THE BENNETTS' CHRISTMAS (The Bennett Family and the Masters Family #6) - Brenda Jackson Page 0,21
about all of you?”
“She had left before that point. She’d caught him in bed with another woman, but he was contesting the divorce. So she hired a private investigator to find out if that woman had been the only one he’d been with. I can’t imagine how she’d felt when she’d discovered that not only had he had several other affairs, but also that he had three illegitimate kids he’d kept well hidden.”
“You and your siblings get along?”
She smiled. “Yeah, we do. Once we found out about each other, we decided that we wouldn’t deny ourselves the chance to be a family. Hansen is a FBI agent and currently lives in Houston. Pratt finished medical school and is doing his residency at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. My sister Kelly also lives in Atlanta and is working on her PhD at Clark Atlanta.”
Monica took another sip of her wine, then continued, “I have two other siblings from my mom. There’s my little brother and my sister Sebrina. Sebrina is three years older than me and is a heart specialist at St. Paul General. We share a house.”
She leaned closer to him, and he figured she had no idea of the torture he was going through, sitting across from her and inhaling her scent. “Now this is where it gets really complicated,” she said in a low voice, as if she was about to share a top secret with him.
“Michael Bennett had been adopted into the Bennett family as a baby, something he didn’t find out until he had finished high school. He was about to go into the military and needed his birth certificate. The truth bothered Michael so much that for years, he rarely came home.”
“The fact that he’d been adopted?”
“Yes. He felt betrayed since nobody had told him. He got married and had a little girl and made his home in St. Paul. Years later, Michael’s wife died in a car accident, and he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Kennedy returned home to Atlanta to be near his family. The Bennett family.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment and Landon figured she was thinking about that time in her life. “My mother, Taye, and Michael had always been close when they were growing up and once they were adults, they discovered they had always loved each other.”
“Loved each other? Like in love with each other?” Landon asked, wanting to make sure he had heard her correctly.
“Yes.”
He lifted a brow. “But they were cousins.”
She smiled. “Yes, but since Michael had been adopted, it wasn’t as if he was a blood relative. Less than a year after returning to Atlanta, Michael and my mom got married and they, along with me, my sister, Sebrina and Michael’s daughter, Kennedy, became a blended family.”
He nodded. “And how did that work out?”
A huge smile appeared on her face. “It was great. I adore Michael and he became the father I’d been missing all my life. A couple of years after they married, Mom and Michael had a son, Michael Bennett, Jr, who we call Mike. That means Kennedy, Sebrina and I share a brother.”
Landon nodded. “How did you come to live in St. Paul?”
“When Michael moved to Atlanta, he kept the house that he used to live in with his first wife and Kennedy. When Kennedy finished college, he presented her with the deed to the house as a graduation present. She decided to move back to St. Paul, and me, my sister, Sebrina and our cousin Victoria decided to join her.”
She paused, taking a sip of her wine. Then she continued, “The arrangement worked out great for two years. Kennedy and Victoria got married this past June, so now it’s just me and Sebrina. But we’re getting another housemate soon.”
“Another relative?”
She shook her head, grinning. “No, a family friend, who like Sebrina, is a doctor.”
“I see.”
They talked for a while longer, and she told him about her plans to resign from the Tribune in another year to pursue her PhD. “I really want to become a college professor. Someday.”
“And I’m sure you will,” he told her. “You come across as a woman who goes after what she wants, and I’ll bet you usually get it.”
Monica wished Landon wouldn’t put ideas into her head. What would he think if he knew he’d just made her decide to go after him? After all, she had to do something. Whenever he looked at her with that dark penetrating gaze of his, she could feel her heart race,