Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (33 page)

T
he truth
?

“I already know what happened, Dad. Mom died in a car crash.”

“Yes, she did. But I kept some of the facts from you.”

“Why?” What other facts could be important? My mom had been killed. Surely everything else paled into insignificance in comparison to that?

“Do you remember what life was like in the months before your mother died?”

I’d been sixteen when Mom died. Old enough to have reached the terrible teens with full force and effect. I’d spent more time arguing with my parents than talking to them, but all kids did that.

Dad had long ago convinced me that I didn’t need to feel guilty for the way I’d acted towards Mom in the months before her death. From my point of view, I’d been a completely ungrateful bitch, but to Mom and Dad I’d just been a sulky teenager. Apparently they even used to laugh about it, because I was living up to such a cliché stereotype.

“I’d been a bit moody,” I replied. “I don’t remember why.”

“A
bit
moody?” Dad said with a laugh. “That’s the understatement of the century. Yes, you were a bit difficult to live with, however you weren’t the only one with issues.”

“You and Mom fought a few times,” I said, as I remembered hearing them argue through the thin walls.

I usually had headphones on in my room because Dad got annoyed at the loud music, but sometimes I just lay on the bed and thought about boys from school. That’s when I’d hear the arguments. I couldn’t tell what they were arguing about, but it was impossible to ignore the angry, raised voices.

“Yes,” Dad admitted. “There were arguments.”

“Were you going to break up?”

“God no, nothing like that. We both loved each other very much. The rows were just because of the stress your mother was under. She started working later and later, often not coming home until midnight or the early hours of the morning.”

“That’s the job,” I said. “I’ve experienced that already. When there’s a big deal going down in the office, people start working all the hours available to get it finished.”

“I know. I’m not completely insensitive to what she had to go through at work. However, when one big deal finished, another would start, and before you knew it she was working like that non-stop.”

“I didn’t realize,” I said softly. Of course I didn’t; I was too consumed with myself to pay attention to what my mother was going through. No doubt I’d been obsessed with some boy whose name I couldn’t even remember anymore.

“Good,” Dad said. “We didn’t want you to worry about it. I tried to convince your mother to take a step back, and maybe even move jobs if necessary. We didn’t need all that money, but your mom was an incredibly ambitious woman.”

“I remember. She wanted to become managing partner one day.”

“And she would have as well, of that I have no doubt. When your mother wanted something she got it.”

“Like you?” I joked.

“Yes, like me,” Dad said. “I was quite the catch back in the day. Your mother wasn’t the only lady lining up for a bit of--”

“Okay Dad, I believe you. But what does all this have to do with Mom’s death?”

The smile quickly disappeared from Dad’s face. He’d let himself get sidetracked to delay having to break the news as long as possible.

“In the week leading up to the crash, things at work were absolutely crazy. I always liked to wait up for her, but she was getting in at one or two in the morning every day, including weekends. She often came home looking like a zombie.”

“I can’t imagine Mom looking haggard,” I said. “She always looked radiant to me. Perhaps that’s just the way I like to remember her.”

“I think it just goes to show the wonders of modern makeup.”

“If she was still alive, she’d kill you for that comment.”

Dad smiled. “Yeah, she would, at that. I told her to work from home, but it wasn’t so easy to do it in those days.”

“Even now you have to show your face in the office all the time or people don’t believe you’re working.”

“I can believe that. Law firms are so slow to evolve. Anyway, on the day of the accident, your mom left for work looking more exhausted than I’d ever seen her. She looked dead on her feet. I actually cried that morning. It was like she was dying slowly in front of my eyes.”

“I never even noticed,” I whispered guiltily. “I had slept in that day. You had to wake me up to tell me what had happened.”

Dad shook his head. “The accident didn’t happen on her way to work. I know I told you it did, but that’s not what happened.”

“It’s not?”

“No. At just gone four o’clock in the morning, your mom drove onto the wrong side of the road and slammed straight into an oncoming car. Fortunately the other driver survived, but your mom was killed instantly.”

“It was her fault, wasn’t it?” I asked. Dad nodded. “You told me she’d been hit by a kid driving too fast.”

“I lied. She fell asleep at the wheel. At least, that’s what we think happened. There were no drink or drugs in her system, and she hadn’t been using her phone. She was exhausted. The job had driven her to the edge, and she’d toppled over.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You worshiped your mom,” Dad said. “After the accident, you suddenly became studious and worked hard because you ‘wanted to make Mom proud.’ By the time I realized that meant you would become a lawyer as well, it was too late for me to say anything.”

