Missing Hart (28 page)

Spencer was telling everyone that there were two more Hart children that were a product of relations between his mother and Dante and Damien’s father. At first the primary concern I felt about that revelation was purely the look of despair on Dante’s face. When Spencer revealed the names of the two missing Hart children, I swear the world stopped spinning for me.

“Their names are Dillon and Leah,” he said, “and they were put up for adoption when Dillon was thirteen months old and Leah was just born.”

It was, hands down, the most shocking thing I had ever heard in my life. My mind ran at warp speed as I tried to process what the hell was going on. I knew that Dante in particular wouldn’t rest until he found them, and that would mean that I was going to have to see Dillon again.

I was surprised that Delilah wasn’t on top of me trying to figure out what was wrong, but then I realized that she must have been thinking that I was keyed up over the revelation that we had a brother that might need us. Five minutes ago that might have been what had me on edge, but that news paled in comparison to the fact that Dillon was about to explode back into my world. My heart skipped dozens of beats as I tried to take it all in.

It was a struggle to pay attention when Mama San started to talk, but I forced myself to calm down and take it in.

“Using the information that Spencer gave me, I’ve already put out feelers on getting in touch with Flynn. As it turns out, we built his manager’s house, and I’m meeting him tomorrow to talk to him and try to get either Flynn’s contact information or an agreement from the manager that he’ll pass the information on to Flynn personally. I also talked to Mike in security, and he got in touch with a friend of his who’s a private investigator. We passed along Dillon and Leah’s details, and by the end of the week we should know everything there is to know about them. It goes without saying that we aren’t giving Hank and Marceline anything that they’ve asked for, but the other parties involved deserve to know what’s coming their way.”

Standing, she walked to where Dante was sitting. He looked terrible and his grip on Sabrina’s hand seemed to be the only thing keeping him in place. Leaning down, Sandra put her hand on his arm. “Honey, I know this is a lot to take in, but I promise, we’ll get through this like we do everything else. Our priority has to be finding Dillon and Leah and making this right.”

Nodding at her, he looked at Damien and then Spencer before he spoke. “I’m fucking furious, and I’d love to beat the fuck out of Marceline. I remember Dillon. Very, very vaguely, but I do. Before Damien was born, I used to have dreams about my brother going missing. I was too young to understand what that all meant, but I remember screaming and crying and begging for him to come back for years. When Damien was born, Connie told me that I had a real brother now and that I should shut up. It’s always been there, right on the edge of my mind, but I thought I’d dreamed it or made it up because living with them was so stressful. After a while I basically forgot about it, but from time to time I’ve had a dream about seeing a blonde haired boy sitting next to me on our lawn. I wonder if that was Dillon.”

My heart broke, one half for the brother that I owed my life to and the other half for the man that I loved. That they had been separated from each other was a cruelty that neither should have been subjected to.

Spencer’s voice broke the silence as he dropped yet another bomb. “There are pictures in the folder Marceline and Hank gave me. He had blonde hair.”

Gasping, Dante asked, “Where are they?”

Oh God… there were photos of Dillon as a baby. That was going to make this real.

After Dante looked at the photos, they were passed around the patio. I was the last person to get them, and I struggled with what I saw. Two horribly mistreated children in an environment they never should have been exposed to, with only each other to rely on. In every single photo they were touching each other, and it felt like my soul was being ripped from my body. Such beautiful boys, one dark and one light, but their eyes were damn near identical. They had been in such a terrible situation, and only by luck had either of them survived. Seeing Dillon as a baby made my heart hurt, because it matched up with what I dreamed our baby would have looked like.

I had quietly started to cry and only realized it when Mama San went inside and came back with tissues for me. Gesturing to the pictures I shook my head sadly and she nodded in understanding. It was so awful that it would be hard not to cry even if I didn’t know Dillon and Leah personally. I wrestled with my conscience about the fact that I knew exactly where to find them both. My choices were to tell everyone, to tell Mama and Delilah, or to tell no one at all. Deciding that I needed time to think it all through, I remained silent.

