“Maybe,” Jordan agreed.
“We could have,” I snapped.
Jordan narrowed his eyes in my direction. A silent reminder to keep it together. But fuck it. He might have mastered his temper, but this was beyond anything I’d ever dealt with, and we didn’t need to master anything in this situation.
“What?” my dad asked. His voice shifted from nurturing father figure to business professional in a matter of seconds. He could see the writing on the wall. He’d always been canny, even when we didn’t like it. “Tell me.”
Jordan looked to me, and I shrugged.
“This was your idea.”
He sighed. “We got an email about you.”
“About me? From whom?”
I watched him closely as I said, “Weston Wright.”
He blinked. He’d heard that name before. I could see it on his face.
“You know who that is?”
“I’ve heard the name,” he said carefully. “What did he say?”
“He said that he was our brother,” Jordan said. “And that you were his father. That he lived in Seattle and was twenty-two. He claimed to not know that we existed, but that we were family.”
I waited for him to deny it, to be outraged. To do all the things I expected from him. That I’d waited for with his normal bullshit. But instead, he sighed and seemed to shrink in on himself.
“I was afraid this was going to happen.”
“It’s true?” I gasped.
“No,” he said earnestly. “It’s not true. But I do know of Weston Wright.”
“You do?” Jordan asked.
“Let’s back up the story. Three years ago, right after you two moved here, I got a similar email from the young man. He claimed that I was his father. That I’d known his mother twenty-two years ago, and unbeknownst to me, I’d fathered a child.” He ran a hand back through his hair, his face distraught. “I took the email seriously. How could I not?”
“Of course,” Jordan said.
“Why would he think you were his dad?”
“I knew his mother,” he said with a shrug. “He’d found old pictures of us together and assumed that I must be his dad.”
I narrowed my eyes. “But you aren’t?”
“Let me explain,” he said, holding his hand out. “I took it as a credible reality that I might have another son. After all, around that time, I’d been separated from your mother. I’d had a few relationships. Though…nothing had ever come of it. Certainly not children.”
I shuddered at that thought.
“Anyway, I reached out to his mother. She was incredibly embarrassed that Weston had contacted me. We’d known each other, and when we compared dates, it hadn’t been anywhere close to the time that he was conceived.”
“How close?” Jordan asked.
“A year difference,” our father said. He leaned back against Jordan’s truck and wiped a hand down his face. “From his mother, I found out that Wright wasn’t even his last name. He had the same last name as his mother. She didn’t know who the father was, and this wasn’t the first time that Weston had spoken to a man she’d dated at the time.”
“And what was her last name?” Jordan asked.
“Smith.”
I sighed. Great. What a common name. No wonder they hadn’t found a musician Weston Wright if his real name was Weston Smith. How many more of those were there?
“So, why is he messaging us now?” Jordan asked.
“Yeah. Didn’t you tell him?”
“I did,” he said. “We both did. I thought that he understood the circumstances. I handled it then, and I’ll handle it now.”
“How?” I asked.
“I’ll talk to him again. I’ll contact his mother.” He straightened, as if realizing the purpose of all of this. “I can’t have him interfering in our lives like this. It isn’t fair to either of you or me.”
“Or Mom,” Jordan asked.
Our father’s eyes rounded. “You told your mother?”
“Yes,” Jordan said. “Of course we did. She was the one who insisted we talk to you before speaking to Weston.”
“She must hate me. I thought we were just…” He trailed off.
It made my insides squirm to think that they might reconcile.
“To her credit, she never believed it,” I offered. “She said that you would have told her if you’d known while you were married.”
“Of course I would have told her,” he insisted vehemently. “Can you imagine keeping a secret like that from your mom?”
Jordan and I shrugged at the same time. As if, yes, we could imagine keeping things from Mom. And we’d learned how to lie from our dad. That was for damn sure.
But…this…this felt like the truth. I didn’t know if it was because I had so desperately wanted there to be an answer to this horrible question, but it all fit together. Our father was a good liar, but he hadn’t been surprised by our question of him. He hadn’t shied away from it at all. There hadn’t been a moment of hesitation. He was good, but he wasn’t that good. Not when we were in on his tricks.
“How do we know this is all true?” I finally asked.
“Well, I’d appreciate some trust,” my dad said.
Jordan managed only a half-laugh. “Do you still have the original emails?”
He scrunched up his features. “Maybe. He sent it to the business email, and everything from that was dumped after I was…let go. I transferred a lot over. I can go through my emails and see if I can get it for you. But you could always respond to Weston and see what he says.” My dad shrugged. “I don’t know what he would say. I doubt he’d admit that he’d already reached out to me and it hadn’t gone his way.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t you see?” our dad asked. He winced before saying, “Being my son comes with privilege. I was the head of the Vancouver company. I had money to spare. I had access.”
Jordan nodded. “Did he ask for money?”
“No,” our dad said. “I think he actually believed he was my son.”
“Then, why?”
Our dad hung his head. “I gave his mother money. She was…on hard times. We were friends at the time and reconnected for a while when I was in a dark place after you all left. He might have…discovered that I’d done that.”
“Jesus, Dad,” Jordan growled.
I shook my head. There it was. There it always was. The caveat.
“I try to put on a brave face for you both, but I was a mess,” he said solemnly. “What do you want me to say? I’d lost the company, my wife, my kids. I’d lost everything I’d ever cared about. I hate to say it, but I wanted Weston to be my son.”
I balked. “What?”
“It would have been a chance for me to start over.” He sounded so desperate that my heart actually hurt for him. A feeling I’d never thought I’d have again. “You wouldn’t talk to me. You wouldn’t see me. Everything was gone. What else did I have? So, I wanted this new life. It wasn’t real though. It’s why when Jordan called me, I hopped on the chance. I’d do anything to make this right with you. To have my real family back. I’ve made mistakes. I know I have, but I’m not the man I was, and I mean that.”