The Billionaire's Temporary Bride (Scandal, Inc #3)(78)

"No," Charlotte said, brushing him away and taking a step back. "I'm not going anywhere."

"You followed me here?" Jack asked. "Does anyone else know you're here? Charlotte, if you told anyone—"

"Jack, I know. I saw her. I saw him. I saw everything. I know."

"You don't know," Jack said. "Come inside. You shouldn't be here."

"You shouldn't be here either," Charlotte said. "You have a kid with another woman, and you never thought to mention it to me?"

"Charlotte, I just told you, you don't know what's going on." Jack reached out again and touched her elbow. He looked like he was going to cry as he grimaced in pain. "Just come inside. I've been trying to figure out how to tell you this for months."

"What is there to explain? You got some woman pregnant back when you were in college, and now you're keeping her and your son here so she doesn't go public. I should have known better when Callie said you needed a wife who wouldn't ask questions. It's not enough that I agreed to go along with this whole thing. It's not enough that I've lied to everyone who matters to me, and that I've walked away from my career to chase after the dream of a real relationship with you. No, you had to lie to me from the start. All that stuff about not wanting marriage and kids, was that all just a private joke on me or were you just hoping to avoid making the same mistake twice?"

"That's not how it is and you know it," Jack said.

"Why did you insist on getting married? We could have just been engaged and I could have walked away after the election. You could have told me you had a kid, Jack. I can't believe you did this to me."

"I moved up the wedding because I didn't want to lose you," Jack said. "I didn't want to run the chance of you changing your mind and leaving me."

"Well, I guess we know why," Charlotte said.

"It's not like that," Jack said. "Come inside and hear me out. It's too much to explain with you jumping in after every word."

"He has your eyes, Jack. He has your eyes." Charlotte turned to walk away, but Jack ran up to her and stepped ahead, placing his hand on her arm.

"He's not my son," Jack said.

"Why can't you just tell me the truth?" Charlotte said.

"You want to know why he looks like me?"

Charlotte could see the pressure building in Jack's chest as he took a deep breath. He looked like he was going to explode in anger.

"He's my brother. He's my little brother. The woman in there, his mother? Her name is Maria. She had an affair with my father eight years ago and became pregnant. My father brought her to the US and gave her this house to live in, and when he died, he left me with the responsibility of caring for both of them. Just like everything else he did, he screwed up and dropped the whole damn thing in my lap. He left me in charge of the trust and the whole family empire because he knew I'd keep his secret. He knew I'd be a good son, that I'd do everything in my power to keep my mother and siblings from finding out the truth. He died down here, you know, with her. He was starting over, giving himself a second chance at a family. He even named the kid Jack. Think about that. He already had one son named Jack, and he decided to try again."

"Jack," Charlotte said. She felt weak and small as she looked at him. "I didn't know."

She looked deep into Jack's eyes. While he was able to hide it from everyone else, she had seen this look before, in the moments when he thought she wasn't looking, that lonely, tired, desperate look. Her heart broke for him as she thought of what it must have taken for him to hide this secret.


"Does anyone know?"

"Just the two of them in there and me," Jack said. "Now you too."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Charlotte asked. "I would have understood."

"I told you from the start that there were certain things I couldn't talk about. What was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to tell you that I've been hiding my father's shameful secret for the past eight years? I didn't want a serious relationship because the idea of lying to you about anything makes me sick. I haven't been able to look at you since the honeymoon, since I realized how much I love you and need you. I can't go on without you, Charlotte. I can't lie to myself anymore. I can't pretend that what we have isn't real. It is real, and I am in love, and I don't want to hide anything from you. That's why I came down here. I wanted to tell Maria and Jack that I was bringing you down to meet them. I wanted a chance to explain this all."

"Why couldn't you have told me this before?" Charlotte said. She sat down in the cold sand and folded her arms over her knees.

"This would destroy my family. It would ruin my mother to know that my father had a kid with someone else. Their marriage wasn't perfect, but he was her husband, and she is a proud woman. Can you imagine what would happen if she found out her husband died in his mistress's arms?"

"Why protect the mistress then?" Charlotte asked.

"When I found out, I came down here with every intention of calling her a home wrecker and yelling and cursing, but then I met her. She was a wreck. She was heartbroken about my father's death. She loved him. She still does love him. When I met her, she sobbed on my shoulder for an hour, and she apologized for what she did to my family. She hadn't known. My father had told her he was separated from his wife. I couldn't punish her for my father's sins. She wanted to marry him. She wanted to raise a family together in this house. I offered her money, and I offered to send her wherever in the world she wanted, but she just wanted to stay at the house, the house where she thought she'd start a family. So maybe I should hate her, and maybe I should have torn the house to the ground and cursed my father and her and their son, but I couldn't. I put her on the family payroll as the caretaker of the house, and I visit from time to time to make sure everything's going ok."