Looking over at Delilah and me Mama San asked if we had any interest in meeting our new brother, Flynn. In perfect unison we both answered, “Yes.”

It hurt to see how that affected Dante and Damien, and I tried to set their minds at ease. “We want to meet him for the same reason you want to see Dillon and Leah. What if his life was as tough as ours was before Aunt Sandra got control, and he needs a family? We had you and that made us normal, but what if Flynn didn’t? We owe it to him to at least find that much out.”

Giving a cough, Aunt Sandra got our attention. “There’s something I was waiting to say until the girls expressed interest one way or the other.” Turning to speak to Delilah and me directly she said, “I did an internet search on Flynn earlier. His father is still alive, and by all accounts they get along and are close. Todd Rand is a well-known voice over artist. Everything I read indicates that he’s totally normal and very well respected. The only thing I could find that could possibly explain how he wound up near my sister is that his wife died eleven months before you girls were born.”

The entire patio disappeared for me in that moment as my world shrank down to only Delilah. We stared at each other as we had a conversation without words, both of us agreeing that we wanted to meet our father. We needed to find out if he was a good man, needed to know if he would care that he had daughters. We agreed without words that we had to find out, and Delilah nodded at me before putting that in motion.

Turning to Spencer, Delilah said, “We’re going to want to meet him, too. We have to know.”

Seeing the looks on Dante and Damien’s faces made me feel incredibly guilty, and I knew that I needed to make time to talk to each one in private to assure them, Dante in particular, that their places in my life were an absolute that could never change. From the day that Delilah and I had come home from the hospital, Dante had borne the brunt of the responsibility for raising us. It’s a sad testament to what absolute monsters our parents had been that the only father Delilah and I have ever had was a brother that was only seven years old when we were born. No matter what happened with our biological father, I couldn’t have any of my brothers hurt because of it.

Tally stayed on the back burner where she belonged for the remainder of the night. In the morning she seemed to be in a good mood, which made it easier for me to pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary while we hung out on the beach in front of Spencer’s house.

All of that came to an end after Dante talked to me in front of Tally about how worried he was about Delilah’s pregnancy, and how the stress of what was happening might affect it. I spent a few minutes reassuring him that both Delilah and the baby would be fine, and that was that.

At least, that’s what I thought. When Tally and I went inside to change out of our bathing suits, she wasted no time in blowing the whole thing out of proportion.

“What just happened out there on the beach with Dante is just another example of how fucked up your family is! You let them pour all of their attention into your sister and you don’t even try to get it back! God forbid when the Princess is sick if everyone doesn’t drop everything. Do you think your family ever bothers to think about you, or are they just too damn busy with Delilah? You need to stop kissing their asses. Maybe then they would notice you enough to give you some attention instead of treating you as an afterthought. I bet the Princess wouldn’t be forced to live in someone else’s hand-me-down house! Oh no, not her. She gets a house in Malibu and a house in the Valley. If she snaps her fingers Spencer will probably buy her four more. She coughs and Dante and his wife come running home from their fucking honeymoon. On top of all that the two of you aren’t even real fucking Harts! They don’t have to give you anything ever again and they probably won’t because I don’t think even one of them gives two shits about you. This is all Delilah’s fault you know. The little bitch is goddamn pregnant and you would think she was carrying the baby Jesus! What did I tell you! Now no one will care about the random kid that we end up adopting. I’m sick to death of that little brat getting all the attention!

I had been so grateful to her for her behavior when Delilah got sick that I felt like I had to try and work it out with her. Even knowing that Dillon was about to explode into my life, I had struggled with how I could start to eliminate Tally from my life and I had felt guilty… but all of that was washed away with her words. I knew then, with absolute certainty, that I didn’t love her. She had a cruelty inside of her that I couldn’t and wouldn’t live with.

