why you arranged for me to go to college. It was penance,” Darcy added.
Sister Margaret didn’t look even slightly contrite. “So to speak.”
“Heidi’s dead now, so why didn’t you tell us when we came to see you last time?”
“I was going to, but then he called.”
“He?” Lucien asked.
“Yeah, this guy picked up the blackmail where Heidi left off, so I kept my silence, but tried to give enough hints that you’d figure it out on your own.”
“Who is he?” Darcy demanded.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him, but he knew so much that I just assumed he was an accomplice of Heidi’s.”
Lucien lay in bed with Darcy, but his thoughts were on their son. “Brandon has agreed to take the blood test?”
“Yes, but I don’t need the results to know. He looks just like you.” Darcy lifted her head onto her hand. “When I see him in my head, he’s a baby. I know that’s silly because it’s been fourteen years, but seeing him almost fully grown . . . We’ve missed so much.”
Lucien tightened his arms around her. “We found him, Darcy. We may have lost fourteen years, but we have the rest of our lives to get to know him.”
“Do you think he’ll want that—I mean, to be a part of our lives now?”
“I wouldn’t have turned family away at his age. Would you have?”
Lucien saw the answer in her eyes before she said, “No, I wouldn’t have.”
“We need to give him time and not push him, but I think he’s as eager to get to know us as we are him.”
“I can’t wait for you to meet him,” Darcy whispered.
“I’m not sure how to be a dad.”
“I don’t know anything about being a mother, but we’ll figure it out.”
Lucien knew the awe he was feeling came across in his voice. “A family.”
Darcy wrapped her arms around him. “Our family.”
“Even better,” he whispered before his mouth covered hers.
Dane wasn’t sure if he wanted to follow through with his plan, but he supposed standing on his mother’s front step was the wrong place for a change of heart. Lena and Ember’s uncle Josh had accompanied him. He was grateful to the older man for offering to come to help smooth out what was sure to be an uncomfortable first meeting.
He found Lena’s hand in his surprisingly comforting. Sober, his perspective had changed and one of the things he was learning was that Lena really seemed to “get” him.
“You ready for this?” she asked.
“I doubt it.”
Josh had called ahead to let Belinda know who he was bringing, so when Dane knocked, Belinda opened the door. Tears immediately filled her eyes as she moved back and gestured with her hands.
“Please, Dane . . . all of you . . . come inside.”
They settled in the living room—Dane and Lena on the sofa and Belinda across from them in a chair. Josh stood in the back of the room to give them some privacy, but close enough to step in if things weren’t going well.
“How have you been, Dane?” Belinda’s voice cracked.
Boy, what a loaded question. He answered bitterly, “Well, considering my mother left me when I wasn’t even two years old, I’m pretty fucked up. Thanks for asking.”
Belinda’s face fell and she started to cry. “I’m sorry. I should have been there.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Your father was a pig and I couldn’t bear watching him parade his bimbos in front of me anymore.”
“So you left me.”
“I wanted to take you with me, but I couldn’t. I was afraid of your grandfather.”
“Why?” Dane asked.
“Your family used to be good friends with my parents, the kind of friendship that transcends generations. When my father and your grandfather were younger they’d made an agreement—an arranged marriage to protect their collective wealth. It was really very selfish, but they were both old-school. So one of the Carmichael sons would marry one of the Spano daughters. When the time came, I was the unlucky one, since Lily didn’t prefer men, and Elizabeth was too young and immature. It was on my twentieth birthday that I was told I was to marry Nathaniel. I didn’t know him well. We’d said hi at the various functions we’d attended with our parents, but we certainly hadn’t dated at all and didn’t know each other well enough to marry. I fought it, but your grandfather was a very powerful man, even back then. He also had this way with people. He could make them do what he wanted, but made