This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
All Rights Reserved © Terri Anne Browning 2017
His Stolen Secret
Written by Terri Anne Browning
Published by Terri Anne Browning
Edits by C&D Editing
Cover Design and Formatting by IndieVention Designs
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Table of Contents
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Epilogue
PROLOGUE
Triss
Seven years ago
THE HEAT OF THE SUMMER sun was soaking into every pore, turning my muscles into jelly and filling my brain with a sleepy fog that I wasn’t ready to be pulled from. It was the first day of summer vacation at my father’s house, and all I wanted to do was lie out by the pool all summer long.
My first year of college had been brutal. I had been away from everyone I knew and loved for the first time in my life, yet I hadn’t spent my new freedom partying it up like I knew Kim had been doing at her own college of choice this year. I had worked hard, rarely even left my dorm room unless it was to go to class or to eat, and studied until I had been sure I would start reciting Econ material in my sleep.
I wanted my father to know I was taking college serious, that I was someone who would work hard and do an excellent job, someone he could be proud to bring into his company and teach the ropes to. I didn’t want to treat it like one big party, unlike Kim, who was just happy to be away from her mother. I understood why my stepsister was so happy to be away from Nancy, but the girl had gone a little wild. Too wild maybe, which had me worried.
Pushing all thoughts of my stepsister from my sleepy mind, I turned over on the lounge chair I had pulled over to the edge of the pool. Making sure that my top was in place, I untied the strings around my neck and behind my back so I wouldn’t have tan lines. Within minutes, I was drifting off again as a light breeze brushed over my sweating body.
The feel of large, warm hands rubbing something onto my bare back startled me awake, but I didn’t scream. Just one touch from this man and my body was turning into an inferno with a need that scared the hell out of me at times.
Dom massaged sunscreen into my shoulders, releasing the last of the tension that had filled my muscles with end of term finals the week before. “You’re just begging for a bad burn, aren’t you?” my stepbrother grumbled, though I could hear something else in his tone. Amusement, mixed with the need that we had both been walking around for a while now.
“I thought you liked it when I begged?” I murmured with a sassy flip of my hair as I started to sit up. Almost too late, I remembered that my bikini top was undone and quickly covered my chest with my hands until I got everything in place again. Thankfully, he was still behind me, and I didn’t have to worry about flashing him with my oversized breasts.
Dom dipped his hand lower, rubbing more sunscreen over the small of my back, and then down to the top of my bikini bottoms. I felt one of his fingers lift the material, his thumb brushing over the top of my rear. “This ass is going to get me in trouble,” he muttered so low that I barely heard him.
Liquid heat pooled between my legs at his continued touch and nearness. I felt his breath on the back of my neck seconds before he touched my hair.
“Pink? Really, Triss?”
I glanced at him from over my shoulder, giving him a sassy smirk. “Hey, it’s my one act of defiance all year long. I couldn’t let your mother think she was winning.”
His mouth turned firm at the mention of Nancy, but then he grinned. “I like the pink, baby.”
Pleasure exploded in my chest as I turned to face him. It had been three months since I had last seen my sexy stepbrother, but in that time, we had texted every day and called each other almost as often. There wasn’t a day that went by that we didn’t speak. That was how it had always been with us, though. From the very first day I met my new stepbrother, we had connected. That had been four years ago, when I was just fifteen. As I had grown up, our friendship had strengthened and grown into something more. At least, for me it had. For him, I knew it was turning into something more, but I just didn’t know what “more” it was yet.
“How were finals?” he asked, moving so he was lying down on my lounger on his side with his head propped up on his hand.
“Aces all around,” I assured him, although a week ago I hadn’t been so sure of myself. I had called him practically in tears, stressed to the max over my Econ final I had been positive I was going to fail.
A proud smile lifted his lips. “That’s my girl.”
I stretched out beside him, turning to face him. There was only an inch or so distance between us. I could feel the heat radiating off his body, burning me hotter than the sun’s rays could ever attempt to do.
“How is the residency going?” He was a first-year resident working at one of NYC’s busiest hospitals.
“I’m on call tonight,” he told me with a grimace. “Otherwise, I would take you out to celebrate.”
“I would rather celebrate at home, anyway,” I assured him. “You know I don’t like the whole club scene.”
Something darkened in his eyes. “I wasn’t planning on taking you to a club, Triss.”
“Oh,” I murmured stupidly, unsure of what else to say. He had the power to turn off my brain, to make my mouth clam up and my body open like a flower blooming just for him.
“Maybe this weekend, though.” He lifted a hand, tracing long, thick fingers over my jaw deceptively soft before pushing a few strands of my pink and blonde hair behind my ear. “The parents are going to Vermont for the weekend. We could have the house to ourselves for once.”
My body began to hum at just the possibility of the promise I heard in his voice. The look in his eyes burned through me until my entire body felt like it was singing.
