accustomed to feeling. Ember was going to jump to the natural conclusion and hate him for keeping this from her.
“His mother is Heidi,” Trace said in defeat.
Lucien’s voice sounded like a gun blast. “It’s bad enough Ember had to see you and Heidi together, but you didn’t think it was important to tell your wife that you had a kid with her?”
Guilt churned in Trace’s gut. “He isn’t mine.”
“What?” Lucien demanded.
“He isn’t my kid. He’s my half brother. He doesn’t know who his father is because I’m trying to protect him from the reality of where he comes from. He suspects we’re related since we look so much alike, so I’ve told him he’s the son of a cousin of mine. I have to live with the knowledge of my father; I don’t wish that on him. I didn’t tell Ember or Chelsea; I was trying to protect them from it too.”
“And now your wife thinks you fathered a child and never told her,” Lucien said softly.
That reality twisted like a knife in Trace’s gut. God, she must hate him. He hated himself in that minute for not telling her immediately. His intent was to spare the child, but not at the expense of his wife. When he saw Heidi again, he was going to wring her fucking neck. He needed to see Ember and, as if his friend had read his mind, Lucien said, “She’s down the hall, last door on the left.”
“Thank you, Lucien, for being there.”
“Anytime.”
Trace moved down the hall and was careful to be quiet when he pushed open the door. He approached the bed where Ember was curled into a ball, her typical sleeping position when he wasn’t in bed with her. Her hands were tucked under her cheek, and he could tell by the puffiness of her eyes that she had spent a fair amount of time crying. His heart twisted in his chest. Settling on the edge of the bed, he touched her face, needing to feel her solid and warm under his fingers. She stirred, instinctively moving into him as if she knew he was there. He wanted to wake her, beg her forgiveness, make love to her, but instead he took a seat across the room and watched her sleep.
When Ember woke, it was dark outside. It took her a minute, but Trace watched as her body tensed, and he knew she knew he was there. She turned to him, and the kaleidoscope of emotions that passed over her face broke his heart, but he hadn’t missed her look of joy when she’d initially seen him.
She climbed from the bed and put the distance of the room between them. “Lucien called you,” she said without preamble.
“Yeah.”
“You should have told me.”
“He’s not my son.”
It took her a moment to register what he’d said before she exhaled on a sob, covering her mouth with her hand and turning from him. He moved to her and wrapped her in his arms. She stiffened under his embrace, but he responded by holding her closer.
“He’s not my son, Ember. I should have told you about him, but I was trying to protect Seth. I didn’t want him to have to feel the burden of being an offspring of my bastard father.”
Teary eyes looked up in his. “Seth is your brother?”
“Half brother. Heidi is his mom.”
Her response to that was to bury her face in his chest.
“Heidi’s been extorting money from me and I’ve been paying her in an attempt to keep Seth from knowing who his real father is. I didn’t tell you because it was just more shit from my past, but I’m sorry you had to learn about it the way you did. I can’t even begin to imagine how you felt seeing Seth with Heidi.”
He lifted her chin to force her gaze on him. “Forgive me.”
“I need a minute,” she whispered.
The coldness of her tone made icicles form in his blood. Was this just one drama too many? Was she finally going to come to her senses and kick his ass to the curb? She should—should have already—but fuck it, now he could never let her go. She pulled from him and he suddenly felt very empty inside.
“Is there anything else I need to know?”
“No.”
“I can’t take another surprise like that, Trace. You told me once you had a lot of shit in your past and I appreciate that, but another shocker like this one and I think it might just break me.”
“There’s