A year ago, Dad’s revelation would have come as a huge shock, but now, after seeing what life was like at large law firms, I completely believed it. Mom had been made partner in record time, and you didn’t achieve that by working nine to five, Monday to Friday.

“I don’t know what to say,” I muttered.

“Do you hate me for keeping this from you?”

“No, of course not.” I gave my Dad a hug, which he looked like he desperately needed right now.

“I don’t want you to think any less of your mom. She was still a remarkable woman.”

“I know. And I don’t. She didn’t do it on purpose. It’s almost a relief to know she wasn’t superhuman.”

“She can still be your hero, sweetie.”

“She is. And so are you.”

Dad wrapped his arm around me again and for a few minutes I just rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes.

Over the last ten years, I’d been so obsessed with making Mom proud of me that I’d never given a second thought to what would make Dad proud. He was the one who’d raised me by himself for the last of those teenage years, and supported me through college and now law school.

“Maybe I should give some more thought to my choice of career,” I said, still laying on Dad’s shoulder.

“You don’t want to be a lawyer any more?”

“I’m not sure. I do enjoy legal writing, I just don’t like the work I’m doing at the moment.”

“Well don’t rush into anything. You’ve spent a long time following this dream; don’t ditch it on the spur of the moment.”

“I won’t.”

I heard someone coming down the stairs and looked up expecting to see Kathleen. It wasn’t her.

“Foster?”

“Hi.” He stood in the doorway, as if unsure about coming into his own living room.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m hanging out with some old friends this weekend and didn’t fancy staying in a hotel.”

Dad removed his arm from my shoulder, and stood up, yawning and stretching himself out as he did so. Dad always did that when he’d been sitting for a while. He’d never have been suited to an office job where you spent most of your time with your ass in a chair.

“I’ll leave you kids to it,” Dad said as he stretched his neck from side-to-side.

What did he mean by that? Leave us to it? Surely he couldn’t know about what had happened between us? I hadn’t even mentioned Foster yet.

“Actually, Mr. Rhodes,” Foster said politely, “I’d like to speak to you for a moment if I may.”

“Uh, okay, sure. But call me Pierce.”

“Pierce,” Foster said reluctantly, as if trying out a foreign word on his tongue. “I need to apologize. For my behavior last time I was here.”

Dad looked down at me with a bemused expression on his face. I shrugged in response. I was as surprised as he was.

“Are you feeling okay, Foster?” I asked. “You’re in danger of sounding like a reasonable person.”

“April,” Dad scolded. “Don’t be rude. It’s not easy for Foster to apologize.”

“I am sorry,” Foster said sincerely. “I shouldn’t have said those things about you just being with Mom for her money.”

“So you don’t think that anymore?” Dad asked.

“Oh yes, I still think you’re just marrying her for the money. But I shouldn’t have said that.”

“That’s a shitty apology,” I snapped. “Why even bother?”

Dad just laughed. I loved how easy going he was, but I wished he would get mad sometimes as well.

“Calm down, April,” Dad said. “Foster can’t help what he thinks. The important thing is that he’s polite.” Dad turned his attention back to Foster. “I don’t care if you don’t like me, I just want you to act like you do in front of your mother because it means a lot to her that we get on.”

“That sounds fair,” Foster said.

“No it doesn’t,” I yelled. “Dad’s not like that. I don’t know why you think so badly of him.”

“It’s human nature, April,” Dad said soothingly. “My in-laws hated me for years before I finally won them round.”

“They did?”

“God yes. When your mother brought me back to meet them, they thought she was just going through a phase. I was her ‘bit of rough.’ ”

I cringed, and did my best not to think of my dad as anyone’s ‘bit of rough.’ That was especially difficult bearing in mind that my own bit of rough was standing just ten feet away.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Dad continued, “we have both signed a pre-nup.”

“You have?” Foster asked, looking surprised.

“Yep. So you don’t need to worry about me stealing all your mom’s money.”

“Thanks,” Foster said, nodding his head in what I took as a sign of respect towards Dad. There was some hope for that relationship yet. “Okay, I’m going to go hang out in my room.”

Foster looked at me and winked. I glared at him, but Dad had been too busy turning on the television to notice. Same old Foster. We had barely spoken since he’d tried to kiss me in the hallway, but clearly he wasn’t going to let me forget.

“Will you both be in for dinner?” Dad asked. Foster and I both nodded. “Good. We should have a big meal together tonight. Kathleen and I have an announcement to make.”