Shyly, I reached out and brushed a speck of lint off the dark blue shirt that stretched over every well-cut muscle of his torso. “Maybe.”
“You’re a minx, you know that?” He sat up, slapped me playfully on the rear, then stood. “I have to go before you tempt me into doing something I can’t finish. Find a dress for this weekend.” He called over his shoulder. “Something nice.”
I rolled my eyes and turned back onto my front, once again letting the sun’s heat wash over me. It didn’t come close to the blaze that was already burning between my thighs.
ONE
Triss
Present Day
THE HUNGER IN MY STOMACH was nothing compared to the chaos going through my head. There weren’t enough hours in the day to take care of everything that needed my attention. Over and over, I went through my mental to-do list. My heart felt heavy. I was losing my mother. Each day, when I went to see her in the hospital, I saw her fading away a little more. The cancer was destroying her, and I was powerless to help. I was terrified of what would happen when she finally gave up the fight.
The light I had been stopped at turned to green, but I took my time driving through the intersection, knowing that someone would run the red light at the last second. It never failed. In the rearview mirror, I chanced a
glance at the two most precious things I still had.
No matter what, I had to make sure that I didn’t lose them.
I bit down hard on my bottom lip, no longer feeling the pain as my teeth pierced through the already tortured flesh. If I started crying now, I wouldn’t be able to stop, and I wasn’t about to upset either of them.
Through everything that had happened over the last year, I had attempted to hide the worst from them. They were so little—only six and four. They didn’t need to face the reality of the cold, harsh world. Not yet. For now, I wanted them to still be kids with no worries except if I was making them mac and cheese for dinner.
“Is Mommy coming home, Triss?”
I quickly lowered my gaze from the mirror so Daisy couldn’t see the tears that had filled them at the mention of our mother. “No, baby. Not tonight.”
“Oh,” she said with a sigh that sounded older and wiser than her four years. She didn’t sound sad, just resigned. It killed me a little more inside.
In need of a distraction, I turned on the radio. My car was old and getting it to start every morning required me to sell part of my soul, but at least the stereo worked. Mostly. It was stuck on the local country music station. I had never been much of a fan, but I had learned to live with it and had slowly started to actually enjoy some of the music.
Lily was a huge fan of Hunter Hayes, so when his latest song came on, she was singing along at the top of her lungs.
Daisy covered her ears, whining about the loudness, but I didn’t try to stop either of them. This was my madness. It was hard and crazy and nowhere near perfect, but I wouldn’t give those two up for any amount of money.
It was another ten minutes before we got home. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot of our apartment I unbuckled my belt and turned to look at them in their booster seats. “Don’t let go of my hand, okay?”
I said the same thing every day, not wanting them to have a reason to forget. Ever. My apartment wasn’t in the best part of the city. Until they had come to live with me, I hadn’t really cared that the girl on the floor above me turned tricks and brought her work home with her on a regular basis. Any more than it had disturbed me that my landlord was a part-time drug dealer. I had just been happy to have a roof over my head and a place to call my own.
Without the help of my father’s money.
Without that damn check that was still sitting in the bottom of my nightstand, signed by a man I had thought I had known inside and out.
That had all changed when my mother had called to tell me she was sick. There was no insurance, and she couldn’t work any longer. She had lost the house I had grown up in, and she had no choice but to move in with me. If it had just been her, I wouldn’t have cared, but it wasn’t. Lily and Daisy were too precious to play with their safety, but money had always been tight and now it was nonexistent. I was lucky to keep the girls from going hungry, only feeding myself enough to stay alive so they didn’t have to feel the pain of an empty stomach.
It looked like my stepmother was going to finally have the last laugh, because I was desperate enough to cash that fucking check. It was six and a half years late, but she would be rubbing her hands in malicious glee that she had one won in the end.
“Okay, Triss,” they echoed at the same time, making Daisy giggle.
I got out, quickly unbuckled them and held on to their hands just as tightly as they held on to mine as we ran across the parking lot. The sun was going down and soon there would be crackheads and hookers all over the place.
Keeping the girls tucked close, we took the stairs to the second floor then hurried into my single bedroom apartment. I released Lily’s hand long enough to unlock the door, and then pushed them both inside.
Turning the six locks on my door, I locked us inside. A few extra deadbolts wouldn’t keep a determined person out, but it offered me a slice of relief to hear them slide into place.
Daisy took her coat off and started on her shoes. “Can we have mac and cheese?”
“Sure, baby.” I pulled my coat off. It was at least three years old and worn, but it kept me warm, which was all that mattered. “Wash up while I fix it. Lily, help her please.”
“She’s four now, Triss,” Lily argued, her cute little nose wrinkled as she concentrated on unbuttoning her own coat. “She’s not a baby anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m not a baby,” Daisy seconded.
It was the same argument every day. “No, you’re not a baby, but you’re tiny and Lily is taller; she can help you. Please?”
