“Do you play?” Mr. Sparrow asked as my gaze went back to the chessboard.
“Not as well as I play poker,” I replied.
“Then I might have a chance to beat you.” When I didn’t reply, he gestured toward two other chairs near his desk. “Please, I know you’re probably hungry, but if you could have a seat for a moment.”
I wrapped my arms around my midsection. “Please, Mr. Sparrow, don’t say you want Ruby and me to leave. I know this is all yours. Patrick wants us to stay, and I’d never ask Patrick to choose between us and you. It wouldn’t—”
“Madeline,” he interrupted. “that’s not at all what I’m about to do.”
“You’re not?”
“No.” He gestured again to the chair.
With a deep breath, I sat along the edge of the seat with my hands in my lap, ankles crossed, and back straight. Irina taught me long ago that it was the way proper ladies sat.
Mr. Sparrow laughed. “You’re sitting like my mother. I would prefer if you’d relax, but the similarity is funny.”
“It is?”
“Because you’re not related to my mother.”
I shook my head.
“First, my name is Sterling.”
“Yes, I know.”
His brow lengthened. “I have no fucking idea what to do about having a sister.”
A sister.
He used the word.
I shrugged. “I’ve never been a sister before or had a brother,” I added.
“I’m very sorry about what happened to you, what you said on the plane.”
“That has nothing to do with you.”
“In a way it does. From what we’ve been able to determine, you were targeted and spared—if that’s what you want to call it—because of your lineage to me.”
“Spared is an interesting word,” I said. “But Ruby was spared and for that I’m grateful.”
“I’m going to tell you something that I don’t say to many people.”
I sat taller.
“My father…our father…was a horrible man. My mother also isn’t what I’d consider good. She’s still alive and he isn’t. I’m responsible for his death and don’t regret it.”
My eyes opened wider. “Why would you tell me that?”
“You were honest with me and Mason on the plane. I’m being honest with you now.”
“Is that common knowledge about his death?”
“No.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t certain what to say.
“There’s more that I want to say, to offer, that also isn’t common knowledge. No one, not even your husband, knows what I’m about to say.”
“He knows about your father?”
“Ours, and he does.”
“Okay, I’m listening,” I said, holding my own hands upon my lap.
“I’m not going to ask you to leave. My wife…and well, I also…we have in a short time come to care for Ruby quite a bit.”
“Thank you, I’m grateful, but I feel like there’s more.”
“I recently learned how you ended up where you did.”
I nodded. “Yes, Roberto and Kristine Ortiz. Patrick said they targeted us. I’d never thought of it like that, but it makes sense.”
Mr. Sparrow shook his head. “Before that, Madeline.”
Before?
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I learned the cause of the car crash that took your parents—who you thought were your parents. I learned it wasn’t accidental but also targeted.”
I recalled Andros and Marion telling me the same thing. “I was told that men like your father—”
“Our,” Mr. Sparrow corrected.
“Men like him didn’t want bastard children around. Andros made it sound like our…” I emphasized the word. “…father wanted me removed. I was supposed to be in the car.”
“Ivanov was wrong.”
“What?” I asked.
“Men like our father didn’t give a fuck about anything outside their bubble. They paid people or dismissed them. They were too concerned about their next deal, conquest, or acquisition to give one baby who had made it through the cracks much thought.”
“So you’re saying he didn’t even care enough about my existence to have me killed?”
“I’m sorry,” Mr. Sparrow said, leaning forward. “That sounds crass, and that wasn’t my intention. My intention was to be honest with you. As I said, our father was a terrible man. If it makes you feel any better, while he shaped me into who I am, he didn’t give a shit about me either. There is someone else who cared enough to keep track and hunt down anyone who would potentially jeopardize her son’s future.”
Sitting was no longer an option as I sprang to my feet. “You called me in here to tell me that it was your mother who called for my death?”
“I asked you in here to try to show you that I’m not our father or my mother. Our connection is insignificant in the grand scheme because being Patrick’s wife makes you part of this group of people. You would remain here because of him even if we didn’t share our father’s blood.
“However, as it turns out, there is more. We are related and as such, after much deliberation, I’m offering you what I took the night my father fell to his death.”
I took a step back. “I don’t understand.”
“I’ve tried to ignore it, but my mother isn’t a good woman—”
My hands came up. “Wait,” I interrupted. “No, absolutely not. Do not say you’re offering your mother’s life for my parents or in retaliation for the life I have led. I have had some difficult times.”
Mr. Sparrow scoffed. “Difficult times?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding. “But without those times, I wouldn’t have met Patrick or given birth to Ruby or…” I lifted my hands and spun around. “…ended up here. Mr. Sparrow, I have done some terrible things and some bad things have been done to me, but never have I taken or asked for another person’s life. Yes, I know the crusade Patrick has been on, and I can justify it in my mind knowing I wasn’t their only victim. I will not ask for nor accept your mother’s life.”
Mr. Sparrow stood, his smile broadening. In a surprise measure, he lifted his hand to me as if to shake. “Madeline, I’m your brother, Sterling. Please address me as such. No more Mr. Sparrow. There is one more thing I need to say.”
I reached out and we shook. “Sterling.”
Once our handshake ended, he went on, “Everything Patrick has said is true. I’m warning you that my mother will loathe your existence. I’m also telling you that it doesn’t mean a fucking thing. My mother controls nothing when it comes to all things Sparrow. Her livelihood is at my disposal.” He nodded. “Her life was at yours, and you showed in a matter of minutes that you’re more of a decent human being than she has ever been. It will be my immense pleasure to introduce the two of you.”
Introduce?
“Can that wait?” I asked.
“It can wait until you’re ready, but she should know that you not only exist but have been welcomed into the Sparrow fold.”