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Aunt Ruby nods, sniffling. “Yes.”
“So you and Pat are half-siblings,” Brock continues, “and Pat is the grandson of Brad Steel.”
“That’s the way it works,” Aunt Ruby says.
“Is our family the most fucked-up family ever or what?” Brock then says.
That gets a laugh out of everyone. A laugh we all need.
“Son,” Uncle Joe says, “when you’re right you’re right.”
Pat is quiet as the rest of us talk among ourselves. Then he raises a hand again, as if he’s in a classroom.
Uncle Joe nods to him.
“Do you think my grandmother, Wendy Madigan, knew who my father was?”
Uncle Ryan fields that one. “Most likely. She knew everything and didn’t bother to tell us. Plus, she died before we were able to get all the information out of her. She probably knew what happened to your parents, Pat. Why they changed their names.”
Pat looks to the floor. “When my parents had their own child, the one that was their own flesh and blood, I kind of became an afterthought.”
Lauren pats his arm.
“It’s no excuse for how I lived my life, though,” Pat says. “No excuse for pulling the stunts I did back in high school, and no excuse for helping Brittany Sheraton pull the stunts she pulled. I honestly didn’t know she was so mentally and emotionally compromised.”
“None of us did,” Uncle Ryan says. “But we do now. She’s getting the help she needs. As far as we know anyway. As far as her father goes, I believe at heart he’s a good man. He was angry at us for not bringing him in full-time on the Steel payroll as one of our veterinarians. But I honestly don’t think he would’ve been helping Wendy if he’d known what he was actually doing. For all he knew, he was working for the Fleming Corporation.”
Ava shakes her head. “The whole thing makes my skin crawl. All those liens, and I was the beneficiary. I don’t want her dirty money. Gina, Jack, Pat—divide it among yourselves.”
“No, Ava,” Uncle Ryan says. “You take your share. Your grandmother put you through hell, and you deserve something for the trauma you suffered.”
“But I don’t want it, Daddy.”
“Then give it away, sweetheart. Choose a charity.”
Gina speaks up then. “I don’t want mine either.”
“Neither do I,” Jack says.
Even Pat agrees. “If I’m going to turn over a new leaf, I can’t take her dirty money either. Ava, since she left it to you, why don’t you choose a charity?”
“I think that’s a great idea, sweetheart,” Uncle Ryan says.
Ava finally nods. “All right. I’ll do that, but I’ll make the donation in all four of our names, not just mine.”
Uncle Ryan nods. “Good for you, sweetheart, and you too, Gina, Jack, Pat. You’ll be well taken care of for the next several lifetimes without any help from my mother.” He shakes his head. “My damned mother. I suppose, Lauren, we should at least be happy that she’s now acknowledged you as her child. The quitclaim deed we found underneath Brendan’s floorboard listed me as the sole beneficiary of all the Steel properties.”
“She was something else,” Lauren says dryly.
“I wish Dad had gotten to know you,” Ryan says. “I honestly don’t think he knew he had another child.”
“No, he didn’t,” Lauren agrees. “I was always told that my father was Brad Steel’s half brother.”
“And I was the only one who knew about the half brother,” Uncle Joe chimes in. “And now we come to find out he probably never existed in the first place.”
“Was there anything that my mother couldn’t pull off?” Lauren shakes her head. “How did one person become so powerful?”
“Through intelligence—genius-level intelligence—and shrewdness, money, and investigative knowledge,” Uncle Ryan says.