“Great,” Foster replied dryly. “I’m looking forward to it already.”

Foster headed up to his room, but I didn’t follow him. I didn’t trust myself to be alone with him in his bedroom. Not after what happened the other night.

I wanted to believe Foster had changed, but he’d shown no remorse for embarrassing me that evening. Apologizing to Dad had been a nice thing to do though, even if it wasn’t exactly the most groveling apology ever.

At least Dad was happy. That was a start. He hadn’t looked this happy since Mom died. I curled up on the sofa and rested my feet on Dad’s lap. He’d put some crappy car show on the television, but I didn’t care. Right now, I just wanted to hang out with my dad.

T
hat had been painful
.

I tried to think of another time in my life where I had apologized to someone, but nothing came to mind. I wasn’t really the apologizing type. I’d never had a girlfriend to grovel to. If a woman demanded I apologize for something I’d done then she was quickly shown the door. I didn’t need that shit in my life.

So why had I apologized to Pierce? Certainly not because I cared about him. And, if I’m honest, I hadn’t done it to please my mother either. I’d done it to impress the one girl I felt the need to make amends with.

I strolled up the stairs towards my room. April might come up and join me, but I didn’t like my chances. Being nice to her dad was just the first step of what would probably be an entire staircase’s worth of them.

I nearly walked into Mom standing at the top of the stairs. She looked pleased with herself.

“I heard what you said in there,” she said, grinning at me. “That was a very nice thing to do.”

I tried to shrug casually, but that wasn’t an easy thing to pull off for a guy of my size. “I just don’t want there to be any awkwardness between us. If we have to spend time together we need to at least be civil.”

“That’s surprisingly mature of you.”

“Yeah, who’d have thought it.”

“I meant what I said about Pierce. He’s a good man, and I can assure you he’s not in this relationship for my money.”

“I know. He told me about the pre-nup.”

Mom looked downstairs to check the coast was clear and then motioned for me to follow her into my room.

“The pre-nup is for Pierce’s benefit not mine,” Mom said quietly.

“Oh for God’s sake. Please don’t tell me you’ve signed away all your money to him? You know, pre-nups are supposed to
preserve
the wealth of the rich spouse, not piss it all away.”

“And that’s exactly what this pre-nup is doing,” Mom replied. “I have more than enough money to look after myself, and you, if you need it, well into retirement. And so does Pierce.”

I raised my eyebrows, and gave Mom a dismissive look. “No offense, but I can’t imagine a security guard really earns a fraction of the amount you do.”

“No he doesn’t, but he still has a small fortune tucked away.”

“Did he win the lottery or something?”

I knew April had gone to the school that had given her the best scholarship offer, so if Pierce had come into money then it had either been a very recent thing, or April just didn’t know about it.

“Not exactly. He came into money, but paid a heavy price for it.”

“Spit it out, Mom. I have to be back at work in two days.”

“You have to promise not to tell April.”

“Fine,” I replied. “It’s not like we’re close anyway.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” I opened my mouth to refute her insinuation, but she carried on talking. “When Pierce’s wife died, she was a partner at a large law firm. Unlike your father, she also had generous life insurance. She was insured up to her eyeballs. Pierce received the full payout and tucked it away in a savings account. He’s sensible like that.”

Life insurance. How could I have missed that. Even as just an associate, I had life insurance that would pay out a large multiple of my salary on my death. For someone like April’s mom, that would have been many millions.

Unfortunately, Dad’s life wouldn’t have been worth insuring. He’d rarely worked, and when he did it tended to be cash in hand. As much as I missed my father’s presence and emotional support, the loss of his financial contribution hadn’t had much effect.

“Why doesn’t April know?” I asked. “I’m surprised Pierce didn’t pay for college and law school for her.”

“He’ll pay off that debt when the time comes. Pierce just wanted her to make her own decisions like a normal kid. Pierce grew up in a poor family that could barely put food on the table. He doesn’t even know what to do with that amount of money. I’m sure he’ll tell her when he thinks the time is right.”

“That means she doesn’t have to become a corporate lawyer,” I said. “She can do whatever she wants.”

“And she wants to be a corporate lawyer,” Mom replied. “Let her make her own way.”

“I’m not so sure.”

April had proven herself to be an excellent attorney already and she hadn’t even graduated law school yet, but I didn’t think she enjoyed the work. That might not be a huge problem for one summer, but if she was going to do this the rest of her life she needed to get more out of it.

