He shook his head. “As I got older, it only took a few strokes of the keyboard to find out all I needed to know about Robert Dare, hotel magnate.”
“Ouch,” Madison said softly.
He shrugged, obviously not all that upset by the memory. “It was weird. It didn’t hurt as much as it should have, I guess because I knew we had a father who was always there.”
“Did you confront him?” she asked.
He nodded. “I stormed into their bedroom one night and demanded answers. It turns out Mom knew he had another family all along. He explained how it was complicated and I’d understand more when I was older, but basically his marriage was one of convenience only.” He shook his head. “Clearly more than that since they had kids, but at the time, I didn’t give much thought to it. I mean, I was only fifteen when I figured it all out.”
“Then Sienna got sick?” Madison asked, knowing those touchy details from Riley.
“Childhood leukemia.” He visibly shuddered. “My baby sister, deathly ill. We thought we’d lose her. I mean, my mother actually prepared us, using those words. And one look at Sienna in the hospital, on the rare times we were allowed in to visit her … it was obvious why they were so scared.” His voiced came out gruff and affected.
Unable to stop herself, she rose and walked over to him, intending to give him a comforting hug. He pulled her down onto his lap, obviously wanting the intimate connection. After the day she’d had, she needed the same thing.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Dad had no choice but to go to his wife—Ian’s mother—and ask her to have his other children’s bone marrow tested.”
“Wow. That’s like a soap opera.”
“Yet disturbingly real. I think that’s when it hit home for everyone. Dad had another wife and family, who, as it turned out, knew nothing about my mother or his other kids. It taught us all that my father is definitely a selfish son of a bitch.”
She lay her head against his chest, listening to his rapidly beating heart.
“I lied. When I said the stuff about my father and us not having his name didn’t bother me? It did. I just hated to think about why we were different. What it could mean.”
“I never liked thinking about my parents at all,” she murmured.
“Anything you want to talk about now?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“So tonight’s about me baring my soul?”
She grinned, knowing he couldn’t see. “It’s about time, don’t you think?”
His low chuckle reverberated through her, but she had no doubt she’d have to return the favor one day soon.
“Well, on the one hand, I was grateful I had a father who was present. On the other … kids can be brutal.”
“They made fun of you?” she asked, horrified on his behalf. Although she wasn’t surprised. She’d experienced her own fair share of being made fun of for her hand-me-down clothes and fake families.
“They only called us bastards once. I was big enough to hold my own, and so was Jason. Nobody bothered us after we made our point the first time. It was easy to defend my position. As a kid, I trusted in what I’d been told, that my parents didn’t believe in the institution of marriage.” He idly stroked her hair, and she sighed in contentment.
“And now?” she asked, ever perceptive.
“As I got older, I recognized the damage my father had caused. It was harder for Ian than for me.”
“From what Riley told me, Ian idolized your father. His disillusion was the hardest.”
Alex nodded. “All the time Dad was with us, Ian and his four siblings thought he was traveling on business. It made sense since he had hotels all over the country, and they were used to him being an absentee parent. Then he showed up asking for bone marrow for a kid they knew nothing about, only to find out there was another woman and two other children.”
Was it any wonder he’d ended up bitter and angry about relationships? Madison mused. “Yet despite it all, Ian’s mother allowed her kids to be tested. That’s pretty amazing.”
“I agree. And as icing on an already sucky cake, Dad decided, since everything was out in the open, it was time to officially ask for a divorce. He married my mother as soon as it was final.” Alex groaned. “It’s like the shit you see on reality TV. And it’s no wonder Ian resented us. He became the glue that held his mother and siblings together, and we got the father we always had anyway, along with his name.”
“None of that is your fault,” she assured him.
“Maybe not, but I was too thick-headed to get it. I thought I’d gained this hotshot sibling who was going to University of Florida to play football. I wanted to follow in his footsteps. Be like him.”
“And he wanted nothing to do with you.”
“And things went to hell between us from there,” Alex said, admitting all this for the first time, out loud and to himself.
“I bet it hurt,” Madison said, tilting her head up at him. She looked into his deep dark eyes, the handsome face showing all the confusion and pain he kept hidden.
That he was revealing it to her now eased the ever-present constriction in her chest.
“Yeah. And as you know, I don’t react well when hurt, physically or emotionally.” He slid his thumb over her bottom lip.
She licked at his salty finger, doing her best not to moan at the intimate contact.
He cleared his throat. “Anyway, that’s when my official rivalry with Ian began.”
“And it took Riley to end it,” she concluded, and he nodded.
“Can I ask you something?” She glanced away from him as she spoke.
He cocked his head to one side and grinned. “Might as well. I seem to be in an answering mood.”
She refused to meet his gaze. “Do you … or did you have feelings for Riley beyond friendship? Is that why you gave her such a hard time when she met Ian? Because you wanted her for yourself?”
She asked the one question that had always haunted her, even when she knew that, to Riley, there had never been more than sisterly feelings for Alex.
He lifted her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes and face both him and her question, which was all too revealing.
“No, I am not interested in Riley that way. But in the interest of full disclosure, I can’t say that I didn’t try to hook up with her once.”
Madison’s stomach plummeted at the admission, but she’d asked. She had to accept the answer.