Jane cleared her throat, and Iain said, “He’s probably not coming. Things are sort of awkward between him and Ceinlys. You heard about the divorce, right?”
“I remember some gossip rags mentioning it. So it’s true?”
“Oh yeah. She got one of the best lawyers in the state. She might even get something out of it, too.” When Shane frowned, Iain added, “Don’t you remember the prenup—the reason why she stayed with Dad for so long? She gets nothing if they divorce.”
“What if he divorces her?”
“Doesn’t matter. Still nothing for Mom.”
Shane recalled the nasty flashback. Why hadn’t Salazar divorced Ceinlys?
“Then there’s the whole thing with Vanessa.”
“What about her?” Shane asked. “Is she divorcing somebody too?”
Jane choked, and Iain laughed dryly. “No, she just got married. But…” He glanced briefly at Ginger.
“You can say it,” Shane spat. Why the hell was Iain acting like Ginger didn’t belong there? They’d been together longer than Iain and Jane. Shane was sure of it.
Iain sighed. “All right. It turned out she’s not Dad’s child.”
Ginger put a hand over her mouth. Shane squeezed the other one. “What the hell?” he said. “When did he find out?”
“He’s always known.”
“Why didn’t he say something?” Salazar had always made it clear to Shane he didn’t want more kids after Mark.
“You know dad. He said it didn’t matter if there was ‘an extra mouth’ to feed.”
Shane shook his head. What a dickhead thing to say, yet not that surprising given that it was his dad. “Did Vanessa know all along too?”
“No. She found out while she was pregnant. Talk about a nasty shock.”
Shane cursed.
“But she’s still our sister.”
Jane who’d been quiet all along turned around to face Shane. “It’ll mean a lot to her if you acted like nothing’s changed.”
“Of course,” Shane said. Vanessa had cried like he was everything in the world to her. He wasn’t going to look at her funny because she was a half-sister. She was lucky her dad wasn’t some screw-up like Salazar…then again, maybe he was. “So who’s her real dad?”
Iain grimaced. “Just some guy Mom had an affair with. He’s dead though, and Justin—Vanessa’s husband—isn’t too enthusiastic about getting close to her half-sister.”
“Why not?”
“Money. Justin has enough to fund a medium-sized war, and he’s a little leery of relatives no one knew existed popping up, especially when the relative says she needs financial help.”
Made sense. Shane would’ve felt the same way if Ginger suddenly acquired a lot of long-lost cousins with money trouble. A lot of people’s attitudes changed when they learned you had money. He’d experienced that himself after the accident, and it’d left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Okay, finally. Here we are,” Iain said.
Crisply dressed valets came over to open doors for everyone. One of them handed a ticket to Iain before taking the car away with an alacrity that felt foreign to Shane. Nobody moved that fast in the countries he’d been staying in.
Shane looked at the two-story building in front of him. The exterior was smooth white marble, with tinted, roving floodlights that produced swirls of color. The effect reminded him of weddings and, oddly, an aurora he’d seen on a BBC documentary a few months back. Swoopy letters spelled Éternité.
He took Ginger’s hand. “Nice.”
“French meets Japanese…or something like that,” Iain said as they walked inside. “I’m a food pleb.”