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Damn it.
She was. Because she wanted to give him whatever he needed. And because he’d stuck by her, even when his brother was telling him not to. Even when he should have been angry at her, he’d decided to trust her.
So yeah. She’d give him whatever he wanted right now.
“When were you born?” Alec asked. He was the only one still standing. His face was stern, but he didn’t appear angry. More thoughtful.
Ryleigh told him her date of birth.
“Right, so you’re about four years younger than Tanner. Fuck, why did he never tell us about you! That fucking bastard.”
“He wasn’t a bastard!” Ryleigh jumped to her feet. “My dad was a good man. I loved him.”
Lilac shot a look at Opal. They both knew the truth about Ryleigh’s dad. And it wasn’t pretty. But they’d agreed not to tell her since she still held him up on a pedestal.
Perhaps that had been a mistake.
“A good man?” Alec asked. “Would a good man leave his sons to the mercy of a dangerous Mafia boss so he could save himself?”
“What? My . . . my dad didn’t do that.”
“If we have the same father, then he did,” Tanner said gently.
“Fuck. I’m not sure I should hear any of this,” Linc said with a sigh.
“You can leave,” Alec told him.
But Linc didn’t move.
“No. Nope. My dad was a good man.” Ryleigh shook her head.
“Was?” Alec asked. “He’s dead, then?”
“Y-yes. He died about nine months ago. He had liver cancer.”
She felt Tanner tense under her. No matter how they all felt about him, that was his dad. Was he upset to hear he was gone?
“Surprised the asshole lasted that long,” Tanner muttered.
Okay. Maybe he wasn’t upset at all.
“That’s a terrible thing to say,” Ryleigh said.
“Fuck.” Tanner sighed. “Look, Ryleigh, from what you’ve just said, it seems you had a different relationship with the old bastard than we had. But I haven’t seen him since I was around nine or ten. I don’t even remember what he looks like. All I know is that he was never around. That he left us with a series of nannies. And that when shit went down and we were all in danger, Alec was the one who stepped up and saved us all. In fact, the old bastard probably did me a favor. Because no doubt that Alec is a hundred times the father he ever was.”
“You . . . you never saw him after that?” she asked. “Really?”
“He never even knew I was alive most of the time,” Tanner told her.
“He abandoned you all?” She looked to Alec. “I can’t believe it.”
“Obviously you had a different upbringing with him,” Alec said.
“Well, sort of. He . . . he had to go away a lot. Sometimes I wouldn’t see him for months. But he always came back. And he’d bring me a gift from wherever he’d been traveling. Or that’s what he’d tell me. I loved it when he returned home. Mom would actually get out of bed. She’d make an effort. She . . . she suffered from depression and when dad was away, she’d just stay in bed a lot.”
“Ryleigh,” Linc said in a broken voice.
“But it was okay. Because Dad always came back.”
