Royally Chosen Christmas (Royal Sons MC #7) - Elle Boon Page 0,17
blue as his and his dad’s, but they were still a pretty blue. He could understand why people thought she was Talena’s biological mother, with her blonde hair and blue eyes, similar but not.
“I married Gary too soon after your dad...after his death. He was there when I was needing someone to figure out what to do with the company, and he was your dad’s best friend. It’s wasn’t the love like I had for your father, rather friendship and stability. He was fine with that he said, even when I told him I didn’t think I’d ever love a man like your father. You needed a man to be there for things, and Gary had always been a part of our lives, so I thought I was doing the right thing.” She took a deep breath, stared into the house before continuing. “I wanted a big family. Your dad and I, we were going to fill this house with children. He always joked that we’d have four or five to start. After you, we decided to wait a few years, and then we had just started trying again. The day of the accident I’d just found out I was pregnant,” she choked out.
He was frozen in place. Talena wasn’t old enough to be that child and Angela was older than him plus she wasn’t his mother’s child. His confusion must’ve been clear for her to see because he didn’t need to ask before she was speaking again.
“His death was so hard and watching you cry for your daddy was like losing him all over again, night after night. It was like my body couldn’t sustain the pregnancy. I miscarried at sixteen weeks. I decided then and there I wasn’t having another man’s child, when I couldn’t even keep the one inside me safe. A few months after your father’s death, Gary found me curled in a ball in my master bedroom. You had been at school, luckily. Gary said your father wouldn’t want me to continue on like I was. He said I needed to stop grieving and start living. When he suggested a marriage of convenience, I went along with him. After a couple of years, I decided I wanted a child, but I wouldn’t have one, not the conventional way. Talena—she’s mine as much as any.”
The fierce way she spoke and the love she had for Talena was undeniable. He was still reeling from the news, even though he’d already known thanks to Angela, but he kept his face impassive, his training coming in handy. He also felt Gary had an ulterior motive for getting his mother to marry him but kept that to himself. “Is she aware?”
His mother shook her head, still looking in through the closed patio doors. He saw Talena walk by with a platter in her arms. Their cook would’ve given it to her only because his sister had probably begged to help. “Are you going to tell her?” he asked.
“I had planned to, someday. Angela said it wouldn’t matter because, well, you know, she was also adopted. Or did you know that?” His mother finally looked up at him, sadness clouded her vision.
“I do. I didn’t until recently.” No need to tell her how recently or what else he knew. Fuck, the saying about tangled webs ran through his mind.
“I need to tell you something else.” She kept one hand on the door handle, meeting his gaze squarely. “Gary and me. We aren’t. He and I are not husband and wife in the sense like a normal married couple. When he suggested we get married, he knew I wasn’t ready and that I might never be. It’s been sixteen years since I lost your father, but I still dream of him. I still wake up wanting him, only him. I know Gary has lovers, and I am fine with that. I always have been. I told him long ago if he ever met a woman he fell in love with, I’d divorce him so he could be happy. I needed you to know I would never trap him into a loveless marriage. I do love him, and he loves us, all of us, just not in that way.”
“Mom, why are you telling me all of this right now?” Her confession was so out of left field he wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“I saw the two of you arguing. I know the day Angela died you were upset because we couldn’t