one of you calling me or tracking me down to get me to agree. It was too much. So I ran. I’m sorry, I know it wasn’t mature of me. I should have at least told you, Joe. But I couldn’t breathe from the pressure. It was so hard to live in that house without Dad. I needed time and you weren’t giving it to me.”

They all looked at her with shock and sorrow.

“Jesus, Phoebe, we’re sorry,” Darin said.

“Wish you’d told us, kid,” Tony added.

The others all made murmurs of agreement.

“Maybe this is something we can all talk about as a family while we’re here,” Clay suggested.

“How long are you here for?” she asked

“We were leaving tonight,” Paul said. “But maybe we can talk about it now.”

“Tomorrow,” Barren said firmly. “I’ll have Melly book you a hotel. But, right now, Phoebe has had enough, and she needs some time to herself.”

She felt bad as her brothers left, but she didn’t protest. Because Barren was right. She needed some space to work through everything. When they were gone, she turned in his lap to face him, giving him a guilty look. “Am I in trouble, Daddy?”

“Yes,” he told her.

He reached over for a glass of water and held it to her mouth so she could sip from it. She was surprisingly thirsty. Then he set it down.

“You’re in trouble for not telling me about all of this so I could have helped.”

“What about for what I said to Freida?”

He shook his head. “I don’t care about that. I wish you had texted me what happened straight away, and I would prefer you didn’t open the door to her from now on. But, no, I’m not upset about that. What upsets me is that you were worrying about all of this stuff with your brothers, that you were using a different last name and didn’t tell me.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just wanted to be someone else for a while, you know? To forget about it all. I know I was burying my head in the sand, and I had made up my mind to tell you today. I just needed a break from the world for a while.”

“I get that.” He drew her close. “I’m here for you. I’ll be here for you no matter what. But from now on, you’re to tell me everything. Understand?”

“Yes, Daddy.” She wrapped her arms around him. “I promise to tell you everything.”

“My baby. God, I love you. I’m sorry you had to deal with Krystal.”

“I would deal with a hundred Krystals if it meant I got to be with you. Fate sent you to me for a reason and I don’t ever intend to let you go.”

“Good, little girl. Because you won’t ever be allowed to. You’re mine, Phoebe. And you always will be.”