Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 96512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“And now I’m your sister-in-law, Fisher, you’re basically family with Vivian, too.”
I grin at Efa’s assertion that Bennett’s my brother. She gets it.
Jack and Bennett come over and join us, with Vivian’s husband, Beau. Jack pulls me to one side. “You know I said I’d get my family’s security team to look into Gerry,” he says. “Well, they’ve found a few things I thought you should know.” He holds up a flash drive.
“You want to email it to me?”
He shakes his head. “I always assume if I email something, it’s going to get into the public domain. This file is encrypted. I’m not sure if you’ll want this getting out.”
Jack’s acting like he’s part of the CIA, but he looks serious.
“What is it?” I ask him. I glance around. The party’s finally winding down. The place is less busy than it was even ten minutes ago.
“I wouldn’t have mentioned it here if I didn’t think you’d want to know right away. I want you to enjoy your night. But I don’t want to keep this from you, either.”
“What is it, Jack?”
He pulls in a breath. “I have a laptop in the car if you want to see it now?”
I expect to come back into the party, so I don’t say any goodbyes before I leave. I just follow Jack down to the limo that’s waiting at the bottom of the stairs to the hotel. Of course Jack has a limo idling at the curb. He’s Jack Alden.
I slide into the back on one side and he gets in the other side. Without saying a word, he plugs the flash drive into the laptop, puts in the various passwords, and then brings up the file on the drive.
He hands the laptop to me.
The file is headed “Alden Family Security,” and underneath are the words “Gerry Banks.”
The first page is full of stuff I already know. Where he works. His career history. I skim down to the section of the report subtitled “Family Background.”
It says how he was raised by a single mother. For years, he thought his father had died. Later, he found out that he was the result of an affair his mother had with a married man whom she’d worked with briefly.
Inexplicably, my heart begins to race and my palms slick with sweat. I pull in a breath, trying to steady myself. I read on.
Name of father: David Grant
That’s my father’s name.
My mouth goes dry and my heart stops. I can’t hear anything. I don’t know if I’m still breathing. I glance up at Jack as if to say, is this what I think it is? He’s wearing a concerned expression.
It’s exactly what I think it is.
“My fucking father is his father?” I spit out.
“It would seem so.”
“And he’s known? All this time?” I hand the laptop back to Jack. “So he hates me because he hates my… our dad?”
Jack swallows. “Your father never took responsibility for him. He refused to acknowledge paternity and wouldn’t submit to a test. You got him. He didn’t. Your father chose you.”
I try to make sense of what Jack’s saying. My father chose me? I certainly never felt that way. Since the divorce, he’d never made much effort with me.
“So how do we know he’s Gerry’s father?” Maybe Gerry’s mistaken. My thoughts start to race. If I can convince my dad to take the test, we can prove it once and for all.
“I don’t think Ms. Banks, Gerry’s mother, ever had a doubt. And anyway, your father did submit his DNA eventually. After Ms. Banks served him with court papers.”
Does my mom know? Is that why they ended up divorcing. “When did that happen?”
“Gerry was fifteen when she launched the lawsuit.” I scan the screen and nausea rises in my belly.
I was eighteen. That’s when my parents divorced. I wonder if my mom knew all along.
He was someone’s father and tried to pretend he wasn’t. He was worse than I ever thought he was. I thought he was faking being a happy family man. I just didn’t know how deep his deceit went.
“It doesn’t say if your dad paid anything,” Jack says. “Gerry got a full scholarship to Penn State.”
“What year did he go?” I ask, trying to find the answer in the text in front of me.
Jack recites the dates. It’s a question he’s already asked himself. Gerry started the year as I entered my final year.
“So he turned eighteen just before I graduated from college. That tracks. Maybe Gerry’s mom told him then.” I turn to Jack. “You think he followed me into the music business or do you think that was a coincidence?”
Jack shrugs. “Seems like a big coincidence.”
“He’s still coming after me for my father’s mistakes,” I say. “When is it ever going to stop?”
“I don’t know, Fisher. But at least you know what you’re up against. It’s definitely personal for him.”