Читать книгу Forever a Stallion - Deborah Mello Fletcher - Страница 14

Chapter 6

Phaedra was visibly shaken as she maneuvered her way down the front steps of the family home. Not having a clue how to access the driver and car who’d brought her there, she began to walk as fast as she could, wanting to be as far from all of them as she could possibly manage.

Nothing that had happened in the past ten minutes had been as she’d imagined. After dropping the bombshell that she was James Stallion’s only daughter, she’d spewed every detail of what she knew, the words spilling out of her mouth like water from a faucet. She couldn’t even remember taking a breath as she’d told them all how James and her mother had had an affair resulting in her conception.

Phaedra hadn’t known what to expect, but she’d not been at all prepared for the wave of hostility that had suddenly engulfed her. Mark had been the most vocal, insisting there was no way possible for them to share a bloodline. But it was John and his wealth of silence that had been the most unnerving. And when she’d been done, having no other information to share, John had stormed out of the room, brushing past her with a rage that left her feeling completely annihilated, his anguished stare cutting through her like ice.

* * *

“She’s lying,” Mark said as he paced the floor in the home’s library. “There is no way she’s our sister. We don’t have a sister. We can’t have a sister.”

John stood staring out the large picture window to the fields in the distance. Matthew stared where he stared as Luke drummed his fingers against the oak-topped desk.

“Would Dad have cheated on our mom?” Luke questioned, looking from one brother to the other. He’d only been two years old when his parents had died, and the thought discredited everything he’d ever been told about them.

“No,” Mark answered, still pacing, his footsteps heavy against the polished wood floors. “Never!” he said emphatically.

“We really don’t know that,” Matthew stated, meeting Mark’s intense glare. “We would hope not, but anything is possible. Besides, she looks just like us,” he noted, turning to face his brothers. “Maybe Dad did step outside of his marriage.”

“I know you’re not buying that load of horse crap,” Mark scoffed. “Are you, John?”

They all turned to John for a reaction, the man still staring out into space. Their big brother hadn’t said anything at all since Phaedra’s pronouncement. The sting of her words had stunned him into silence and all he had been able to do in that moment was leave the room before he said something he would later regret. He’d left and Matthew, Mark and Luke had followed closely on his heels.

Now he was thinking about their father and their mother, having idolized the two since forever. Their father had always called their mother “Sug,” short for “Sugar,” his sweet and honey, he used to say. John remembered wanting what his mom and dad had when he grew up and found a wife, their love so magnanimous that he and his brothers use to look on them with awe. He’d wanted to love his woman as hard as he remembered James having loved Irene, and he did, his heart so full for his wife, Marah, that he couldn’t ever imagine life without the phenomenal woman.

John also couldn’t fathom the thought of being unfaithful to Marah and he couldn’t begin to rationalize his father having committed such a crime against his mother. There had been little the couple hadn’t shared or done together. John had vivid memories of the two bowling together, camping together and just enjoying the beauty of each other’s company. They’d been the perfect complement to each other. His father had been stern and commanding, with only one weakness, his wife. Irene Stallion had been the epitome of virtue, a woman with a huge heart of pure gold. She’d been the most giving person John had ever known, devoting her time and energy to more causes than any of them could ever begin to count. But not once did she sacrifice her children or her family, the Stallion boys always front and center in her mind and her heart.

John smiled as he remembered the many kisses and hugs and secret touches of affection that had passed between his parents when neither thought anyone was paying attention. The two had shown so much love for each other that to now discover that maybe their relationship hadn’t been so perfect was truly challenging his spirit.

Hearing his name being called pulled him back to the moment.

“John, what do you think?” Matthew was questioning, echoing Mark’s query.

John turned to face them, his dejected expression causing each of them concern. He shrugged his shoulders, one teardrop escaping past his thick lashes. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. Right now Aunt Juanita seems to know more than any one of us ever did.”