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Naturally, he would say that. Anyone could make themselves a martyr with more than thirty years of silence. How convenient for him that Mom was no longer alive to throw his lies in his face. I would have to do it for her.
Aria stared at me, muscles twitching in her face while she attempted to process what had been dropped on her all at once. “My stepbrother.” It was not a question but rather an attempt at clarity. She didn’t want it to be true—that much was obvious when she had all but run from the coffee shop earlier. Perhaps I had overplayed my hand and frightened her too badly.
This was no empty-headed princess, no matter how spoiled and pampered she might have been. Still, when faced with the choice of approaching her or her twin, it seemed there was no contest. Valentina was sharper and more savvy. I’d observed her from afar and witnessed how she dispensed assholes at the clubs she promoted and events she planned. She would most likely have told me to get fucked if I approached her in public, charm or no charm.
The first encounter with Aria at the spin studio had sealed the deal. She’d noticed me, noticed the way I studied her, but didn’t say a word. Same with the times she’d seen me throughout her normal routine. Her natural response had involved distrust and a touch of fear which kept her mouth shut. Instinct told me she would fit into my plan perfectly.
“I was as surprised as you are,” I told her with a chuckle and a shrug. “There I was, thinking I was an only child all my life.”
Magnus’s affable grin told me my lies were believable. “Please, have a seat,” he urged, gesturing toward the chair I’d left while directing his daughter toward the one beside it. He practically had to push down on her shoulders to make her sit, then ran a hand over her red-tinted locks. Obviously, a dye job. Nobody was born with burgundy hair.
“I don’t understand.” She looked up at her father with confusion and disbelief flashing across her face. A rather stunning face—delicate, symmetrical features, pouty lips, bright blue eyes that narrowed when they looked my way. “How do I have a stepbrother I never knew about?”
“It’s a long story.” Magnus wandered across the room with its stuffed bookshelves and leather furniture. It was nearly as large as the first apartment Mom and I had shared. “You know I was married before I met your mother.”
“Yeah. I remember you mentioning that.” She couldn’t help but glance my way, likely in memory of how we’d left things earlier.
Had she come here determined to get to the bottom of things and ask about my mom? It was clear I had gotten under her skin, no matter how she attempted to pretend otherwise.
Magnus turned with a glass of water in his hand and gave it to Aria, then patted her cheek and rounded the desk. He seemed like a very affectionate father. I wouldn’t have guessed he had it in him.
A slight shift in her seat had me side-glancing in her direction. It was the girl with the glass of water who proved impossible to ignore. The glass trembled in her hands until she noticed me looking, then steadied as if by magic.
Sighing, Magnus took a seat. “Leila and I were divorced before I met your mother, Aria. She moved to England, cutting ties with everyone here. It wasn’t until recently that I was aware of Miles’s existence. For some reason, his mother chose to keep him a secret for the short time we were married.”
I bit my tongue while his jaw tightened as if the memory angered him. As if he genuinely cared. “Now that I know,” he concluded, “I hope we can get to know each other and, ideally, bring Miles into the family.”
He had a way with words and glossing over several important points in the story. Like the fact that his dearest Evelyn clawed her way into their marriage, or even worse, that he knew about my existence when they were married but discarded me like last night’s trash. It wouldn’t do to reveal the way my stomach churned at his explanation. Somehow, I managed to maintain a neutral expression while observing Aria’s reaction from the corner of my eye.
Immediately, her smooth brow furrowed as if she were troubled. Until then, she’d only looked like she’d swallowedsomething sour. “So he was born before your marriage. That would make him… thirty?”
“Nearly thirty-one,” I murmured. She was doing the math, convincing herself there was no chance of us being related by blood. “From what I understand, I lived with my grandmother prior to the move overseas.”
Magnus tipped his head to the side. I caught the resemblance between them when he frowned as she did. “Is there a problem with that?”
“No.” Her troubled expression belied the statement. “I’m only wondering why we’re hearing about him after all this time.” Funny how she talked about me like I wasn’t in the room. Typical wealthy brat.
“I’m getting to that. Unfortunately,” Magnus continued, his voice going lower. “Miles’s mother passed away several months ago.”
Aria looked my way, her frown deepening. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she murmured. The sort of thing people said to one another without thinking after that sort of announcement. She didn’t mean it. If there was one thing life had forced upon me, it was a strong instinct when it came to people—seeing through their motivations and hearing what existed beneath their words. She was easy to read.
At that moment, she resented my existence from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.
“When I flew out for the funeral, I met Miles.” Magnus looked strangely proud when he turned my way as if he had anything to do with my life and education, or any of it. Men like him tended to take credit for what they played no part in—one of my mother’s many lessons I had taken to heart. It had always been a better idea to heed her advice than ignore it. There weren’t many things she’d detested worse than being ignored.
Aria groaned. “I thought you were out there to visit Uncle Charlie,” she told him in a tone heavy with judgment. “You could have come out with the truth.”
“It was my personal business,” he said sharply, enough to make her shrink back a bit.
Finishing for him, I concluded, “And he generously invited me out to meet all of you. I doubt he intended for the visit to happen so soon, though. It happens I’d already planned the expansion of my company and had targeted New York as the natural starting point for breaching the states, so it seemed natural to stop in and say hello.”
She couldn’t have cared less. I wondered if she heard me at all over what raged in her head.
“I can’t remember a more pleasant surprise. It’s a shame your sister couldn’t be here so I could introduce you both at the same time,” Magnus pointed out to Aria.
It didn’t seem she was listening. At the very least, she didn’t react. It was obvious to me she was troubled. Magnus either didn’t notice or pretended not to. I had no doubt of his skill at turning a blind eye to that which he didn’t want to acknowledge. I was proof of that, wasn’t I? We may not have been blood, but his influence had marked every aspect of my life.
All along, this man and his wife and daughters had lived in a palace. Every advantage and luxury had been theirs for the taking, while my mother and I had barely scratched out an existence.
