Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)(19)

They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Shelby said, “You’re one of five brothers, right?”

“I’m the second oldest. There’s Del, me, Nick, Mathias and Ronan. The last two are...” Twins. He always said twins. Only they weren’t. They never had been. It had all been a giant lie.

“Aidan?” Shelby’s voice was soft. “Are you okay?”

“You’re right,” he said bitterly. “Some men do cheat. My father did. I don’t know how many women there were. He claims just one, but I have my doubts. There had to have been others.”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “That’s so hard. Does your mom know?”

“She covered for him. For years.”

Shelby frowned. “I don’t understand. Why would it be an ongoing issue?”

He picked up his margarita and took a drink. “Because my youngest brother, Ronan, is his mistress’s son.”

Shelby’s blue eyes widened and her mouth formed a perfect O. She looked shocked and strangely appealing. Sexy, maybe. He pushed that thought away and focused on what had happened with his family.

“Del, Nick and I were practically babies when my mom had Mathias. We didn’t know what was going on. All I remember is that I had twin brothers. Four years ago, my dad had a heart attack. It turned out to be pretty minor, but at the time, we didn’t know how bad it was. I guess he was afraid he was going to die or something and he told the twins the truth. That Ronan was the result of an affair. When Ronan’s mom was going to give him up for adoption, Dad told my mom, who agreed to raise him as her own.”

Shelby’s eyes stayed wide. “Seriously? I can’t imagine.”

“It happened. Some days I think she’s a saint and other days I’m convinced she’s a fool. That Dad played her. He gets everything and she’s stuck with some other woman’s kid.”

“That’s harsh, but I understand your point.” She reached for a chip. “What I don’t get is how she did it. I mean every time she looked at him, wouldn’t she see that other woman? Imagine her with her husband? It must have been incredibly painful.”

Aidan hadn’t planned to talk about this. He never did. He and his brothers had spoken about the situation a couple of times, but with as few words as possible. And without talking about the lingering effects on the family. But he found himself comfortable discussing it all with Shelby.

“You’d think.” He took another drink of his margarita. “But it wasn’t like that at all. Maybe at first—I wouldn’t remember that. But by the time I was eight or nine, I knew that Ronan was her favorite.”

“That’s not possible,” Shelby breathed.

“It wasn’t anything awful. She didn’t tell us that or make it obvious, but we could tell. We used to tease Ronan about being a mama’s boy. She was always fussing over him. They were the closest. Even in high school, they talked all the time.”

He remembered ragging on his brother. How Ronan had said it was because he was the superior brother. All good fun. Elaine had been there for all of them, so knowing Ronan was the one she loved just a little bit more hadn’t meant much. He’d figured it was something every group of siblings went through.

“After Dad told the twins, they left. Packed up everything and relocated to Happily Inc.”

Shelby smiled. “I’ve heard of that place. It’s outside of Palm Desert, right? A wedding-destination town. It’s supposed to be lovely, in the mountains, with an underground spring and—” She stopped and sighed. “Sorry, I was momentarily distracted. I blame the margarita.”

Her humor faded. “Wait a minute. I’m just now processing. Ceallach told the twins about Ronan and who he was and that was it? He didn’t tell your mom that he’d told the twins the truth and he didn’t tell you or your other brothers, either?”

“Not until last summer. We figured they’d gone to Happily Inc. to get away from Dad and pursue their art. No one thought anything of it.”

“But what about them? How are they? They were twins for what, twenty-five years, and they suddenly find out they’re not? Poor Ronan, to find out he’s not who he thought. That the woman he thought of as his mother isn’t. Has he met his biological mom? Are he and Elaine okay? Do you guys talk about this stuff now?”

He held up his hands in the shape of a T. “I’m willing to do the girl thing today, but you have to take it slow, okay? Not so many questions.”

To be honest, he didn’t have any answers. Mostly because he’d never really thought about the situation from Ronan’s perspective. When he and Del and Nick had found out last fall, they’d had to deal with who Ronan was, or wasn’t. Not that having a different mother made any difference in the siblings’ relationship. They were brothers and they would always be brothers.

“Sorry. I’m just shocked. Poor Ronan. That had to have been tough for him. And Mathias. I mean they were a team. Special by virtue of being twins. Now that’s gone forever.”

“There’s a cheerful thought.”

“But it’s true.”

Not something he wanted dwell on, he thought to himself. Families were complicated—his more so than most. At least that was his impression. Maybe not. Maybe everyone else was dealing with the same level of crap.