Lily finished unbuttoning her coat and rolled her eyes at me. Not for the first time, I wondered if I had done the same thing when I was her age. “Fine. Come on, Daisy.”
Shaking my head at the two of them as they went into my tiny, little bathroom, I went into the kitchen to start on dinner. There were only two boxes of generic macaroni and cheese left, half a box of crackers, and enough peanut butter to make the girls a sandwich for school the next day. Seeing the bareness of my pantry, I nearly whimpered. I had maybe ten dollars in my purse—maybe—and that had to pay for a little gas so I could get to work. I didn’t get paid until Friday and that was still four days away.
Looked like I was going to the bank the next morning.
My teeth sunk into my bottom lip again. I tasted blood but didn’t bother to release my hold on the tender flesh. It felt like the world was crashing down on top of me, and that stupid check was the last stone still holding the sky up. I had been so strong until now, but I couldn’t do it any longer. I couldn’t make the girls suffer when I had an easy solution.
When our mother had been admitted into the hospital the first time, I had applied for assistance to help with the girls. Which showed how much of a grudge I could still hold against my father’s wife, if I would seek out government aid rather than just cash that ridiculous check she had handed over to me when I was nineteen. But I made fifty dollars—fifty freaking dollars—too much to qualify for any benefits, even with two little girls as dependents. They hadn’t wanted to know that my mother was sick. I had just been a number to them.
Blinking back my tears, I turned away from the nearly empty pantry and grabbed a pot to start boiling water. There was no use in worrying about it tonight. I couldn’t do anything until after I dropped the girls off the next morning, anyway.
While the water boiled, the girls took their places at the scarred up, little table that had come with the apartment. I had bleached the hell out of it when I had moved in, but it still held the carved marks from the tenants before me. Daisy traced her finger over one of the words, and I cringed at the thought of her asking what those letters spelled. She never did, but she was in preschool and soon would be able to read it herself.
To distract myself from how that conversation was likely to go, I reached for the stack of mail I had picked up that morning yet hadn’t had time to look through. Bills, some new, some past due seemed to mock me as I went through the heavy pile. My rent included my gas and water, but I had to pay for electric separately. The rent was two weeks late and the electric was so past due I was surprised they hadn’t already shut it off. I just needed them to hold off until Friday. I would get it paid, and then worry about the million and one other things I needed to pay for to get us through two more weeks until my next paycheck.
As I fingered through the mess, I found a letter addressed to me from a law firm in New York City and set it aside. Probably another bill collector. There had been plenty of those lately.
The water started boiling, and I finished making our small dinner.
My stomach wasn’t happy with the small portion I gave myself, but I smiled brightly as the girls told me about their day at school. I was lucky enough to have a school nearby that offered a preschool program for working mothers, so I didn’t have to find a daycare that I couldn’t afford to put Daisy in. So far, she enjoyed it, but Lily wasn’t a fan. She would have rather been drawing and coloring than reading or learning math. My fridge was c
overed in her artwork.
After dinner, I gave them both a bath then tucked them into my full-sized bed. Sometimes I slept with them, but more often than not, I curled up on the little love seat in the living room. The thing was lumpy as hell with springs sticking up in various places, but it was ten times better than having to twist and contort my body by sleeping in the same bed with the acrobats those two became in their sleep.
Once they were in bed, I went back into the living room. I had given up on buying coffee months ago, so I had to settle for some iced water as I picked up one of the new books I had exchanged at the library on Sunday. I could barely feed the girl, so things like TV weren’t on my list of priorities. I had never been much of a television watcher, anyway. Instead, I enjoyed getting lost in a good book.
Tonight, I was reading a new thriller. It caught my attention immediately and I was several chapters into it before I forced myself to close it and go to bed.
Taking my empty glass into the kitchen, I set it in the sink. Then, as I turned away, my gaze landed on the piece of mail from the law firm.
Wondering how much the bill collector wanted now, I picked it up and tore it open. I would never be able to pay off all the bills my mother’s hospital stays were adding up to. Even if I worked until I was ninety, I wouldn’t even put a dent in them.
Sighing, I pulled out the letter, noticing that it was on thick, beautiful stationary. That was new. The notices normally came on paper so thin they were practically transparent.
Opening the letter, I scanned the contents for an amount, but when I didn’t see any numbers flashing out at me, I glanced back at the top.
Two sentences in and my suddenly nerveless fingers dropped the letter. I staggered back, tears already burning my eyes as I tried to hold back a sob.
No.
No, someone would have called me. They wouldn’t let me find out this way…
Even as heartbreaking pain sliced through me, the truth rolled its eyes at how naïve I could still be. Of course they wouldn’t call me. Not one of them wanted anything to do with me. Once I had been so forcefully tossed out of my father’s life, they probably never even gave me another thought. Why the hell would they bother with telling me the most painful news a girl could ever hear?