“That’s it you fucking lunatic!” I hissed. “Who do you think you are talking about my family that way? That’s my sister! I think it’s best for you to pack your things and get out. I am well past done listening to you run your goddamn mouth. I’ve never met someone so negative in my life. I’m done with you. GET. OUT.”

“Really? You’re going to make this my fault? Your family is abusive but it’s me you want to go? I’d think about that if I were you. Once I’m gone, I’m never coming back.”

Glaring at her I bluntly replied, “That’s what I’m hoping.”

Surprisingly, she packed without any fanfare, staying calm right up until the moment that I walked her to her car.

Throwing her bag in the trunk, she turned and glared at me.

“Someday,” she snapped, “you are going to regret this decision more than you can possibly imagine. Remember on that day that I tried to help you, and you threw it back in my face. Your family is nothing but a bunch of shallow spoiled rotten assholes with silver spoons dangling from their mouths. None of you have ever had to work for shit and it shows in your lack of character. Each and every one of them clearly can’t stand you but you lap at their heels for attention like a fucking dog. You are nothing but a fucking afterthought to your family, and I was only trying to help you by showing you that.”

Before I could tell her to leave, Damien came from around the side of the house and stalked over to Tally. “My sister isn’t an afterthought, but you’re about to be. You are no longer welcome here or anywhere that any of us are. Don’t threaten or speak to my sister again. Get the hell out of here.”

I expected her to turn on the charm but instead she laughed in his face. Seeing the look of pure rage that overtook his face, I reached out and grabbed his hand to keep him in place next to me.

“Trust me, it is no hardship to remove myself from this dysfunctional family. You all need help.”

With that, she got into her car and slammed the door before gunning the engine and peeling out.

We both stood there for at least a minute in absolute shock as we stared at her car peeling out into the traffic on PCH. Putting his arm around my shoulders, Damien drew me into his side as he started walking us toward the beach.

“Aunt Sandra had her pegged the entire time and I should have listened to her. I hope you didn’t take anything she said to heart. You’re never an afterthought to any of us. On top of being an asshole, she’s a lying bitch. I hope you know that.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Dame, there is no way that she could ever have gotten me to believe that. I know all too well that I’m not an afterthought to any of you. If anything, you think of me too much. I love you and nothing Tally could say would change that.”

Shaking his head he said, “If I hadn’t heard the shit she was spewing with my own ears, I never would have believed she had it in her. Was she like that all the time?”

“Once she got her way and moved in with me, it got a lot worse. I knew I couldn’t stay with her but I decided to wait until after the wedding to do anything about it. I didn’t want any drama to upset Dante or Sabrina.”

We stopped walking when Damien gestured to a spot on the sand and the two of us sat down.

“Ladybug, Dante would rather have had the drama than have you stay one extra minute with someone that vile. No one is ever to speak to you like that. It took reserves I didn’t realize that I had not to slap her silly.”

Sighing, I nodded my head. “Dante deserved his wedding day to be one hundred percent drama and worry free. Now with these new revelations about new siblings and different fathers, he’s got enough on his plate. His face last night when he saw those pictures… I can’t add anything else. If he thinks I’m upset or sad, he’ll lose it. To that end, I’m not immediately telling anyone that Tally and I are finished. If anyone asks I’m just going to say she’s busy. Can you just play along with that?”

“Of course I can honey, if that’s what you want. He’s going to be less than thrilled when he finds out that you waited to tell him though, so bear that in mind.”

I nodded my head in agreement and the two of us sat in silence for a few minutes staring at the ocean. I needed to tell at least one person in my family what I knew about Dillon and Leah, and since Damien was willing to keep secrets, he was the one that was going to get it.

Taking a deep breath I blurted, “Dillon and Leah’s last name is Cooper, and they both live in Sherman Oaks. Dillon is a landscape architect and Leah is a children’s physical therapist. They’re wonderful people.”

His jaw dropped so far that I’m pretty sure it had landed somewhere in the vicinity of China.

“Wait, what?!?! How do you know all of that?”