“You can’t tell her, Foster. It’s none of our business. I only told you so that you’ll stop giving Pierce a hard time.”

“Fine. The secret is safe with me.”

“Good. Now, talking about secrets, I’m hearing a lot of talk about you and April spending time together late at the office and--”

“Kathleen?” Pierce yelled out from the bottom of the stairs with perfect timing. “We should hit the shops and get food for tonight.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” Mom said, as she disappeared down the stairs.

Not if I can help it
.

Mom and Pierce left to go shopping, and shortly after I heard April come up the stairs. Her footsteps approached my room, but she kept on walking and entered the spare room next door that Mom had reserved for her.

I wasn’t going to win her over by sitting in my room alone. I got up and walked to the room next door. The room that had previously been a spare room that I hogged for playing video games as a kid. Now it had my workout bench and a scattering of weights.

“Come in,” April said softly after I knocked on the door.

“How’s your new room?” I asked, walking in and looking around at the familiar, yet strange, room.

The weights had all been shoved under the bed, and the workout bench was pushed up against a wall in the corner. The old desk was still there, except instead of being used for a television and video game console, it now just had a computer.

April stood with her back to me examining some makeup that had been left on the chest of drawers. Mom, or maybe Pierce, had tried to make the place feel like a home away from home, but April looked a little overwhelmed by it all.

“Your mom’s really nice,” April said. “She’s spent a fortune on all this stuff.”

“She just doesn’t want to see you without makeup on. It’s not a pretty sight.”

Smooth, Foster, real smooth
.

April turned around, but instead of giving me a death stare, she broke into a smile. “How would you know what I look like without makeup on? You left before I woke up, remember?”

I knew exactly what she looked like without makeup. I’d woken up about six in the morning that day, and had quickly gotten dressed and stolen her panties as I always did after a one-night stand.

The blinds in her apartment were cheap and didn’t keep out much of the light. The early morning sun had shone on the bed, illuminating April’s face in a soft orange glow.

She’d been captivating even without the makeup, which she must have removed while I’d been recovering from one of our many sessions that night. I’d almost undressed and crawled back into bed. As it was, I stared at her for at least ten minutes, before finally tearing myself away.

“Maybe next time I’ll stick around until the morning,” I replied.

She smiled again, but didn’t respond. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

“Thank you for what you said to my dad,” April said, as she sat down on the new double bed that was also a new addition to the room. “That meant a lot to both of us.”

“I think I need to apologize for the bad apology,” I joked. “I didn’t exactly knock that one out of the park.”

“It just takes practice. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of that.”

“Yeah, I think you might be right.”

“You can sit down,” she said, patting the bed next to her. “Judging by the wallpaper and the weights under the bed, I’m guessing you used to spend a lot of time in this room.”

“I’ve had some fun times in here.”

“I probably don’t want to know.”

I grinned. “Nothing sordid, thank you very much. I saved that for the bedroom.”

April opened her mouth to speak, changed her mind, opened it again, and finally closed it.

“What is it?” I asked. “You obviously want to say something.”

“It’s a little personal.”

“I’ve seen you naked. I’ve felt you orgasm on my cock. I think we’re beyond personal.”

“Good point. Your Dad. What happened to him?”

“Cancer,” I replied. “Lung cancer. He was relatively young, but he’d smoked since he was a teenager. Can’t say he didn’t bring it upon himself, but that doesn’t make it any easier to bear.”

April laughed gently. “Tell me about it.”

“Now I get to ask you a question.”

“I’m not going to like this am I?”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “But I’m going to ask it anyway. Why did you bail on me the other night outside your apartment? I know you wanted me. You were dying for it as much as I was.”

April looked down at her lap and took a few moments to compose herself before answering. Either that, or she was thinking up a lie. I didn’t know which.

“I’m sure we would have had a good night,” April said. “But there’s no way this can end well. It’s bad enough that you’re my boss--”

“I won’t be for much longer.”

“No, but after the summer you will be my stepbrother. This won’t have a happy ending.”

“I’m fairly sure there was a happy ending the last time we spent the night together. More than one actually.”

“I guess I can’t deny that.”

“Nope. Look, I know the sensible version of you thinks this is an awful idea, but there’s another part of you that is desperate to go through with this. Where’s the April that brought a stranger back to her apartment that night?”

“Well, you’re not a stranger anymore, so it’s no fun.”

April smiled, but it disappeared quickly when I looked into her eyes. She held my gaze, even as I lifted my hand to her cheek and lightly brushed her soft skin.

Then I kissed her.